On March 30 1993, when the situation in the country was still tense after he proclaimed a state of semi-war, Chairman Kim Jong Il visited the renovated Songdowon International Children’s Camp.
Looking at the camp, which had been completely transformed, he was satisfied with its excellent location and layout.
Not to Spoil Children’s Pleasure
Kim Jong Il was guided to a new building. He looked carefully at the furniture, floor, ceiling and interior of the lavatory, and praised that the rooms were as good as those of a hotel, and the beds and other furniture were excellent, as well as the lavatory.
At the corridor connecting the building to the mess hall he looked out of the window. He noticed something near a dense pine forest and asked officials what it was.
One of them answered that it was a military facility.
It had been built in anticipation of a showdown with the enemy in the late 1960s when the Pueblo incident orchestrated by the US imperialists precipitated a hair-trigger situation in the country.
Until then many officials had been to the camp but there was nobody who had paid attention to the facility. Some of them even presumed that such a military facility should be there because the situation in the country remained acute.
However, the Chairman immediately ordered that the facility be removed, stressing that it should not have been built in the compound of the children’s camp.
He was worried that it might spoil the pleasure of the children who were enjoying themselves at the camp.
