Pyongyang Folklore Park

The newly-built Pyongyang Folklore Park at the foot of Mt. Taesong is an open-air museum which intensively showcases the time-honoured history and brilliant culture of Korea and a cultural resort for the people.

The folklore park consists of areas for general history education, historical relic’s exhibition, contemporary times, folklore village and folk games.

The general history education area has nine boards explaining the periods of prosperity, founders, patriotic and celebrated generals and personages of the successive states in the Korean history, and the struggles against aggression, scientific and cultural progress and characteristic folk customs in the given periods.

The historical relics exhibition area displays a fine choice of historical remains and relics associated with the skills and wisdom of the Korean people that date from the period of the primitive society, the first stage of development in human history, to the last feudal state of Korea.

The contemporary times area shows in miniature scores of the monumental edifices that have been built in the DPRK under the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, including Kim Il Sung Square, the Grand People’s Study House, the Korean Revolution Museum, the Mansudae Art Theatre, the West Sea Barrage, etc.

The folklore village area exhibits the structures that were built in the period of Koguryo such as office buildings, temples and castles as well as the representative buildings dating back to Palhae, Koryo and the last feudal state of Korea. All of them have been restored to their original forms, thus giving a vivid impression of the old times.

The folk games area is made up of playing grounds and places for taking meals. It provides the visitors with an opportunity to relax themselves, playing the folk games created by their ancestors endowed with diligence, bravery and resourcefulness.

The Pyongyang Folklore Park has been built not only on the principle of fidelity to the historical truth but in conformity with architectural requirements so that everyone can witness and experience the Korean history and culture.

Defender of Socialism

December 24 this year marks the 21^th anniversary of the appointment of     Kim Jong Il, leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), a historic event in defending and adding luster to socialism.

After the collapse of socialism in several countries between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the US-led imperialist allied forces focused all their efforts on suffocating the socialist Korea, clamouring about the “complete end of socialism.”

This resulted in the nuclear crisis in March 1993, which created a touch-and-go situation on the Korean peninsula. The US instigated the International Atomic Energy Agency to adopt a resolution on “special inspection” of military sites in the DPRK. To give military support to this, it staged the largest-ever “Team Spirit” joint military exercise, a nuclear test war, in south Korea. The destiny of socialist Korea was literally at stake.

But the response from Pyongyang was a bolt from the blue. On March 8, a day just before the war game entered upon actual manoeuvres, an order of Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il declaring a state of semi-war across the country was made public. According to this order, he KPA and all the civilians went into a state of complete war readiness to defend socialism. Four days later, the DPRK government made public a bombshell declaration on withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Dispirited by the courage and mettle of the country, which is not daunted by any adversities and in the face of any formidable enemy, the imperialist forces had no other choice but to come to the negotiation table. This led to the publication of the DPRK-USA Joint Statement (June 1993) and the DPRK-USA Agreed Framework (October 1994), in which the US promised that it would respect the DPRK’s political system the socialist system, refrain from threatening this country by nuclear weapons, seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula and normalize the bilateral relations in the future. In other words, the US that had tried to stifle socialist Korea recognized it.

On New Year’s Day 1995, the first year after the death of President Kim Il Sung (July 8, 1994) founder of socialist Korea, Kim Jong Il inspected a KPA unit called the “Dwarf-Pine Post.” The inspection was effectively a solemn declaration that he would defend socialism to the last, holding higher the banner of Sogun.

Kim Jong Il has paid primary attention to increasing the KPA’s political and ideological might in every way. He holds that an army not steadfast in ideology can neither win in action nor defend the country and the people.

He has ensured that the principle of giving priority to ideological work both in army building and military activities is invariable maintained, and that all the KPA service personal are armed with socialist ideas. During his incessant inspections of KPA units, he has displayed deep concern for their ideological and spiritual life, sometimes familiarizing himself with the books read by them and other times enjoying art performances given by them.

