Bridge for Children

In Chogyo-ri, Unchon County, at the foot of Mt. Kuwol there is a hamlet called Kusokmol. Usually such a mountain village has a small stone or wooden bridge. But a strong, wide concrete bridge spans the Sujong Stream in the village. The bridge is as beautiful as a rainbow, and the villagers named it Bridge of Love. This bridge is associated with the following story.

One morning in late December 1973 when the snow was falling in large flakes, children of the village were going to school as usual. When they reached the aforesaid stream after crossing the Jinju Pass, they saw some cars coming which were rarely seen in the mountain area. They soon crossed the stream by the stepping-stones and stepped aside from the road. The cars ran up to them before they knew.

The great leader Kim Jong Il got out of a car and asked the children where they were going casting an affectionate glance at them. Hearing that they were going to school, Kim Jong Il continued to ask which school they were attending and what grade they were in. They replied that they were third-graders of the primary course of the then Chogyo Senior Middle School. Now the leader asked, “So you have to cross the stepping-stones to go to school every day, don’t you?” They answered yes. He fell into a thought for a while. Then, looking at them with anxiety, he asked them how they crossed the stream when it rose in summer. Their parents and seniors at the middle course carried them on their backs across the stream, they replied. “On their backs?” he wondered. For a good while, he looked at the pass they crossed and the stream running in twists and loops.

Later that day the leader said that it must be quite inconvenient for the little children to cross the stream by the stepping-stones to go to school, and he proposed building a bridge for them. One of the officials accompanying him told him that there were only 11 children who crossed the stream to go to school. The leader insisted that they should build a bridge there even for one or two children. “How could we take into account children, treasure of our country, only by number? Let’s take an immediate measure to build a wide and nice bridge for the children,” he said.

This is how the bridge was built across the stream for the 11 children. The bridge made it possible for the children to go to school, singing songs of joy and happiness, without being affected by the rushing water from the 99 curves of Mt. Kuwol in the rainy season and the snowdrift formed overnight on the stream by the West Sea wind in winter notorious for its violence.