There is a portrait of President Kim Il Sung on the desk in a sunny place of my house.

Whenever I see his smiling and benevolent image, my heart is filled with emotion at the thought that “President Kim Il Sung is the one and only leader of the people in our times. As he devotes his whole life to the people, he enjoys absolute support and love of the entire DPRK people”.

Indeed, it is my greatest honour and happiness that I have his portrait.

When I visited the DPRK, I could see with my own eyes that the DPRK is a country that developed all sectors of the society comprehensively and the most successful country in the world.

I was deeply impressed every time and every day by everything in the DPRK including powerful heavy industry distributed in a balanced way, socialist agriculture developed intensively, innumerable educational institutions at all levels, bringing up of the children at the expense of the state and society, equal people’s living and so on. And many questions sprang up in my head.

“How could the DPRK, once a backward and poor country, become a comprehensively developed and admiring country in such a short span of time?”

It took me several days to find a key to this question.

All these grand successes are achieved by the original Juche idea of President Kim Il Sung. They are the fruition of his labour.

When I found a source promoting a new Korea which is free, democratic and developed, I was anxious to have his portrait with me all the time.

“He is the great leader of the people.

I wish I could live under his love and care as the DPRK people do.

If I can have his portrait in my house, it will be as same as I am always with President Kim Il Sung.”

By having the portrait of President Kim Il Sung in my house, my wish could become true.

August name of President Kim Il Sung is a symbol of freedom and independence of hundreds of millions of exploited people.

The DPRK, you are in the limelight of the world as you have such a great leader as President Kim Il Sung!

The DPRK, you have been built into a paradise envied by the world progressives as you are a glorious land where President Kim Il Sung was born!

(This article was written in 1981 by Elof Wikrund, executive member of the Sweden-Korea Friendship Association.)