President KIM IL SUNG, Leader who believed in the people as his god -special article by Dr Dermot Hudson

                                       

President KIM IL SUNG who was the greatest of great leaders passed away suddenly on the 8th of July 1994 . We were greatly shocked by this at the time . This was partly due to the fact a delegation of the Juche Idea Study Group of England (now the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea ) was visiting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK ) in June 1994 and we left for the UK on the 3rd of July  . It seemed to us totally unbelievable that President KIM IL SUNG would pass away so suddenly because during our visit we not only saw him on the TV not only greeting foreign visitors but giving on the spot guidance . In particular he gave on the spot guidance to the Taesong Co-operative farm  on the day that we arrived  . I remember seeing the picture of President KIM IL SUNG at the Taesong Co-operative Farm in Rodong Sinmun and the Pyongyang Times . During his lifetime President KIM IL SUNG visited 20,600 different units or workplaces in the DPRK travelling a distance of 578 ,000 kilometres, the equivalent of travelling around the world many times. Right up to the last minute of his life  President KIM IL SUNG was working for the people . On the 6th of July 1994 President KIM IL SUNG presided over a meeting of Senior officials in the economic sector and was working on important documents for people’s living standards and reunification when he passed away .

                                                          

All the above epitomises the fact that President KIM IL SUNG was a true people’s leader ,a people-oriented leader  who believed that the ‘People Are My God ‘ .  Right from the start President KIM IL SUNG strove hard to put this into practice .

  Shortly after Korea was liberated , President KIM IL SUNG went to visit the then Kangson Steel Plant . On the way to the steel plant there was a fork in the road ; one road led to Kangson and the other road led to Mangyongdae where President KIM IL SUNG had been born and where his family resided . President KIM IL SUNG’s aide de camp urged him to visit his family in Mangyongdae but instead President KIM IL SUNG went to Kangson believing that the economy of the newly liberated Korea should come before his family affairs .

Also after just after liberation President KIM IL SUNG learnt about a steel works built by the Japanese imperialists which had an electric furnace which was not safe and many workers were electrocuted by it . The Japanese imperialists and greedy capitalists thought that the workers' lives were worth nothing . However President KIM IL SUNG, who believed that man is the most precious and valuable thing in the world and that man is the master and decides everything , had the electric furnace blown up in order so that no more lives would be lost .

On the 1st of January 1953 , universal free medical care was introduced in People’s Korea . This was not because the DPRK was a very rich country or enjoyed easy and ideal conditions  ( at that time the DPRK was in the flames of war and Yankee bombers were pulverising the country ) but because President KIM IL SUNG believed that the people’s interests should come first before anything else.

In March 1974 the DPRK took the epochal step of completely abolishing taxation and at the same time reduced prices by 30 per cent on average and 50 per cent at maximum.

President KIM IL SUNG built People’s Korea into a socialist paradise where there was no exploitation or oppression , where taxation was abolished and there is free health care , free education and virtually free housing . Unemployment, a scourge of capitalist economies , was eliminated in People’s Korea only one or two years after liberation  . Illiteracy was also abolished by 1949.

President KIM IL SUNG was a true people’s leader totally different from the corrupt , venal self-serving politicians of the Western world. Therefore it is most important to remember him on the anniversary of his passing away.

Today the work of President KIM IL SUNG is carried forward by respected Marshal KIM JONG UN .

Dr Dermot Hudson

Chairman Korean Friendship of the UK 

Chairman British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea.

President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK

Chairman British Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification in Korea .

Hon secretary general International Central Committee for Songun Study