The respected Comrade
"Comrade
There was a man in our country called a really happy "Socialist Millionaire" by overseas Korean businessmen.
He was the chairman of the management committee of the Pyongyang Optical Glass Production Cooperative.
Originally he was a man very busy dreaming of becoming a millionaire before liberation.
He made a large trade buying all the feed from small and big milling factories around the granary in the west of our country and selling it again; operating a knitting mill or a rice-milling factory; setting up a miscellaneous trade and so on.
But at the time when the business activities of the Korean people were being restrained, they tended to be absorbed into or went bankrupt.
At that time, he returned to Pyongyang to set up a small pencil factory when he heard the news of the triumphal speech of the President that everybody should make an active contribution to nation building; those with strength dedicate their strength, the knowledgeable dedicate knowledge and the rich dedicate money.
He started his own private enterprise with patriotism in his mind. The President, taking him admirable, visited his work site and sent a truck to do the business well.
During the war, he donated millions of won of profits in aid of the front.
After the war the President set forth the policy of transforming capitalist trade and industry into a socialist on and ensured that private traders and industrialists organized and operated various types of cooperatives on the principle of voluntariness.
This was a thankful step to open the way to the private traders and industrialists who had been ruined during the war and to transform them, the capitalist executives, into socialist workers no matter how big or small they had been.
Even after he became a chairman of the management committee of the production cooperatives, Song Dae Gwan benefited the state a lot.
In October Juche 48 (1959), he even took the floor to discuss at the National Conference of Activists in the Field of Local Industry and Production Cooperatives.
In March Juche 58 (1969) the President while on his field guidance tour, entrusted to his cooperative the task of producing good glasses on a large scale, to meet the high demand among the people for glasses including magnificent glasses.
Assigned to this honourable task his cooperative successfully produced millions of spectacles a year and was praised by the President.
The love and trust of the President for Song Dae Gwan and his cooperatives were carried forward by the Chairman
In the spring of one year, producing beads for the interior decoration of grand monumental edifices was in urgent need.
But our country has never produced such fine beads, which made the officials decide to import the whole amount of beads.
Their proposal was soon reported to the Chairman.
Refusing the proposal, the Chairman pointed out his name and said that it would be good to entrust this task to him, considering that there was nothing impossible for him from immediately after the liberation of the country.
He lived up to the deep trust of the Chairman with his painstaking pursuit and achievements.
Afterwards, too, the colored glass and mosaic to be used in mural painting, especially special glass of the torch of the tower of the Juche idea, which is highly lucrative, was produced by our own efforts and with our own technology, while the foreign producer of geriatric glass demanded a large amount of money behaving arrogantly.
While giving on-site guidance to the work of the August 3 People's Consumer Goods Direct sales stores in Pyongyang, the Chairman said that Song Dae Gwan, who had given up the position of boss and become a consultant to the union because of his old age, could still work well as the chief executive of the management board, and ensured that he would work in his former post again.
In the 1980s a fellow businessman living in Europe who had been acquainted with him since before liberation visited the socialist homeland and called him a "socialist millionaire", envious of his happy life when he visited the production cooperative and his family.
The Socialist Millionaire.
In a capitalist society where money determines everything, it is natural that money is life and money is the goal of life.
A man who earns a lot of money and becomes a millionaire and a billionaire becomes a "success" in life.
But in a socialist society where the masses are the masters and everything serves them, all the people live on an equal footing with their own labour and thanks to the state benefits.
Therefore, in a socialist society there is no socio-economic source of the difference between the rich and the poor as in a capitalist society, and moreover, millionaires and billionaires cannot exist.
The happiest and most worthwhile life in a socialist society is to devote their sincere efforts to the society and the collective and thus live in the trust and love of the collective.
Today the meritorious persons of socialist patriotism in our country are those who devoted their sweat and efforts to the state and society sincerely and so succeeded in their lives.
Hence, in our country such people live with the respect and love of all people.
This is an incomprehensible reality for the people of capitalist countries, especially the millionaires.
The meaningful remark made by the merchant of overseas compatriots, "socialist millionaire" to Song Dae Gwan reflects who is really rich and what a worthwhile life is in socialist society.
In January Juche 83 (1994), when it was reported that Mr. Song Dae Gwan died, he saw to it that a wreath with the august name of the President on it was placed at his tomb and that he was buried in the patriotic martyr.
Today, he is still leading the everlasting immortal life under the loving care of the peerlessly great men.
