Kim Il Sung—"Our Leader"

Alejandro Cao De Benos, chairman of the Korean Friendship Association Headquartered in Spain, wrote a book Korea—The Songun Citadel on the occasion of the 100^th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. Following are excerpts:

In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the people still call President Kim Il Sung "our leader" for intimacy as they did in his lifetime.

Koreans like to use the vocative "our" very much. They say "our factory," "our farm," "our school." They call their senior officials "our manager" or "our chairman." In the linguistic practice Koreans use the vocative "our" most friendly. The usage reflects the unique political philosophy of this country, the philosophy of single mind or the philosophy of unity of "a large family" which has never been seen in any other nation.

The title seems more mysterious, yet noble as thinking of it deeper. With the title of "Our leader" there is still alive President Kim Il Sung who is the sun of humankind. He was born on April 15, 1912 at a simple and poor farm cottage in Mangyongdae in the suburbs of Pyongyang. President Kim Il Sung was called Kim Song Ju in his childhood.

Europeans say poverty produces a great man. But, whatever we talk about the destitution of the President's family, the Westerners might not imagine how poor the President's family was. Without even a simple wall clock, the President's mother had to get up at midnight and waited near the fence of a neighbor for a long time to hear a clock dingdong. Then she prepared breakfast for those who had to go to work early.

In such a poverty and distress the President took over the unbending character of his parents. The President's love for his country and nation is on an extraordinarily high plane. His was a nation-wide love without any self-interest and partiality. His was a boundless love embracing all people who love justice and have clean conscience without regard to religious belief and politics.

With such a fiery love and unselfish and self-sacrificing devotion for the people, he left his native place Mangyongdae in January 1925, at the tender age of 13, when other people would have been under their mother's care and satisfied with playing sports. With a firm pledge not to return home before regaining the country, he walked hundreds of kilometers to northeast China.

At the age of 14 he formed the revolutionary anti-Japanese organization DIU or Down-with-Imperialism Union. The organization defined it as its supreme program to bring down the aggressors, liberate the country and build socialism and communism in the whole world. The DIU was formed on October 17, 1926. Since then, the President took it as the maxim of his life and activity to depend on the people in the revolution and struggle and find himself among them and listen to their voice as the requirement of the revolution.

In June 1930 he founded the Juche idea, the Korean style socialist idea based on the belief that man is the master of everything and decides his future. Evidently, President Kim Il Sung's idea on liberation had been designed not only to regain the lost country, but to realize a noble objective to build a new country based on independence and create a new history of the nation. The revolutionaries of a new generation of Korea waged the struggle for independence under the slogan "Let us accomplish the Korean revolution by our own efforts!" It was different from the struggle of the old independence champions who tried to rely on petition and aid.

President Kim Il Sung founded an armed force for Korea's liberation called the Korean People's Revolutionary Army on April 25, 1932 and declared war on Japan. The struggle was difficult without parallel in history. The Korean People's Revolutionary Army had neither the rear nor the support of a regular army. It had to rely only on guerrilla warfare and the assistance of the patriotic people. Therefore, the guerrillas during the anti-Japanese armed struggle (1932–1945) were always faithful to Commander Kim Il Sung's instruction "As fish can't live without water, so guerrillas can't live apart from the people." The legends left by President Kim Il Sung in his bloody fight against the Japanese imperialists in the Manchurian wilderness for 20 years are cherished in the hearts of the Korean people as precious memories.

Based on the idea of the DIU, President Kim Il Sung founded the Workers' Party of Korea on October 10, 1945, only two months after Korea was liberated from the yoke of Japanese imperialism. Relying on it, he founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on September 9, 1948.

Korea, however, could not pass a normal way of progress. Two years afterwards the south Korean army wearing American military uniforms and equipped with American weapons, committed a large-scale armed invasion without any war declaration by crossing the 38^th parallel [that defined north and south Korea]. During the 3-year-long war, the President was always among the soldiers and people at the time of attack and at the time of [strategic temporary] retreat.

During my stay in Korea I saw a painting titled General, You Are in the Forefront. It shows a girl soldier on guard at the front line, earnestly detaining the President by the sleeve from going in broad daylight to the front area, over which enemy aircraft were flying. With such a self-sacrificing spirit and devotion the President led Korea and the people to victory.

Visitors to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang can hear many interesting war feats created by the People's Army during the Korean War. The liberation of the capital of the enemy three days after the war began, the liberation of over 90% of the south Korean area in three months, the sinking of an enemy heavy cruiser by three torpedo boats, the checking of 50 000-strong enemy force for 3 days by a coast battery and other facts are without parallel in any page of the modern history of war. During the Korean War in the 1950s, the Korean People's Army could liberate south Korea in 3 or 4 months, but they had to give up the liberated area and do a temporary strategic retreat owing to the lack of weapons to destroy the enemy.

Having experienced such bitter trials, the President made up his mind not to repeat the deplorable past and built a strong defense industry to firmly defend the country from any aggression and challenge. Korea has built its defenses on the basis of the developed heavy industry which was built with money saved penny by penny in the difficult period. It has risen as a military power which is able to rival with a superpower in military affairs.

Under the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung, Korea raised itself on the position of a political power and military power already in the late 20^th century. The dazzling progress of the DPRK yesterday and today is unthinkable apart from the President's lifelong efforts and devotion. The brilliant socialist system of Korea and the single-minded unity of the Korean people run through with the noble revolutionary spirit are fruition of Kim Il Sung politics and priceless heritages left by him for the Korean revolution.

In April 1992 a US journalists' delegation of Washington Times visited Korea for the first time with deputy editor-in-chief Josette Shiner as its head and her elder sister its member.

On April 12^th President Kim Il Sung received the delegation. Availing herself of that opportunity, Shiner asked: "Would you kindly tell me what your hobbies and interests are and what sort of entertainment and sport you like?"

He smiled for an answer. "If I have to answer your question, I can say that I enjoy reading books and mixing with the people to share life with them and talk with them."

After a while Shiner said in excitement: "I have so far met many heads of state and self-styled politicians who told me that hunting, fishing, swimming or merrymaking were their hobbies and interests. But I have never heard that reading or mixing with the people were their hobbies and interests. Your Excellency's hobbies and interests are too simple and I doubt if they can be called hobbies, but their meanings are as vast as universe."

Visiting a factory or farm, he acquainted himself, first of all, with the livelihood of the workers and their health in detail. Calling at a family, he opened the lid of a kettle, measured if the room was warm and counted how many quilts were there. Told about anybody's success, he congratulated him first and encouraged him to continue to make innovations and let mass media give wide publicity to him so that the whole country could learn after him.

Thanks to such a fatherly love, ordinary people who had not known how to write and read grew into national heroes, factory and farm managers, professors, doctors and sports stars.

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