“The people are my God” was the constant view and motto of President Kim Il Sung .

He 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 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) to beat back the imperialist aggressors, he visited Wonhwa-ri in Phyongwon County to specify the ways for improving the deteriorated livelihoods of peasants. After the war he inspected Pongsan County in North Hwanghae Province to teach the locals how to increase cement production.

In order to improve the people’s living standards he did not mind wading through marshes to livestock farms in the northern tip of the country and muddy roads on the west coast to unfold a plan for tideland reclamation.

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

One September day in Juche 65 (1976) he visited Sangso-ri in the then Anju County, South Phyongan Province. He stressed the need to carry out the irrigation project for the paddy and non-paddy fields in the secluded places 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 the revolution, the grand nature-harnessing project and the construction of many monumental structures are all aimed at providing the people with happy life. As a result, a socialist system was established in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 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 people’s interests and serving them. Under to his leadership, the DPRK has enforced such people-oriented policies as the universal free compulsory education, social insurance and social security system, recuperation and relaxation system, and construction of schools, hospitals and dwelling houses at the state’s expense.

Yang Ryon Hui