Unfathomable Comradely Love
Comrade Ri O Song, an anti-Japanese fighter, was from the boys’ company organized and led personally by President
Ri, who was learning the truth of life and struggle close to the President in the flames of anti-Japanese revolution, was entrusted with an important communications task one day.
The President called Ri to personally give the task and taught him in detail how to get to his destination and come back.
However, Ri, thinking the destination was not so far away and he had been there once before, took his own route and got lost.
He was at a loss what to do, which resulted in his being late.
Ri felt so heavy after returning to the unit.
He was so nervous, feeling the President would call him to serious account.
However, the President spoke nothing of the matter, even though several days had passed.
As time passed by, Ri felt all the more complicated and didn’t know what to do.
Ri wondered if the President was too busy to remember it but it seemed so unlikely.
In the end, he thought the President might have given up on him, branding him just as an impossible child.
It was without doubt, because the President had taken special care of him, who had been neglecting his studies and afraid of standing in front of lots of people, and strictly reprimanded him when he made mistakes.
In those days of agony, Ri came to keenly realize how precious comradely criticism is.
Finally, Ri went to meet the President and confessed that he felt so painful as he hadn’t been criticized for his error.
The President looked at him with a trustful look with an open laugh.
Presently, the President told Ri that he had expected Ri to come and see him and that’s why he hadn’t scolded him on purpose, which was also a method of criticism.
Looking at him who was overwhelmed by guilty conscience, the President taught Ri must have felt in his heart how precious the criticism of comrades is on that occasion.
He added:
Criticism among revolutionary comrades means love and trust. There’s an old saying that goes "Love well, whip well."
That whip, in the revolutionary ranks, is none other than criticism by comrades.
There is no comradely love without comradely criticism.
It is so good of you to have realized it and come and ask for criticism of your own accord. That’s exactly what revolutionaries should do.
Indeed, our President, though he had so many soldiers in his charge, sometimes enlightened them and sometimes reprimanded them according to the preparedness of every single one of them, and thus trained them into stout fighters and steadfast revolutionaries.
This story, which Ri couldn’t forget all his life, showcases the great personality of the President who brought up the soldiers with the warmest and most profound comradely love.
Rodong Sinmun