President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founding father of socialist Korea, had deep relations with religious figures. From his childhood, he was exposed to the religious world. He would often go to the church with his mother when he was a child. His maternal grandfather, who engaged in education all his life, was an elder of the Chilgol Church.
Kang Ryang Uk, his teacher and later vice president of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was a Christian priest.
When he engaged in the revolutionary activities in Northeast China to win back his country from the Japanese imperialists, believers of Christianity and Chondoist faith, the indigenous religion of the country, supported and helped him a lot.
Such surroundings provided him with an understanding of religions. He found the ideal of patriotism in the minds of the conscientious religious believers. He respected their faith and personality. Keeping close ties with a number of them, he worked with them for the country and nation, and to build an equal, independent and peaceful new world.
He emphasized the unity with the religious believers in his major political programmes like the Ten-Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland made public in May 1936 and the Ten-Point Programme of the Great Unity of the Whole Nation for the Reunification of the Country made public in April 1993.
Many religious believers were enrolled in the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, an anti-Japanese national united front organization, and many Chondoist believers joined the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army to fight shoulder to shoulder with the communists for the liberation of their country. After liberation; Christian, Chondoist and Buddhist organizations were formed and the believers made contributions to the prosperity and development of the country and nation while leading a free religious life. A number of religious believers were elected to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the supreme power organ of the DPRK.
Kim Il Sung met prominent religious believers from south Korea and abroad including Mun Ik Hwan, Kim Song Rak and Sun Myung Moon to discuss important issues for the reunification of the country and independent development of the nation.
When he had luncheons with them, he would ask them to say grace before the meal out of respect for their faith on such important occasions.
He never thought the spirit of Christianity that preaches universal peace and harmony contradicted his idea advocating an independent life for man.
No wonder he had good relations with Evangelist Billy Graham from the United States, too. Through the good relations between him and Billy Graham, people could have a better understanding about the ideological base on which Kim Il Sung, renowned leader of the international communist movement, could have good relations with the religious people.
