Once, a head of state in Southeast Asia asked President Kim Il Sung how many hours he would take a rest a day.
The President replied:
You asked me how long I sleep a day. From the days of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, I used to sleep late at night and get up early in the morning, and now I’ve got accustomed to it. Sometimes I stay up until dawn.
He devoted himself solely for the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people with superhuman passion throughout his life.
During the days of the anti-Japanese revolution he burnt the midnight oil in the log cabin of the Headquarters or stayed up all night beside the campfire of the secret camp, formulating a plan to win back the country lost to the Japanese imperialists as early as possible and build a people’s country. Even after defeating the Japanese imperialists, he could not take a proper rest as he had to carry out the historic cause of building the party, the state and the army.
And during the days of the hard-fought Fatherland Liberation War, the postwar rehabilitation and socialist construction, he devoted his heart and soul to defend and add lustre to the country.
Whenever officials asked him to refrain from working late at night and starting work earlier than others, he said: I’ve got accustomed to getting up early in the morning in my long years of life. I cannot perhaps abandon the habit for good. Health is necessary for the revolution and a revolutionary cannot stop his revolutionary work even for a moment.
Thanks to his devotion for the wellbeing of the people, the blueprint for the country’s bright future was unfolded and a bigger progress made in the efforts for building a thriving nation, with a broad avenue for miracles and changes opened.
So Kyong Hyok
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