Spending New Year’s Day with Students of Revolutionary School

On New Year’s Day in Juche 86 (1997), Chairman Kim Jong Il visited Mangyongdae Revolutionary School.

A student put a red tie around the neck of the Chairman, whose clothes were wet by sleet, and flung himself into his arms, calling him “Father!”

The Chairman asked him how old he was.

The boy replied in a lively voice that he was 12.

After patting him on the back, the Chairman looked round a classroom, bedroom, mess hall and other places of the school.

In the mess hall, he asked about the lunch menu. In the bedroom he sat on a bed and asked officials to install double-decker beds so that students can frolic and play amusement games in the wide area of the room.

While watching the performance given by the students, he repeatedly wiped his eyes with his handkerchief.

When the performance was over, the students on the stage rushed to his embrace and asked him to have a photo taken with them.

Asking how they could have a photo taken in that cold weather, he told the accompanying officials that it would be advisable to do it later on a warm day.

When a senior official of the school spoke of the earnest desire of students, he complied with the request, and hurried to the photo session venue, worrying that the children might take a cold.

On January 2 the following year, the Chairman visited the revolutionary school again.