Supreme Commander and Soldier’s Families

The relationship between Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il and soldiers’ families in the DPRK is one between parents and their children, in which they share the same destiny.

Followings are few examples.

Familiy with Eight Officers

There is a family whose eight sons are serving in the army.

The eldest, Pak Yong Chol, determined to defend his motherland and fellow people with arms throughout his life like his father, became an officer of his father’s former unit; the second son,following in the steps of his elder brother, also became an officer; the third volunteered for service in the army when the situartion in the Korean peninsula was brought to the brink of war owing to the incident caused by the Pueblo, US armed spy ship which had intruded into the Korean territorial waters and been captured by the People’s Army; and the fourth refused the recommendation to a university after military service, and decided to contiue serving in the army; the other four younger brothers also became officersin keeping their family tradition of defending the country.

In October 1992, when the youngest brother was assigned to a post in the frontline and so all eight brothers became officers, thy wrote to Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il a letter reading as follows in part:

“We will only trust and follow you and cast our lots with you whatever howling wind may blow and even if the sky and land may change hundreds of times. It is our determination to remain as eight officers who defend you, the Supreme Commander, with arms of the revolution in our hands forever. If harsh ordeals crop up, we, eight brothers, will become a bulwark and shield that defend you at all costs, and in a decisive battle we will bravely fight the enemy at the risk of our lives, shouting ‘Long live General Kim Jong Il.’

“ ‘Let’s be eight human rifles and eight human bombs that defend the respected Supreme Commander!’ This is our faith and oath. …”

The Supreme Commander, after reading their letter, raised the eight brothers as pioneers of soldiers’ families, saying that they greatly encouraged him.

Afterwards, many soldier’s families, such as Ri Chong Song and his four brothers, Li Jong Un and five brothers, and Ri Jang Ung and his six brothers and sister, were born in Korea.

A Blessed Soldiers’ Family

One November day in 1997, Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il gave field guidence at a women’s coastal battery. While looking round the company with affection, he learned that a daughter of a former artillery woman, who had presented a bouquet of flowers to President Kim Il Sung 25 years ago on his inspection of the company, was serving in the same company.

Pleased, he called her to his side and asked how old she was and what her parents and brother and sister were doing. She answered that her father was on officer, her mother was working as a civilian in an army unit, and her brother was serving in the army. The Supreme Commander highly praised her family, saying that it was the manisfestation of patriotism that all her family memgers were guarding the post of national defence. He was so proud of the girl for defending her mother’s former post that he posed for a photograph with her.

That day he said to officials that all the members of society should take their cue from the girl’s family for national defence, and that he would meet her parents later.

One week later, busy as he was, he met the girl;s mother, Om Pok Sun, and her father and inquired into their work and life, and even the future of their youngest daughter, still a secondary-school student.

In February 2000 he met the family again; by now, the youngest daughter had enlisted in the army, Om Pok Sun reenlisted in the army. He highly praised them for serving in the army, and posed for a souvenir photograph with them.

The family of Om Pok Sun is now as a model of revolutionary soldiers’ families in the DPRK.

There are many such families in the country.