The Great Life That Shone with the Ideal of "The People Are Heaven"

Our General!

On this December morning, that intimate call of "Our General," which has never left the hearts of the people for a single day or hour, resonates across the mountains and rivers of the entire country, making the hearts of ten million burn even hotter.

What is it that truly brings tears to our eyes when we call out that sacred name, filled with deep longing and boundless reverence?

It is the benevolent image of the Fatherly General, who, while enduring all the snows and rains of time and crossing all the perilous mountains and steep ridges of this land solely for the people, always wore a bright smile. It is his infinitely noble and sublime life, into which he poured all his passion and devotion for the people.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

"Comrade KIM JONG IL's life was the most brilliant life of a great revolutionary who, upholding the cause of the Leader, held high the red banner of revolution and, with an iron will and superhuman energy, pioneered the untrodden and arduous path; and it was the noble life of a peerless patriot who devoted everything of his to the country and the people."

A lifetime for the people.

When we recite this call that solemnly condenses the Fatherly General's great revolutionary life, we are reminded of the meaningful words once spoken by the respected General Secretary.

"The People Are Heaven" was the General's lifelong motto. The General said that if there is an omnipotent being in this world, it is not God but the people. His patriotic creed was that it is because there are people that there is a country and a motherland. The General's patriotic heart was always filled with the two words "the people"...

He was the Great General who held the people as the most sublime beings in the world, possessed a noble outlook on the people that he would pluck even a star from the sky or make flowers bloom on a rock if the people wished it, and lived his life like a blazing flame.

Was it not because our General regarded himself first and foremost as a son of the people before being a leader of the revolution, and considered serving the people as the greatest happiness and honor, that he could build up the most great achievements unmatched by any other great man in history and the most monumental feats immortal for all generations?

Our General, who even in his childhood dreamed the grand dream of building not Pyongyang's eight scenic sites but many houses for workers and farmers to create Pyongyang's eighty scenic sites; and who, during his days of revolutionary activities at Kim Il Sung University, moved the hearts of all by his humble popular traits, saying that he too was a son of the working people.

Even today, our people sing the song "Mother Party," born in 1964, with burning emotion. This masterpiece of the era was an outpouring of our people's genuine ideological sentiment, calling and trusting and following the Party as their mother.

The Great General gave profound instructions the following year this masterpiece was created, saying that the people entrust everything to our Party and call our Party the Mother Party, and that the term "Mother Party" contains the people's great expectations, along with deep trust in our Party, that it will take care of their future destiny.

The leader who leads the Party must become the true mother of the people for that Party to become a genuine Mother Party.

It was the Great General who energetically guided the Party organizations and Party officials to thoroughly defend the aspirations and interests of the popular masses in Party work and activities and to establish a revolutionary climate of working as the true servants of the people.

Our General, who once told officials who suggested postponing the construction of a factory for improving the people's living standards due to the country's strained economic situation to think of their own mothers—how our mothers would tear their own only clothes to make clothes for their children if there was no cloth, or sell their own hair to buy rice to feed their children if there was no rice—and said that only with such selfless love can we give even one more thing to the people, and then took all necessary measures.

Saying that we must not put calculations first for the people, that this is his own arithmetic and our Party's method of calculation, how many are the treasures of the era of the Workers' Party that the Great General erected on this land?

In the immortal history of the Great General strengthening and developing our Party into a Mother Party that takes full responsibility for the people's destiny and future, there is also the moving fact that he advocated the philosophy of belief that if we trust and embrace ten million people, not a single bad element can dare to approach, and he completely healed the heartaches of nearly 500 residents living in Ryongchon County and elevated them all as descendants of patriotic martyrs.

Under the care of the Great Father, our people could unfold a period of great prosperity in the era of the Workers' Party and wave high the red banner of revolution with full confidence.

The Arduous March and forced march of the last century were a time of unprecedentedly severe trials and difficulties piled one upon another in human history.

