Anecdote

The Instinct of Bees and the Fundamental Principle of Party Building

The following happened when President Kim Il Sung was having talks with a delegation of a political party of a country.

The head of the delegation said: “We are making proactive efforts to learn from the experience of the Workers’ Party of Korea. I would be grateful if you could teach us the most important task in successfully carrying out the revolution and construction.”

Kim Il Sung answered: “It is important, above all else, to build up the Party in order to carry out the revolution and construction successfully.”

He continued that only then was it possible to rally the masses of the people around the party and achieve success in the struggle for realizing their independence.

The head of the delegation said he understood, and added that he had another question to ask.

“Please,” said Kim Il Sung.

“What should we do to build up our party?” asked the foreign guest.

Kim Il Sung repeated this question to himself, picking up a pencil and tapping it lightly on the table. After a while, he asked the foreign guest: “Do you know how bees live?”

“What do you mean?” asked the latter.

With a meaningful smile on his face, Kim Il Sung resumed: Bees are united around the queen bee. Of course, this mode of existence is a natural phenomenon based on their instinct, but it may provide an answer to the question of how to build up a party.

He went on: “Just as bees live in an orderly fashion united around the queen bee, there must be a center and discipline within a collective.”

He said that what was essential in building up a party was to unite all its members firmly around the leader, concluding that a party, which achieved the unity of all its members in ideology and will with the leader at the center, would be ever-victorious.

The head of the delegation smiled brightly. Resolved to do as Kim Il Sung had explained, he said: “You explained the fundamental principle of party building with a simple comparison. Your explanation is profound and yet straightforward. Only a great person, who sees through the universe, could do this.”