Koreans in Japan still remember the deep affection President Kim Il Sung showed for the younger generations of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon).

In the early 1970s, when the ship Mangyongbong was being built for the repatriation of Koreans in Japan, the President provided detailed guidance, describing the ship as part of the country’s territory.

Seeing photos of the external shape and internal structure of the completed ship, he told relevant officials to furnish a nice hall for children in a sunny place with an unobstructed view.

Later, he got aboard the ship and as he looked at the children’s playing hall, he learned if children liked it and suggested bringing more toys from Pyongyang and furnish it with more amusement facilities.

In the summer of Juche 61 (1972), when the football group of Tokyo Korean Middle and High School and the music and dance group of Yokohama Korean Primary School of Chongryon visited the homeland, the President made sure that large-scale welcoming ceremonies were arranged at the airport and along the route, saying that they were the first batch of members of the Korean schoolchildren’s art group from the alien land.

While spending pleasant days in the homeland, the children were informed that they would have an audience with the President.

On his on-the-spot guidance tour, Kim Il Sung asked an official if the Korean schoolchildren from Japan were well and received a report that they were getting ready to come to him. Then he said that it would be troublesome for them to come because the roads were rough in the rainy season and that no inconvenience should be caused to them who came to the motherland they had longed for so much. He added that he would go to see them, no matter how busy he was.

At the meeting with them, the President asked them their names, ages, parents and impressions about their visit to the homeland.

That day, he saw their art performance, had a photo taken with all of them and gave them watches bearing his name.

He also attended the joint celebration meeting of schoolchildren of Chongryon and the homeland.

After the get-together was over, an accompanying official told him that it was time to leave. Then the President walked towards the students from Japan, saying he wanted to be with them even for a moment.

The children competitively threw themselves into the embrace of the President.

That day, after parting from them, he said that though young, they seemed to be very sad to leave their homeland and they cried too much that day and suggested showing them an acrobatic performance for diversion.

Like this, the President took warm care of Korean children in Japan with the love of parents who care more for their children in faraway places and such paternal affection continues to be shown to them by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un .