Visiting Even a Small Village Shop

When you go to a farm village in the DPRK, you will find a village shop that sells consumer goods to farmers. Even such small shops tell stories of President Kim Il Sung's love for the people.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said:

"The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung looked after his people with a warm heart and approached them in a simple and unceremonious manner."

On June 21, 1958, President Kim Il Sung visited Ryongyon Shop in then Anju County, South Phyongan Province. It was a quiet village shop without many customers.

Some people thought that the job of village shop would be an easy one, because it was believed that the shops only had to sell the goods supplied from the upper body. But this was not the way those who are responsible for the people's livelihood are supposed to work.

However, this shop was different. It had always procured supplies well in advance and even produced certain goods that were in short supply. It also arranged for the shop assistants to carry the goods in baskets to the villages and fields to sell them to the farmers. So commendable were their deeds and their efforts to fulfill the responsibility and role of serving the people, President Kim Il Sung visited this village shop in person.

Agreeably exchanging greetings with the staff, he looked at the surroundings and the shop buildings, and stepped into the building, saying that the environment was clean and that the shop was good for a village shop. Carefully looking at the white Korean socks at the counter, he appreciated the needlework, but gently pointed out that they looked a bit too tight, not suitable for farmers to wear when they worked in the fields, so they should be made wide enough. Then he asked them if the shop had any trousers for old women. When they replied that they didn't, he said that a shop should have enough stock for anyone to come and get changed from head to foot, and that they should not only think about how to sell goods but also learn to stand in the buyer's position. He went on to tell them that they should work like a mother, with a sense of responsibility for the livelihood of the people.

You should work like a mother who really cares about her children's life ― his words brought the shop staff to reflect on their past work what they had done fell short of his noble idea. After his visit, the staff in the shop studied the composition of the local population, made a list of their needs and made efforts to meet these needs one by one, always remembering the noble intention of the great leader.

President Kim Il Sung was such a benevolent father of the people, who always visited even small village shops, inquired into stocks of goods and also took necessary measures to ensure the good living of the people.