A Special Birthday Present

President Kim Il Sung was the benevolent father of the people who regarded the people as God and devoted his all to their happiness all his life.

Chairman Kim Jong Il said:

"Indeed, our leader Comrade Kim Il Sung is the benevolent father of our people, who devoted his all to their welfare while cherishing the ‘The people are God' as his lifelong motto and maxim."

In the world, there were many politicians who were said to care for people and advocated "benevolent administration". However, no such a great man as President Kim Il Sung, who regarded love for human beings and for the popular masses as his purest personality and devoted himself to them, has ever known.

The President always visited the people on the road of field guidance even on holidays and rest days and worked heart and soul to provide the people with happier lives even on his birthday, when he was supposed to be blessed by the people all across the country, saying that there can be no rest in the work for the people and he took the greatest pleasure in providing them with happiness.

Among such legends of love for the people is a story about a birthday present.

It was April Juche 41(1952) during the fierce period of war. It was on the eve of the birth anniversary of the President.

The officials were worried as they could not enjoy the significant day marking the 40th birth anniversary of the President due to the tense situation of the country.

At eleven o'clock at night an official of the Soviet embassy visited the President and presented a telegram from Stalin. In the telegram, he offered to send 50 000 tons of wheat flour to the President, the prime minister of the Cabinet of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as a gift in the name of the Soviet people.

Having received a telegram, the President expressed his greater pleasure in receiving wheat flour as a birthday present than some congratulatory letters.

It is said that before the birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, Stalin had pondered what to present him as a gift.

At that time, our country was having difficulties in food supply owing to the indiscriminate bombing and naval bombardment by the US imperialists. In particular due to the enemy's plunder in the enemy-occupied areas during the strategic temporary retreat, the food reserves had almost run out, and in 1951 farming suffered a great deal of damage due to the unprecedented drought and floods. This led to the rapid increase of starvation in the countryside, and workers and officers could not but save their foodstuffs and devote them to the country as relief rice for war victims.

Taking this into consideration, Stalin finally decided to present the most badly-demanded foodstuffs to Kim Il Sung, who was giving priority to the work for the people, as a gift on the occasion of his birthday.

Generally speaking, it is customary to give, as birthday presents, special kinds of precious goods symbolizing the health and longevity. However, the President was pleased with the gifts needed by the people more than any conspicuous congratulatory messages or any rare things. The attendant officials were touched, keenly feeling once again his boundless love for the people.

Stalin told the Korean officials later that he had thought that the President would be more pleased if he sent him flour rather than a congratulatory message on the day of his birth anniversary, so he had seen to it that flour were uploaded on trucks and delivered to him just on April 15th.

The President had been so much concerned for the people that even the head of a foreign country sent him as a birthday present on his birthday, not a congratulatory message or a rare gift out of common practice. The gift presented by Stalin represented the feelings fascinated by the President's outstanding personality through several meetings and the active support and encouragement of the Soviet people to the Korean people in the hard-fought struggle against the U.S. imperialist aggressors in defence of the eastern outpost of socialism. The gift was an eruption of the boundless respect of humankind for the President, who always took pleasure in the happiness of the people as the father of the entire people.

Indeed, President Kim Il Sung devoted his whole life for the people and is always alive in their hearts and taking warm care of the Korean people with his paternal love.