KIM JONG IL, GREAT MASTER OF INDEPENDENT POLITICS

Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), the eternal General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the eternal Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, was a great master of independent politics, who was worth special mention in the world history of politics.

His political philosophy was the Juche idea recognized by the international community as the guiding ideology of the cause of independence. The Juche idea clarifies that one is responsible for one’s own destiny and one has also the capacity for hewing out one’s own destiny. Kim Jong Il thoroughly applied this idea in the revolution and construction.

When socialism collapsed in several countries one after another towards the close of the last century, the DPRK remained unperturbed because it had been guided by the line of independence put forward by Kim Jong Il.

At the time when the anti-socialist forces fussed about the “end of socialism,” Kim Jong Il made public important works including The Historical Lesson in Building Socialism and the General Line of Our Party, Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable and Socialism Is a Science, in which he illuminated the truthfulness and scientific accuracy of socialism and the inevitability of its triumph and made a solemn declaration that socialist Korea would never deviate from nor vacillate on the road it had chosen.

Most noteworthy in his political achievements is Songun politics.

The imperialist allied forces led by the United States which had appeared as the “only superpower” after the end of the cold war committed arbitrariness and high-handedness in the international arena, taking advantage of the destruction of the balance of forces on the planet, and resorted to open aggression upon and intervention in the countries they were not happy with. In particular, they launched an all-out offensive against the DPRK, which was unswervingly following the road of socialism under the unfurled banner of anti-imperialist independence, in all fields―political, military, economic cultural and diplomatic.

In the light of the prevailing situation, Kim Jong Il held higher the banner of Songun. He formulated Songun politics as the basic mode of socialist politics. Thanks to his Songun politics the military strength of the DPRK was markedly reinforced and the DPRK became a military power which no enemy, how powerful he may be, dare to attack. Despite the all-out offensive by the imperialist allied forces, the DPRK staunchly defended its sovereignty and socialism.

Songun politics not only defended socialism but brought about a new turning point in the building of a thriving socialist country in the DPRK, smashing every high-handed challenge of the US. This struck the world with admiration. “The DPRK is humbling the US, saying what it wants to say under the eyes of the world,” “The DPRK is the only country in the world countering the US with hard line in the face of the latter’s high-handedness and arbitrariness,” “The US is put on the defensive by the independent Songun politics of the DPRK,” and “The US leads the world and the DPRK leads the US.”

Consistently maintaining independence, peace and friendship as the fundamental ideal of the DPRK in its external activities, Kim Jong Il paid deep attention to the building of an independent, new world.

He conducted energetic external activities to strengthen the anti-imperialist independent forces of the world.

In the new century he visited the People’s Republic of China several times, developing the traditional friendship between the DPRK and PRC and giving a powerful impetus to the common struggle of the peoples of the two countries to defend the socialist cause and global peace. He also paid several visits to the Russian Federation to put the DPRK-Russia friendship on a new stage and invigorate the international efforts to build an independent world.

He also paid great efforts to the work with figures from Western countries including a top-level delegation from the European Union to give full play to the validity and vitality of the independent foreign policy of the DPRK. As a result, countries which had slighted or kept away from the DPRK in the past made changes of direction: they took the road of improving relations with the DPRK. In period spanning years, over 20 countries established or reestablished diplomatic relations with the DPRK: among them were most of the West European countries including Italy, UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and EU. Others include Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The might and vitality of Kim Jong Il’s independent politics were also displayed to the full in bringing about the grandiose June 15 reunification era by the north and south of Korea under the ideal of By Our Nation Itself. He firmly maintained the principle of independence in achieving the cause of Korea’s reunification and led all the Koreans to accomplish it by their own efforts. As a result, the June 15 Joint Declaration was adopted in 2000 and the October 4 Declaration in 2007, thus setting up a new milestone on the road of Korea’s reunification.

Kim Jong Il, who always led the cause of independence of the Korean people and the cause of global independence, will live forever in the history of world politics as a great master of independent politics.