When the world was concerned about the destiny of our motherland, suffering from the imperialists' daily intensifying frenzy to crush the Republic and extreme food and energy shortages, why did the ten million people of this land pledge that they would rather freeze to death than leave the General's bosom and seek shelter under the eaves of others' houses, and instead clung even deeper into the bosom of the Great One?

It was because they had a happiness and infinite pride that no amount of wealth could compare to.

Our people had learned through real experience the truth that no matter how vast the world is, they could not live for a moment apart from the bosom of the Fatherly General who loves the people above all.

One day in October 1999, the Great General, continuing the Songun revolutionary journey, arrived at a road at the foot of Tongjom Hill and ordered his car to stop.

The road was bustling with people walking briskly.

Looking at them affectionately, the Great General said with deep emotion that this was the true appearance of our people on the road of the Arduous March, and that in their appearance he seemed to see people who live with the Party's slogan "Let us live not for today but for tomorrow!" engraved in their hearts, indomitable humans who do not yield to hardships but live strongly believing only in our Party, champions of faith.

Then the Great General opened his fiery heart thus:

"No matter how difficult, if it is a road for the people, we must go, and go again."

"Let us cross all the high passes and perilous ridges of these mountains and rivers for the people. This is my will and belief."

How can we ever fathom the ten-thousand-ri journey of revolutionary leadership that our General traversed, armed with that iron-clad will and that tenacious belief?

Chol Pass and Osong Mountain, Panmunjom and Chodo, Kanggye and Songgang, Ranam...

On that path of devotion, connecting days with short sleeps and meager meals, our General unfolded the eternal blue sky of victory over the heads of the people and firmly laid the eternal foundation for building a powerful and prosperous country.

How fervently did our people wish it. How warmly did they pray for the Fatherly General's well-being. However, the Great General, while making all the ten million wishes of the people blossom, could not fulfill that one wish until the end.

It was the night of December 16, 2011.

The Great General, having approved a document to supply fish to all households in Pyongyang and instructed necessary measures, soon called officials. Then he said that he must now set out on a field guidance journey and to prepare the train.

The officials' eyes welled up with tears.

How earnestly had the doctors pleaded with the Great General since the beginning of December that he must pay special attention to his health until the 25th of this month. Yet even then, he said, "I am truly sorry, doctors, but I cannot do as you say. You must comply with what I do," and he had traveled far to South Hamgyong Province.

Looking up at the Great General, who was about to embark on another long journey without even being able to relieve his accumulated fatigue, the officials tearfully pleaded. They absolutely must not leave on this journey, they said, he must not leave in his current condition...

However, no one could stop him from setting out on a long journey in the severe cold for the happiness of the people. The people will never forget the image of our General, who, with a fiery love for the people, hastened his steps of devotion until the last moment of his great life.

Our General, who embroidered every moment of his great life solely with the hottest and most passionate love and absolute service for the people!

The benevolent image of the Fatherly General, who, like roots and like a blazing flame, devoted his infinitely noble and great life for the powerful prosperity of the motherland and the worry-free life of the people, and his noble achievements continue to shed light in the hearts of the people for generations to come.

The respected General Secretary, who is building our motherland into the world's best paradise where all the dreams and ideals of the people blossom as the Great General wished, and further glorifying the General's immortal achievements.

Following the sacred footsteps of leadership of the respected General Secretary, who continues the endless journey of devotion for the people, the motherland is changing day by day, and a period of comprehensive prosperity in socialist construction is majestically unfolding on this land.

Facing this heart-swelling reality, our people shout with their whole being.

With the respected General Secretary at the helm, the history of love and justice of the Great General continues endlessly, and the Fatherly General lives eternally together with the powerful and prosperous socialist motherland!

Reporter Choe Mun Gyong

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On the Occasion of the 14th Anniversary of the Demise of the Great Leader Comrade KIM JONG IL

Virtue Presentation Meeting of Women's Union Officials and Members Held

A virtue presentation meeting of Women's Union officials and members on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the demise of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il was held at the Women's Hall on the 16th.

