President Kim Il Sung was born and spent his childhood at a straw-thatched house in Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang.
In the 1860s his great-grandfather Kim Ung U moved into the house from what was then Jungsong-ri of Pyongyang. As he could not afford to buy even a small straw-thatched house, he became a grave keeper for a landlord and settled in the grave keeper’s house after he promised him that he would look after his mountain and grave.
In the house, Comrade Kim Il Sung was born on April 15, 1912 as the eldest son of Kim Hyong Jik, an outstanding leader of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement in Korea and Kang Pan Sok, a prominent leader of the Korean women’s movement.
He fostered noble character and patriotic mind, receiving warm love and education from his parents, and grew up as a revolutionary, experiencing the miserable life of the fellow people groaning under the Japanese rule.
With a great ambition to win back his lost country, he in his teens left his native home and embarked on the road of revolution.
For 20 years since then he organized and led the arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle to victory. After he achieved the historic cause of national liberation on August 15, 1945, he returned home and had a happy reunion with his grandparents.
On the day of his return his grandmother came out into the courtyard in her stocking feet and hugged him and burst into tears, saying, “Why have you come alone? Where have you left your father and mother?”
The old house consists of two living rooms and a small kitchen. In the courtyard there are three small sheds with a noodle press, straw mats, farm implements including plough, and a hollowed-out gourd, a low loft, and earthenware jars.
It preserves intact the historical relics showing the living of Comrade Kim Il Sung ’s family who devoted themselves through generations to the country and people, although pressed by grinding poverty during the dark period of national ruin.
Every year Mangyongdae, the historic place of the Korean revolution where his native house is situated, is visited by numerous youth and students and other working people from all walks of life as well as foreigners.
Sim Hyon Jin
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