LEADING PEOPLE FOR NEARLY 70 YEARS

The Workers’ Party of Korea, since its founding on October 10, 1945, has led the Korean people to victory, going through all sorts of trials and ordeals.

The WPK was founded in less than two months after Korea’s liberation (August 15, 1945) from the Japanese military occupation (1905-1945). In such a complicated situation, it organized promptly the unified mass organizations of the workers, peasants, the youth and women, and set up a people’s government, thus making the masses of working people masters of politics and the country. It also met the centuries-old desires of the people by carrying out such democratic reforms as the agrarian reform, nationalization of major industries and the proclamation of the Law on Sex Equality. It greatly inspired the people to turn out in the building of a new country by initiating and organizing the general ideological mobilization movement for nation building, the emulation drive for increased production and the anti-illiteracy campaign. As a result, Korea, which was a backward, colonial and semi-feudal society before liberation, was completely changed in a short period, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the first people’s democratic state in the East, was founded in September 1948.

With a firm will not to repeat again the history of a stateless nation, the WPK directed primary efforts to building and strengthening the army after liberation. During the Korean war (1950-1953) the two-year-old DPRK fought against the armed invasion of the US and its 15 vassal states, the WPK led the Korean army and people to inflict a serious defeat on the US for the first time in its history, which boasted of being “the strongest” in the world, and defended the freedom and independence of the country.

Although the Americans clamoured that Korea could never rise again within 100 years on the ruins of war, the WPK accomplished the postwar rehabilitation within only three years by wisely leading the people. It simultaneously pushed ahead with the agricultural cooperativization, and socialist transformation of handicrafts and capitalist trade and industry. As a result, a socialist system was established in the DPRK in August 1958. After the postwar rehabilitation it enlisted the whole nation in the Chollima Movement to bring about a great upswing of production, accomplishing socialist industrialization in a short span of 14 years.

In the 1970s the WPK ushered in a heyday in all fields of politics, the economy and culture through the introduction of the universal 11-year free compulsory education and the full abolition of taxation. In the 1980s it put forward the slogan “Let us create the speed of the ’80s in the spirit displayed during the great Chollima upswing!” to inspire the people to perform another feats. The 8 km-long West Sea Barrage was constructed in those days.

If the principal task of socialist economic construction and the long-term objectives for its realization the WPK had put forward at that time had been successfully carried out, the DPRK would have become a full-fledged one among the countries with developed economy.

However, socialist Korea was faced with unexpected trials and difficulties. Several socialist countries collapsed one after another from the late 1980s. Taking advantage of this, the imperialist allied forces exerted all their efforts to stifle the DPRK, fussing about the “end of socialism on the planet.”

Overcoming the worst trials, the WPK ministered Songun politics in an all-round way in the 1990s and inspired the army and people to a war in defence of socialism. Under its leadership, the army and people of the DPRK firmly defended socialism and provided a springboard for the realization of their gigantic goal of building a thriving socialist nation.

In August 1998, the artificial earth satellite Kwangmyongsong 1 was launched, signaling the start of building a thriving nation in the DPRK. The land across the country was realigned on a large scale, hydroelectric power stations were built, many factories and enterprises updated in accordance with the demands of the new century and fruit, fish, poultry and stock farms mushroomed. Tidelands were reclaimed by linking several islets along the West Sea of Korea, changing the map of Korea. A new iron production system without using coke and scrap iron was completed, and CNC technology introduced into different sectors, bringing about unprecedented progresses in production. Independent and modern factories of heavy and light industries were built in large numbers. In April 2009 the artificial earth satellite Kwangmyongsong 2 was launched, knocking at the door of a thriving nation and in December 2012 Kwangmyongsong 3-2, the first applications satellite in the DPRK, was successfully launched. Thus, the DPRK’s national power has reached a very high stage.

The WPK has developed the DPRK politically and ideologically and militarily. Now it is pushing ahead with the building of a civilized socialist country, concentrating its efforts on the building of an economic giant and the improvement of the people’s standard of living.

