Throughout his life President Kim Il Sung (April 15, 1912–July 8, 1994) devoted his all to the wellbeing of the people, believing in them as in Heaven.

With people always in his mind he worked day and night for their happiness, visiting every corner of the country. He never minded muddy road, mountain path and sea route.

The number of the units he visited for field guidance from right after Korea’s liberation on August 15, 1945 to the last days of his life amounted to over 20 600. And the days he was on field guidance tour totalled 8 650 and the distance he travelled for the tour was over 578 000 km.

The March First Popular Uprising in 1919 against military occupation of Korea (1905-1945) by the Japanese imperialists was an important turning point in Kim Il Sung ’s mental development. The uprising made him cherish the indomitable spirit of the Korean people for the first time. Since then, he had oriented all his thoughts and activities to them and found his happiness and pleasure in their wellbeing.

The uprising was an outburst of the pent-up wrath and rancour of the Korean nation who had been subjected to severe humiliation and maltreatment under the barbarous “sabre rule” of the Japanese imperialists.

At that time he was eight years old. He was among the marchers.

In his reminiscences With the Century he wrote that the March First Popular Uprising marked the first time that he stood in the ranks of the people and that the true image of the Korean nation was implanted in his mind’s eye.

Later, he set out on the road of the revolution in his early teens. Always finding himself among the people and regarding it as his life motto to believe in them as in Heaven, he pioneered a road of genuine revolution by believing in their strength and relying on them. In this way he finally achieved the cause of national liberation and built a new society where the people are its masters.

He maintained the principle of zero tolerance for any infringement of the dignity and interests of the people.

One year after Korea’s liberation, an army general, who had been to a rural area, causally said to him that he had seen there a woman with her child on her back transplanting rice seedlings assiduously.

This made Kim Il Sung immediately put off an urgent work he was doing and leave for the area a dozen kilometres away.

On arriving there he lashed out at the relevant officials: Can you really be called the parents and relatives of the people? Why did you leave the women with their children on their backs transplanting rice seedlings?

When he came back home at dawn, the general asked Kim Il Sung why he took so much trouble to travel a long distance there though he could fix the problem by phone.

At this Kim Il Sung said: We live for the people. We are not allowed to work that way. When we, arms in hand, were fighting against the Japanese imperialists in Manchuria, we would rise up every time we fell on the snow because we could not give up our lives at the thought of our miserable fellow people. How can we neglect the people we won back with so much effort?

Guiding a consultative meeting of the senior officials in the economic sector held in the last period of his life, Kim Il Sung said:

Up to now, I have believed in the people, struggled for them, and lived among them. My whole life is a life devoted to the country and the nation, a life committed to the struggle with the people. In the future, too, I will always live with my people.

Kim Hyon