Supreme Leader
Beginning to go around the factory he said that he was there at the factory for the first leg of his on-the-spot guidance of the year and that it meant that his march of that year started with the work for the children.
Approaching the wall of the corridor in front of the sample display room the Supreme Leader happened to see a photo of himself examining a bag for primary school girls in the sample display room of the Pyongyang Kim Jong Suk Textile Mill one day.
On the occasion he had tried a bag with the shoulder straps of which were as thin as the one of the automatic rifle, and asked to put sponge into the straps because thin straps might cause troubles on the shoulder if children carried a lot of books in the bag.
After a while of silent scrutiny of the photo—he seemed to be recollecting the day with emotions—he said: I see you have put sponge even into the lower part of the straps, in addition to the shoulder part. I am afraid this is not good. The stuffed straps would make it inconvenient for the children with small hands to hold them, and, worse still, it would cause the waste of valuable material.
The strap is usually an insignificant part of a bag.
Yet the Supreme Leader was urging to put motherly care and sincerity even into the tiny part. Looking up at him the general manager of the factory remembered what the Leader had asked her earnestly in a resonant voice on his arrival at the factory:
You as the general manager have an important task. An old saying goes that it takes thousands-of-days’ work to raise a child. You know we have millions of children, which means our Party is blessed with children. Even if it would take millions-of-days’ work to raise all our children I would not take it a trouble but a thing of happiness. Therefore, you should always keep the sense of responsibility as the general manager of the factory associated with motherly care, which is under the Party’s close concern. And you should ensure high quality even for a single school bag regarding it as the one for your own children and implanting the affection of mothers of our country.
Hearing him the general manager could picture vividly in her mind’s eyes the happy children going to school with backpacks which are full of motherly affection.