In the late 1990s he formulated the Songun politics as the main political mode of socialism, and raised the service personnel to the main force of the revolution, thus consolidating the foundation of Korean socialism more firmly.

His efforts were also directed to raising the KPA’s military and technical strength.

Whenever he inspects the KPA units, he watches with keen interest the soldier’s exercises and teaches the officers the details of the strategies and tactics that conform with the country’s actual conditions and the requirements of modern warfare. He also provides guidance for the joint military exercises staged by the KPA units of all armies and services and their joint exercises, perfecting their overall combat preparedness on a higher level.

He shows deep concern towards the country’s defense industry and sees to it that modern military hardware are fully produced and supplied by the country’s own efforts and techniques. Under his guidance Korea has become able to be possessed of a reliable war deterrent. In October 2010 a large-scale military parade, in which interceptor missile system and other up-to-date military hardware made their debut, was held in Pyongyang on the occasion of the 65^th founding anniversary of the Worker’s Party of Korea, an opportunity for the world to get a glimpse of the great military strength of Korea.

With the backing of the immense military strength, the Korean people are stepping up the building of a thriving socialist country, unaffected by the incessant challenges and military threats of the US and other hostile forces. 

 

Kim Jong Il’s Achievements in Party Building

Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) started work at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of  Korea on June 19, 1964. For about half a century of leading the WPK, he performed outstanding feats in Party building. What is the greatest is that he developed the WPK into a solid integral whole in ideology and achieved the unity and cohesion in it. He made sure that the WPK was strengthened and developed, only guided by the Juche idea created by President Kim Il Sung, founding father of socialist Korea.

The modeling of the whole Party on the Juche idea he put forward in the 1970s marked a historic event of important significance in strengthening and developing the WPK into the Juche-type revolutionary party. He made public in March 1982 the classic work On the Juche Idea, thus comprehensively systematizing the Juche idea and enriching it into the great guiding ideology for the cause of independence. This also served as another momentum in carrying out the building and activities of the WPK as required by the Juche idea.

Kim Jong Il developed and enriched the Juche idea without interruption in keeping with the demand of the times and the developing revolution. After the demise of Kim Il Sung in July 1994, he held fast to the Juche idea as the guiding ideology of the Party and thoroughly implemented it. And he developed the Songun idea and line that rooted in the Juche idea as required by the times, thus formulating a powerful political mode of socialism, Songun politics, unprecedented in the world.

He constantly put it forward as an important demand of Party building to achieve the unity and cohesion of the Party. He ensured that all the Party members were fully armed with the Juche idea and the Party policies, its embodiment, and never tolerated the heterogeneous ideological trends that were detrimental to the unity and cohesion of the Party. That’s how the WPK came to achieve the unity in ideology and purpose and in moral obligation, based on one idea and around one centre, and displays to the fullest its ever-victorious might as the guiding force of the Korean society.

He also saw to it that the WPK stipulated in its rules that the WPK is the eternal party of Comrade Kim Il Sung and would carry forward the tradition of the unity and cohesion through generations. It was wholly attributable to the unity and cohesion, the strongest weapon, that the WPK emerged victorious in the struggle to defend socialism and brought about a radical phase of building a thriving country in spite of the grim situation created toward the end of the last century. That the WPK has developed as a genuine motherly party that serves the people constitutes another outstanding exploit Kim Jong Il performed in Party building.

He regarded it as the WPK’s aim and mission that it works and exists for realizing the independence of the masses of the people and it should not only unite them around itself but take responsible care of them in order to realize their demand for independence and interests. He set it as an important principle in the Party work method that the Party work is precisely the work with man and all Party officials should go among the people to lend their ears to them and solve the problems in their life in time.

