It was one summer day in 1979 when the construction of the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital was in brisk under the grand plan of President Kim Il Sung who intended to provide women with a better medical service centre.
At the construction site Chairman Kim Jong Il looked with pleasure at the hospital which showed its appearance in a short period of time.
Kim Jong Il was told by an official that, since too much marble was needed, they planned to coat only three floors of the hospital with marble and other floors with man-made stones. He told them to coat all of them with marble as it was a hospital for women. He thought for a while and proposed them to use jewels, better than marble, to decorate the floor of entrance hall.
The officials were surprised by his words because natural jewels were quite expensive.
Kim Jong Il told the officials again to coat the floor hall with jewels so that women could pass through the hall carpeted with jewels.
Over 100 tons of natural jewels and colour stones were gathered by members of many geological prospecting teams and miners in the country and sent to the construction site and thus the floor of entrance hall of the maternity hospital was studded with with such precious stones as ruby, sapphire, topaz, etc.