One spring day in 1985, a young official attending President Kim Il Sung came back from a tour of the revolutionary battlesites in the Mt. Paektu area.
Greeting him, the President asked him what his impressions had been, and the official replied candidly.
The President asked him if he had also gone to Taehongdan.
“Yes,” answered the official. “Pink azaleas were in full bloom in the wide plains. I felt as if I were a soldier of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army that had marched into the homeland under your command during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.”
“So you went to Taehongdan,” said the President. Then he asked him if he had visited the grave of a fighter there.
The official was dumbfounded. He had never heard of such a grave.
Kim Il Sung expressed his regret that he had forgotten to tell him to lay a bouquet of flowers at the grave of fighter Kim Se Ok there. Referring to Kim Se Ok, the President said that he was taciturn normally, but as brave as a tiger in battle. Regrettably, the fighter did not live to see national liberation.
At lunch and dinner, Kim Il Sung again broached the subject in a tone of regret.
