culture

A house in Jonu-dong of Moranbong District, Pyongyang, was enlivened with many visitors from the early morning on June 1.

The family of an official of the district people’s committee and neighbours visited the house to congratulate the son of Jang Kum Song, an honoured disabled soldier, on the occasion of International Children’s Day.

They gave the baby boy new clothes, toys and souvenirs and shared joy with Jang’s family.

Then the doorbell rang again, and Jin Thae Ryong, an engineer of the Sci-Tech Complex, and his wife Ri Ji Hyang, entered the house.

Jang and his mother Han Kyong Suk recollected the past days with deep emotion after greeting the couple.

In July eight years ago Ra Kwang Chon, Jang’s senior in his middle school days who now works at a unit, visited his house together with youth league members on the occasion of war victory day.

Among them was a girl named Ri Ji Hyang.

During his military service, Jang was the first to throw himself over a dangerous spot to be seriously injured in an unexpected situation of training.

After two years of hospitalization, he returned home as an honoured disabled soldier.

That evening Ji Hyang was deep in thought over the honoured disabled soldier living with his widowed mother.

Some days later, she visited his house again together with her lover, who was a university student, bringing with them new clothes and daily necessities they had prepared.

She was so sincere that she meticulously inquired whether the family was short of anything and tried to help them even a bit.

"She was younger than my son, but we were always touched by her deep concern for us," said Han.

Her concern for the disabled soldier remained unchanged even when everyone was experiencing hardships owing to the global health crisis caused by the rapid spread of COVID-19.

When Jang was to marry a kind-hearted young woman, she showed concern for their wedding and when they fretted that they had no child, she brought them valuable medicines good for the treatment of the woman’s disease. When a baby boy was born to them, she brought them articles for the baby and nutritious foods out of motherly love.

Jang says that whenever he expresses his thanks to the couple for their sincerity, the woman says, “Honoured disabled soldiers did not hesitate to dedicate their lives for the country to firmly defend its security and the happiness of the people. It is a bounden duty for us, young people of a new generation, to respect and help those excellent people.”

“The country provides my son with social benefits as he is an honoured disabled soldier and the people who forged a close bond with my family are unselfishly devoted to us,” Han said gratefully, adding that it is something possible only in the DPRK.