General Secretary Kim Jong Un’s Mode of Politics, DPRK

Dedication of Great Man

The word “dedication”, in general, signifies traits and morale of a whole-hearted sacrifice, paying no heed at all to one’s personal gains. Thus the history of mankind has so far termed it as a vocabulary meant for common people or royal subjects.

However, we are now writing the history of lofty dedication on this land, a journey adorned with incessant service and devotion made by the leader of a country for the sake of people’s happiness.

Imprinted everywhere on this land are the traces of great dedication of respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, be it Daechong-ri of Unpa County with no traces at all of the aftereffects of the flood, or four-kilometer-stretch of beautiful sand beach exposed to the suffocating heat or be it fishery stations permeated with sea-flavour of socialist era.

He gave field guidance to different places within the city of Samjiyon to build it up into a model of modern socialist city nestling in the mountains, a criterion for the level of promotion of countryside in the biting cold reputed to freeze up and split the hardwood of a pakdal tree (a type of birch)- the forced march in the blizzard; he also visited more than 20 units in a row, i.e. Tree Nursery of Kangwon Province, Wonsan Bag Factory of Honoured Disabled Veterans and Songdowon General Foodstuff Factory in the suffocating heat of 40℃- the forced march in the hottest days of summer, which, to date, pull at the heartstrings of our people.

Also permeated in the Yangdok Hot Spring Cultural Recreation Centre of eye-opening wonderland are traces of touching dedication of the respected General Secretary who led his entourage and crossed the undulating mountain chains and steep hills to locate the hot spring with high yield of spring water and also personally tasted the hot water gushing out from the spring in the torrential rain.

There are many countries in the world and each country has its leader. However, the only leader who devotes his all along the path of unreserved service for people expecting no credit nor anything in return is our respected General Secretary.

It is said since olden times that a mother’s dedication for raising a child is an equivalence of 50,000 days of work, making it the utmost love in the world. Then, what can be termed for the dedication of great father embracing all people around the country to render them with affection and happiness?

His noble dedication begot people of indomitable spirit shaping their own future undaunted by any adversity and a large contingent of troops bound with single-minded unity advancing through tempest of the times without deviation, which constitutes the crystallization of dedication of Comrade Kim Jong Un for people that cannot be termed otherwise than “great”.

Following the traces left by our respected General Secretary, the traces of dedication for people that knows of no bound, our people will infallibly build the ideal paradise for people, the envy of the world peoples.

The DPRK Seen through Souvenir Photographs

Kim Jong Un, President of the State Affairs of the DPRK, enjoys having photographs taken with the people. On the morning of New Year’s Day in 2022, he had a photograph session with ordinary working people including meritorious people and labour innovators, who had contributed to making 2021 a successful year.

According to the country’s media, Jo Mun Son, a 57-year-old worker of the turbine workshop of the Pyongyang Thermal Power Station, has been working on the same job for several decades. Kim Jong Un had a photograph taken with him holding his callused hand in his.

And a workteam leader of the Tonam Cooperative Farm in Yonan County, South Hwanghae Province, a major granary on the western coast, is known as a farmer who worked hard all year round to get a high yield in the face of the unfavourable weather conditions last year. At the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea held in late December 2021, Kim Jong Un sent thanks in the name of the Party Central Committee to the exemplary officials, working people, scientists and technicians in the agricultural sector. Then he called some farmers, including the workteam leader, to his place and had a souvenir photograph taken with them.

Worthy of note about the photographs is the flower decoration in the form of flower basket on both sides and various other parts of the venue. The decoration can be interpreted as warm congratulations of Kim Jong Un to them. After the photograph session they gathered around Kim Jong Un and had amiable talks with him.

Photographs he has taken with people are numerous and all of them are indicative of the kinship between the leader and his people.

Kim Jong Un does not mind a place at all when having a photograph taken with people, be it a production site, or a small garden before a house or a room in a house. When they have the honour of having a photograph taken with him, all people vie with one another to get a closer place to him and hold his hand. It reflects the kinship feelings between the leader and the people.

In September 2021, Kim Jong Un invited to the office building of the WPK Central Committee some labour innovators and other meritorious people participating in the celebrations of the 73^rd founding anniversary of the DPRK. Among those invited were young pupils. They were ordinary workers’ sons and daughters who were exemplars in the studies and the organizational life of the Children’s Union.

He summoned them to his side and praised them for their merits. Then he highly appreciated the efforts of their parents to bring up their children as the pillars of the country. And he posed for a photograph with the children as well as the labour innovators and other meritorious people–all together. This reminded the viewers of a single family.