The sectors of culture are now greeting their heyday: A telemedicine service is being introduced on a high level in the sector of public health, and the universal 11-year compulsory education developed into a 12-year compulsory education in the educational sector; cultural facilities as befits the new century were built or are under construction across the country, including the Rungna People’s Pleasure Park, People’s Theatre, Ryugyong Health Complex and People’s Open-air Ice Rink in Pyongyang; on Masik Pass in the eastern part of the country a world-class ski resort is under construction, and the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium and many other sports facilities and stadiums are being rebuilt. The whole country is bubbling with heated enthusiasm for sports, and this year its athletes took first places in the mixed doubles in the ITTF World Championships, the Asian Marathon Championships and other international games, winning gold medals 2.7 times as many as they got during the corresponding period of last year.

Only victory and glory are in store for the WPK, which has brought about epoch-making changes by leading the people for nearly 70 years.

Kim Jong Un Calls for Holding Kim Jong Il in High Esteem as General Secretary of WPK Forever

RodongSinmun Thursday carried "Let Us Hold Great Comrade Kim Jong Il in High Esteem as General Secretary of Our Party Forever and Successfully Accomplish the Revolutionary Cause of Juche", a talk the dear respected Kim Jong Un had with leading officials of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) on April 6.

In the talk Kim Jong Un said that the Fourth Conference of the WPK is to be held amid great expectation and concern of the people at home and abroad in the run-up to the significant Day of the Sun marking the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung.

Kim Jong Un called for making the Conference serve as a turning point in providing an important landmark in upholding leader Kim Jong Il as eternal leader of the WPK together with Kim Il Sung and successfully realizing their ideas and cause.

 He stressed the need to hold Kim Jong Il in high esteem as general secretary of the WPK forever.

Doing so is a principled requirement for holding fast to his idea and line and victoriously advancing our revolutionary cause, Kim Jong Un noted, adding:

 This is by no means a symbolic meaning. This means invariably having Kim Jong Il at the post of general secretary of the WPK and carrying out the party building and activities in line his idea and intention.

 The idea and line of Kim Jong Il serve as eternal guidelines of our party and revolution and an ever-victorious banner whose validity and vitality have been proven in the revolutionary practice. The victorious advance and completion of our revolutionary cause is unthinkable without his idea and line.

Only when Kim Jong Il is held in high esteem as general secretary of the WPK forever, will it be possible to dynamically advance the revolution and construction and successfully accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche as in the past.

At the Party Conference we are going to declare internally and externally that the WPK is the glorious party of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un said, adding:

The WPK is the party of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il as it holds them in high esteem as eternal leaders.

 The guiding idea of the WPK is the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism.

The Workers' Party of Korea is a glorious party that has Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism as its guiding idea and struggles for their realization.

To model the whole society on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is the supreme programme of the WPK. This is a revolutionary succession to the modeling of the whole society on Kimilsungism and represents its development to a new higher stage.

We should wage a more dynamic struggle to model the whole society on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism just as we waged a strenuous struggle under the wise guidance of Kim Jong Il, regarding the modeling of the whole society on Kimilsungism as the party's supreme programme.

 No matter what difficult and huge revolutionary duty we may face, we are sure to triumph as there are outstanding leaders, eternal sun of Juche, the invincible WPK, the people intensely loyal to the party and the leader as well as the strong revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu.

 We should hold Kim Jong Il in high esteem as the eternal leader of our party and people and glorify his revolutionary career and undying revolutionary feats for all ages.

 Kim Jong Il was a great leader, matchless patriot and kind-hearted leader of the people, the leader who devoted his all to the prosperity of the country and the happiness of its people with absolute loyalty to the President and warm love for the country and its people.

 His life was the most brilliant life of a peerlessly great man who performed undying feats for the party, the revolution, the country and the people true to the noble intention of the President.

