Spending Even a Sunday to Review Epic Poem Mt Paektu

Chairman Kim Jong Il said:

"Jo Ki Chon, a poet loved and respected by our people, had also create such impressive poems as the epic Mt Paektu thanks to the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung."

On January 12, 1947, a couple of years after the country's liberation, a young poet Jo Ki Chon was honoured to be received by President Kim Il Sung to get his instructions about the manuscript of the long epic Mt Paektu at President's house.

Looking up at President reading the thick manuscript, the poet was so grateful to him for the Sunday he was spending for him. It would take him a long time to finish reviewing the manuscript, he thought. Jo rose quietly and said he could recite the poem to him.

When the beloved President nodded his consent with a smile, the poet began reciting without looking down at the script, filled with solemn emotion, reverentially looking up to him.

After the prelude and the first chapter were finished, the poet said that he would explain only the gist of the following chapters along with the questions raised in the peer-review sessions he had gone through before, because the epic was so long that it would take too much of his precious time.

On hearing this, he said sincerely that he need not worry about him, and that it would be all right if he would sleep an hour or two less than the ordinary day.

Jo Ki Chon was so moved and excited again that he released his emotional long recital of his masterly epic piece to the end.

President attentively listened to him reciting the impressive epic, sometimes jotting down something on his pocket book, while reading the manuscript until he finished the last page.

He praised the poem for having been written very good and excellent.

When the excited poet, full of tears of happiness, was somewhat calmed down, President Kim Il Sung gave his clear views to the questions raised at the previous peer-review sessions the poet mentioned.

He would briefly express his notions on the work for a reference, said President, giving detailed points on the essence of the literary work, particularly focussing on its ideological and artistic qualities.

The part of the Pochonbo Battle should be highlighted as the core of the full-length epic in this perspective, he stressed, and the battle portion therefore should be set as a separate passus so that the epic can reach its climax there throughout the whole flow of the poetry.

The epic poet later successfully completed the scene of the Pochonbo Battle which was an ideological core of epic poem as truly as the respected General had pinpointed the soul of epic poem at his house.

That is how the long epic Mt Paektu could be perfectly created as a masterpiece of the era by President Kim Il Sung's deep care and affection for an epic poet, even spending his whole Sunday to help him give a finishing touch on the poem.