Marking the April spring holiday, my heart is full of yearning for President
I visited homeland as a member of the first batch of the art troupe of the Korean schoolchildren in Japan and performed in the presence of the President.
It is the unanimous dream of our overseas Korean children to participate in the New Year performance of schoolchildren staged at home.
On hearing the news that we were to participate in the New Year performance, I felt as if I were dreaming.
It was the greatest happiness for us to greet the New Year’s Day in the homeland and meet the President whom we had eagerly wanted to see all the time, and the voyage to the homeland was really full of delight.
My delight was more special, because I was honoured to extend the wish for the President’s good health.
On December 30, 1987 we members of the art troupe stepped onto the stage.
Filled with great emotion and shedding tears of happiness, I said, “We have come from Japan to see you, Marshal.” Hearing my greetings, the President dried his tears with a handkerchief.
The President looks at us who came from a foreign country. He has seen our dances and listened to my awkward greetings and shed tears.
Never forgetting us growing up in a foreign land, he has sent us educational aid funds and stipends every year since the difficult postwar days, and called us to the homeland to attend the New Year performance as the overseas citizens of the Republic.
Out of gratitude for the love and benevolence of the President we all burst into tears.
Though we were young, we keenly felt that we had our benevolent leader and dear motherland through that day’s performance.
For over 30 years since then, the Korean schoolchildren in Japan have participated in the New Year performances every year.
A few years ago, my eldest daughter participated in the performance.
Benevolent affection of the peerlessly great leaders is being handed down to our next generation, and many of those participated in the performances have grown up as full-fledged workers and famous entertainers and singers, who are preserving the national identity.
I graduated from Korea University, and now I am working as deputy chief of the Dance Department of the Union of Korean Writers and Artists in Japan.
I regard my life should be devoted to prove myself worthy of the love and solicitude of the President.
I will do my share in safeguarding and developing Chongryon and the Japan-based Koreans’ movement, patriotic legacies bequeathed by the President and the Chairman, by upholding the idea and leadership of the respected