 We should carry out all work for holding Kim Jong Il in high esteem for all ages and perpetuating the memory of the leader with pure conscience and moral obligation.

 To develop the WPK into the eternal party of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il means holding fast to Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism as the guiding idea of the WPK and conducting the party building and activities just as was thought and intended by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

 What is important for strengthening the WPK as the eternal party of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il is to more thoroughly establish the party's monolithic leadership system.

 All the party members, servicepersons of the People's Army and other people should uphold the party's ideology and leadership with faith and conscience, rally as firm as an iron wall around the Party Central Committee in thinking and purpose and sense of moral obligation and share their destiny with the party in good or grim days.

 We should strengthen the single-minded unity of the WPK and the revolutionary ranks in every way and thoroughly defend it.

 Single-minded unity is the most valuable revolutionary legacy bequeathed to us by Kim Jong Il and mainstay of the Korean revolution. The single-minded unity in which the leader, the party and the masses are united on the basis of great idea, warm loving care and feelings is the greatest treasure more valuable than hundreds of millions of tons of gold.

 It is essential to deeply respect the people, prioritize their interests and look after their life as their real mothers would do.

 Believing in the people as in Heaven was the maxim of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. True to their noble intention all the work should be conducted with priority given to the demands and interests of the people while boundlessly respecting them.

It is necessary to make the noble and beautiful traits of helping and leading each other forward pervade the whole country and thus make society a great harmonious family in which all its members are united in single mind.

 Kim Jong Un said:

The heroic deeds performed by Pak Thae Son, former miner of the Kumgol Mine, by laying down his valuable life for the collective and comrades and by Ri Chang Son who was a farmer of the Ohyon Co-op Farm of Yonan County are beautiful deeds which can be found only among the people in our era who were raised by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. They set examples for everybody to follow.

 Songun represents our independence, dignity and life. A country with weak military might cannot defend its sovereignty and right to existence but will become plaything and fall victim to the imperialists in the long run. This is a hard fact. So we should consistently hold fast to the work of bolstering the military might.

 The might of Songun represents the might of the People's Army and what is essential in strengthening the military might is to strengthen the People's Army.

 The People's Army should become standard-bearers and a shock brigade not only in defending the country but in carrying out the party's plan for building a thriving nation as the driving force of the revolution. It should also become pace-setters in creating and disseminating Songun culture in the new century.

 The traits of attaching importance to military affairs should be established throughout society and an all-people, nationwide defence system should be consolidated to turn the whole country into an impregnable fortress.

We should bring about a decisive turn in improving the standard of people's living and building an economic power.

We should put forward the people who have trusted in and followed the party only as the happiest people in the world by making the precious assets, which Kim Jong Il provided with much effort, pay off. This was his ardent wish and is the firm determination and will of our party.

 We should wage an unflinching offensive in response to the flames of Hamnam and rapidly develop vanguard economic sectors and basic industrial fields and thus lay a firm foundation for the economic development and increase production in all domains of the national economy.

 Priority should be given to power, coal and metal industries and railway transport. Only then will it be possible to reenergize the national economy and stabilize and improve the people's living standard.

 We should build a knowledge-based economic power in response to the flames of the industrial revolution in the new century.

 We should struggle with a high aim and ideal as intended by Kim Jong Il who used to instruct to look at the world with one's feet planted on one's own land, and thus beat the world in all aspects. In the spirit of exploration and creation displayed by workers in Ryonha who brought about drastic progress in CNC machine tools production, a drive should be waged to push back the frontiers of the latest science and technology to put the country's overall technological equipment on the level of world standard and improve the economic structure to meet the requirements of the era of the knowledge-based economy.

 Efforts should be given to land management to turn the country into a land of bliss.

 Kim Jong Un called for focusing all the issues arising in the economy on the Cabinet and establishing strict discipline and order of solving them under the unified command of the Cabinet.

