An official praised as a patriot

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said:

"Patriotism can be likened to a gemstone. Just as a gemstone keeps shining even under the ground, so the idea of loving one's country, however small it may be, is valuable and beautiful."

Patriotism is the warmest and most ardent love for the country and great self-sacrifice made for the prosperity of the country devoting all wisdom, passion and efforts.

In any country at any time, "patriotism" is accepted as the most solemn call. It is because even powerful countries in their heyday would vanish like a bubble as their people's love for them faded. It is the truth told by human history that large numbers of patriots make it possible to lay a firm foundation of a powerful country even from scratch.

That's why it is a matter of importance for national rejuvenation and the development of the times to discuss the criteria for patriotism and genuine patriots.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un always treasures those well-known and unsung patriots who devoted their all to the prosperity of the country as gems and puts them forward for the whole country to know. Among such patriots is an official who committed himself heart and soul to turning mountains in his locality into thickly wooded "gold mountains" over 40 years ago.

In October 2020, General Secretary Kim Jong Un visited a rehabilitation site in Kimhwa County. As he looked round the newly-built modern dwelling houses that emerged from the ruins of natural disaster in a matter of 40-odd days, he said that the mountain at the back of a village was bare. All the accompanying officials were guilt-ridden. Then pointing to another mountain in front of the village, he said with a broad smile that there were some trees on it.

Unlike the former, the latter was thickly covered with green pine-nut trees that seemed to have grown for decades even in a distant view.

In fact, the pine-nut tree forest of the mountain was permeated with the sincere efforts of a senior official of the county who had worked there over 40 years ago together with the residents to improve its infertile soil and dispose of useless trees. Picturing in his mind the days when the pine nuts associated with the love of the Workers' Party would grow into giant trees to form a thick forest, he was always in the van of others to tend the trees. Thanks to his devotion, the forest got denser and larger year after year, thus becoming a precious asset of the country all the county people took pride in.

Hearing a report about this, the General Secretary deeply appreciated the sincere devotion of the official to the green woods and highly praised him as a patriot.

As the Korean saying goes, "Ten years are enough to change rivers and mountains." As such a period had already elapsed four times, even his families scarcely recollected his efforts. But the General Secretary regarded the sincerity the official showed for the green forest as a gem and glorified his life as a fulfilling life of a patriot.

Thanks to his great love and benevolence, the official came to be recorded in the history of Kimhwa County as an admirable patriot it takes pride in, though he had passed away decades ago, and to lead an eternal life alongside the patriotic martyrs in Kangwon Province.