Former Portuguese President’s Questions

                              

“What kind of strength makes the DPRK prevails over the United States that is boasting of being the ‘mightiest’ in the world? With what mysterious weapon does it bring the US troops recognized as ‘invincible’ in the western world to their knees?”

These questions had long haunted Francisco da Costa Gomes, former president and marshal of Portugal.

He was widely known in the West as a statesman as well as a military man. He once served the NATO Command as a high-ranking officer.

He began to entertain those questions in the early days of the 1950s, when he was the Chief of Staff of the Portuguese troops stationed in Macao. In those days Macao was a resting place of the UN troops participating in the Korean war (June 1950-July 1953). Among them were army generals from several countries.

When Gomes was with them, they mainly talked about the Korean war, which was producing a lot of inconceivable stories: an American task force was smashed to bits by heavy blows from the Korean People’s Army; Dean, commander of the US 24^th Division, which had been called an “invincible division,” was captured by a KPA soldier while escaping in a soldier’s uniform and said to be learning the Korean chess in a POW camp.

What drove the US to a tight corner in its war against the DPRK, and how could the DPRK, a newly-emerged state, compel the US, which had been boasting of the “strongest” in the world, to acknowledge its defeat and come to its knees before it for the first time in history? These were utterly incomprehensible from the established military common-sense approaches.

Afterwards, Gomes entered the political world and studied various ideologies and philosophical doctrines advanced so far in the world. Then he learned of the Juche idea. When he found out that the author of that idea, which fascinated him so greatly, was President Kim Il Sung of the DPRK, and that he was the very man who led the Korean army and people to victory during the Korean war, he was very surprised.

He recalled: “The operations plans presented by the United States in the war had all been formulated after several rounds of discussion by dozens of generals, like chiefs of staff and military specialists, of the Western countries on the US side. But General Kim Il Sung frustrated them all single-handed. Witnessing it, I realized that General Kim Il Sung was a heaven-sent genius in military strategy and a great commander.”

During several visits to the DPRK he was told of many impressive stories about President Kim Il Sung.

One year the President dropped in at a sanatorium on his way to on-site guidance. Those at the sanatorium were beside themselves with excitement at meeting the President, who was also delighted to see them with healthy appearance. Then he saw one of them with a pale complexion and was told that he was an ex-soldier who got injured during the Korean war. The President told the doctor in charge of his own health to specially prepare tonics and had them taken to the disabled soldier for his recovery.

There was another story. One day in the blizzards of winter he was on his inspection tour to a rural area, when he happened to see a girl on the road. He stopped his car to ask the girl where she was going in such a stormy day, carrying a big bundle. She was going to see her brother under medical treatment at a hospital in the seat of a rural ri. Hearing her story, the President told his driver to turn the car back and give her lift to the hospital. Then he stood on the road in a snowstorm, waiting for the car to return.

Such legend-like stories about President Kim Il Sung’s love for his people fascinated Gomes more greatly.

He met the President for the first time in July 1981, and in the spring of 1982 again. At that time he asked the President about some problems he was interested in. One of them was about the relations between the leader and the people in the DPRK.

To his candid request, the President gave a modest, but meaningful answer in the following vein:

My whole life is the history of love by the people. The history of my struggle proves that if one fights by enjoying the people’s love and support and by relying on their strength, one can surely emerge victorious.

Gomes was much impressed and influenced by the words of the President, and keenly felt that the Juche idea permeated with the love of and trust in the people was the key to all successes. He expressed his excitement, saying, “It is only today that I have resolved the questions since my days at Macau that how the army of the young DPRK could defeat the world’s ‘strongest’ United States. A country with an outstanding leader and a great ideology will always be victorious.” 

 Kim Jong Un Gives Field Guidance to Hydro-meteorological Service

Pyongyang, June 10 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, gave field guidance to the Hydro-meteorological Service.