Being the headquarters responsible for the country's economy, the Cabinet should set a goal and work out strategy for economic development on a scientific and realistic basis under a long-term plan and push forward on its own initiative the work to control, guide and manage overall economic affairs in a unified manner.

 All fields and units should solve all the problems related to the economic undertakings under a full agreement with the Cabinet and thoroughly carry out the Cabinet's decisions and instructions for carrying out the party's economic policy.

 Steady revolutionary turn should be effected in all the fields of the cultural construction including education, public health, literature and arts and sports and efforts should be made to glorify our country as a developed and highly civilized socialist country.

State investment in the education should be increased and modernization of the education be realized. The level of the secondary general education should be drastically raised and university education be strengthened to bring up talented world-level scientists and technicians who would be responsible for the drive for building a thriving socialist nation.

 It is necessary to give full play to the advantages of socialist healthcare system and create and disseminate more masterpieces of the times. Sports should be popularized to make the hot sports wind sweep across the country.

We should make the people create the noble and highly civilized socialist culture as well as enjoy them, thereby injecting vitality and enthusiasm into the whole society.

 In order to bring about a decisive turn in building a thriving socialist nation just as was intended and desired by Kim Jong Il it is necessary to increase the function and role of the party organizations before anything else and officials should fulfill their responsibilities and roles as commanding members of the revolution.

The officials should become true and able persons like Kim Chaek who successfully carried out any tasks, upholding Kim Il Sung. They should stand in the van of the ranks, become scouts blazing a trail and play the role of a locomotive in leading the masses in the field.

 Officials exist for the people, not vice versa.

The officials should learn from Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il's view on the people and share weal and woe with them while sharing meal with them, and work harder and harder for them.

We should accomplish the historic cause of national reunification true to the life-long intention and behests of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

We should conduct positive external activities and contribute to the cause of global independence true to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il's strategy and plan for external activities.

Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are always with us and encourage us. We should bear this in mind and work with redoubled efforts and successfully materialize their plan and desire and thus glorify the new century of the Juche revolution as a century of victory and glory.

THE FLAG OF THE WPK

                       

On the red flag flied in Mt. Paektu

We imprinted a hammer, a sickle and a brush.

Associated with the destiny of the people,

The flag has advanced through the storm of the revolution.

…  …  …

This is a passage of the song “Fly High, Our Party Flag” much in vogue among the Korean people. As it reads, the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) has covered the long road of revolution for scores of years, being responsible for the people’s destiny and flying high its flag.

Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founder of the WPK, said in the following vein:

If there is a “God” in my mind, it is none other than the masses of the people. That is why I had their symbols represented on the flag of the Party when I founded it. The images he meant are a hammer, a sickle and a writing-brush, which symbolize the workers, farmers and intellectuals. The symbols clearly represent the organization, and characteristics and mission of the WPK that is responsible for the destiny of the working masses and takes care of them.

The WPK, ever since its founding on October 10, 1945, has held most dearly the people and devoted itself to taking care of their destiny. Various democratic reforms including agrarian reform, nationalization of major industries, and proclamation of the law on sex equality were enforced in Korea after it had been liberated from the military occupation of the Japanese imperialists, putting forward the masses as the full-fledged masters of the means of production and society. Such people-oriented policies as universal free medical care and education and the abolition of taxation system have been effected, cementing rock-firm the social system which meets people’s desire and aspirations. The WPK has thus ushered in a new era of history in which the masses of the people, who had been the objects of exploitation and domination in the past, emerged as the genuine masters of the society and their own destiny, and administered a new people-oriented politics.

Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) carried forward brilliantly Kim Il Sung’s noble idea “The people are my God” and further developed the WPK into a mother Party that devotes its all to the people. He said that he worshipped the people most and he was a servant of the working masses, and that flowers should be brought into bloom even on a rock if that was what the people wanted.

He regarded it as his motto and will, and administered politics of affection for the people, taking the whole responsibility for their life and destiny. Once he ordered the military to send dozens of planes to search for a fisher girl who had been carried away on the tide while collecting shellfish on a winter night.  The other time he enlisted army units in an emergency campaign to save human lives from a disastrous flood. Such heart-warming stories are numerous.

