In late August this year the TV channels of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea showed Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, entering a flooded paddy field during his inspection of the reclaimed Ansok tideland on the western coast, which had been afflicted by a natural disaster. It is true that heads of state had been broadcast on TV inspecting disaster-stricken areas in their respective countries, but none of them had entered submerged paddy fields.
Looking back, it was not the first time when the TV viewers around the world saw him devoting painstaking efforts for the prosperity of his country and the happiness of his people.
In summer 2018 Kim Jong Un gave on-site guidance at numerous units, travelling from the west to the east of the country. In doing this, he never minded steaming heat and the time of day. What particularly impressed the viewers was his inspection of the Onchon area in Yangdok County, South Phyongan Province, on a rainy day in August 2018. That day he walked round various places of the area, sometimes dipping his hand into the spring water as hot as 80℃ and inquiring after the amount of the daily gush, and unfolded a plan for developing the area as a modern hot spring resort for the people.
One day years ago, though he was not feeling well, he visited the construction site of the Pyongyang Baby Home and Orphanage so as to provide orphans with excellent new homes.
One day when he visited a hospital under construction, he walked up the staircase without rails, and the other day when he visited a high-rise apartment house in a newly-built street he climbed to the top floor and inquired into details of how it had been constructed.
When the malignant virus entered the territory of the country in May 2022, he led the anti-epidemic campaign for defending the lives of the people at the vanguard, even inspecting pharmacies in the capital city at the risk of his personal safety.
After the Korean Central TV broadcast his on-site guidance, the viewers of the world would see the places visited by him spruced up as wonderful entities soon after.
During the period of the highest anti-epidemic emergency level in 2022, the country created a miracle of curbing the spread of the virus in a little over 90 days under his leadership.
However, the restoration of the reclaimed Ansok tideland is not a new project nor an undertaking that required an all-out effort of the nation. Although the country had suffered natural disaster this year, the area of flooded paddy field was so small when compared to its total arable land. He could have taken measures for its rehabilitation without going to the site. But he not only personally inspected the site, but also entered the flooded field to get first-hand information on the state of the rice plants.
Why then did he attach so much importance to such a small patch of flooded field and every single rice plant? It is necessary to recollect what he had said during his visit to Ogye-ri, Anbyon County, Kangwon Province, hit by heavy rains and a typhoon a few days before he inspected the damaged tideland. Noting that the Korean People’s Army soldiers had been mobilized to the rehabilitation work in the afflicted area, he said: It is not because the 200 hectares of flooded farmland is a large area. We have decided to assign such an honourable task of restoring the land to the KPA as we cannot lose even an inch of farmland to the natural rampage on the agricultural front directly related with the people’s living like we cannot yield even an inch of land to the enemy in a battle.
That day he mobilized airplanes of the Korean People’s Army to spray pesticides and commanded their operation.
As he regarded every inch of farmland and every single plant as a priceless asset for the happiness of the people, he never hesitated to go into a flooded field and grieved so much, running his fingers over submerged rice plants.
All this gives an answer to many questions: Why do the Korean people call Kim Jong Un their benevolent father who devotes his all to them regarding them as his God? Why do the Korean people follow him with all their hearts and entrust even their destiny entirely to him? How has the single-hearted unity of the country envied by the world been formed and cemented? And what is the source of the unfathomable strength that enables the DPRK unyieldingly to advance towards a powerful socialist country overcoming all manner of trials and ordeals?
