ON THE OCCASION OF 65TH FOUNDING ANNIVERSARY OF
WORKERS’ PARTY OF KOREA
WPK Serves People
"Our Party exists for the people and struggles in their interests." This is an aphorism of General Secretary Kim Jong Il of the Workers' Party of Korea.
The WPK, guided by the Juche idea that the masses of the people are the masters of the revolution and construction and they are also the motive force for them, is mapping out all its lines and policies in reflection of demands and desire of the people.
President Kim I1 Sung (1912-1994), founder of the WPK, always mixed himself with the people, lending his ear to their voices so as to work out lines and policies by crystallizing their aspirations and desires.
A policy of land reform advanced by the WPK was also framed that way in the period when the Korean people were carrying out a democratic revolution after their country was liberated from the colonial yoke of the Japanese imperialists in August 1945.
Busy as he was with his guidance to the overall affairs to build a new society, Kim Il Sung visited a large number of rural villages in different parts of the country to listen to peasants and acquaint himself with the actual conditions in the countryside.
Based on it, he put forward the historic policy of land reform. As a result, the lands owned by the Japanese imperialists, traitors to the nation and landlords were confiscated without compensation and distributed free of charge to the peasants with no or little land. March 5, 1946, when the Agrarian Reform Law was promulgated, was recorded as the day when the centuries-old desire of the Korean people to become genuine masters of land came true.
After the Korean war (1950-1953), the WPK put forward a basic line of socialist economic construction on giving priority to the growth of heavy industry while developing light industry and agriculture simultaneously.
In the early 1960s it laid down a line of simultaneously carrying on the building up of the economy and defences in order to cope with the ever-increasing US manoeuvres of aggression.
Its other lines and policies were all mapped out in reflection of the aspiration and demands of the Korean people to build a prosperous, sovereign and independent state as the masters of their own destiny.
Songun politics, administered by General Secretary Kim Jong Il as the main political mode of the WPK in the present time, can be said to be a line which mirrors most correctly the actual conditions of the country and the desire of the people to live as an independent being.
In order to realize the long-cherished dream of the Korean people he advanced a line of building a thriving socialist nation with strong national power, where everything prospers and its people live an abundant life without anything to envy in the world, and is now leading the struggle for its realization.
It is an iron rule of the WPK to give top priority to the people's interests in all affairs.
It is well explained by newly-built or updated public service establishments including the Pyongyang Grand Theatre, North Hwanghae Provincial Art Theatre , Taedongmun Cinema, Okryu and Chongnyu restaurants and Kaeson Youth Park . As the DPRK is now pushing ahead with the building of a thriving nation under constant war threats and economic sanctions imposed by the United States , it needs a colossal sum of funds to be geared to the field of national defence and the economy.
However, the WPK has diveJ1ed a tremendous outlay of money in splendidly furnishing public service amenities. A western filmmaker, after looking round the reconstructed Taedongmun Cinema, said with admiration, ''It is difficult to find such a wonderful cinema as this even in my country with developed economy and culture. And what is beyond my comprehension is that this excellent cinema is a public entertainment centre for the sake of ordinary people."
This marvellous reality in the DPRK is based on the noble outlook on the people cherished by the leaders of the WPK.
On one occasion, a foreigner asked President Kim II Sung how the State would make up for the money spent on supplying uniforms free of charge to all children throughout the country. Then the President answered that the costs spent for the sake of the people could be by no means the losses and that the more such losses, the better the State would be. General Secretary Kim Jong Il, too, always stresses that payments should never be calculated first if they are for the interests of the people.
A legend-like anecdote is told that when officials suggested a plan to develop a gold mine of large deposit in the Mt. Myohyang area, one of scenic spots in Korea , the President stopped the exploitation lest it should destroy the cultural resort for the people.
Some years ago leader Kim Jong Il, on his visit to the construction site of the Samsu Power Station situated in the northern part of Korea , acquainted himself first with the housing problem for the evacuees from the inundated area. Noting that no trifle inconveniences should be caused to them, he took measures for building new houses for them before pushing ahead with the main project.
The WPK takes responsible care of the livelihood of the people.
Over the last several decades of leading the socialist construction, the WPK has put into effect the universal 11-year compulsory education of the highest standard and the universal free medical care, supplied people with food at a low price, provided them free of charge with dwelling houses built at the state expense and turned the DPRK into one and the only tax-free country in the world, with the result that the Korean people have become happy people free from any worries about food. clothing and housing, medical treatment, education of their children, and taxation.
Such policies of the WPK were enforced without letup in the past 1990s when the DPRK suffered from harsh economic difficulties due to the extreme economic sanctions and blockade imposed by the US and other imperialists and the consecutive natural calamities. No is this all. Such new scenic spots as the Ullim Falls , Ryongmun Cavern, Mts. Kuwol and Chilbo were developed and a large number of cultural recreation centres, sanatoria and rest homes mushroomed in different parts of the country with picturesque sceneries.
Kim Jong Il continues his tour of field guidance, always acquainting himself first with the living conditions of people and taking meticulous care of them.
It is by no means fortuitous that the Korean people call the WPK a “mother Party”.