People affectionately call me “two-star battalion commander” or “lieutenant-general manager.”

These calls reflect the affection and benevolence the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un showed our employees who are mostly honoured disabled soldiers.

On May 9, Juche 106 (2017), Kim Jong Un , general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, visited our factory.

On arrival, he first asked about the health of the honoured disabled soldiers, and said he came to encourage them, the masters of the factory, as he was told that the Rangnang Disabled Soldiers’ Essential Plastic Goods Factory was overfulfilling its quotas under the national economic plan every year, relying on a full set of production lines that turn out a variety of plastic goods.

He was briefed on the factory in front of a large map showing a panoramic view of the factory.

Our factory, equipped with modern production lines, produces a wide range of plastic goods badly needed for the improvement of the people’s living standards, including foodstuff packaging materials, heat-resistant bottles, disposable cups, lunch boxes, and other boxes and pipes.

After being briefed on the factory, Kim Jong Un highly praised it, saying that it has intensified all its production lines and it plays an important role in the production of packaging materials for foodstuff industry.

He appreciated our efforts, saying that the factory has changed beyond recognition, given it has remained on the present site since its inauguration, and that the employees would have had so much difficulty sprucing up the factory by their own efforts.

An accompanying official told him that I was a lieutenant colonel and commander of a frontline battalion and was demobilized for loss of sight in one of my eyes before being appointed manager of the factory. Kim Jong Un was getting glummer with a worrisome look riveted on me for a good while.

At the thought that my personal affairs made him much concerned, I was quick to tell him that I would have been promoted to a major general by now if I had not been discharged from military service.

Reading my mind, Kim Jong Un had a big smile on his face, and agreed that I would probably have become a major general if I had kept on serving in the army.

Looking at me fondly for a while, he asked me if I would really hold the rank of lieutenant general.

“If you bestow the rank, I’d be honoured to accept the commission,” I replied immediately. Then he called me a nut.

He made the rounds of the factory’s cultural and welfare facilities, paying paternal attention to the living of the employees.

What the manager has done to renovate and manage the factory shows that he is enterprising and still maintains the spirit and mettle of soldiers, he said to the officials as he approached a flight of stairs. He noted that he could not return with doing nothing for the employees as he came to encourage them, adding that he would send vehicles such as forklift, lorry and bus to the factory.

On his way to the venue for a photograph session with the employees, he gave a hearty laugh, saying to the officials that the manager asked him to commission him as lieutenant general because his rank in service had been lieutenant colonel.

For the revelation of the “secret” I had told him in a whisper, I felt ashamed of and almost hid myself behind him.

After the photo session, Kim Jong Un said I’d better take care of myself and good health ensures success in work, adding he was quite sure that we would always take the lead in implementing the Party’s policy on light industry. And he wished all of us good health, waving back to the cheering employees.

Afterwards, he remembered us, saying that the employees with disabilities have spruced up their factory and put production on a normal footing in the same spirit as they had displayed during their service and that it is needed to help the manager a lot with his work.

There are no epaulettes on my shoulders, but there are always stars in my heart.

They are big stars of affection and trust Kim Jong Un bestowed on me.

Thanks to the paternal affection and loving care of Kim Jong Un , who treasures and gives prominence to the honoured disabled soldiers, we continue to bring the flowers of the revolution into bloom as precious treasures of the country and ex-soldiers.

Labour Hero Kang Nam Ik, PhD, winner of Order of Kim Jong Il and manager of the Rangnang Disabled Soldiers’ Essential Plastic Goods Factory