When I was visiting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in August 2017 to attend the 5th international Festival in Praise oft the Great Persons of Mt Paektu I paid solemn homage to the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG , the eternal red sun of Juche who rests in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun formerly the Kumsusan Memorial Palace .This had originally been the Kumsusan Assembly Hall where the great leader President KIM IL SUNG lived and worked .In 1995 the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL gave instructions to construct the Kumusan Memorial Palace .This was later renamed the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to reflect the deep reverence of the Korean people for their eternal leaders President KIM IL SUNG and Chairman KIM JONG IL.
It was my 14th visit to the land of Juche Korea .Each time I visit the DPRK I learnt something that I did not know before . Accompanying in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun was comrade Ham Sung Jin of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and secretary general of the Korean Committee for Friendship with the British People .After I had paid respects to the great leaders comrade KIM IL SUNG and comrade KIM JONG IL we went through the Hall of Lamentation .It was here that the tears of the Korean people actually changed the colour of the floor tiles.
This led me to recall that fateful day in July 1994 when the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG passed away . I first heard the news that the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG had passed away on the 9th of July when I was visiting my mother's house at Winchester, Hampshire. It was announced suddenly and abruptly on the Radio . I did not believe the news reports , I thought they must be false. When I heard the stark announcement my heart beat fast and I felt ill. I walked up my mother's garden to calm down .Later I wondered about the city thinking deeply , telling myself it was not true .After all only a few days before on Sunday the 3rd of July I had returned from People's Korea travelling via Beijing , China., We had actually left the DPRK on Saturday 2nd of July . Our visit to the DPRK had been very successful .During our visit , virtually each day we saw the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG on the tv giving either giving on-the spot guidance or meeting foreign guests . Each time he met foreign guests on tv the theme "Long live Marshal KIM IL SUNG" ! was played which gave a certain grandeur , a real sense of presence He looked healthy and vigorous .To me it was impossible and unimaginable that comrade KIM IL SUNG leave us so soon.
At 2am in the morning comrade KIM IL SUNG had passed away suddenly whilst still at work even though it was 2am in the morning . I believe he had been working on documents about the economy and national reunification . When the news was announced by KCNA and DPRK TV people in the DPRK rushed to the statues of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG .They were in tears and some threw themselves to the ground , how could they be parted from President KIM IL SUNG ? A lot of people in the West totally fail to understand the reverence of the Korean people for the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG .As one Korean explained to me they wore the badge with the image of the President with pride and devotion because without the President there would no be no Korea . President KIM IL SUNG had fought the Japanese imperialists for more than a decade to win the independence of Korea and start to build a new nation. Indeed President KIM IL SUNG was the father of modern Korea and the founder of socialist Korea. Moreover he wast like a father to a the Korean people as he established a socialist system which gave them full employment , free education , free health care , housing and many other things that in other countries are regarded as an impossibility. For the people of the DPRK losing President KIM IL SUNG was like losing their parents .
However rallying under the leadership of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL , the successor to the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG , the Korean people turned sorrow into strength and did not let grief defeat them but carried on the Juche revolutionary cause and worked hard to to build a better and more prosperous socialist country.
Dr Dermot Hudson
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
Chairman UK Korean Friendship Association
Chairman British Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula.
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