Comrade Jon Hyang Sun, Chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Korean Socialist Women's Union, officials from relevant sectors, Women's Union officials, and members from Pyongyang attended the meeting.

Presenters at the meeting emphasized that the noble revolutionary life of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, who laid an eternal foundation for the powerful prosperity of the socialist motherland and the happiness of all generations with his outstanding ideas and grand revolutionary practice, is a history of burning love and endless devotion.

Comrade Ri Sun Ok, Vice-Chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Women's Union, highly praised the immortal ideological and theoretical achievements of the Great General, who, on the basis of having analyzed and summarized the 100-year history of ideology of the advanced working class, formally defined the Great President's revolutionary idea as Kim Il Sungism and set the Kim Il Sungization of the whole society as the supreme programme of our Party.

She said that the Great General, who elucidated the historical truth that socialism triumphs when it holds fast to ideology and perishes when it loses it, nurtured our people into the strongest people and champions of ideology in the world through the stern and trial-filled revolutionary years.

Comrade Jong Ryon Suk, Chairwoman of the Central District Women's Union Committee, movingly recounted the many stories engraved on the arduous frontline path of the iron-willed commander, who weathered the storms of history at the head, firmly safeguarded independence, dignity, justice and peace, and led the socialist cause on the single path of victory.

She stressed that it was thanks to the patriotic devotion of the Great General, who continuously made field guidance trips not only to front-line posts a thousand ri away but also to factories and rural villages, that miraculous successes astonishing the world could be achieved in the struggle to build a socialist powerful nation.

The story of Comrade Choe Hyang Ok, a Women's Union member from Segori-dong, Potonggang District, conveying the noble life of the Great General, who, until the last period of his life, with an iron will and superhuman energy, made the miracle sound of the people's march train resound high, struck a chord with the participants.

The participants were filled with high enthusiasm to fully display the revolutionary spirit of Korean women in achieving the comprehensive revival and development of our country, eternally glorifying the immortal revolutionary achievements of the Great General and loyally upholding the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un with single-hearted devotion.

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On the Occasion of the 14th Anniversary of the Demise of the Great Leader Comrade KIM JONG IL

Virtue Presentation Meeting of Agricultural Workers' Union Officials and Agricultural Workers Held

A virtue presentation meeting of Agricultural Workers' Union officials and agricultural workers on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the demise of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il was held on the 16th.

Agricultural Workers' Union officials and agricultural workers from Pyongyang attended.

At the meeting, Comrade O Kwang, Chairman of the Pyongyang City Agricultural Workers' Union Committee, Comrade Ri Ok Yong, Vice-Department Chief of the Central Committee of the Agricultural Workers' Union, and Comrade Ri Yong Ae, Manager of the Tongbong Farm in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province, made presentations.

The presenters warmly conveyed the world of love for the people and devotion of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, who cared so much for solving the people's food problem and walked and walked the difficult paths of farm fields until the last period of his revolutionary life.

They said that the Great General visited and revisited farms such as Migok Farm in Sariwon City, Sinam Farm in Ryongchon County, Samjigang Farm in Jaeryong County, and Unhung Farm in Thaechon County, kindling the flames of socialist emulation among the farms and guiding them step by step to shine with the honor of being model farms in the front of agricultural production.

They highly praised the immortal achievements of the Fatherly General, who, for the happiness of the people, could not rest even on holidays and rest days, was always with the agricultural workers, deeply considered the issue of vegetable supply for the capital's citizens, and took loving measures.

They spoke with passion about how the Great General left his footprints of leadership three times in the year 2009 alone at Tongbong Farm in Hamju County, and visited the farm again in 2011, teaching in detail even specific methods for farming well according to weather conditions.

They poured out their genuine feelings, saying that the Great General, who devoted day and night with devotion and toil for the improvement of the people's dietary life and bestowed sea-like love and affection upon agricultural workers, is the benevolent father of all the people of the country and the great teacher.

