On August 31, 2000, General Kim Jong Il visited the Songgan Forestry Station in a remote mountainous region.
Going all the way round the workers’ village, power station, bathhouse and funfair, he rejoiced at the picturesque scenery.
Hearing of his visit belatedly, the villagers rushed in an avalanche to see him.
An old worker elbowed his way through the crowd towards where his car was. Having run on a slippery road in the rainy season of the year, the car was splashed with mud.
Tears rolling down his cheeks, the old man wiped away the dirt with his sleeves.
An official in Kim Jong Il’s company tried to hold him back, saying that his coat got dirty and the car had a long distance to cover.
The worker protested, “We workers cannot bear to see the General’s car spattered with mud. I myself don’t mind my coat stained with it. As we all know, he has defended our motherland by dint of his Songun-based leadership and is now making painstaking efforts over rugged mountains to pave the way for the prosperity of our people. It is a unanimous desire of our workers to lay a silk carpet on the roads to be traversed by the General.”
He even scratched the mud off the car wheels and then disappeared quietly into the crowd.
That evening, listening to the official’s story, Kim Jong Il was moved to tears.
He said, “I am very grateful to the worker. It would be hard to find such a good people as ours in the world.”
He stressed that he was greatly remorseful to see the people who were supporting him with all sincerity as he was not providing them with everything necessary, adding that the officials, together with him, should make redoubled efforts to build a paradise for them as soon as possible.