KIM JONG UN GUIDES COMBAT FLIGHT CONTEST AMONG AIR COMMANDING OFFICERS

Pyongyang, May 10 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, visited the operational airfield in the western region together with Ri Sol Ju to guide "the Combat Flight Contest among Air Commanding Officers of the Air and Anti-Air Force of the KPA - 2014". Kim Jong Un arrived at the airfield by air at 9:00 a.m. He reviewed a guard of honor. KPA Air Force General Ri Pyong Chol, commander of the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force, made an opening address. He said that the contest was the first significant training one in the history of the army building organized on the personal initiative of Kim Jong Un before declaring the contest open. Kim Jong Un gave an order to make sorties. The contest was divided into a group of commanders of combined units and a group of commanders of units. Kim Jong Un expressed his great satisfaction, watching with keen attention the courageous and skilled flight drill of air commanding officers. At the end of the morning contest, he was invited to a field lunch arranged by the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force. During leisure time after the lunch there were a performance of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force and a concert of the Military Band of the KPA to rev up the atmosphere of the contest. The contest continued in the afternoon. KPA Air Force Col. General O Kum Chol, vice-chief of the General Staff of the KPA, and other air commanding officers fully displayed their aeronautics cultivated in the past. Kim Jong Un praised the air commanding officers for creditably performing their flight missions. He said that the competition was organized to let the air commanding officers take the lead in the flight training under the slogan "Follow Me!" and thus make the air force intensify its training just as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did in Mt. Paektu. He underlined the need for the commanding officers to acquire high combat aeronautics so that they may firmly prepare all pilots of the units as death-defying corps in the sky. Points were shown and standings decided by the latest monitoring device. Vice Marshal of the KPA Hwang Pyong So, director of the General Political Bureau of the KPA, made a speech at an awarding ceremony. He said that the holding of the competition with commanding officers of all flying units of the Air Force attending was a great bold decision which could be made only by the Supreme Commander who leads any formidable enemy by the nose and it represented the victory of his matchless pluck. He announced the results of the competition. Ri Il Chan, commander of Unit 858, Yu Hak Chol, commander of Unit 458, and Ri Myong Ho, commander of Unit 344, came first in the group standings. Kim Jong Un personally awarded prizes to the successful air commanding officers and units. He congratulated them on their successes and had a photo session with them. The commander of the Air and Anti-Air Force of the KPA made a closing speech. Kim Jong Un embarked on the plane, waving back to the enthusiastic cheers of the air commanding officers. He was accompanied by Hwang Pyong So, Pyon In Son, So Hong Chan, Jo Kyong Chol, Yun Tong Hyon, Ri Pyong Chol, Kim Yong Chol, O Kum Chol, Pak Jong Chon, and Jang Tong Un. Among the spectators were Kim Ki Nam, Choe Ryong Hae, Kim Yo Jong and other senior officials of the party central committee and exemplary combat airmen of the Air and Anti-Air Force of the KPA.

DPRK FM SPOKESMAN SLAMS U.S. FOR PULLING UP DPRK

Pyongyang, May 12 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA on Monday accusing U.S. officials of pulling up the DPRK over its residents' criticism of Obama reported by its media: The resentment expressed by individuals of the DPRK at Obama recently was a proper reaction to him who malignantly insulted and slandered the dignified DPRK during his junket to south Korea. Obama termed the DPRK's inevitable steps for self-defence a "provocation" and "threats" and cried out for tougher "sanctions", "pressure" and "not ruling out the use of military force." Not content with this vitriol, he went the lengths of letting loose a spate of such invectives that the DPRK is a "country which makes its people go hungry and takes a lonely path", "isolated state", "abnormal state" and "reckless and irresponsible" government. This is an unpardonable insult to the people of the DPRK who are leading a happy life under the benevolent socialist system and considering independence dearer than their life and their resentment at the U.S. is running high. The U.S. had better stop letting loose rhetoric about the resentment expressed by DPRK residents at Obama and look back on his unspeakable invectives which enraged them so much. The U.S. is trying to cover up the thrice-cursed wrongs committed by Obama and divert elsewhere criticism of him while finding fault with the bitter accusations of Koreans against him, but such a move would get it nowhere.

