Long Journey of Patriotic Devotion

Chairman Kim Jong Il was always on board a people-bound train for an endless journey of on-site guidance in the whole period of leading the revolution.

Noting that it is the goal and worth of his life to devote himself for the building of a thriving country and for the good of the people, he made inspections of different parts of the country, including the units of the Korean People’s Army at their posts of national defence, industrial establishments and the countryside, schools, hospitals, etc.

In Juche 99 (2010) alone, he visited the construction site of the Huichon Power Station several times and led its soldier-builders to create a new Chollima speed, Huichon speed. During his visits to factories and rural villages, he specified the orientation and ways for revitalizing production. During his inspection of an iron and steel complex, he took a measure to raise the temperature of a smelters’ dinning hall. And when he dropped in at an ordinary farmer’s new house, he asked in detail about his living conditions with a sense of parental affection.

He was always pressed for time, while he was on a ceaseless journey of field guidance without resting even on holidays and days off. That was why he always said he wanted one second to be one hour so that he would work more for the sake of the country and the people.

Some officials earnestly asked him to have a rest, as he continued his forced march of field guidance without a moment’s rest despite scorching weather in midsummer. But he told them as follows: It does not matter whether I sweat for the sake of my soldiers and people. I’ve never thought of it as hardship. I feel much easier and better than taking a hundred days’ rest, when I am on a forced march for the good of my soldiers and excellent people.

He continued his forced march ceaselessly, noting that he would not mind it in the future, too, if it was for the prosperity of the country and the wellbeing of the people. His inspection trips had many new bywords coined and touching episodes told–field parka, meals, hair-cutting and train, catnap and rice-balls, a bowl of gruel, forced marches on biting cold days in midwinter and in the hottest period of midsummer, all-night forced march, 400-km-rush forced march and super-intense forced march.

He visited all the places wherever there are people and gave them strength and courage with his affection and trust to inspire them to greater feats. Thanks to his energetic leadership, the Kanggye Spirit and the flames of Songgang and Ranam flared up in different parts of the country, bringing about unprecedented upswing in production and construction.

The forced march he covered throughout his revolutionary career with superhuman energy beyond human imagination and a do-or-die spirit amounts to over 669 844 km, the distance equal to 17 rounds of the earth.

Today the dreams and ideals of the Korean people, which are being translated into reality, are unthinkable apart from the painstaking efforts of Kim Jong Il’s patriotic devotion.