A Memory-Evoking Photo

In his memoirs “With the Century”, President Kim Il Sung wrote as follows:

“I have many sleepless nights, not only when I have many things to do, but also when the images of the martyrs, who left no keepsakes or photos behind, pass through my mind.

“Probably for this reason I do not slight photography as I grow old. When I visit a factory or a rural village, I pose for a photo with working people and women. When I call on an army unit, I have a picture taken with the People’s Army soldiers. One year, when I dropped in at Yonphung Senior Middle School, I took photos of the students for some time.”

Yonphung Senior Middle School is in Yonphung-ri, some distance northeast of the seat of the city of Anju, South Phyongan Province.

In Juche 66 (1977), the government supplied school uniforms and things to all kindergarteners and students across the country free of charge. On April 12 that year, Kim Il Sung dropped in at this school and spent several hours, taking photos of the students in their new school uniforms.

Before the photo session, he worried about the appearances of ordinary students of the school in a mountainous area, who would look small in a group photo. He said that they would look small in a group photo, adding that he would take photos of the girls, boys and teachers individually.

While taking their photos, he would take yarn waste off their uniforms, of which even the school teachers and parents of students had been careless, and learned about if sweaters were made to fit the students well. And when he saw a student wearing a cap without a badge, he gave instructions that badges should be made in large numbers to make students put them again on their caps when they lost them.

Seeing the teachers and students before the camera, he said that photos could not come out well in shadow, correcting their postures. And when they were out of focus, he stood up from the chair to bring them in focus. Looking around boys wearing uniforms made of dark blue polyester fibre with new leather shoes, he gave a hearty smile, noting that all of them looked gentler than him.

Seeing the students in new uniforms, he told his accompanying officials: I’ve had a few happy days in my 60-year-long life; this is the first time I feel so happy; this is also the first time I feel so satisfied.

Still today, looking at the photo of Kim Il Sung taking the photos of students in their new uniforms, the teachers and students of the school recollect with deep emotion the heart-touching story of the day.