A Newborn Minister

President Kim Il Sung said:

"We should form a united front involving the broad sections of the people–workers, peasants, youth and students, intellectuals, merchants, entrepreneurs and religious believers–to hasten the building of a prosperous democratic, independent and sovereign state through the united efforts of the patriotic democratic forces."

After liberation, President Kim Il Sung paid close attention to let the progressive religious figures to lead a patriotic life contributing to the building of a democratic, independent and sovereign state, even though he worked day and night shouldering the heavy burden of building the Party, state and army. Among them is Minister Kang Ryang Uk, who lived in the memory of the President. Kang Ryang Uk was a class teacher of the President when he spent his days at Changdok School.

It was October 18, 1945.

The President was eagerly awaiting Kang Ryang Uk in his house for about an hour.

After a while, when he arrived, President Kim Il Sung hurriedly came out to warmly hug him and ask about his health, saying that he must have suffered a lot under the tyranny of the Japs. The President recalled the days at Changdok School with deep emotion, adding that now the Japanese are ruined and the country has become the world for people, so there are a lot of things to do in the future.

Kang Ryang Uk, thinking of the President's painstaking efforts, couldn't but feel ashamed of himself as he became a Christian believer, far from embarking on the cause of liberation.

Reading his mind, the President said that you believed in Christianity as you hated the Japanese imperialists. He also added that we know the patriotic conscience of the religious people well, Pak In Jin was also a religious man, who persuaded a lot of members of the Chondogyo Youth Party to join the anti-Japanese guerrilla army and helped us materially and morally. He remained loyal to the patriotic principles without telling the secret of the anti-Japanese guerilla army and the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland until the last moment he was captured and sacrificed by the Japs. His exploits will remain long in the history of our country.

Minister Kang Ryang Uk, hearing the President's high praise for Pak In Jin, a patriarch of the Chondoist religion, expressed his sincerity that he was deeply moved, and that he felt ashamed of having devoted nothing to the cause of liberation.

Seeing that he was in deep remorse, the President said with a generous smile that a fresh start now in the liberated country is more important than the past when you believed in Christianity.

Minister Kang Ryang Uk, with tears streaming down his face, made a firm decision to live for the liberated country.

Later, he took an active part in the building of the people's government and the building of a new country, true to the pledge he made on that day, and during the Fatherland Liberation War contributed to the strengthening of the people's government as the secretary general of the Supreme People's Assembly and rallied the broad masses around the President to ensure the victory in the war.

After the war, as Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly and Vice-President of the Republic, he worked hard to develop the country and demonstrate its international position, and at the end of his life he assumed the heavy responsibility of the chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party to glorify his valuable life for the consolidation of the people's government and socialist system and the prosperity and development of the country.

Thanks to the care of President Kim Il Sung, Kang Ryang Uk could lead a brilliant life of a patriot, which will shine forever.