WE WILL FINALLY SETTLE ACCOUNTS WITH PARK GEUN HYE GROUP: NDC OF DPRK

Pyongyang, May 13 (KCNA) -- The National Defence Commission (NDC) of the DPRK Tuesday released a crucial report in which it declared it would finally settle accounts with the vicious Park Geun Hye group of hooligans. The Park Geun Hye group on Monday let idiot-like spokesman of the puppet Ministry of Defense Kim Min Sok make an official appearance to term the just demand made by the inspection group of the NDC of the DPRK again for clarifying the story about the "north's involvement" in the drone case and making a joint investigation into it a far-fetched assertion that makes a profound confusion of the right and wrong. Kim Min Sok shouted hoarse to dare slander the DPRK as a "country that can hardly be called a country" and "a country bereft of human rights and freedom". He went the lengths of talking such rubbish that "it is a country which should disappear at an early date". The crucial report of the NDC of the DPRK denounced this as an intolerable challenge to the DPRK and the height of confrontation with fellow countrymen in the north. The DPRK has never recognized south Korea as a normal sovereign state as its name the "Republic of Korea" is a copy of the name of the country that existed in the closing period of the Feudal Joson Dynasty which was on the decline being chopped to pieces at the hands of big powers because of its flunkeyism and treachery, the report said, and went on: The puppet forces of south Korea, a colony where they have the prerogative over the army, a basic criteria of a sovereign state, usurped by the U.S. and find themselves in such a poor position in which they have to eat without complaint beef infected with mad cow disease offered by the U.S. and suffer from high fever being caught by a cold if the U.S. makes a cough. Park Geun Hye, who claims to be "president", has to stammer out American English when she is in the U.S. to play the coquette with her American master. Only then can she be regarded as a faithful dog and servant. This is the wretched plight of south Korea. That's why we have long regarded south Korea as a group of puppets and colonial servants who are steeped in dependence on outsiders and treachery to the marrow of their bones. Stressing that the DPRK can never overlook the fact that such guys dared point an accusing finger at the DPRK, the most dignified country in the world, the crucial report continued: It is also pitiful to see the south Korean puppet forces making a false show of power after pinning their hope on their U.S. master's such common war hardware as assault fighters, aircraft carriers and guided missiles. The DPRK doesn't hide that it possesses strike means more powerful than all the latest war hardware noisily advertised by the U.S. It is a resolution already made by the DPRK to force the enemies to pay a dear price whenever an opportunity presents itself. We cannot but take a serious note of such reckless remarks made by Kim as he termed the DPRK "a country which should disappear as early as possible", unaware of such a reality. Such reckless remarks have never been made in the distress-torn history of national division. What the Park group uttered this time cannot be construed otherwise than a total denial of compatriots in the north, an undisguised revelation of its wild ambition to achieve the "unification by absorption" and a declaration of all-out confrontation of the social systems. The baneful consequences to be entailed by these reckless outbursts can be neither retrieved nor put under control. All the service personnel and people of the DPRK and the mindset of all other Koreans are strongly calling for wiping the Park group out of this land as it didn't hesitate to perpetrate thrice-cursed treason. The Park group will have to keenly feel what miserable consequences it will face for its vitriol.

KIM JONG UN VISITS JANUARY 18 GENERAL MACHINERY PLANT AND SETS FORTH TASKS FOR ITS MODERNIZATION

Pyongyang, May 14 (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, visited the January 18 General Machinery Plant and specified tasks and ways for its modernization. He went round the newly-built revolutionary museum. He said that the plant successfully built the interior of the museum and displayed well historic mementoes and relics. "As I always emphasize the key to increased production lies in directing sustained big efforts to the ideological education to give fullest play to the mental power of the workers," he added. He continued: "The January 18 General Machinery Plant is the eldest brother-like plant and a heart-like plant in developing the nation's machine-building industry and the Party attaches great importance to this plant. I came here today to turn the plant into a model one, a pivotal and core one representing the machine plants of our country". Noting that it is the intention of the Party to modernize the plant at the highest level, he gave precious instructions to do so. "The plant should put the production processes on a CNC and unmanned basis in order to boost the production of highly efficient machine products needed by various fields of the national economy and achieve successes in the work for developing new varieties of products," he stressed. He set the goals to be attained by the plant in the near future and promised with loving care to solve all the problems arising in updating it including the provision of all latest equipment needed for it. He gave an instruction to fundamentally face-lift the environment of the plant. He instructed the plant to draw a clear line of distinction between the district for production and that for workers' living and radically face-lift not only all production buildings but cultural and welfare facilities so that what is standing today may be in sharp contrast to those built in the past from the viewpoint and stand of building a new plant from scratch. He called for building not only welfare and service facilities such as Kangsong Health Complex but also hostel, nursery and kindergarten at the highest level. He stressed the need to build well a scientific and technological disseminating room where not only scientists and technicians but workers can acquire wide-ranging science and technology so as to make the flames of the mass technological innovation movement rage at the plant. "It is of particular importance to successfully design and construct structures if the January 18 General Machinery Plant is to be built as a structure of lasting value which will remain impeccable even in the distant future", he said, adding that he would send the plant a prestigious national design group and powerful construction force of the People's Army. He was accompanied by Hwang Pyong So, Ryom Chol Song, Yun Tong Hyon, Hong Yong Chil and Ma Won Chun.

