Pyongyang, December 23 (KCNA) -- The Korean people can hardly believe the sudden demise of leader Kim Jong Il as a reality. So they seem to communicate with him to express their inmost feelings the same way they did when he was alive.

Choe Hyang Ran, 31, work-team leader of the Indoor Swimming Pool of Kim Il Sung University, said after placing a bouquet before the portrait of smiling Kim Jong Il:

"How happy I would be if my presentation of all flowers in the country and the rest of the world would help me see again Kim Jong Il, his face beaming with a broad smile!

"We have been weeping bitterly for the last days before the place where he was seated, recollecting the tender-hearted leader who watched happy teachers and students during his visit to the swimming pool".

Kim Yong Nam, 47, artist of the Korean April 26 Children's Film Studio, said:

"All of us are sweeping snow in our compound and on roads leading to it from early morning, feeling that Kim Jong Il may enter our studio right now.

"We have spruced up our studio like a palace and prepared songs of best wishes for the leader but he passed away before appreciating them. We can never believe this."

Choe Kwang Ok, 26, told a reporter at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, in bitter tears with a newborn baby in her arms:

"My baby was born on the morning of the day our father Kim Jong Il breathed his last on a running train on his way of field guidance to mix with the people.

"He died at work after undergoing all sorts of hardships all his life to bring a happy future to the country. Has there ever been in the world such great popular leader as Kim Jong Il?

"He did not pass away. He is always alive in the hearts of the happy children and in the hearts of all the people who have risen from sorrow to uphold the leadership of the great Comrade Kim Jong Un."