Giancarlo Elia Valori, president of the International World Group of Italy, is one of those who enjoyed special favour of the leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Greeting the 75th anniversary of his birthday a few years ago, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, dispatched a senior DPRK official to Italy with warm congratulations, gifts and a flower basket.
Kim Jong Un said that he did not forget the Italian man, whom President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) and Chairman Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) had bestowed particular affection and trust on in their lifetimes, and wished him good health and happiness.
Deeply moved by his congratulations, Valori said: I am now on the summit of happiness as I was conferred the greatest privilege; there is a term blessed life in the DPRK; my life cannot but be said to be a blessed life; the endless affection of the great men, which started by His Excellency Kim Il Sung and deepened by His Excellency Kim Jong Il, is now being carried forward by His Excellency Kim Jong Un.
That President Kim Il Sung, Chairman Kim Jong Il and Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un are the benevolent sun of his life is a truth Valori has learned through his lifetime experience.
While listening to what his mother said and reading books on the great career and activities of President Kim Il Sung, he learned that Kim Il Sung’s name denotes the sun.
His attraction to Kim Il Sung reached its acme after meeting him during the days of his first visit to the DPRK in 1975.
With a broad smile on his face, Kim Il Sung hugged him saying that though he was meeting the Italian man for the first time, he felt as if he were meeting an old friend of his.
In an article he wrote after meeting Kim Il Sung, Valori expressed his impression in this way: The first moment I saw His Excellency President Kim Il Sung, I received a strong impression that I was meeting a heaven-sent holy man whom my mother had talked much about.
The benevolent affection of Chairman Kim Jong Il, who was identical with President Kim Il Sung, reached Valori.
Though in a greater pain than anybody else after the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994, Kim Jong Il met him, who was visiting the DPRK to offer condolence, and said that he should come to the DPRK as frequently as he had done when the President had been alive. He then posed for a photo with him.
1997 was a year unforgettable for Valori. Though busy, Kim Jong Il ensured that a birthday spread and present were sent to him on the latter’s birthday. The gift was the sculpture depicting his mother, with the words January 1997, Kim Jong Il on the plinth.
In 2010, too, Kim Jong Il sent to him warm congratulations, a flower basket and gift through a DPRK official on the latter’s 70 birthday.
Later, Valori said: I have visited Pyongyang, where the sanctuary of the great sun is, over 30 times; no one has urged me to go to Korea in the East; however, I feel my heart is always inclined to Pyongyang. Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are eternal saviours and sun who gave mankind rays of hope and unchanging warm humane affection.
After receiving the present sent by Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, Valori said: His Excellency Kim Jong Un is, indeed, today’s sun that draws mankind with affection that no other politicians in this world can bestow and with the politics of love and trust, benevolent politics; as the sun in the heavens is eternal, the history of the sun of Korea in the East will advance for ever.