KIM JONG UN INSPECTS KPA AIR AND ANTI-AIR FORCE UNIT 447

Pyongyang, May 14 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, inspected KPA Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 447 honored with the title of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment. After receiving a salute, he shook hands with commanding officers one by one. He said he came to the unit to meet its human bomb-like fighters and airmen who creditably performed their difficult combat flight mission with high awareness to devotedly defend the country. "Whenever I visit the airfield where airmen are active, I feel as if I were entering the yard of my old home," he added. He highly praised the unit, saying the unit which produced 14 human bomb-like fighters is the unit which gave origin to the heroic, self-sacrificing and self-blasting spirit of the brave red hawks of Songun Korea. Watching the monument to field guidance given by the great Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, he looked back with deep emotion on the glorious road covered by the unit. Looking round the plane personally watched by the great Generalissimos, he praised the unit for maintaining with good care the plane and always keeping it fully ready to make sortie and thereby letting it take the lead in flight drills at all times. He dropped in at the flight training room and watched with great attention airmen undergoing training with the help of ground piloting training equipment. It is necessary to intensify training in order to shed less blood in battle, he noted, calling upon airmen to intensify the training so that they may satisfactorily perform combat flight mission including take- off and landing under the worst conditions. He said that airmen should make it part of their life and habit to undergo training with the help of modern piloting training equipment while flying aircraft a lot and thus make the unit intensify the training the way the anti-Japanese guerrillas did in Mt. Paektu. He handed to the unit reference books prepared by him, underlining the importance to manufacture better piloting training equipment in order to conduct the ground training under the simulated conditions of an actual battle. Going round various places including airmen's bedroom, he paid deep attention to the living of airmen. He spared time to watch an art performance given by airmen of the unit and their wives. He said watching the simple performance truthfully representing their life, he could witness the intense loyalty of the airmen and their wives to the party. He congratulated them on their successful performance and had a photo taken with them. He was accompanied by Hwang Pyong So, Ryom Chol Song, Jo Kyong Chol, Yun Tong Hyon, Hong Yong Chil and Ma Won Chun.

KIM JONG UN WATCHES ARCHERY GAME

Pyongyang, May 16 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, watched the archery game between the KPA Defense Sports Team and the Amnokgang Defense Sports Team. The game was held, divided into the men's and women's team events. Archers clearly showed the rapid progress of archery in the DPRK by displaying the Juche-oriented tactics and high technique cultivated in their day-to-day training. Kim Jong Un praised archers whenever arrows hit the bullseye. The archers of the KPA Defense Sports Team won the game. He praised the archers of the KPA Defense Sports Team for being good at archery. It is important for the archers to display mental power to win the world championship in the archery as is the case with other sports events, he said, calling upon them to undergo intensive training with the warm enthusiasm to have the DPRK's flag hoisted in the eyes of world people. He underscored the need to round off the Korean-style archery technique and scientific training method and fully ensure conditions for training. He expressed expectation and belief that archers, coaches, leading officials of the KPA Defense Sports Team and the Amnokgang Defense Sports Team would register signal successes in the international games by further developing the archery. Among the spectators were Hwang Pyong So, Pyon In Son, Pak Yong Sik, Ryom Chol Song, Jo Kyong Chol, Kim Yong Chol, O Kum Chol, Pak Jong Chon and Ma Won Chun.

