People’s Leader

“The people are my God” was the consistent view and motto of President Kim Il Sung. He said his life was devoted to the country and the nation and spent in the company of the people.

Believing in the people

Kim Il Sung was born on April 15, Juche 1 (1912) when Korea was under the military occupation of the Japanese imperialists. He grew up experiencing the pain and misfortune suffered by the ruined nation in his early years, and embarked on the road of revolution with a great ambition to win back his country deprived of by the Japanese imperialists. Proceeding from the failure of the anti-Japanese patriotic volunteers’ struggle, the independence army movement and the early communist movement and the lessons of history, he drew a conclusion that Korea’s independence should be achieved by fighting against the Japanese imperialists, believing in the people and relying on their strength.

He convened a meeting of party and young communist league cadres at Mingyuegou, Yanji County of China, in December 1931, where he expressed his resolve and will as follows:

“We are the sons of ruined people who have been deprived of all their state power, territory and resources. We are empty-handed young people who are now living in a foreign country. However, we have not hesitated to challenge the Japanese imperialists. What is it we are relying on in doing so? We have decided to start an anti-Japanese war by relying on the people. The people are the state, the people are the home front and the people are the regular army. When the war starts, the people will become soldiers and rise up. Therefore, the guerrilla warfare which we shall wage can be called a people’s war.”

He accomplished the historic cause of Korea’s liberation in August 1945 by leading the anti-Japanese armed struggle to a brilliant victory, believing in the people and relying on their strength.

Among the people

Kim Il Sung always mixed himself with the people, saying that statesmen, literary persons and artists are found among them. When meeting workers, he held their grease-stained hands and in a rural village, sat knee to knee with the peasants at the edge of a field to discuss farm work. When talking to children, he became a child and to the elderly, their intimate friend, caring for their innermost thoughts. He worked out all the lines and policies in reflection of their aspirations and demands.

During the hard-fought Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953), he visited Wonhwa-ri in Phyongwon County to specify the ways for improving the deteriorated life of peasants. In order to improve the people’s living standards he did not mind wading through marshes to the stock farms in the northern tip of the country and muddy roads on the coasts of the West Sea to unfold a plan for tideland reclamation.

He made a long journey of field guidance, covering a distance of over 578 000 km throughout his life. This bears a witness to the history of his love and devotion for his people.

For the good of the people

One day in January Juche 51 (1962) Kim Il Sung inspected the then Pyongyang Silk Mill to choose the site for a new mill. An official accompanying him said it would cost enormous funds for the project, compared to its products as the mill would turn out merely threads. Then Kim Il Sung told him that the construction cost should be counted after building the mill and providing its workers with all conditions. And he took measures to push ahead with the construction as soon as possible.

At Sangso-ri in the then Anju County in September Juche 65 (1976) he stressed the need to carry out the irrigation works for the paddy and non-paddy fields in the mountains areas so that its farmers could do farming, free from drought damage, even if the project might be likened to killing a fly with a long spear.

He administered the people-oriented policies, saying that making the revolution, the grand nature-harnessing projects and the construction of large numbers of monumental structures are all aimed at providing happy life to the people. As a result, a socialist system was established in the DPRK where the people are the masters of the country and everything serves them.

He always said that nothing would be more important than giving top priority to the interests of the people and serving them. True to his leadership, the DPRK has enforced such people-oriented policies as the universal free medical care, free compulsory education, social insurance and social security systems, accommodation at health resorts and holiday homes and construction of schools, hospitals and dwelling houses at State expenses.