Anywhere in Our Country

One October day, 1999, Chairman Kim Jong Il was on his way to Pyongyang after the field guidance at a unit of the Korean People’s Army. At the foot of Tongjom Pass he took a break together with the accompanying officials.

Then a group of people appeared on a ridgeway: an old man with an oxcart of firewood, women carrying knapsacks and baskets full of wild fruits on their backs and heads and laughing children.

They could not notice that the Chairman was watching their appearances.

After quite a while the Chairman quietly said:

They are true figures of our people who continue Arduous March. Look at those people carefully. They show no sign of fatigue. They are full of vigor.

Wearing a broad smile on his face, he said that he, through their figures, felt as if he saw the people who kept in deep minds the Party’s slogan "Let Us Live Not Merely for Today But for Tomorrow!" and the indomitable persons, those strong in confidence who only trusted in our Party in the teeth of the ordeals.

The Chairman looked around the officials fallen into deep thought and said that he made a firm pledge to make more efforts for our people and we should make our people the happiest ones in the world.

After a while he said that we should cover the road to the end however difficult it is and he would go over all mountains and hills on this land for our people.

Before leaving the Chairman looked back the place he rested for a while and said: It is a place we stayed for a short break during the Arduous March. Nay, it is a place we got strength through the figure of people passing the ridge full of confidence.

And he got in the car and continued his way.

Indeed, the rest place at the foot of Tongjom Pass is not a simple rest place but a historic place which shows the Chairman’s noble will to devote himself to the country and people.

Rodong Sinmun