A Story of Noble Virtue

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said:

"In his long revolutionary career Comrade Kim Il Sung took responsibility for the destiny and future of anyone with whom he had come into comradely relations, and protected them to the last, holding all the revolutionary soldiers in his embrace and bestowing great trust and love on them."

President Kim Il Sung, revered by the world, was a great revolutionary, a sagacious leader, and a benevolent father of the people possessed of boundless humility and noblest love for people.

His noble benevolence also finds its expression in the warm love he bestowed on Hong Myong Hui – he had been impressed by the President's tender-hearted personality to follow him and devote all his life for the good of the country and people.

A moving story of a fur overcoat is a good example of the President's constant deep care of and affection for his health in his advanced age.

On January 2, 1949, the President visited Mangyongdae Revolutionary School greeting the New Year and took fatherly care of the pupils. It was close on daybreak when he left the school. He personally led into his car Hong Myong Hui, the vice-Premier, who was one of the oldest among his suite members.

It was such a freezing early morning with a snowstorm a few days before the beginning of the severest cold that cold wind swept into the car, which made Hong Myong Hui often cough.

Taking off his neckpiece and wrapping it around Hong Myong Hui's neck himself, he said that his bad cough sounded like he was suffering from a serious asthma, and that as he was not young, he should take good care of his health. He looked carefully at his uniform and said silently that his uniform looked thin and he needed to have a new thick overcoat made.

Returning home, he told Comrade Kim Jong Suk to bring the cloth for overcoats and furs presented by the people, and said that their colours would match for a good overcoat, feeling them.

She requested that the President should have a new overcoat made for him as they were sincere presents from the people.

The President said that the country was still not wealthy enough to provide leading officials and people with good garments and overcoats, and that he would feel sorry to have a new overcoat made for him. He added that when the country got richer and all the leading officials and people had garments and overcoats made of good cloth, he would also have one for himself.

He continued that on the way back from Mangyongdae that day, Hong Myong Hui, the vice-Premier felt cold without putting on an overcoat, and that it would be good to make a good overcoat for him with the cloth sent by people.

Therefore, the cloth presented to the President by the people was made into an overcoat for Hong Myong Hui.

It is a good story to tell what kind of person the President was; he was indeed a great leader who devoted everything to his comrades and people, living a life as modest and humble as them all his life.