It was one day in spring Juche 68 (1979).
President Kim Il Sung said to an official concerned that a statue of Zhou Enlai, the former Premier of the People’s Republic of China, should be built in the DPRK.
He said to the officials: In 1958 Zhou Enlai visited Hamhung and made a speech to the workers at the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory; it would be a good idea to erect his statue there; the statue should depict him making the speech.
The statue of Zhou Enlai and a monument were erected in late May that year.
Kim Il Sung went to Hamhung accompanied by Deng Yingchao, the widow of Zhou, and attended the unveiling of the statue and the monument.
Deng Yingchao was moved to see her husband’s statue erected in an industrial city in the country neighbouring hers.
In the summer of that year a Chinese delegation visited the DPRK. In a conversation with Kim Il Sung, the head of the delegation said that the Chinese people were very moved by the fact that a statue of Zhou Enlai had been erected in the DPRK.
Kim Il Sung said: “In the light of Comrade Zhou Enlai’s achievements and his contribution to the friendship and unity between the peoples of Korea and China, it’s natural for us to erect a statue of him. I always remember him.”