He set forth a slogan “We serve the people!” for the WPK, which, true to it, has faithfully performed its mission and duty for the destiny and happiness of the people.

The flag of the WPK that is associated with the destiny of the masses has neither flinched in all sorts of trials of history nor dulled its red colour. In the closing years of last century when several socialist countries lowered their red flags and abandoned their people’s destiny, the WPK held higher its red flag.

Kim Jong Il set out on the road of Songun to deal with the extreme anti-socialist offensives of the imperialists and safeguard the destiny of the people. His Songun politics reliably defended the socialism of Korea, a cradle of its people, and brought about a radical turn in building a thriving socialist country that promises its people a greater happiness.

The flag of the WPK that has fluttered high for decades, bearing the responsibility for the destiny of the people, is now being held up higher by its First Secretary Kim Jong Un. Setting it as a fundamental principle of the WPK’s activities to consider people’s conveniences to be absolute and the highest priority, he put forth a slogan “Everything for the people and everything by relying on them!” It mirrors his determination to imbue the entire party with the spirit of love and trust for the people. With this intention he is now leading the Korean people’s efforts to develop the economy and culture of the country in order to make them enjoy all the benefits of socialism.

The Korean people are unshakable in their faith to vigorously advance toward a bright future, flying the flag of the WPK forever.  Reflecting their faith, the song “Fly Higher, Our Party Flag” is reverberating through the DPRK that marks the 68^th founding anniversary of the Party.

Over the clear sky with shining sun and stars

Party flag flies generation after generation.

Even though we abandon our lives

We will never lay down the flag of Juche Party.

Fly high, our Party flag,

Over the peak of socialism it will fly forever.

Brilliant Life

September 22, 2014 is the 65^th anniversary of the demise of Kim Jong Suk (1917-1949), who is admired by the Korean people. Though she lived a short life, she left an unforgettable memory in the heart of the people.

Immortal Traces

Kim Jong Suk was born into a poor peasant’s family in Hoeryong, located at the northern tip of Korea.  She went to an alien land at her early age with her parents to seek for a living with a deep sense of sorrow of the ruined nation due to the military occupation of Korea by the Japanese imperialists (1905-1945). She set out on the road of the anti-Japanese revolution out of desire to liberate the country by repelling the Japanese imperialists and build it into a prosperous, independent and sovereign state where people live happily.

Having cherished such a desire she joined in the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (KPRA) led by Kim Il Sung in September 1935 and fought with arms in her hand till the liberation of Korea.

It is beyond imagination that a woman spends a decade, eating and sleeping under the open sky, and fights an armed struggle. However, she demonstrated her outstanding military wisdom and resourcefulness, dauntless courage and bravery and excellent marksmanship in many battlefields during the arduous anti-Japanese war, thus winning a reputation as an anti-Japanese heroine. When the KPRA conducted a grand counterattack against the spring offensive of the Japanese in 1938 she was awarded a gold ring from Kim Il Sung for her distinguished services.

The slogans written on the trees by anti-Japanese fighters are good illustrations of her military performance. They read: “Twenty million Korean people, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk are generals to liberate Korea,” “Kim Jong Suk, anti-Japanese heroine of Mt. Paektu, is a peerless woman borne by Korea,” “Woman general of Mt. Paektu mows down Japs, shortening the distance and deploying elusive tactics,” and so on.

After Korea’s liberation (August 15, 1945) Kim Jong Suk performed great achievements in the efforts to build a new Korea.

Though she lived in the liberated country for only four years she left her indelible traces all across the country. She visited on over 700 occasions hundreds of units including steel and iron works and railways under rehabilitation, textile and silk mills, coal and other mines, rural and fishery villages, and encouraged the people to the building of a new society. She made a significant contribution to laying solid military foundation for the building of a new Korea by developing the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army into a regular army, the Korean People’s Army, while inspecting Pyongyang School, military schools, infantry corps, tank and airforce units.

