APRIL 15, birthday of Kim Il Sung, the eternal President of the Democratic People`s of Korea, is the Day of the Sun which is celebrated with splendour by the Korean and other progressive peoples across the world every year.
President Kim Il Sung is held in high esteem as the eternal sun.
His name literally means the sun in Korean.
True to the meaning of his name and the properties of the sun, the President illuminated the future of mankind as brightly as the sun, brought the flower of love for human being into full bloom with warm love and embraced all the people with great attracting power.
He shed light on the way ahead for mankind by authoring the great Juche idea. The Juche idea, which explains that man is the master of everything and has the power to shape his own destiny, means in other words that the masses of the people are the masters of the revolution and construction and also the motive force of the revolution and construction.
This is the first scientific idea in the history of human thoughts in that it illumines the road for the masses of the people to follow in accomplishing the cause of independence.
The creation of the Juche idea opened up an ear of independence in which the working masses, who in the past had been subjected to exploitation and oppression, have emerged as masters of history.
Upholding the banner of Juche idea, Kim Il Sung liberated Korea from the Japanese military occupation and established a people-oriented democratic state, the first of its kind in the East.
He inflicted an ignominious defeat upon US imperialism, which had been boasting of being the “strongest”in the world, for the first time in history and brought about the beginning of its downhill turn. He also developed Korea into a powerful socialist country, independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant in defence.
The Juche idea gripped everybody`s heart with its vitality, and the cause of independence has become a worldwide trend of the times that cannot be checked. The number of studying groups and advocates of the Juche idea is growing, and the progressive mankind is looking at their future from the perspective of this idea.
President Kim Il Sung embraced people with warm love. Regarding “People are my God” as his lifelong motto, he dedicated his all for people. Thanks to his love for them, such people-oriented policies as free medical care and education and abolition of tax system are enforced in the DPRK, and the whole society has become a great flower garden of virtue in which everybody helps and leads one another.
He also bestowed his love on foreigners.
His noble personality and warm love moved many people over the world.
When the director of the Guinean Broadcasting Station, on his visit to the DPRK, was in a critical condition, the President took measures to give immediate medical treatment to resuscitate him.
He also saw to it a competent medical team of DPRK were sent to treat Bruno Kreisky, former Chancellor of Austria, who was suffering from weak legs in his later years, and helped him walk again. Such legendary tales about his human love are numerous. That way why Francisco da Coasta Gomes, former Portuguese President, expressed his admiration that President Kim Il Sung was a great man who moved the world with his benevolence.
The great magnanimity of President Kim Il Sung enchanted all the people of the world. In his lifetime he met over 70 000 foreigners including prominent figures in the political, public and press circles,. And whoever met him, be he or she head of state or famous figure in the West and East of the world, was greatly fascinated by his noble personality. Among them were Joseph Stalin of the former Soviet Union, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai of China, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Sukarno of Indonesia, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Shin Kanemaru of Japan, Luise Rinser of Germany and Francois Mitterrand of France. Jimmy Carter, former president of United States, said that President Kim Il Sung was greater than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, the most illustrious early US presidents, put together.
Endowed with broad magnanimity and lofty sense of international obligation, he rendered unstinted material and spiritual assistance to the peoples in Africa and other parts of the world in their struggle for national liberation, anti-imperialism and nation building.
Though Kim Il Sung passed away, his idea and cause shine forever as the sun is eternal.
The Korean people revere as their eternal leader President Kim Il Sung who is preserved in his lifetime appearance at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
Even after his demise many heads of state, personages from all walks of life and international organizations have presented him with orders, medals, honorary titles and gifts, while colourful celebrations such as Kimilsungia Festival and April Spring Friendship Art Festival are held with grandeur to mark the Day of the Sun.
President Kim Il Sung is always in the heart of mankind as their eternal sun. ***
Senator Dr. Ibrahim Nasiru Mantu (CFR)
Deputy President of the Senate(2001-2007)
Member of Board of Trustee, People's Democratic Party
Chairman Nigeria D.P.R Korea Friendship Association