Korean people have been fond of ondol rooms (hot-floored rooms) since olden times. In the houses of ondol style (under-floor heating system), doors and chimneys take a very important part in providing daylight and heat.

   In December Juche 46 (1957), President Kim Il Sung visited the Okjong Agricultural Cooperative in Pyoksong County, South Hwanghae Province.

   Looking around the rooms of a house with a smile on his face, the President pointed at the doors and said it had many outer doors, and continued that if the windows were installed instead of the unnecessary doors, the sunlight would be let in well not to be cold in the rooms.

   Coming out to the kitchen wooden floor, he asked the housewife if the stove smoked.

   She answered no smokes from the stove, but the President said it certainly had smoked with such a shape of the chimney.

   It was true that the fire hole of stove smoked but she didn’t want to worry the President about that matter.

   The President told the chairman of the cooperative that if the fire did not go well under the floor of rooms, it would be cold inside and would be tough for the wives. He instructed that the cooperative would help to heighten the chimneys to let fire in well and plaster the detached walls of the houses.

   Afterwards, all the doors and chimneys in the village were remodelled as instructed by the President who attached great importance to the folk traditions of the Korean people, and strangely the warm air pervaded every house.