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and was supposed to be completed in 1972 as the sixtieth birthday present for Kim Il-sung. The project gained speed as the birth date approached. At the same time, Kim’s gigantic statue was under construction on Mansu Hill, for which labor forces were drafted from all over North Korea. However, since the presidential residence was a sensitive project concerning the security of the Great Leader, only military forces who could pledge absolute confidentiality and loyalty were allowed to participate. The chief of the guard team was supposed to reside in a separate unit outside the palace, but for better security, his quarters were inside instead. The residence, where Kim Il-sung lived until his death in 1994, was supposed to serve the dual purpose of a peacetime residence and a wartime bunker. For this reason, it was not a tall structure. However, behind the palace was a taller building of ten stories that contained a large water tank. I still do not know the exact purpose of this building, but I suppose it supplied water exclusively for the palace. There were also large ventilation pipes, large enough that people could walk through, connecting the basement of the palace to the building behind. I still vividly remember that there was a thick layer of lead on the roof to protect the palace from nuclear attacks. Every wall was waterproof. As I participated in the construction myself, I still remember enough details to draw a floor plan of this building. Incredible human effort had been poured into it, and no expense was spared. Silk blankets wrapped pipelines that were supposed to go underneath Kim Il-sung’s living quarters. All kinds of expensive trees, Chinese junipers, laurels, and many others, came from different provinces to be used as construction materials and garden decorations. White cement, ground marble, and limestone were mixed to create the best kind of wall finish for the exterior of the building. Thousands and thousands of workers dangling on ropes tied to the rooftop hammered the exterior walls of the Memorial Palace as they descended to the ground. It was a remarkable sight; they looked like zillions of ants against the blinding white wall finish. As the hammering went on incessantly, the ground marble became exposed and shone in dazzling sunlight. The soldiers worked with neither sleep nor breaks for meals, as if they were on a battlefield. Once concrete was mixed, everyone dismissed the thought of taking a break and went on working until the concrete ran out. The soldiers’ loyalty to the Great Leader Kim Il-sung was such that everyone voluntarily worked around the clock. The belief that the collective purpose was higher and greater than individual well-being was strong enough to eclipse any other thoughts. A high-ranking military general named Jeon Mu-seok was in charge. Jeon was a man with natural charisma and remarkable leadership—despite his high status in the army, he would joke with foot soldiers and cheer them up with unexpected surprises. One time, in the thick of midday construction, he brought loads of apples and had everyone take a break for a snack. This made already highly motivated soldiers want to work even harder. We worked so hard that even the commanders were worried and urged us to rest, but voluntary manpower was a formidable thing. Nobody could stop us, and the presidential residence came out so solid that even a nuclear bomb would have had difficulty damaging it. The building stood there, a bright, shimmering white, as testimony to the remarkable love all the construction workers had for the Great Leader. When the heroic construction efforts ended, I was rewarded with the rank of a second lieutenant.
    Until 1974 I stayed in the army and led a simple life of training for the military sports team. Then the team was dissolved and the military sent me to Kim Chaek 1 Technological Institute for college education. So I, who’d never taken great interest in books, ended up studying