March 16 this year marks the 103rd anniversary of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung ’s 250-mile journey for learning. In his early teens he embarked on the journey.
Firm Resolve
It happened one day early in 1923 when he was studying at a primary school in Badaogou, a village in Northeast China bordering Ryanggang Province in the northern part of Korea. The Amnok River flows between the two border areas.
His father Kim Hyong Jik, an outstanding leader of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement in Korea, asked him to go over to Korea and continue to study there. He said: A man born in Korea must have a good knowledge of Korea; if you get to understand clearly back to Korea why it has been ruined, that will be a great achievement; share the fate of the people in your home town and experience how miserable they are; then you will see what you should do.
True to his father’s instruction, he made up his mind to go back to Korea and crossed the Amnok River on March 16 into his homeland.
Witnessing Reality at Home
During his journey, he, suffering from sore feet, was once picked up by a peasant’s ox-drawn sleigh. When parting, he offered him some money, but the latter bought some toffee for him with the money.
The Korean people were living in poverty oppressed by the Japanese imperialists, landlords and capitalists, but they were rather caring about others and helping each other. Witnessing such images, he realized that they were truly kind-hearted, honest and morally upright.
While travelling hundreds of miles across the Amnok River to his home village Mangyongdae, he saw numerous vagrants wandering about, innocent people being bound with a rope and taken by Japanese police, workers toiling long hours, and locals living at ramshackle huts or shabby houses.
Finally, he arrived at Mangyongdae on March 29.
He wrote in his reminiscences With the Century as follows:
“The profound meaning of what my father had said to me on my departure about learning about Korea came home to me. As I remembered his instructions, I closely studied my unfortunate homeland. The 250-mile journey was, for me, a journey of learning about my homeland and my fellow countrymen.”
Pak Jong Hyok
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