President Kim Il Sung (April 15, 1912–July 8, 1994) said in his lifetime: Love for the younger generation is the most devoted and dynamic kind of human love; it is the purest and most beautiful of all paeans dedicated to humanity.
He often said that if someone asked him when he would feel the happiest, he would answer that it was when he was among children called the flower buds.
He devoted his whole life to the children with an ennobling outlook on the rising generations.
Here are some touching stories.
During the anti-Japanese armed struggle in the 1930s, he ensured that his only blanket was given to the sick members of the anti-Japanese Children’s Corps, saying that he could never feel at ease even if he had been covered with 100 blankets as children were ill and shivering with cold.
At the first session of the Provisional People’s Committee, the first government in Korea, in February 1946, he raised pencil production as one of the agenda items. He always put priority to the problems related to the education of the rising generations.
After Korea’s liberation from the Japanese military rule, he was asked to name a middle school built for the first time in the country. He named it Samhung Middle School in the meaning of training talents who are knowledgeable, morally impeccable and physically strong to make the country prosperous.
He liked best to be among the happy children.
One early morning in April 1977, he visited the then Yonphung Senior Middle School in Anju City, South Phyongan Province, to see students in new uniforms provided by the state in free of charge to all students across the country.
Looking at the students in new uniforms, he took off a bit of thread on a student’s sweater and asked whether it fitted him. Examining the colour and appearance of the schoolgirls’ shoes and even touching floral decorations on the tip of their shoes, he expressed great satisfaction. Then, he called them to personally take photos of them for hours.
One year, he sent schoolchildren an astronomical telescope he had used, in consideration of their dream to explore outer space, and various species of rare fishes he had personally angled, for their education.
One January day in 1964, he met pupils during his inspection tours and came to know that they went over a pass to go to their school far away. Noting that if a branch school was built for them, children would not have suffered troubles, he urged officials to build a school as early as possible. Afterwards, the branch school was set up in the village for ten children.
Today, schools for one or two pupils can be found in different parts of the country, including those for children of lighthouse keepers on small islands.
Kim Il Sung was among children even in the last days of his life.
When the Fifth Congress of the Korean Children’s Union was held in June 1994, he said he would like to see the delegates of the KCU, the precious treasures of the country. Busy as he was with state affairs in his advanced age, he met and congratulated the participants in the congress and had a photo session with them.
The Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace is an extracurricular educational base for schoolchildren. Seen on the wall of its entrance hall are his writings, which reads:
“Children are the country’s valuable asset. Korea of the future belongs to our children. Kim Il Sung April 15, 1989”
His autograph represents his outlook on the rising generations, as well as his eternal love and blessing for the future of the country. –O-