Finally on September 9, 1948 the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a people-oriented state she had desired so much, was founded.

For the Safety and Good Health of Kim Il Sung

In the Korean Revolution Museum on Mansu Hill in the central part of Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK, people do not easily take their eyes off a picture in portrayal of a battle in Dashahe, China, during the anti-Japanese armed struggle.

Kim Il Sung, commander of the KPRA, commands the battle from a rock, and enemy soldiers are stealing towards him, taking aim at him. At this critical moment, Kim Jong Suk races to Kim Il Sung, shielding him with her own body and shooting the enemy soldiers with her Mauser…

It was only a few seconds but every second was a critical moment decisive of the destiny of Korea. Many literary works, including novels, films and art works, represented that life-or-death situation.

Not only in the Dashahe battle but in many other battlefields she always threw herself as a human bomb to ensure the personal safety of Kim Il Sung.

Even after the liberation her loyalty to him remained unchanged. In the complicated situation just after the liberation she was always in the nearest place beside him and stood guard without being relieved.

Kim Jong Suk devoted her whole for the safety and good health of Kim Il Sung.

During the anti-Japanese armed struggle amid continuing severe battles she washed his clothes and dried them by her body temperature in a bitter cold weather, made shoe liners by thinning out her hair and an overcoat with silk cotton known as bullet-proof material. Such heartwarming stories move the people into admiration.

Kim Jong Suk defended at the cost of her life the ideas and lines put forward by Kim Il Sung. In January 1939 she went to a secret camp in Qingfeng with wounded and sick soldiers on his order. When she witnessed that the chief of the camp slandered the ideas and lines of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Suk stood up against him at the cost of her life.

“We are soldiers of General Kim Il Sung. Who are you? You are an enemy of revolution. The revolution will never pardon you.”

Kim Jong Suk will be remembered forever by the Korean people as an incarnation of devotedly defending the leader.

Kim Jong Un Sends Letter to Participants in Meeting of Primary Organization Cadres of Youth League

Pyongyang, September 19 (KCNA) -- Marshal Kim Jong Un sent letter "Let Youth Become Vanguard Fighters Intensely Loyal to the Songun Revolutionary Cause of the Party" to the participants in the 4th meeting of primary organization cadres of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League on September 18, Juche 103 (2014).

In the letter Kim Jong Un said that President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il loved the youth most and devoted great wisdom and energy to the work with the youth all their lives.

The President began his revolutionary activities in his early years by going among young people and rallying them around fighting ranks as comrades sharing life and death, he said, and went on:

The President set forth the unique idea of attaching importance to the youth, successfully embodied it and brought up them as powerful vanguard ranks for the revolution and dependable reserve of the party.

Kim Jong Il, carrying forward the President's idea of attaching importance to the youth, handed to the youth the torch of the revolution and made sure that the youth league shined with the august name of the President.

He also provided energetic leadership so that the youth creditably discharged their mission and duties before the times and the revolution.

Kim Jong Un recalled in the letter that youth have covered a glorious path, glorifying the annals of the revolution with heroic feats and proud victories under the wise guidance and warm loving care of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. He went on:

The youth who represented the first generation of the Korean revolution achieved the historical cause of Korea's liberation by making long journeys for bloody battles against the Japanese imperialists, holding Kim Il Sung in high esteem as the sun of the nation, and set a shining example in safeguarding the leader at the cost of their lives.

The young people fought heroically in the Fatherland Liberation War, shouting "Long Live General Kim Il Sung!", thus bringing July 27, the day of victory. In the postwar period of socialist construction, too, they performed world-startling feats in difficult and labor-consuming fields, taking the lead in upholding the intentions of the party and the leader, and thus fully demonstrated the heroic stamina of Chollima Korea.