KIM JONG UN WATCHES MEN'S FOOTBALL MATCH BETWEEN MANGYONGBONG AND SOBAEKSU TEAMS

Pyongyang, May 16 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, watched a men's football match between the Mangyongbong Team and the Sobaeksu Team together with service personnel of the KPA. Those teams which participated in the premier league football matches of the Mangyongdae Prize Sports Games played a good game by displaying the high technique cultivated in their day-to-day training. Watching the match, he praised the players of the People's Army for fully displaying the might of ideological, persevering, speed and technical campaign. The players of both teams made hot attacks to hold the initiative from the start of the match but the first half of the match ended without a score. In the second half the players of the Sobaeksu Team ceaselessly threatened their rival's goal mouth through a combination of agile passes and fast attack, succeeding in gaining two goals through a two and three man-pass and a penalty kick. The Sobaeksu Team beat its rival 2:0. The spectators enthusiastically clapped for the players of the two teams who displayed Korean-style playing tactics, team spirit and played a fair game. When the match was over, Kim Jong Un warmly acknowledged the enthusiastic cheers of the players and spectators and congratulated the footballers on their successful match. He set forth important tasks which would serve as guidelines in rapidly developing the sports of the country, underscoring the need to round off the Korean-style sports technique, tactical system and training methods and thus put the level of football technique on a higher level. Among the spectators were Hwang Pyong So, Pyon In Son, Pak Yong Sik, Ryom Chol Song, Jo Kyong Chol, Kim Yong Chol, O Kum Chol, Pak Jong Chon and Ma Won Chun.

PRINCIPLE OF BRINGING SCHOOLS CLOSER TO STUDENTS

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea enforces compulsory free education, the level of which is highest of its kind in the world. It adheres to the principle of bringing schools closer to students.

PRINCIPLE OF BUILDING SCHOOLS

Wherever there are children at school age, there is a school whether it be a remote mountainous village or a far-flung island. If schoolchildren have to cross a river or a mountain on their way to school, the state builds a school in their village.

This is all attributable to the leadership of President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founding father of socialist Korea, who put forth children as kings and queens of the country and spared nothing for them.

After the liberation of Korea on August 15, 1945 from the military occupation of Japan (1905-1945) Kim Il Sung regarded education as a pivotal problem that has a bearing on the destiny of the country and paid close attention to it. A good example is the discussion of the issue of pencil production as an item of the first agenda at the First Session of the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea held on February 20, 1946.

Immediately after liberation he was asked by an educational official at a meeting of educationists whether a school should be built for 10 or 20 students in a place like a village of slash-and-burn farmers or a tree-feller’s village. At that time there were many such villages in Korea as an aftermath of the colonial rule by Japanese imperialism.

Kim Il Sung answered; in the past students went to a school and asked for entry, but today we should establish the principle of going to students, building school wherever they are and teaching them. During his field guidance at Yangdok County, South Phyongan Province, a mountainous area in the central part of the DPRK, in September 1947, he learned that pupils were going to school situated far away and took a measure for building a branch school for them.

Since then, a new history of building branch schools has started in the DPRK.

SCHOOLS FOR A FEW STUDENTS

All the children at school age enjoy the benefit of 12-year compulsory education in the DPRK, which has been enforcing universal compulsory free education for over half a century. A well-planned network of education covering even remote mountainous villages and solitary lighthouse islands is a sure guarantee for this.

The DPRK has more than one thousand branch schools. Those for less than 10 students number over one hundred, and more than 500 for less than 20 students each.

In the last decade many of them have been built.

In the depth of mountains of Ryanggang Province on the northern tip of the country such schools have been built according to the instructions given by Chairman Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) during his on-site guidance at the construction site of the Samsu Power Station. In Taehongdan County, which is called the “highest village under the sky,” there are branch schools in every branch farm. There are over ten such schools in Kim Hyong Gwon, Pungso, Unhung and Samsu counties, respectively; the number of them for less than 20 students amounts to over 80.

A few years ago 10 students living in Kom Island, a solitary island in Unryul County on the west coast, entered the Komsom Branch School under the Kumsan Primary School.

There is a branch school for one student in Suun Island in Sinuiju in the northern border area.

True to the educational policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea many educationists volunteer to go to such branch schools.

