President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), an outstanding leader in the 20th century, met more than 70 000 foreigners for nearly half a century, leaving many anecdotes about him.
Father Party and Son Party
In June 1975 Kim Il Sung visited Yugoslavia at the invitation of the then president Tito. While talking with his Korean counterpart, he expressed admiration over the fact that the DPRK was building socialism in its own way and frankly said that he was in trouble over such-and-such pressure and slander.
Reading his mind, Kim Il Sung said that if a person adopts flunkeyism he becomes an idiot; if a nation takes to flunkeyism the country is ruined; if a party follows flunkeyism it spoils the revolution and construction. He continued to explain that his country had strictly maintained the principle of independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence, adding that there can be neither senior party nor junior party and neither father party nor son party in the world.
At this, Tito who was looking at Kim Il Sung in wide-eyed amazement nodded in agreement while repeating the phrase father party and son party. He was deeply impressed by the Korean leader’s persuasive explanation of the independent position of fraternal parties.
Peach on Table
In May 1993 Kim Il Sung met a party delegation from an African country on a visit to the DPRK.
The members of the delegation asked him to give an account of the experience of the Workers’ Party of Korea that had demonstrated its invincible might with experienced and seasoned leadership for nearly half a century.
Kim Il Sung looked round for a while before he said, holding a peach on the table: A party should be thoroughly built to be like a peach. In order to carry out the revolution and construction successfully, it is necessary to achieve the single-hearted unity of the party and the masses of the people around their leader. Figuratively speaking with a peach as an example, its flesh can be likened to the masses of the people, the seed to the party and the kernel to their leader. Unity without its core should not be like a mango without the seed.
The brief persuasive statement of Kim Il Sung brought a truth home to the head of the delegation who said that he would, back home, build his party just like a peach of Korea.