What is the reason behind such a scene? The following can be an explanation.

When the northern part of North Hamgyong Province was severely affected by flooding in 2016, Kim Jong Un took all necessary measures for building new houses for the victims, saying that they had to be provided with new houses before the winter came even if it meant having to enlist all the potentials of the country to do so. In October 2020, he went to the rehabilitation project site of the flooded Komdok area at the risk of his life by crossing a makeshift railway bridge. One day he calculated on his handbook the amount of fish needed to be supplied to all the orphans and old people in rest homes across the country and proposed building an exclusive fishing station for the purpose.

At the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK held months ago, Kim Jong Un took important measures for providing all the students across the country with high-quality school uniforms and school bags of a new style at the state expense. As he regards the people and children as his family members, he could make such a momentous decision despite the difficult conditions of the country.

It is natural that the Korean people should regard him as their father and try to get closer to him when they meet him.

Orientation of Development of the DPRK in 2022

After glorifying the year 2021, the first year in implementing the five-year plan advanced by the Eighth Congress of the WPK, as a year of triumph to be etched in history, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea greeted the New Year 2022, filled with confidence in a fresh victory and optimism. Then, which direction will the country take?

-State Development and Improvement of the People’s Living Standards

Analysts comment that in the New Year, the DPRK will direct its greater efforts to ensuring the state’s development and improving the people’s livelihood.

What attracts attention is the conclusion General Secretary Kim Jong Un made at the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth WPK Central Committee last year.

Kim Jong Un said that the main task facing the WPK and the Korean people this year was to provide a sure guarantee for the implementation of the five-year plan and bring about a remarkable change in the state’s development and the people’s standard of living so as to record a noteworthy page in the history of the country. The economic sector, the main front of socialist construction, will focus an all-out effort on putting the country’s economy on the growth orbit and providing stabilized and improved living to the people by reenergizing production and pushing ahead with the readjustment and reinforcement.

To this end, Kim Jong Un put forward major tasks to be attained by the country this year.

-Major Political Tasks

The conclusion advanced in detail the major political tasks for the sector of key industries to carry out this year.

According to it, the metallurgical industrial sector should technologically refine the Korean-style iron-producing method, produce iron and steel as scheduled by supplying fuel and raw materials in time and, at the same time, push ahead with the expansion of capacity and modernization.

The chemical industrial sector should give full play to the newly-created fertilizer production capacity and boost the production of materials for light and pharmaceutical industries by reenergizing major chemical factories, while accelerating the projects for establishing a new structure of the chemical industry.

The power industrial sector should strive to raise the electric-power production to a high level while satisfactorily meeting the immediate demand for electric power. And it should reduce the loss of power in transmission, step up the building of new power stations and increase the capacity of generating electricity by diverse natural energy sources.

The coal industrial sector should give precedence to prospecting and continue waging a high-speed tunnelling campaign to find more coalfields. And it should increase coal production by introducing advanced mining methods and machines and pay attention to helping the bituminous coal mines increase the production.

The railway transport sector should enhance the safety of the railways, accelerate its modernization and establish the state’s unified system of controlling the overall transport so as to develop the country’s transport work by stages.

The machine-building industrial sector should responsibly provide the equipment needed for implementing the readjustment and reinforcement plans of several economic sectors and units, and boost the production of vehicles, electric machines and construction machines and improve their quality.

This year the DPRK will give a strong push to the effort to improve the people’s living standards.

The conclusion advanced important tasks for making a radical progress in solving the food, clothing and housing problems for the people.

To this end, it stressed that the entire WPK and the whole country should concentrate efforts on farming and give manpower and material support to the rural communities, and the agricultural sector should increase grain production by doing all the farm work in a sci-tech way and positively use farming machines as the area to grow wheat and barley are to be expanded.

In the economic work, the capital construction sector should be prioritized and a new revolution in construction should be made for fundamentally changing the living environment of the people so as to continue to usher in the heyday of the capital city construction including the building of 10 000 flats planned for 2022 and open up an era when the local areas change.

The light industrial sector should set it as an important task to reenergize the production of consumer goods and push ahead with it. And it should put the foodstuff processing technology on a higher scientific basis.

This year, too, the country will continue to direct great efforts to education.

Saying that the supply of school uniforms and things to all the students across the country at the state expense is a consistent policy of the WPK and the state, the General Secretary set forth a task for supplying all the students with quality uniforms and bags of new types without exception and took an important measure of the WPK Central Committee for implementing it.