Last year 23-year-old Jo Pom Hyang, who graduated from the math faculty of Kim Hyong Jik University of Education, volunteered to teach at the branch school on an island off the west coast. Particularly interested in music, the girl had learned how to play the piano and accordion at the music group of the Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace, a famous base of extracurricula education in the country, from her primary school days. She was also gifted in literature, so she could compose both lyrics and music. Proficient in basic subjects, she had been enrolled at the Computer School under the Pyongyang University of Computer Technology, and afterwards entered Kim Hyong Jik University of Education. Then she volunteered to the school in the remote island far from the capital city where her parents are still living.

Bright and promising is the future of socialist Korea, which attaches importance to education.

KIM JONG UN LOOKS ROUND TAESONGSAN GENERAL HOSPITAL

Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA) Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, together with Ri Sol Ju went round the Taesongsan General Hospital. Going round different places including Roentgen, ultrasonic wave, pathological anatomy and skin departments and intensive treatment room, he learned in detail about the treatment and management of the hospital. The Taesongsan General Hospital built on the personal initiative of leader Kim Jong Il is a comprehensive center for treating service personnel, he said, calling it not to rest content with its building but improve treatment and its management and operation so that Kim Jong Il's loving care might reach the service personnel. After being told that there was a very high appreciation among those who were treated in the hospital, he instructed it to take the lead in carrying out the Party's health care policy as it is one of the leading hospitals in the DPRK. He stressed that the Party would solve all the issues arising in consolidating the material and technological foundation and treating patients. "Medical workers of the hospital should steadily increase their technique and skill and take good care of medical equipment and apparatuses like the apples of their eyes", he said. Looking round the park built by the hospital, he noted with satisfaction that many trees and walkways add to the appearance of the hospital. He also dropped in at the sickrooms. He kindly took the hands of service personnel who had been wounded while undergoing combat training and looked at their wounds. He asked about how they were treated and feeling now. He was told that there were good successes in the treatment thanks to the mental power of the service personnel who overcame pain, regarding the treatment as a battle and they were leading an optimistic life at the hospital. He said that the KPA service personnel are not afraid of risking their lives for the sake of the country and people and unflagging tenacity and optimism are disposition inherent to the KPA, adding that this is what the enemies fear. He met children of baby home and orphanage under recuperation at the hospital. After learning about the work at the baby homes and orphanages across the country in February last, he was told that there were physically weak children at the baby home and orphanage in South Phyongan Province. He gave an instruction to the KPA to bring them to the Taesongsan General Hospital and take care of their health there. When he entered the sickrooms for the children of the orphanage, they rushed to his arms, each asking "How are you Marshal?" and "Let me come to your arms." He held the children in his arms and was very pleased that they all looked well, healthy and plump. When he kindly asked them how old they were, if they had good meals and what they were playing, they lively answered that they saw him on TV. They sang the song "We are the happiest in the world" full of vigor and said "Thank You, Father Marshal". His eyes shone with tears when he lulled them clinging to his sleeves, reluctant to part with him. He also dropped in at the sickrooms for the children of the baby home. The babies toddled towards him, lisping "papa!", and he took them to his arms one by one. He stroked the cheeks of the babies whom the nursery school teachers and nurses of the hospital held in their arms and said: "I was not happy to see the photos of the children before they were sent to hospital, but now I feel relieved to see them healthy." Observing the weight diagram of the children, he noted that the condition of the children reached a normal state to be fit for their ages and their health remarkably improved for three months. He asked them to take better care of them, paying deep attention to them. He said: "In order to let them maintain their present condition and grow in good health even after they have left the hospital, it is necessary for the nursery school and kindergarten teachers to pay deep attention to their nutrition. There should not be a single weak child under the care of the Party". He noted that he was very pleased to see the healthy children and highly praised the officials, surgeons and nurses of the hospital for having shown all sincerity for recuperating the children as their real parents did. He once again said he was pleased to visit the hospital, expressing his expectation and conviction that the officials, surgeons and nurses of the hospital would achieve bigger successes in treatment, management and operation of the hospital. He was accompanied by Vice Marshal of the KPA Hwang Pyong So, director of the General Political Bureau of the KPA, and Lieut. General Ma Won Chun, director of the Designing Department of the National Defence Commission.