Twenty threee years have passed since President Kim Il Sung passed away. In July every year Korean people, out of their strong yearning for the President, father of the nation, visit his statue on Mansu Hill day and night.
The service personnel and people in this country do not get to sleep easily, missing the President who continued with his on-the-spot guidance trips even in the middle of the night while leaving the people asleep in the cradle of happiness. One of the most important songs was Leader, the Night Is Far Advanced.
Kim Il Sung examines a coal cutter produced at the May 10 Factory (July 1980)." width="721" height="519" srcset="https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-01.jpg 721w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-01-300x216.jpg 300w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-01-600x432.jpg 600w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-01-400x288.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px" /> Kim Il Sung examines a coal cutter produced at the May 10 Factory (July 1980).The President spent every moment of his lifetime working for the good of the people and guiding the country and the revolution relying on them.
Looking up at the beaming image of the President, the Koreans find themselves remembering various moving stories of the fatherly leader who travelled every nook and corner of the country by people-bound train to show benevolent care for the people.
It was decades ago. The President had been inspecting a province for several days. One day he examined a document deep into the night. An official had presented to him the document about a foreign delegation’s impressions of its visit to the country, earnestly hoping that the leader would have a good night’s rest.
Part of the document reads, “Frankly speaking, our head of State shows up in national functions once or twice a year, and spends the rest of his time in his holiday resort. So we government officials find it very difficult to meet him. For both his achievements and age President Kim Il Sung deserves more hours off from work.”
After reading the document out the President, with a smile, said, “I have no idea how their head of State works, but we cannot do like he does.” Then the official said anxiously, “Dear leader, the night is far advanced.” Still, the President said he was all right, and went on to say that since he had not got enough sleep during his fight in the mountains it became a habit, that he never felt tired and that he still had a lot of things to do. Then he caught up with his work again.
Kim Il Sung talks with fishermen at the Sinpho Fisheries Station (April 1971)." width="721" height="604" srcset="https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-02.jpg 721w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-02-300x251.jpg 300w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-02-600x503.jpg 600w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-02-400x335.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px" /> Kim Il Sung talks with fishermen at the Sinpho Fisheries Station (April 1971).In retrospect, the President had never got a good rest from the period of the anti-Japanese struggle. During the struggle he would plan operations for annihilating the enemy at a campfire in a snow-covered forest or at a lamplight in the headquarters tent, and after Korea’s liberation from the Japanese imperialists’ colonial rule he pioneered the way of building a new Korea, taking the lead in breaking through lots of obstacles and difficulties. And he led to victory the Fatherland Liberation War, defending the happiness of the country and the people, and during the postwar rehabilitation and reconstruction he always mixed himself with the people, vigorously arousing them to the projects.
Kim Il Sung delivers a radio address to the Korean people (June 1950)." width="721" height="594" srcset="https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-03.jpg 721w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-03-300x247.jpg 300w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-03-600x494.jpg 600w, https://exploredprk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/06072017KP1-03-400x330.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px" /> Kim Il Sung delivers a radio address to the Korean people (June 1950).The President continued to work devotedly without thinking of a rest even when the economic foundation of the country had been consolidated and the people’s livelihood had improved considerably.
What he always lacked was time, so he kept working, valuing every minute, in order to add glory to socialist Korea and make the people happier. He visited numerous units to teach how to make people well off, and called on numerous ordinary workers, peasants and office workers at home unexpectedly in the middle of night during his field guidance trips. One day he himself took the trouble to push his car out of a muddy spot on the way to a place to meet people there, and in the middle of one night he waited for the day to dawn outside a house lest the family be awakened from sleep. He had neither a holiday nor a day off.
An official who had long worked with the President said, “I think it was one Saturday after our people composed the song Leader, the Night Is Far Advanced, wishing the President good health and rest. That evening the song, a reflection of the people’s wish, was sung, touching the audience’s heartstrings in the Pyongyang Grand Theatre. At that time the leader’s car was running silently along a street of the capital city. He was leaving for a distant place for field guidance even in the weekend. He travelled all night by the car and arrived at the destination early the next morning. We earnestly asked him to take a rest after the long journey, but he immediately began to inspect the place, guiding the officials there at their work. The leader worked like that all his life.
A table clock with the tune of the aforementioned song as the alarm was made for the President out of the people’s earnest wish, but whenever the tune came out at the fixed time, he regarded it as the people’s encouragement and expectation and continued with his work through the night.
Over 578 000 kilometres—this is the total distance of the President’s field-guidance journeys for nearly a half century from soon after Korea’s liberation (August 1945) to the end of his great life (July 8, 1994). The Korean people remember it well.
