It happened one October day in Juche 78 (1989).
Leader Kim Jong Il called officials over the conduct of some officials on the day.
That day, President Kim Il Sung was very satisfied as he looked around a new monumental structure of the times built under the meticulous guidance of Kim Jong Il. After cutting a ribbon, he had a photo taken with the builders, highly appreciating their feats. At the front row of the participants stood the officials who had worked day and night for a long time together with the builders to push ahead with the project.
When he came to know that, Kim Jong Il regrettably said: The officials who had photo taken today behaved improperly. Officials should have got the workers, technicians and scientists, who had worked harder than anyone else in the construction project, to stand in the front row near the President in such a photo session like today and they themselves should have stood in the back row. It would have just been the proper etiquette.
The concession is one of the virtues of humans and our officials ought to observe such morality, he continued to say. The conduct of those officials today is as good as an instance of the host of a party eating the biggest rice cake first and such impolite behaviour can be found nowhere else, he rebuked sharply.
Looking at the officials who were deeply ashamed, he said that as man has to learn and cultivate his mind all his life, education should be given continuously. Noting that a genuine man is the one who gives others honour and takes pain himself, he hoped that all the officials would become such a man.
