Seeing a Young Pine 

  One year Chairman Kim Jong Il visited a village in Chosan County on the shore of the Amnok River.
While looking round the village guided by officials, he stopped in front of a heap of compost on the roadside.
Piled on the heap were the bundles of grasses, which still smelled fresh apparently because they had been cut not long ago.
After seeing the bundles for a while, Kim Jong Il picked out something, a young pine cut at its base.
He then said: It must have taken several years for it to grow that tall; it is a pity; if you are to collect grasses, you have to cut them in thickly-grassed places though they may be far; you should not cut even a young pine in the poorly-wooded mountain.
After then, he instructed that those who did not value every plant, tree and pebble of the country cannot become true patriots.
His instructions resounded in the officials’ hearts arousing an echo that patriotism is not an abstract concept, but a specific ideological sentiment that sprouts and develops in the people from holding dear every tree and every blade of grass in the country and that requires them to devote their heart and soul to looking after them.