The DPRK people still remember the image of the President who dealt with the pencil problem for children and schoolers as the first agenda of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea established the year after the country's liberation from Japan's colonial rule (August 15, 1945).

The 1st Session of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea was held in February Juche 35 (1946). At this historic session, the President raised the question of pencil production as the first agenda item, though there were lots of important affairs to be dealt with for building a new country.

At the session he said:

"To solve the problem of pencils is not simply a practical question. This is a highly important political question of rearing our younger generation to become competent persons and of satisfying a desire cherished deep in the hearts of our people.

"In the past, under the fierce colonial rule of the Japanese imperialists, the Korean people were denied an opportunity of learning and their backs were bent in toil. But still, they wanted to put pencils in the hands of their children so that they could learn how to write. This is an ardent desire of our people just like our peasants' life-long desire to own their own land and farm as they please."

And he stressed the need to take a positive step for mass-producing pencils at once and indicated detailed tasks and ways to this end.

The story about the said fact has been conveyed among the DPRK people like a legend, along with the President's noble view on posterity.