Saying that under the wise leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, who is bringing the Great General's patriotic desire to bloom in reality and continuously continuing the journey of devotion to the people, a new era of comprehensive national revival is unfolding on this land today, they ardently appealed for all agricultural workers to become true patriotic farmers who serve the Party with high grain production results.

All participants were filled with fiery enthusiasm to devote themselves to the struggle for the powerful prosperity of the dignified Republic, the greatest patriotic heritage of the peerless great men, and for the brilliant realization of the new era rural revolution programme, loyally upholding the leadership of the great Party Central Committee.

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On the Occasion of the 14th Anniversary of the Demise of the Great Leader Comrade KIM JONG IL

Schoolchildren's Virtue Storytelling Meeting Held

A schoolchildren's virtue storytelling meeting on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the demise of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il was held at the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace on the 16th.

Youth League officials and schoolchildren from Pyongyang attended.

Presenters at the meeting highly praised the immortal achievements of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, who at each period of revolutionary development brightly illuminated the path ahead for the Korean Young Pioneer Corps and powerfully nurtured our schoolchildren as successors and reserves of the Juche revolutionary cause.

Kim Kuk Thae, a student of Pyongyang No. 1 Middle School, mentioned that the Great General deeply instilled in the schoolchildren during their middle school days an iron-clad belief that they know no one but the Great President Kim Il Sung, and guided them to grow into true sons and daughters who firmly believe in and follow only the Great President and reliable pillars of the country.

Choe Sun Yong, a researcher at Kim Chaek University of Technology, who had the special honor of spending her school days with the Great General, emotionally recounted the noble popular traits of the peerless great man, who always lived exactly like the students, wearing plain school uniforms and carrying a book bag.

Hong Sun Myong, a student of Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, proudly stated that the immense love and affection of the Great President, who, while continuously traveling the road of revolutionary leadership with short sleeps and meager meals, spared no expense of millions for the children of orphans, is engraved in the history of Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, the original seedbed for nurturing the core backbone that guarantees the eternal clarity of the Juche cause for a thousand years, and in the hearts of the children of revolutionaries.

Jang In Song, an officer of the Korean People's Army, said he could never forget the excitement of that day when he tied a red necktie on the Great General and pledged his loyalty as he attended the grand military parade and mass demonstration held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea, and emphasized that with the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un held high, the history of sublime love flows unchanging on this land.

Pak Tae Gyong, a student of Chonsung Senior Middle School in Moranbong District, burst out with passion, saying that the respected Marshal, who set the work for the future generations as the foremost national affair and the most important task, and devotes endless devotion and toil for the bright laughter and happiness of schoolchildren, is the benevolent father of all the young pioneers of the country.

All participants reaffirmed their firm determination to prepare themselves to be true young revolutionaries and young patriots who are infinitely loyal to the respected Father Marshal Kim Jong Un and passionately love and glorify the socialist motherland.

[Korean Central News Agency]

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On the Occasion of the 14th Anniversary of the Demise of the Great Leader Comrade KIM JONG IL

Overseas Compatriots and International Organizations, Foreign Institutions and Personages Send Flower Baskets to Statues of the Great President Comrade KIM IL SUNG and the Great Leader Comrade KIM JONG IL

Flower baskets were sent to the statues of the Great President Comrade Kim Il Sung and the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il erected on Mansu Hill on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the demise of the Great General by the General Association of Korean Residents in China, the Association of Korean Economic People in China, and the Youth Association of Koreans in China.

Flower baskets were laid before the statues of the Great President and the Great General on the 16th.

The ribbons of the flower baskets bore the words: "The great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are with us forever."

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Flower baskets were sent to the statues of the Great President Comrade Kim Il Sung and the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il erected on Mansu Hill on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the demise of the Great General by overseas compatriot organizations and compatriots in China.

