calendar>>August 3. 2009 Juche 98
President Wears Cotton-padded Winter-shoes in Summer
Pyongyang, August 3 (KCNA) -- On an August day of Juche 40 (1951) President Kim Il Sung examined cotton-padded military winter-shoes.

After watching shoes with care from the height of rubber rim to thickness of shoe-sole, he instructed an official that he should carry a pair of shoes with him when backing.

Next day after he came back to the Supreme Command, he came out, putting on the cotton-padded shoes.

Officials dubiously looked at him wearing the shoes unfit for hot summer.

After having put on the shoes for a week and more, he told officials that, while wearing the shoes for several days, he felt they were good as they were warm and comfortable for feet. What worries myself, he added, is that feet of soldiers might be frozen as the shoes became wet easily.

Pointing to the rubber rim of the shoes he told in an anxious tone that the height of the rim was so low that the shoes got wet like this even in some mud and the wet shoes might make feet of soldiers frozen in winter though cotton was padded.

At last the officials realized why the President wore the shoes in summer.

After an interval, the President earnestly instructed them that the height of rubber should be raised higher.

The officials were deeply moved by him who worried himself so much about the problem of military winter-shoes in the height of the hard-fought war, not a problem of military operation.

Copyright (C) KOREA NEWS SERVICE(KNS) All Rights Reserved.