"KIM IL SUNG and WFTU" (5)

 

"KIM IL SUNG and WFTU" (5)

 

President Kim Il Sung, Eminent Leader of Workers

 

(Written by Jan Nemoudry, Assistant to General Secretary of the WFTU)

 

 

 

At last it was April 15, the birthday of the President of the DPRK. That day I had the chance to meet the President. Also, together with many friends from all over the world, we waited for the official time when the President would appear to receive us.

 

The President, smiling brightly, finally stood before me: after having exchanged warm greetings, all formality immediately disappeared, and I said these words as I held his hand in mine.

 

I said: "Dear Comrade Kim Il Sung, respected leader of the DPRK, allow me to salute you most warmly in the name of the World Federation of Trade Unions and to present in its name the Gold Medal, as well as sincerely and fraternally wish you good health and long life, and great success in all your activities." At that moment, as I tightly held the hand of the President, robust and dignified man, I was struck by his ordinary personality as he listened to me with attention and comprehension. The meeting was the high point of my stay in Korea, a stay that allowed me to witness the respect and admiration that the leaders of state and workers' organizations of various countries and mass organizations of the world showed towards him. Particularly memorable was seeing the members of the delegation of Japanese women and numerous other foreigners crying with emotion, emotion that reflected their respect for President Kim Il Sung. He received the greetings and birthday congratulations of all the delegations present, and had his photograph taken with them all. He invited us to the reception put on at the Kumsusan Assembly Hall. It gave us the opportunity to meet eminent figures of Korea and other countries, representatives of trade unions from various countries, regions and other solidarity organizations and international associations. Each delegation received a gift from the President showing the wonderful sights of Korea. The gift given to the WFTU was without doubt a mark of his appreciation and respect.

 

I had therefore satisfactorily fulfilled my mission in Korea with the meeting and the presentation of the WFTU's Gold Medal to the President of the DPR Korea. I had also several meetings with representatives of unions from a diverse range of industries and professions that form the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea.

 

It was with enormous satisfaction that I had performed my mission for the Secretariat of the WFTU. As for me, I felt full of brotherly warmth and admiration of the President who had shaken my hand with bright smiles and a profound humanism; I will treasure the experience as a precious souvenir.

 

Many years have passed since then, and great upheavals have taken place in the former Soviet Union and other countries of east Europe, as well as other parts of the world. At the beginning of the 21st century, I look back in this context on the important achievements based on the instructions of President Kim Il Sung, which I saw with my own eyes during my stay in Korea, achievements which the imperialists seek to discredit. But it is also necessary to know that the Korean people have many histories that strongly reflect the desire to aspire to well-being and to live in peace at a full moon night for building a three-roomed thatched cottage and cutting the moon's tree with a gold axe or happiness is created by the "five blessings."

 

Yet, in the past, the working people did not have access to any of these opportunities. And if these people had now become a contented nation filled with opportunities, it was because they had President Kim Il Sung a leader of the people; my stay gave me a certainty in that fact.

 

For the people of Kim Il Sung's nation the term "plurality of opportunity" is synonymous with their good fortune and satisfaction that they are masters of their futures and posterity. The important social solutions of the issues of housing, education, holidays, medical care, and long life are the possessions of the citizens of the DPRK.

 

Louise Linzer, a German woman writer, in her book "Notes from a trip to Korea", which aroused a stir in Europe, declared that in north Korea, there is not a single unemployed person, or an abandoned elderly or sick person.

 

This is a truth confirmed by all visitors to the DPRK.

 

How is it possible that there are no beggars in Korea and that everyone enjoys a peaceful life in complete security?

 

It is because the dignity of working people constitutes the greatest honor, as demonstrated by numerous facts, including the name of the state, the national anthem, politics and legislation.

 

Every citizen, irrespective of sex, profession, wealth, education, political views or religions, has the rights to vote and to be elected.

 

The country is called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, symbolizing a people's government. The parliament, which brings together the most prestigious representatives of the people, is called the Supreme People's Assembly; power is named by the people's committees.

 

I recall that Doctor Alva Chaves, the Ecuadorian parliamentarian and member of the executive committee of the International Institute for the Study of the Juche Idea, noted how impressed she was while attending the 1st session of the 9th SPA: I received a deep impression when I attended a plenary meeting of the SPA. The hall was full of deputies, observers, and invited foreigners for the parliamentary debate, and my guide remarked that most were the representatives of workers from a broad range of occupations. The fact that numerous workers and peasants working laboriously in factories and farms are elected as deputies to the SPA and take part in debates on the policies of the state is in complete contrast to the situation in capitalist societies where it is very difficult for workers to become parliamentarians. Once more, I express my admiration for the DPRK, where the popular masses taken an active part in the political life of the country to their full.

 

The place of honor reserved for the workers of Korea, masters of society, just as described in the notes of Alva Chaves, is illustrated by the fact that President Kim Il Sung always considered the workers as the vanguard of the revolution, for it is the class which most explicitly demands its right to a life of independence and creativity. Its historic mission has been founding an independence in society capable of always motivating. In order to realize the demands of the Korean working class, the President made it invariably a democratic anti-imperialist and anti-feudal force, the leading class, from the beginning of the revolution, and put up the essential principle in the lines and policies to thoroughly materialize their demands.

 

 

 

(To be continued)