One spring day in 1951 when the Fatherland Liberation War was at its height the guards at the Supreme Headquarters gathered as instructed by Supreme Commander Kim Il Sung. They expected that an urgent order would be given to them. But Kim Il Sung came up to them with a beaming smile, and proposed cultivating a vegetable garden.
His appeal struck them with surprise. In those days the soldiers of the Korean People’s Army were waging do-or-die battles to defend every inch of their motherland at the cost of their blood. Worse still, the enemy was making unscrupulous attempts to wipe out the Supreme Headquarters. Given the situation, the guards were performing their duties with a higher degree of vigilance.
Setting his eyes on the guards, Kim Il Sung told an official to share out the field. It was allotted even to Kim Il Sung. Each of the guards expressed his readiness to tend the share for Kim Il Sung. But the Supreme Commander told them that he would see who would better reclaim the land and cultivate vegetables. And then he worked hard with dexterity leaving others behind while giving a helping hand to stragglers.
This gave rise to a vegetable field near the Supreme Headquarters.
The guards strove to cultivate vegetables at their leisure, but they could not do it as well as Kim Il Sung, for the latter set it part of his daily routine to tend his share at early hours and carried it out without fail.
He explained them how to grow vegetables in detail and incited their emulation.
