His Insistence on Visiting
On
his way to the Mt. Paektu area from the Nanhutou meeting (a conference of
military and political cadres of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army held in February 1936), Commander Kim Il Sung
decided to drop in at the Mihunzhen secret camp in the primeval forests.
He
came across the soldiers of the 1st Company, 1st Regiment
of the Independent 1st Division, and asked them to guide him there,
but they balked at his request.
“No,
you must not go there, General!” one shouted in alarm. “The whole of the
Mihunzhen valley is typhoid-infested.”
“No
one can tell how many people have died there,” another chimed in. “We cannot
take you there. We cannot take that risk.”
Earlier
in the guerrilla zones they had experienced outbreaks of the disease, which had
taken a heavy toll of lives.
“Typhoid
is a human disease,” explained the
Commander. “So man will get it under control. Man will prevail over the
epidemic, and not vice versa, eh?”
“Impossible!”
protested the soldiers, digging their heels in the ground. “The disease sweeps
away the strong and the weak alike. You know Company Commander Choe Hyon is a
tough man, but he too has been sick in bed there for weeks.”
“Even
that iron fighter?”
The
Commander was caught unawares.
“Then
I must go there at all costs.”
His
tone was peremptory.
The
men knew they could not talk him around, but they added that he might go there,
but not to the typhoid ward.
Kim
Il Sung arrived at the camp, and immediately headed for a cabin where some 50
typhoid cases were housed.
“Don’t
come in! I beg you!” one shouted, scrambling out towards the door. He was Choe
Hyon, now reduced to a skeleton.
Kim
Il Sung came up to him and clasped his hands, which were being withdrawn
beneath the blanket. Choe’s eyes were swimming with tears, and all the other
cases were sobbing.
Later the wizened men recovered, supported by the warm
love of Kim Il Sung, who was ready to cross
even the threshold of death unhesitatingly just to save his comrades.
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