ADVERTISEMENT | DPR Korea Embassy: “Incarnation of Love”
(On the Occasion of the 113th birth anniversary of
President Kim Il Sung)
Incarnation of Love
President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), the founding father of socialist Korea, kept an unusual sense of love and obligation towards his friends and comrades all his life. There are some anecdotes about it.
Internationalist Acclaimed as Hero
On March 1, 1946, Novichenko, an officer of the Soviet army, sustained a serious injury at an event attended by Kim Il Sung. Terrorists sent by reactionaries threw off a hand grenade to the platform where Kim Il Sung was making a speech. At such a critical moment, Novichenko unhesitatingly covered it with his chest.
Fortunately, however, he survived the terrorist attack. In appreciation of his act of great bravery Kim Il Sung sent tonics, flowers and fruits to him and presented him with a silver cigarette case inscribed with his own name.
Many years passed after that, but the President did not forget him.
In May 1984, he visited some foreign countries leading a Party and state delegation. When he talked with relevant Soviet Union officials who came to greet him, he recalled how Novichenko had acted in the incident. Thanks to their positive efforts, he came to have an emotion-charged meeting with Novichenko in Novosibirsk Railway Station.
Kim Il Sung asked about the former Soviet soldier’s health and living conditions and had a photo taken with him. After the meeting, he proposed awarding Novichenko the title of Labour Hero, saying that though not a Korean, Nobichenko had performed a rare self-sacrificing and heroic deed. Therefore, the then Central People’s Committee of the DPRK issued a decree on awarding Novichenko the title of the DPRK Labour Hero while Kim Il Sung was still on the foreign tour.
Novichenko visited the DPRK seven times from 1984 to 1992. Kim Il Sung treated him as his own younger brother and invited him every year to come in a good season and have a good time. To this end he made arrangements for the welcoming ceremony, lodgings, vehicle and tour sites and schedule for him. Novichenko was given a hero’s welcome everywhere in the DPRK.
“As the saying goes, a man who knows to appreciate a favour is like fertile soil, and he repays the favour ten times. …
But I have been repaid far more than what I gave. I’m much obliged. I have received affection and benevolence too much for what I did or what I performed,” Novichenko wrote in his memoirs.
Affection Down through Generations
There is a story about Kim Il Sung’s unusual benevolence for Zhang Weihua, a Chinese internationalist, and his descendants.
Their parents maintained unusually friendly relations, which were carried forward to them
As a son of a rich family, Zhang Weihua greatly admired Kim Il Sung, charmed by his ennobling personality. When Kim Il Sung was arrested by enemy during his anti-Japanese struggle, Zhang chose to kill himself at the age of 25 to remain faithful to Kim Il Sung.
Kim Il Sung regarded him as his saviour who not only supported the Korean revolution with all his sincerity but also dedicated his life to the cause.
After liberating Korea on August 15, 1945, from the Japanese military occupation, Kim Il Sung ordered relevant officials to trace the bereaved family of Zhang and when he was told they were found out, he invited them to Pyongyang and met them. He presented each of over ten family members with gifts as a token of their first meeting. He asked them to regard him as their father and come to the DPRK anytime to have a good time. And he showed paternal affection to them lest they experience any inconvenience in their living.
Besides, he provided Zhang Jinquan, Zhang Weihua’s son, with a complete set of photographing facilities, arranged a spread for him on his 60th birthday and ensured that the grandchildren of Zhang Weihua studied at their heart’s content at the then University of International Relations as they wished. He also dropped by their dormitory to inquire about their work, life and tastes for food and sent them birthday spreads.
In April 1987, he met the Zhangs on a visit to the DPRK as many as seven times. Embracing a five-year-old great granddaughter of Zhang, he said that she was the fifth flower of the DPRK-China friendship and wished that she would come into full bloom for the bilateral ties of the two countries.
Kim Il Sung immortalized Zhang Weihua by sending a monument inscribed with his handwriting to be set up before his grave and ensuring the unveiling ceremony of the monument was held splendidly.
Crédito: Link de origem