Pyongyang, December 25 (KCNA) -- The Korean people, stricken with grief at the demise of leader Kim Jong Il, are remorseful for not having erected his statue in his lifetime.

Their remorse has run higher as they read an article of Rodong Sinmun Sunday about the story that Kim Jong Il did not allow his statue to be erected.

In Juche 88 (1999), many people, including servicepersons, sent letters to the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, calling for erecting a statue of Kim Jong Il to mark his 60th birthday.

Sculptors of the Mansudae Art Studio also sent a design of his statue they intended to erect in Samjiyon area, Ryanggang Province, to the WPK Central Committee on several occasions.

But Kim Jong Il refused their requests, saying that he only thought of achieving national reunification and building a thriving nation by carrying forward the revolutionary cause of President Kim Il Sung.

He said he still had many important tasks, including economic development, improvement of the people's living and national reunification, to implement in order to carry out all of the pledges he had taken before the bier of the President, so that he could not accept their requests.

Ri Sun Gu, a teacher at Kim Hyong Jik University of Education, told KCNA:

"I am deeply moved by the article. He did not allow his statue to be erected but took measures to build statues of revolutionary fighters, heroes and patriotic martyrs who contributed to the liberation and prosperity of the country. He was, indeed, a peerless patriot."