In his lifetime Kim Jong Il made a long journey of field guidance to more than 14,290 units across the country, which covers 670,000 kilometers, nearly 17 times the distance round the earth.

His ceaseless field guidance day and night and in all seasons led to an epoch-making turn in the activities of the Workers' Party of Korea and world-startling miracles in socialist construction.

In the mid-1990s when the country was at the crossroads of survival or ruin, he chose to take the road of Songun (military-first) revolution.

Under his energetic Songun leadership, the DPRK's single-minded unity and military might grew stronger while the flames of industrial revolution in the new century flared up.

In the last period of his life, too, he had continued his field guidance despite weather conditions and, consequently, eye-catching events took place one after another in the country.

Indeed, Kim Jong Il was a peerless patriot who devoted his all to the people's wellbeing and the nation's prosperity.