A Baby Named Un Dok

One September day in Juche 50 (1961), President Kim Il Sung visited a hotel where the delegates to the historic Fourth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea were staying. While having a talk with a woman delegate, he asked her how many were there in her family. 

But she hesitated to reply. 

An accompanying official said for her that she lived only with her husband.

The President asked her again how old she was.

As she said 29 in a thin voice, the President repeated her age. Then, he asked her what her husband was and how much was his wage before carefully looking at her face.

She said she was in good health, adding that she had a poor sleep for a few days to finish her work before leaving for Pyongyang to attend the meeting.

With an anxious expression, he wondered why she had no child for her age, saying that her face showed signs of sickness.

She was quite at a loss what to do as she felt so sorry for making him worried about her personal life.

The President continued to ask her what her husband had said about her failure at childbearing.

Instantly this moved her to tears. She couldn’t hold back her tears by his parental care, as she had always been gripped by mental agony.

Her husband had so far said nothing about that matter. So, she would feel sorry for him. But as the President was sympathizing with her, she felt he was just like her own father.

The President told the sobbing woman that she must be sick although she denied it, and urged her to receive medical treatment to give birth to a child and work harder in good health.

Afterwards, she recovered her health after taking medicines sent by the President and gave birth to a baby. She named it Un Dok (benevolence).