Kim Jong Il’s First Question

The 81st anniversary of the birth of Chairman Kim Jong Il falls on February 16 this year.

Whenever February 16 comes round, the Korean people recollect the whole life of Kim Jong Il who always placed the people in the first place of his mind and devoted his all for their good.

“Do people like it?”

This is the question he would ask first to officials when approaching one creation and going over one product.

One September day in Juche 94 (2005) Kim Jong Il visited Miru Plain in North Hwanghae Province.

Feasting his eyes on the crop situation of the plain with a broad smile on his face, he asked the officials of the farm how many hectares of dry-field rice they had planted and what strains they were. And he asked them if farmers liked them because they planted them for the first time.

When the official answered yes, he expressed his great satisfaction over the fact that they were all satisfied.

In January 2009 he visited the then Pyongyang Silk Mill. Looking round a newly-built sanatorium there, he first asked the accompanying officials if the employees were pleased with it.

One year, Arirang, Broad Bellflower and A Bumper Harvest in the Chongsan Plain, a new form in the history of world symphony, were produced in the country. He had also heard the people’s impressions on them. Very pleased, he said that the new symphonies seemed to have passed the test by the people.

When he made the rounds of the newly-built Amusement Park of Kaeson Youth Park in December 2011, the last year of his life, Kim Jong Il repeatedly asked if visitors were pleased with it.

For Kim Jong Il, the question “Do people like it?” was what he said often in his work and life.

Originally published on Naenara – http://www.naenara.com.kp/main/index/en/first