He went round various places including rooms for comprehensive weather forecast, domestic communication and international satellite communication to learn in detail about meteorological observation and weather forecast.

He said that there are many incorrect forecasts as the meteorological observation has not been put on a modern and scientific basis, adding that only when meteorological observation and forecast are done properly, is it possible to protect the lives and properties of the people from disasters caused by the abnormal climatic phenomenon and prevent various fields of national economy including agriculture and fishery from natural disasters in good time.

"It is necessary to fundamentally improve the work of the Hydro-meteorological Service in order to scientifically clarify meteorological and climatic conditions and provide accurate data for weather forecast and meteorological and climatic information required by various fields of national economy in good time", he noted.

He underscored the need to raise the responsibility of researchers and forecast persons and firmly build scientific and technical forces as hydro-meteorological service is a very important work directly affecting the overall economic affairs of the country.

He stressed the need to intensify the scientific researches to ensure the accuracy of short-, intermediary- and long-term forecast and conduct brisk scientific and technological exchanges with various countries of the world.

He called on the service to rapidly and kindly provide information about weather's influence upon the people's life, health, transport, etc. in diverse methods.

Underlining the need to properly distribute various kinds of observation networks as required by the natural and geographical features of the country and the developing reality and modernize meteorological observation equipment at a high level, he took measures for doing so with deep loving care.

He was accompanied by Hwang Pyong So, Choe Thae Bok, Choe Ryong Hae, Han Kwang Sang and Ri Jae Il

Kim Jong Un Gives Field Guidance to Jangchon Vegetable Co-op Farm

Pyongyang, June 10 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, gave field guidance to the Jangchon Vegetable Co-op Farm in Sadong District, Pyongyang.

He looked round the room devoted to the education in the revolutionary history and the room dedicated to the history of the farm.

He said that the farm turned into a vegetable production base for the citizens of the capital city under the wise guidance of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il.

He praised the officials and farmers of the farm for mass-producing vegetables of various species through their devoted service, bearing deep in mind the high pride of working at the honorable worksites.

He went round the newly built and remodeled vegetable green houses to acquaint himself with the vegetable production.

"It is gratifying that the co-op farm not only built dozens of new large modern vegetable green houses with big production capacity but successfully remodeled the existing green houses true to the intention of the Party Central Committee," he noted.

He learned in detail about the vegetable farming, asking its officials what species of vegetables are being cultivated, how did they establish ventilation and irrigation systems and what system they set up for providing green house vegetable seeds.

"The party calls for building vegetable green houses in a big way and promoting it with an aim to enable our people to eat fresh vegetables including cucumber, tomato, crown daisy and lettuce everyday even in midwinter", he said.

Noting that it is hard to substantially benefit from vegetable green houses if measures are not taken simultaneously to develop the cultivation technology and provide vegetable seeds even if these green houses are built with much effort, he called for making sustained energetic efforts to raise the productivity by putting the greenhouse vegetable cultivation on a scientific and intensive basis at a high level.

"Only when a model is created and generalized in the greenhouse vegetable production, too, is it possible to expand the successes made in it", he noted, adding that it is the resolution of the Party Central Committee to build the Jangchon Vegetable Co-op Farm into a typical unit in the greenhouse vegetable production and a model farm for the whole country.

He instructed the farm to decisively raise the per-hectare yield by perfecting the scientific greenhouse vegetable cultivation method and bring about a radical turn in the living environment and appearance of the farm as required by the new century.

He stressed the need to dynamically push forward the greenhouse construction and management as a party work in order to promote the construction of vegetable greenhouses for supplying the people with fresh vegetables.

He said he would receive again from the Pyongyang City Committee of the WPK a detailed report on the issues arising in building the Jangchon Vegetable Co-op Farm into a model farm for the whole country and promised to take a measure to ensure that those issues are settled preferentially.

He was accompanied by Hwang Pyong So, Choe Ryong Hae and Han Kwang Sang.