Anecdote

Peach and Mango

A delegation of the Guinean United Progressive Party visited Pyongyang in May 1993 to learn about Korea’s experience in party building.

On May 18, Kim Il Sung met the delegation.

During talks the head of the delegation asked Kim Il Sung:

“These days the West is trying to force a multiparty system on us. How have you built the Workers’ Party of Korea? What is the ideal way to build a ruling party?”

Kim Il Sung looked around the room, and picked up a peach from the table.

Then he answered, “A party should be built like a peach.”

“Like a peach?” The guests looked at the peach.

Pointing at the peach in his hand, Kim Il Sung said: Success can be achieved in the revolution and construction only when the single-hearted unity of the leader, the party and the masses is achieved; compared with this peach, the masses are flesh, the party is the stone, and the leader is the core in the stone.

Impressed by this remarkable comparison, the head of the delegation said: “I understand, Mr. President.”

He picked up a peach, and nodded over and over again in meditation.

Kim Il Sung, guessing that his guest was thinking about the mango, an African fruit which resembles a peach but no core in the stone, said: “But the unity should not be devoid of its core, like an African mango.”

Realizing that Kim Il Sung had read his mind, the Guinean guest was so surprised that he rose to his feet. Still holding the peach in his hand, he said to himself: “The Korean peach with its core and the African mango without its core...”

Through this persuasive comparison of a few words, he came to realize the profound essence of the theory of party building.

Delighted, the said: “Your theory of party building is an original and great one which all the parties of the world should learn.

After I return home, I will build my party like the Korean peach.