Upon hearing the news that General Kim Jong Il had passed away on December 17, 2011, all the people of Korea were engulfed by wails of grief, feeling as if the earth had collapsed. They were plunged into national mourning by his death, the leader who adorned his revolutionary career with patriotic devotion to the country and people.

Kim Jong Il sees vinalon cotton, February 2010" width="483" height="505" /> Kim Jong Il sees vinalon cotton, February 2010
Five years have passed since, but the General is always with the Korean people as the sun and peerless patriot.
The General, with the high ambition to add glory to Korea, led the Workers’ Party of Korea, the army and people wisely for a long period and brought about the golden age of the national prosperity unprecedented in the history of Korea spanning 5 000 years.
He made it his lifelong mission to carry forward and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered by President Kim Il Sung, and dynamically advanced the revolution and construction as intended by the President, becoming his closest comrade and most faithful comrade-in-arms.

Kim Jong Il sees a relief model of the Grand People’s Study House, December 1979
In the 1990s the country was faced with the grimmest trials, owing to the collapse of the worldwide socialist system, the greatest national loss of the President whom the Korean army and people believed in as in heaven, pernicious offensives of the imperialist allied forces to stifle the DPRK, and consecutive natural calamities. At this juncture the General held higher the banner of Songun, thus creditably defending the socialist achievements, valuable heritage of the President and turning the country into an invincible politico-ideological power of single-hearted unity and an impregnable military power no enemy dares to attack.
In those days he put forward the People’s Army as the main force of the revolution and the core force in national defence, and prepared all its officers and men to be strong in ideas and faith and a-match-for-a-hundred combatants, crossing the rugged Chol Pass and steep Mt Osong and braving through raging storms to inspect the army units and posts.
He set the grand objective of building a powerful socialist country and led the nationwide general onward march to implement it in the vanguard, kindling the flames of a great revolutionary upsurge across the country.

Kim Jong Il visits a farmer’s family of the Poman Cooperative Farm in Sohung County, July 2001" width="253" height="300" /> Kim Jong Il visits a farmer’s family of the Poman Cooperative Farm in Sohung County, July 2001
He shed light on the road to the building of a powerful socialist country by presenting the revolutionary line of economic construction in the Songun era of developing defence industry on a preferential basis and developing light industry and agriculture simultaneously and the policy on agricultural revolution, and kindled the flames of the industrial revolution in the new century and the introduction of CNC technology. With his super-human energy, the General visited all parts of the country to usher in a new era of epochal changes.
Until the last moments of his great life the General was on the journey to give on-site guidance for the prosperity of the country and well-being of the people and passed away on a moving train.
With ardent love and affection Kim Jong Il devoted his whole life to the country and people, travelling over 669 844 kilometres equivalent to making about 17 rounds of the earth to give on-site guidance to 14 296 units in the country.
Thanks to his long, arduous road of the Songun-based leadership for the national prosperity and warm affection for the people, the DPRK has demonstrated to the whole world its might as a nuclear state, manufacturer and launcher of artificial satellites, built solid foundations of the building of a powerful socialist country and exalted its dignity and pride at the highest level.

Kim Jong Il gives on-site guidance to the Songjin Steel Complex which completed the Juche-based system of producing iron, December 2009" width="651" height="454" /> Kim Jong Il gives on-site guidance to the Songjin Steel Complex which completed the Juche-based system of producing iron, December 2009
The Korean army and people, firmly determined to hand down for ever the General’s undying exploits made for the prosperity of the country and happiness of people, are staunchly advancing towards the final victory in the revolutionary cause of Juche, true to the behests of the General and under the leadership of Kim Jong Un.
An article by Kim Thae Hyon