Flower baskets were laid before the statues of the Great President and the Great General in the names of: the Dandong City Korean Nationality Association, the Dandong City Korean Nationality General Chamber of Commerce, and Director Kim Son of the Kim Il Sung Kim Jong Il Fund Management Council; the family of Huang Baihe, a person with connections to the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle in China; Vice-Chairwoman Ho Sang Suk, Member Ri Sol Hui, and Member Yang Kum Hae of the Association of Korean Economic People in China; the family of Choe Su Jin, a compatriot in China; President Ri Hwang and Vice-President Ri Gil of Kangsan Limited Company; Chairman Pyo Song Ryong of the Presidium of the Chinese Korean Nationality Entrepreneurs Association; Chairman Kil Gyong Gap of the Shenyang City Korean Nationality Council; General Chairman Sim Chong Song of the Dandong City Korean Nationality Association and also Managing Director of the Liaoning Korean Nationality Culture Development Limited Company; General Manager Choe Gyu Chol and couple Choe Ok Hui of Yonggusan Wind Logistics Limited Company; Director Pak San Ho of Dandong Hwehung Economy and Trade Limited Company; General Manager Choe Gol of the Liaoning Province Small White Tree Culture Dissemination Limited Company; Standing Vice-Chairman Bae Kum Chon of the Dandong City Korean Nationality Association; General Manager Ma Mae Hwa of the Yanbian Traditional Commerce and Trade Limited Company; Director Lim Gun Nam of the Beijing Limsong Hwachang Science and Technology Development Limited Company; General Manager Ri Hyang Dan of Dandong Borim Trade Limited Company; Member Kim Bong Il of the Dandong City Korean Nationality Association; General Manager Kim Chol of Shenyang Chongpung Trade Limited Company; General President Kim Nam Chol of the Beijing Kummong Future Culture Media Limited Company; General Manager Choe Hak Chol of Dandong Samu Clothing Limited Company; Manager Pak Chi Hon of Liaoning Hwarye Practical Enterprise Limited Company; Director Song Ho Gol of the Hunchun City Gua Hospital; Representative An Pyong Nam of the Tianjin Kugang Commerce Limited Company; General Manager Kim Dong Ryun of Hunchun Yongdong Import and Export Limited Company; General Manager Ro Yong Chol of Junsungsa Management Advisory (Beijing) Limited Company; General Manager Kang Yong Guk of the Liaoning Province Han Trade Limited Company; and compatriot in China Kim Tae Song.

The ribbons of the flower baskets bore the words: "The great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are with us forever."

Meanwhile, Choe Ryong Ho, Vice-Dean of the Joint Management Faculty of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, laid a flower basket before the statues of the Great President and the Great General.

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Flower baskets were sent to the statues of the Great President Comrade Kim Il Sung and the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il erected on Mansu Hill on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the demise of the Great General by international organizations, foreign institutions and personages.

Flower baskets were laid before the statues of the Great President and the Great General in the names of: the International Martial Arts Fund Management Council; the Dandong City Jungho Electric Commerce Limited Company of China; Michael Koth, Chairman of the German Anti-Imperialist League; Thomas Nsue Nchama, Chairman of the Niefang District Committee of the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea; member Cho Bin of the Kim Il Sung Kim Jong Il Fund; Tang Yeming and General Manager Chai So Byong of the China Tangshan Harbor Port Art Commerce Limited Company; V.A. Sokolov, Director of the Russian "Black Horse" General Company; Tolomeo Miko Nsibi Angono, former Deputy Director-General in charge of travel of the Presidency of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea; and Santiago Nseng Mengue Mekemessa, Advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Environment.

The ribbons of the flower baskets bore words including: "The great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are with us forever."

[Korean Central News Agency]

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On the Occasion of the 14th Anniversary of the Demise of the Great Leader Comrade KIM JONG IL

People from All Walks of Life Endlessly Ascend Mansu Hill, Carrying Longing for the Fatherly General

Photo by staff reporter