Kim Jong Il, Remodeling Korea with the Juche Idea
From the documentary "Respected Comrade Kim Jong Il is a Great Thinker and Theoretician"
Korean title: 경애하는 김정일동지는 위대한 사상리론가이시다
Year of production: 2000
The People’s Wish
(Continued from last chapter ...)
Veterans of the anti-Japanese revolution played a major part in supporting him as the leader of the Party and people.
One spring day in 1972 an official, while reporting on his work to Kim Jong Il, suggested to him that some men with high qualifications and skills be transferred from the armed forces to a project. He had learned previously that they were serving in the army.
Kim Jong Il was apprehensive lest it might hamper the work of that sector if such talented people were transferred. He asked the official to discuss the matter with the Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, O Jin U, an anti-Japanese revolutionary veteran.
After hearing what the official had to say, the Chief of the General Staff asked him whether it was his individual request or Kim Jong Il’s. The official could not but tell the truth. The veteran said in earnest:
“Why didn’t you tell me that from the start? We must assist Comrade Kim Jong Il faithfully. We must be ready to lay down our lives if it is his wish. Comrade Kim Jong Il is the man who will carry forward Comrade Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary cause. You must be ignorant of how blessed and happy the Korean nation is to have Comrade Kim Jong Il identical with Comrade Kim Il Sung. This is what we, veterans, want you young men to realize.”
In those days another anti-Japanese revolutionary veteran, Rim Chun Chu, on a business trip to Jagang Province, gave a lecture to the officials of the Party, administration, and economic and social organizations of the province. Rim Chun Chu had fought and worked by the side of Kim Il Sung since his early days. Under the title “Brilliant Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il”, he related Kim Jong Il’s birth in the snowstorm of a primeval forest, his patched quilt made of odds and ends and his growth during the anti-Japanese war, and his uncommon qualities.
In later days he gave such lectures in various places. To acclaim Kim Jong Il as the successor to the revolutionary cause of Juche, as the leader of the Party and people, and accomplish the cause pioneered by Kim Il Sung was the immovable will and faith not only of the veterans, the first generation of the Korean revolution, but also of all the Korean people.
-- Kim Jong Il did his best to stop the people calling him “dear leader”, saying that he was satisfied to remain loyal to the country and the people, but the people continued to call him “dear leader” of their own accord.
It was men of art and literature who first called him “dear leader”. Blessed before anybody else with his leadership in the days of the revolution in the cinema, they respected him as their teacher and first used an honorific title for him implicative of his high position.
Whenever they used the title, Kim Jong Il tried to dissuade them, saying that the title “comrade” was more intimate and reliable, and he was only a rank-and-file Party member who was accomplishing Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary cause together with them.
Not only film artistes but also the officials and artistes in other fields of art and literature respected and revered him. They called him “respected leader” or “brilliant leader”, and later ’‘dear leader”.
In the early 1970s a song praising him as “dear leader” was created and disseminated among the people. In early 1971 writers and artistes agreed to create a song in praise of Kim Jong Il, who was giving energetic guidance to the work of literature and the arts; they channelled their wisdom and enthusiasm into writing the lyrics of the song and setting them to music.
The song thus created is We Will Remain Faithful through Generations, a song the Korean people sing in reflection of their loyalty and feeling of reverence for Kim Jong Il. The writers and artistes, who got together with Kim Jong Il on February 16 that year, sang the song in reflection of their resolve to remain faithful to him down through generations.
In the early morning bright with glow
We are reminded of your benign smile.
When stars twinkle in the quiet night,
We miss your warm affection.
In those days the song was not made public through the mass media at Kim Jong Il’s stern demand. However, the song was disseminated by writers and artistes among the workers, peasants, soldiers, youth and even schoolchildren across the country.
To be continued...
(Great Leader Kim Jong Il’s Biography 2)