One day in late May Juche 49 (1960), President Kim Il Sung visited the construction site of an external service centre at the bank of the Taedong River.

   Going round several rooms under construction one by one, he stopped at one room.

   After looking closely at the structure of the room, the President asked an official if the room was a Korean-style room.

   When the official said yes, the President asked again why there was no sliding door between the balcony and the room.

   Sliding door is one of the doors that our people have used in their lives in all ages.

   Sliding doors, which were often installed on the wall between the two rooms to open and close by pushing door aside, were invented from the olden times by the fact that our people were willing to use living space of their houses rationally.

   The official said that it was difficult to install Korean-style sliding doors since the floor height of the house was too high.

   Hearing his answer, the President said high floor cannot be the reason for not installing the sliding door and the Korean-style rooms must have sliding doors. He continued to give detailed instructions that if this room was to be Korean-style, it was necessary to lower the threshold to install the sliding doors, lay floor mats and put a round dining table so people can sit crosslegged.

   Thanks to the detailed guidance of the President, the room was refurnished in Korean-style.