During the unprecedentedly grim period of the Arduous March, the forced march, they set their hearts ablaze with their fixed will to share destiny with Kim Jong Il to the end, strikingly demonstrating the invincible might of Songun Korea in defending socialism and in confrontation with the U.S.

Kim Jong Un stressed that the tradition of devotedly defending the leader, the tradition of heroic struggle that was created and has been successfully carried forward in the annals of the revolution, is precious revolutionary wealth and an eternal banner of victory which our youth should carry forward generation after generation.

He added that the present era is the era of dynamic struggles, a new era of the Juche revolution, as an all-out charge is being made to achieve the final victory of the revolution under the uplifted banner of the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism under the leadership of the party.

He called on the youth to creditably perform their role as the young vanguard of the party by devoting their energies, wisdom and enthusiasm to the on-going historical advance.

He stressed that "Let Youth Become Vanguard Fighters Intensely Loyal to the Songun Revolutionary Cause of the Party!" is a militant slogan to be held up by the Korean youth.

He continued:

Young people should remain true to the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea and become a fortress and shield devotedly safeguarding the party.

They should become vanguard fighters implementing the party's ideology and defending the party's policies and become a death-defying corps in defending the socialist motherland.

They should establish the traits of always prizing arms and attaching importance to military affairs and resolutely foil the imperialists' ideological and cultural poisoning.

They should become vanguard fighters and shock-brigade members in building a thriving socialist nation and pace-setters in pushing back the frontiers of the latest science and technology and take the lead in ushering in the heyday of a highly civilized socialist nation.

Kim Jong Un clarified the position and role the primary organizations of the youth league have in making sure that the young people successfully perform their honorable mission as the young vanguard of the party in the new era.

He expressed his conviction that all young people would fully display the heroic stamina as the young vanguard in the historical advance for accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Songun under the leadership of the party.

Association for Human Rights Studies Spokesman on Report on Human Rights Performance in DPRK

Pyongyang, September 13 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies Saturday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards a report on the human rights policy pursued in the DPRK and its human rights mechanism:

A report of the DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies was released amid concern and expectation of the public at home and abroad. It reflects the characteristics of the socialist system of the DPRK, its human rights policy and actual human rights performance.

The U.S. and its followers, steeped in repugnancy toward the DPRK, faked up an "investigation committee", not content with pulling up it over its "human rights issue". They prodded the "committee" into releasing a "report" based on false data cooked up by riff-raffs, further intensifying the anti-DPRK "human rights" campaign.

The report made public by the "Committee for Investigating Human Rights Situation in Korea" is no more than a dead document as it is peppered with "testimonies" made by swindlers who "defected from the north," speculation and enmity, not mentioning the human rights policy and mechanisms in the DPRK.

Now that the hostile forces are abusing the human rights issue to tarnish the image of the dignified DPRK and emasculate the idea and social system chosen by the Korean people, the Association released the report to probe the truth and properly inform the world of the actual human rights performance in the DPRK.

The report gives historical, comprehensive and systemic account of all consistent efforts made by the DPRK to let the people enjoy genuine human rights while giving top priority to the rights and interests of the popular people and absolutizing them since its foundation. It also discloses that the anti-DPRK human rights campaign by the U.S. and other hostile forces is an act of encroaching upon the human rights of the people of the DPRK.

The report also clarifies the DPRK's stand on the international cooperation for protecting and promoting human rights.

What the DRPK has opposed is the human rights dialogue which was used by some states as a means to realize their vicious political purposes such as interference in other's internal affairs and act to topple governments. The DPRK has made sincere efforts for the international cooperation in the field of human rights.

The report was worked out with positive cooperation among domestic institutions, NGOs, academic organizations, human rights experts in various fields and individual citizens of the DPRK. It will be conducive to make the world have a clear understanding of the DPRK's human rights policy and mechanisms and know about the deceptive and reactionary nature of the anti-DPRK human rights campaign by the hostile forces.

