Benevolent Image of Kim Il Sung

Nearly twenty years have passed since President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founding father of socialist Korea, passed away. However, he is still alive in the memory of the people across the world. 

What comes first when recollecting the President is his benevolent image with a broad smile. He always wore a sunny smile. When he visited the countryside, he unceremoniously got together with the farmers, beaming; while visiting factories, he first acquainted himself with living conditions of the workers with a benign smile. Even when he blamed officials for their failures in work, he convinced them patiently of their errors with a generous smile. He broad-mindedly forgave even those who had committed crimes against the country and people and led them to start a fresh life. His smile that made everyone feel at ease and pleasant was the manifestation of his genuine love for and kind feelings towards people. 

As he was born with this outstanding personality, he never changed his looks in front of the people, though he had to overcome all kinds of ordeals and hardships, and sorrows and pains beyond imagination while leading the protracted Korean revolution. It is the personal attraction unique to the President to treat everybody generously and take a paternal care of them, always wearing a beaming smile on his face. 

The President treated Korean compatriots from South Korea and overseas and also the foreigners so generously and friendly that anybody who met him was attracted by his personality at a breath. Josip Broz Tito, former president of Yugoslavia and one of the initiators of the non-aligned movement, said, “I met many heads of state, but it was only President Kim Il Sung whom I made myself understood and got familiar with as soon as we met.” 

Attracted by the great personality of President Kim Il Sung, Tito visited Korea, travelling a long distance, at the advanced age of 85, though he seldom visited other countries. President Kim Il Sung charmed everybody he met with his personality, though they had different ideologies, political views and beliefs. 

The chairman of the Asia and Pacific subcommittee of the US House Foreign Relations Committee visited Pyongyang as the first statesman from the hostile country. After meeting President Kim Il Sung he said that the President talked with a smile on his face at all times and impressed him as a kind-hearted person. 

Selig Harrison, senior fellow from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace expressed his impressions of the President after an interview that President Kim Il Sung was a warm-hearted man with strong charisma. 

Jimmy Carter, former US President, visited DPRK in 1994 and said that he was deeply impressed by President Kim Il Sung and that the talk between them carried on smoothly as the President was of free and modest character. 

US evangelist Billy Graham, too, said that everybody, once they met him, would be sure of the warm humanity of the President.

 

Luiser Rinzer, a German woman writer, was so fascinated by the President that she visited DPRK almost every year, praising that the President was a godlike man whether he liked it or not. 

President Kim Il Sung met foreigners of all strata including heads of party and state, over 70,000 from 136 countries of the world, since the liberation of Korea (August 1945) from the Japanese military occupation till the last days of his life (July 1994). Those who met Kim Il Sung were in unison to give unstinted praise to his preeminent ideology, outstanding leadership and striking personality that moved everybody. 

The benevolent image of President Kim Il Sung is etched deep in the heart of the people all over the world though time passes by.