Juche

    On July 12, 1971, Chairman Kim Jong Il came to the airport to see off the artistes of the Pyongyang Art Troupe leaving to visit a foreign country.

    Being informed from civil aviation officials of the plane preparation, the Chairman had a talk about impressions of the world people on the DPRK’s arts and asked a military worker standing beside him whether he had any knowledge of the arts.

    The Chairman’s question was so unexpected that the military worker did not answer him. An official told the Chairman that the military worker was well versed in the arts and had rich emotions.

    Looking at the officials with benevolence, the Chairman said that military commanders must be well versed not only in military but in the arts as the former is also the seasoned art.

    The Chairman’s saying was meaningful, indeed. However, they did not realize its meaning immediately.

    As if he had read their mind, the Chairman continued to say.

    Soldiers should have sound ideas, noble moral traits and rich emotions. Only then can they be faithful to the Party and the leader, love the country and people and fight uncompromisingly against the class enemy.

    Hero Ri Su Bok we know was also a person of sentiment and rich emotion. He was a talented soldier-poet. The poem written by him was ideologically and artistically refined and the famous one strong in militant appeal. Through hero Ri Su Bok’s poem, we can be keenly aware how much loyal he was to the Party and the leader and loved the country and people. In the period of the Fatherland Liberation War the heroic soldiers could devote their youth and life for the Party and the leader, the country and the people as they were possessed of high sense of ideological and mental qualities and noble moral traits…

    His saying was, indeed, a precious one that clarified in a plain way the role played by thought and feeling of soldiers.

    The officials became fully aware that the soldiers’ high sense of ideological and mental qualities and their beautiful artistic emotions served as a source that enables them to display peerless heroism and self-sacrifice.