Benevolent Father of Korean People

Benevolent Father of Korean People

朝鮮人民的慈父

The career of leader Kim Jong Il was the history of his leadership when he fully displayed his personality as the genuine statesman for the good of the people.

He was, both in name and reality, a statesman who administered the politics of love for his people.

General Kim Jong Il commanded Flying Exercise of KPA Air Force Unit

His politics was aimed at bringing the love for his people into bloom. Patriotism stems from ardent love for and trust in the people, and a revolution starts with it. Socialist politics is, in essence, benevolent politics. This is precisely his outlook on politics.

Every place in the DPRK where the people live and all the wealth and creations of the country are associated with his love for them.

All items needed for the people’s living ranging from their food problem and condiments, including salt, to other daily necessities, including footwear, cosmetics, drinking water, fuel and heating conditions, were at the forefront of his mind. The workplaces and families he visited can be easily found in all parts of the country and legend-like stories about his love for the people can be heard from everyone.

When he visited the construction site of a power station he said that dwelling houses better than the existing ones should be first built for the evacuees from inundated areas prior to the building of the power station, with the result that thousands of families simultaneously moved into new houses fully furnished with household effects.

General Kim Jong Il Provides Field Guidance to Kwangbok Area Supermarket

He found his pleasure in his people’s happiness, sparing nothing for their lives and health.

Such facts can be illustrated by the following anecdotes: In July 1994 when the whole country was in tears of blood over the death of President Kim Il Sung, father of socialist Korea, Kim Jong Il, though more grief-stricken than others, ensured that a helicopter flew to bring newborn triplets and their mother from an out-of-the-way place far away from Pyongyang to save their lives. Saddened to hear that a former woman soldier had scars on her face and hands from a serious burn during her military service, he took a measure to send her to a foreign hospital to recover her original appearance. When a city was completely submerged by an unprecedented flood, he ordered that not a single life should be lost. Accordingly, helicopters flew in the sky and high-speed troopships and amphibious vehicles ran on the water and transport units on the ground, launching large-scale three-dimensional rescue operations to save the people in the flooded area. A woman gave an easy birth to a baby even in the catastrophic disaster, adding to the local population with no personal injury.

General Kim Jong Il inspected Potongang Street Shop

Kim Jong Il was a paragon of the people’s leader who worked devotedly for their interests.

Setting it as his lifelong mission and noble duty to devote himself for the people, he regarded it as his greatest pleasure to serve his all for the people’s well-being. Even when taking unsound sleep and skipping his meals, he never gave up his work, saying that his fatigue is completely gone and he gains fresh strength when he is informed of the report that the people are pleased.

His devotion to the people found its expression in his field guidance, a peculiar method of leadership. Always aboard his “people-bound train”, he continued his on-site guidance tour. Sometimes he would visit several factories and co-op farms in a day. He spent many rest days and holidays on his field guidance tour. Noting that officials who serve the people should work more energetically on holidays, he gladly set out on his journey for field guidance on rest days or holidays.

General Kim Jong Il inspected a Food Processing Factory

Kim Jong Il would often ask officials: “Do the people like them?”--a question when he was informed that the state policies and measures prove effective, and “What will the people say about them?” --another one when he inquired into something wrong.

The two questions represent his outlook on the people. His traits as the genuine people’s leader can be found in the fact that he set “We serve the people!” as the main slogan to be invariably adhered to by the ruling party and government organs in their activities.

Even after his death, Kim Jong Il still enjoys absolute and boundless admiration and reverence from the Korean people. It is not without reason that they call him their benevolent father

Source: Consulate General of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in Hong Kong