Anniversary of the Election of Kim Jong Il

as the General Secretary of the WPK

Kim Jong Il was elected the general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea on October 8, 1997. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was in a difficult situation that time.

The US- led imperialist forces were intensifying than ever before their political and military pressure, economic sanctions and blockade against socialist Korea, with a view to completely stamping out the existence of the globe after the collapse of socialism in the Eastern European countries in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The Korean people suffered the greatest national loss on July 8, 1994—the death of Kim Il Sung who had led the country over half a century. To make things worse, they encountered the worst economic difficulties and shortage of food caused by the natural calamities which hit the country for several consecutive years. The DPRK had to launch a severe struggle to defend socialism. Given the situation, Kim Jong Il unfolded the blueprint for the bright future for the Korean people---plan for building a great, prosperous and powerful socialist country whose national power is strong, and where everything prospers and the people live with nothing to envy in the world. The successful launch in August 1997 of the artificial earth satellite, Kwangmyonsong No. 1 , which was made entirely by its own efforts, was the solemn declaration which heralded the start of the building of a thriving nation.

In order to crush the aggressive maneuvers of the imperialists by strengthening the politico-ideological might and military strength of the country, he formulated Songun politics as the basic political mode of socialism, and thoroughly applied it through his continuous field inspections of army units.

The WPK adopted measures to establish the atmosphere of attaching importance to military affairs throughout society and emulate the revolutionary soldier spirit.

The Korean people responded to his Songun politics with all their heart. The army broke through the economic difficulties standing in the van and the civilians supported the army more sincerely in the course of which the traditional single-hearted unity of the Korean society has reached a new, higher plane. The overall national power of the country has been strengthened remarkably, with the result that it came to possess a powerful nuclear deterrent.

The WPK’s policies of developing the economy of the country at the earliest possible date have been realized brilliantly one by one.

Numerous hydroelectric power stations have been built in the country. The Korean people realigned the paddy and non-paddy fields across the country into the standardized plots and built gravitational waterways to the brilliant implementation of the decision of the WPK on strengthening the foundations of the agricultural development.

True to Kim Jong Il’s aphorism of keeping their feet firmly planted on their land and looking out over the world and WPK’s idea of pushing back the frontiers of science and technology, the Korean people secured the supremacy in the CNC technology and are achieving marvelous success in such domains as the nuclear, space, and bioengineering technologies. The WPK’s line of building an independent national economy is also being implemented with credit as a new steel-making system using no cokes and scrap iron has been established, the line of producing fertilizer based on coal gasification installed and the line of producing vinalon fiber renovation to rely on the resource abundant in the country.

In 2011, too, Korea set it as its key goal to improve the people’s living standards and focus its investment on developing light industry and agriculture. Every province, not to mention the capital city of Pyongyang, has built a general foodstuff factory equipped with modern facilities and run them at full capacity; renovated factories of light industry are producing daily necessities of high quality. The construction of 100, 000 flats is under way full steam in Pyongyang, and the large-scale Huichon Power Station, which was scheduled to be finished by 2012, is near completion.

In a word, it can be said that the Korean people have already laid possible foundations on which to translate into reality the goals set by the WPK, to open the gates of thriving nation by 2012, greeting the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung, founding father of socialist Korea.

The Conference of the Worker’s Party of Korea convened in September 2010 adopted a decision on reelecting Kim Jong Il to the helm of the Party. When the decision was made public the whole country was instantly thrown into a festive mood, and everyone came outside to dance and cheer.

These were a vivid picture of the Korean people, who absolutely support and trust their leader and entrust their destiny and future entirely on the WPK headed by him.