The True Spirit of the Juche Idea
Tim Trendelkamp, Saint Petersburg, Russia
FOR the Festival of the Great Personalities of Mount Paektu, I would like to send a short text about beloved Comrade KIM IL SUNG to the respected Korean people. I hope that this text will contribute to the friendship and mutual understanding of the Korean and German people. I visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for the first time in 2017, when I was studying for a Master's degree at Peking University's Faculty of Philosophy. It was a hot and beautiful Summer in Pyongyang. I was astonished by the true spirit of the Juche Idea, which I could feel in the atmosphere in this capital of sovereign Korea. The atmosphere in Pyongyang is very different
from that in capitalist cities. A free people really live here. I have never felt or experienced something like this before. It was an exceptional feeling of cleanliness and dignity of the people that live here. This perception touched me very deeply. For a long time, I had wanted to visit this country. And here my burning dream came true. I can understand the suffering and struggles of the
Korean people very well. My German homeland is also occupied by the American imperialists.
American nukes, tens of thousands of American soldiers as well as even areas where only American money is accepted and American police is working. All of this is a very serious insult and grief for the German patriot. And I would wish for nothing more than a leader and great patriot like KIM IL SUNG to liberate my homeland. I want that my country will be as clean and dignified as Korea under the Juche Idea. But today I can only cry silent tears about the fate of my nation and look full of hope towards Korea. I am seeing Korea as a living proof for the fact that what I wish, can possibly be really become true. Freedom, cleanliness, order and happiness.
During my visit in Pyongyang, I was especially moved when I heard that KIM IL SUNG did not want to return to Mangyongdae before Korea is liberated from the Japanese Imperialists. When I heard about this, I immediately thought of my own fate. Today I am 30 years old and during these 30 years of my life, I have been lived abroad for almost 10 years. Since I was 17 years old, I have been taken out of my German hometown by many study visits abroad.
I lived in China for over six years and in Russia for three years. I feel very strongly connected to my homeland. I love my homeland. However, I have become a bit of a stranger to my homeland due to the long time I spent abroad, and it hurts me. I miss my family and my home village. I miss the forest and the river and the familiar animals. But the general climate of society has turned hostile on me. The enemies of the German people have taken up residence everywhere. The poison of the American imperialist has permeated the entire state. I cannot develop and unfold freely as a German Patriotic Intellectual in Germany. There are too many enemies. Those who desire sovereignty and justice, just like KIM IL SUNG did, are called radicals and irrational. The government and many so called liberal "intellectuals" are giving up our sovereignty more and more every day.
Our country is overtaken by foreign migrants from lands far away. And our traditional values are being destroyed. Many people are suffering from psychological problems and the families are instable and full of conflicts. I feel very strongly that it is my destiny to study and work abroad with my linguistic and cultural abilities.
Here is my workplace for Germany's liberation. I think that KIM IL SUNG is similar to me in this regard. He too missed Mangyongdae very much. However, he fought abroad for Korea's liberation, and was ultimately successful. Now I show to the honoured reader the relevant excerpt from KIM IL SUNG's biography "With the Century":
The day we moved to Junggang my elder uncle wept as he held my father’s hand and asked him not to forget his home even if he was far away and to write to him often if he had no time to return.
Father said, holding his hands in his:
“I will not forget my home. How can I forget it? This evil time forces us to part in this way, but when the country wins its independence, we will live together and lead a life full of pleasure, I believe. From a child you have helped me by making sandals, getting blisters on your palms. I am sorry to leave this large family for you to keep.”
“Brother, it’s nothing. I will take care of father and mother. Be sure to put up a good fight and achieve your cherished aim. I will wait here for the day.”
I could not repress my sorrow as I watched them part. Mother said that we would return home again when the country was independent, but I did not know when that would be and felt myself choking. In fact, my parents were buried in a foreign country without seeing Mangyongdae again. Time and again I looked back at my grandparents, so loath to part from them.
Often, when I think of my homeland here in foreign exile and shed tears, I think of beloved KIM IL SUNG with joy. I see him as a role model. He has come through what I still have to come through.
He gives me hope. He is indeed a guiding star and a 'great personality' for me. I am also missing my grandfather, a simple miner and patriot. He dedicated his whole life to work and frugality. He as well is a great personality for me. I think that if I will model my life according to the example of such great personalities as my grandfather and KIM IL SUNG, I will not fail to achieve my goal in life. Perseverance, courage, frugality, kindness and patriotism. These shall be my guiding values.
And the great KIM IL SUNG guides me on the path to these. He too was persevering, courageous, modest, kind-hearted and loved his people, the whole people, starting from the simplest worker, more than himself. He is a true hero. Truly a shining personality. He gives me hope and the strength to continue my patriotic struggle every day.
With utmost respectful regards to the Korean People. 