The DPRK will as ever do its best to lay bare and frustrate the anti-DPRK human rights campaign by the hostile forces and provide the people with better conditions to enjoy human rights, and promote the international dialogue and cooperation for ensuring the genuine human rights.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE DPRK

All citizens who have reached the age of 17 have the right to elect and to be elected, irrespective of sex, race, occupation, length of residence, property status, education, party affiliation, political views or religious belief.

Workers accounted for 12.7% of the deputies to the 13^th Supreme People’s Assembly (parliament) of the DPRK elected in March this year, while farmers 11.1% and women 16.3%. These figures intuitively show on how high a level the people’s political rights are displayed.

In the DPRK all the people conduct free political activities affiliated with various political parties including the Workers’ Party, Social Democratic Party and Chondoist Chongu Party and social organizations.

 The country provides legal guarantee to the rights to speech, the press, assembly, demonstration and religious belief. Let us take religious belief as an example. There are many legal religious organizations in the country. Typical religious buildings are Jangchung Cathedral, Pongsu Church, Jongbaek Orthodox Church and Pohyon Temple in Mt. Myohyang.

The country has already solved such social problems as exploitation and oppression of man by man and the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Provided with every condition necessary for living by the state and society, all people lead an equal and stable life.

From their childhood they take it for granted that they lead a stable life at the expense of the state. In the DPRK every member of society is fully provided with all rights of a social being including the rights to work, rest, free education and free medical care.

The country’s labour law reads in part; Unemployment has disappeared in the DPRK once and for all. In fact, a jobless person is nowhere to be seen in the country. Any person able to work has the right to select a job in accordance with his hope and aptitude and the state provides all the people with stable jobs. Honoured disabled ex-soldiers and weak and disabled persons are also provided with corresponding jobs.

The country enforces a free universal 12-year compulsory education system, which is considered to be the highest level of education in the world. There is a school in any place where there are children of school age, be it an out-of-the-way mountainous area and a small lighthouse islet. University and college students study, even receiving stipends.

Every citizen in the DPRK receives medical treatment free of charge on equal terms, be he or she, a government official, an ordinary worker or a farmer and irrespective of sex, age, place of residence, occupation and property status. The country’s free medical care system is a perfect and thoroughgoing one by which all that are necessary for medical treatment are offered free of charge. Under the free medical care system a daughter of a road maintenance worker was cured of her paraplegia free of charge and a chartered plane carried an ordinary worker’s wife pregnant with triplets to the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital. Such phenomena, which are difficult to find in other part of the world, have become a daily occurrence in the DPRK.

Regarding the construction of dwelling houses as an important undertaking to provide the people with conditions for a cultural and stable life, the state pays close attention to it. Of particular note here is that the state builds all the houses at its expense and provides them to the people gratis. Over the recent years ordinary lecturers, researchers and other working people moved to new homes in modern Changjon Street, Unha Scientists Street and apartment blocks for the lecturers of Kim Il Sung University.

The elderly, disabled and children with no one to support them are taken care of at the expense of the state.

In the DPRK women have equal social positions and rights with men and enjoy special social benefits. Through various policies like granting maternity leave, shortening working hours of mothers with several children and building more maternity houses, nurseries and kindergartens, the state takes special care of mothers and children. Prolific mothers are awarded the title of Mother Hero.

Marriage and the family are protected by the law. Citizens are guaranteed inviolability of the person and the home, privacy of correspondence and all other human rights.

That human rights are excellently ensured in the DPRK is because the country is guided by the Juche idea.

The Juche idea, a man-centred world outlook, holds up man as the most powerful and precious being in the world and demands that everything serves the people. It is quite natural that human rights should be ensured on the highest level in a country which is guided by such an idea.

It is not fortuitous that a US evangelist Billy Graham said after he visited the DPRK; I did not think it necessary to evangelize the country. Both Old and New Testaments are permeated with the God’s love for man. However, the country pursued philanthropy running through the Testaments as state policies. Then why did I need the Testaments in such a country?