We Have Never Spared Money for the Children

On February 24, Juche 69 (1980) Chairman Kim Jong Il visited the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital which was nearing completion. 

Looking round the hospital, he said with satisfaction that it had been built wonderfully. 

The hospital was equipped with modern machines, and there was a story about it. 

When drawing up its design, the relevant officials thought that they were bold enough to have planned to build a hospital of 500 beds, and thought it could be counted among distinguished hospitals of its kind in the world. At that time a maternity hospital of a big country in Europe, which claimed to be large, had 450 beds. This being the situation, it was a courageous decision for them to have envisaged furnishing the hospital with 500 beds. 

However, Kim Jong Il told the officials that 1 500 beds should be needed at least, 1 000 for adults and 500 for babies. 

An official told him that if the number of beds was to be increased, a relevant number of incubators had to be imported more, and that the numbers of beds envisaged would be enough to fully nurture the prematurely-borne and immature babies who would be delivered at this hospital.   

Kim Jong Il dug in his heels, saying: We should have more incubators imported. We have not yet spared money for the children. It would not be late to calculate the total sum of money disbursed for the project after having furnished it with all the necessary equipment. 

Thanks to his warm care, the hospital was equipped with ultra-modern medical appliances numbering thousands of pieces including incubators.