He stressed the need for the fishing industrial sector to conduct work for catching more fish, do fish breeding and other kinds of aquiculture well and increase marine resources in an effective way.

Also mentioned in the conclusion were tasks for the sectors of mining industry, forestry, IT industry, land administration, city management, scientific research, education, public health, the art and literature and other fields in giving impetus to the comprehensive development of socialist construction.

The major political tasks advanced by the DPRK gives a glimpse of the definite structure of development which the country aspires after now.

Housing Construction in the DPRK

The past ten years witnessed a boom in housing construction in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Regarding housing construction as an important undertaking in providing the people with more civilized and stabler living conditions, the country channels great efforts into building dwelling houses in the capital and provinces.

Modern streets and residential districts were built one after another from 2012. They include Changjon Street in the central part of Pyongyang, Unha Scientists Street, apartment buildings for lecturers at Kim Il Sung University and Kim Chaek University of Technology, Wisong Scientists Residential District, Mirae Scientists Street and Ryomyong Street.

From then onwards, a modern street sprang up every year in Pyongyang.

Housing construction was undertaken on an unprecedented scale also in towns and rural communities in provinces.

The renovation project of the city of Samjiyon in northern Korea which had been carried out in three stages was brought to completion in 2021, four years after its start. As a model of perfect harmony of modern, national and alpine features, the city attracted the attention of the international community. 

As a result of the construction of low-rise and multi-storeyed apartment houses for thousands of households and many excellent facilities, the mountainous town, 1 300 metres above sea level on average, was completely changed in the true sense of the word.

Modern houses were built one after another in many other places like Onjong-ri, Yangdok County in the middle part of the country and Sangso-ri, Poptong County in the eastern part.

In the Jungphyong area in the northeastern part, hundreds of modern houses were built for the employees of a large-scale greenhouse vegetable farm and a tree nursery.

Precedence was given to housing construction in building the Tanchon Power Station which is of great importance in the country’s power production. This clearly showed the considerate intention of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK to prevent inconveniences in the life of the residents who would have to be relocated when important construction projects were undertaken.

Also worthy of note is the fact that prompt measures are taken for disaster victims.

In 2015, 2016, 2020 and 2021 many parts of the country were severely affected by flooding, heavy rains and typhoons, resulting in a number of factories, enterprises and farmland as well as houses being destroyed or inundated. 

Many people around the world were concerned and pessimistic about the flood victims in the DPRK as it was suffering harsh difficulties and hardships owing to persisting blockade and sanctions by the forces hostile towards it.

However, the WPK and the government of the DPRK promptly rose to the occasion. With a view that the sufferings of the people were the biggest emergency and there was no more important work than the undertaking to relieve the people of their misfortune, they defined the construction of houses for the victims as the first priority in the rehabilitation project and mobilized all the human, material and technical potentials of the country. Thus, nice streets and villages were built in a very short span of time and the flood victims were provided with new houses. 

The people around the world were surprised to see the flood victims, who they thought must be in despair, moving to new houses. 

What is more surprising is the fact that the houses are built with state investment and given to them free of charge. 

The scale of the country’s housing construction is getting larger and larger with the passage of time.

In March 2021 the ground-breaking ceremony for the project to build 10 000 flats was held in Pyongyang in the presence of             Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs of the DPRK. 

A big architectural group composed of 10 000 flats was formed in the Songsin and Songhwa districts and 800 luxurious houses in the Pothong riverside terraced houses district was near to completion.

The Komdok area, the country’s leading non-ferrous minerals producer, is being renovated into an unprecedentedly large mountain gorge town; 25 000 new houses are planned to be built in the miners’ town by 2025, which marks the 80^th founding anniversary of the WPK.

This is not because the country has a surplus of funds in its coffer or it has good conditions; it is because the state regards it as the supreme principle of its activities to make everything serve the people and work for their wellbeing.

To be more specific, all this is thanks to the politics of love for the people, which is administered by Kim Jong Un who always pays close attention to providing a stabler and more civilized life to the people.

What he said in his speech at the above-mentioned ground-breaking ceremony is quite impressive: The Party and the government, having made themselves aware of the number of families that were in need of new houses, conducted in-depth research to determine the measures for solving the problem; they regarded this project as their most important task; and nothing is more worthwhile, honourable, or happier, for us than to dedicate our sweat and passion, without hesitation, to building an ideal street that will be a warm home for our people.