President Kim Il Sung As Billy Graham Saw Him

He was a genius rare in human history and a leader with firm conviction; all who had met him could have a clear understanding of his warm humaneness and qualifications as a leader–this is what Billy Graham, evangelist of the USA, said while expressing his deep condolences over the death of President Kim Il Sung (July 8, 1994), the founding father of socialist Korea.
What sort of man was President Kim Il Sung, whom the devout clergyman renowned in the world as well as in America, spoke highly of? “God” of Korea
Billy Graham visited the DPRK in 1992.
What made an intense impression on him during his talks with Kim Il Sung was that the President was the incarnation of human love. Though the evangelist was from an enemy state, the President with a broad smile on his face received and treated him warmly. Learning that the clergyman’s wife had once lived in Pyongyang, the President felt sorry for the American’s failing to come in company with his wife and asked him to take her to Pyongyang without fail
next time. He invited the guests to a luncheon, and filled their glasses one by one.
The American guests could witness the politics of human love administered by the President during their stay in the DPRK. Universal free medical care had been enforced in Korea, expenses of medical treatment and medicines, hospital charge, the fare to and from the hospital and even the expenses of the treatment at sanatoria and recreation centres were borne by the state. The same was true of higher education as well as secondary education that included preschool education. Halls of culture, clubs, schoolchildren’s palaces and other bases for  hoolchildren’s extracurricular activities were run at state expenses.

After learning that the system of such human love was established by President Kim Il Sung, the evangelist said that he came to know that President Kim Il Sung was a great man and understand the reason why the Korean people loved and respected him.Later, when he was asked why he had failed to circulate bibles in north Korea, he said: I felt no need for preaching the gospel in north Korea. The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments all deal with the God’s will that loves human being. The love for human being advocated in each page of the books is executed as a state policy in that country. Free medical care, free education and the state responsibility for the people’s clothing, food and housing–these are state policies put forward and being pursued by President Kim Il Sung. North Koreans hold him as their God. I thought bible was not necessary in such a country.

I Want to Pray for Him
In January 1994 evangelist Billy Graham visited the DPRK again.
After his visit to the country in 1992, he had worked hard to give a correct understanding of the DPRK to his countrymen. On several meetings with the then presidents Bush and Clinton and other high-ranking officials and on other occasions, like the national breakfast prayer, heexplained his impression of the DPRK in a positive way, and appealed for exchanges and improvement in different fields between the USA and the DPRK through bilateral talks. He had a picture album published under the title, Travel to North Korea: Billy Graham in the DPRK, which carried a photo he had posed for with President Kim Il Sung. Written in his own handwriting below the photo were words reading that Kim Il Sung was a very passionate and outstanding leader.
Billy Graham was the first foreigner President Kim Il Sung met in 1994. When his party arrived, the President went out to the hall to greet them. He said he was pleased to see the American friend again and continued in the following vein: I’m sorry that your wife has failed to accompany you this time, too, because of her illness. Please give my best regards to her on your return home.
While visiting Korea, Billy came to know more of the greatness of the President.
While visiting the President’s native home and his mother’s maiden home, he learned the lofty mental world of the President’s poor yet frugal and diligent family who had devoted their lives for their country and people without hesitation, and realized that this was the source of his love for people.
The appearance of Pyongyang moved him greatly. During the Korean war (1950-1953) the appearance that the evangelist as a war clergyman saw was no more than iron frames of destroyed buildings, bent rails, burnt electric-light poles and crying children in horror. But, it had now turned into an excellent city with modern, beautiful streets and men and women full of life.
Pyongyang had changed once again since his visit in 1992. Kim Il Sung University, the Tower of the Juche Idea, Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace and other architectural structures brought home to him the President’s leadership ability. He pored over the President’s reminiscences With the Century, and felt delighted when he read that even religious believers helped the latter’s revolutionary work. While reading the President’s work Ten-Point Programme of the Great Unity of the Whole Nation three times, he felt the President’s ardent love for his country and nation. At the Grand People’s Study House (the largest library in the DPRK) in downtown Pyongyang he said; I want to pray for the great President Kim Il Sung...