He ensured that even a line and a policy were formulated to mirror the people’s will and intention and never to infringe upon their interests. Under his leadership the WPK continued to put into effect the universal free medical care and free compulsory education systems at the end of the last century, too, when Korea was undergoing the worst hardship and difficulties amid the concentrated anti-socialist offensives of the imperialists. The line of building a thriving nation is, in the final analysis, aimed at making people lead a happy life with nothing to envy in the world by radically improving the people’s standard of living. To solve the people’s food problem, the coal gasification is introduced into large fertilizer complexes. Modern fruit farms such as the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm with an area of over 1 000 hectares are built throughout the country, and the fruit processing and foodstuff factories constructed on a high standard are paying off handsomely. The pig, poultry and fish farms and solar-heat energy greenhouses are being mushroomed, enriching the people’s dietary life. Introduction of the cutting-edge technology into the venison production lines based on the domestic raw materials is bringing about changes in fibre and other chemical goods production.

Kim Jong Il paid a special attention to the WPK’s efforts to make the people lead a plentiful

and civilized life to their heart’s content. He continued to give field guidance at the Kaeson Youth Park, Hana Music Information Centre, Kwangbok Area Supermarket and other places even in the last days of his life. Apartment houses in the Masudae area, a dolphinarium, an outdoor ice rink and a health complex of the latest style are now under construction in Pyongyang. They are the gifts the WPK

presents to the people on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung, as wished by Kim Jong Il.

Though Kim Jong Il passed away, the WPK venerated him as its eternal General Secretary. His exploits made in Party building will shine forever along with the ever-victorious WPK.

 

Life devoted to Women’s Emancipation

Kim Jong Suk (December 24, 1917 – September 22, 1949), who is held in high esteem by the Korean people as an anti-Japanese heroine, was an outstanding woman activist who devoted her whole life to women’s social emancipation and the development of their movement.

In the days fo the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism (1905-1945), she led the Korean women to turn out in the struggle for the country’s liberation and the women’s emancipation.

Kim Jong Suk participated in the anti-Japanese war commanded by Kim Il Sung, founding father of socialist Korea, winning the fame as an anti-Japanese heroine and woman general of Mt. Paektu. Thanks to her warm care, many women were trained to be excellent revolutionaries.

It happened when she was engaged for several months from April 1937 in underground activities in Taoquanli, northest China. She taught the village women, who had been under darkness and ignorance, their letters, brought home to them the fundamentals of the revolution, and formed the Anti-Japanese Women’s Association by involving them. Saying that in order for the women to be freed from rightlessness and inequality and achieve social emancipation they should turn turn out in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle led by Kim Il Sung , she ensured that they assisted the KPRA (Korean People’s Revolutionary Army) in every way. Along with this, she made sure that they played a big role in reconnoitring the enemy movements for successful military operations of the KPRA. Exploits of Kim Jong Suk and other women were permeated in the victorious Phochonbo Battle on June 4, 1937, which announced to the world that the Korean nation would not live as slaves of Japanese imperialism and would surely win back their country’s independence by fighting Japanese imperialism.

In the early 1940s, when military and political training for final battle for national liveration was underway, she stood in the van of such drills as parachuting, river-crossing and skiing, which even men soldiers, found difficult, encouraging women guerrillas to gain excellent marks.

After the country’s liberation(August 1945), she, while actively assisting Kim Il Sung in his work, motivated women to turn out in the effort for building a new society.

Just from the stage of formulating its programme after the country’s liberation, the Korean women’s movement encountered various assertions: some insisted that the theory of defending human rights and the programme advocated by women the socialist women campaigners of the past should be copied mechanically. Having learned of this fact, she presented her view that the foremost task of the Democratic Women’s Union of North Korea was to enlist women in the effort to found the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the major political task of the Worker’s Party of Korea. She enlighted officials of the women’s union, saying that the programme of the union should contain such issues as thorough liberation of women from the colonial and feudal exploitation, elevation of their political and economic positions, abolishing of the feudal evils of maltreating women and their emancipating from centuries-old ignorance and darkness. The first programme drawn up under her deep care won the unanimous approval at the First Conference of the DWUNK held in May 1946, and the Korean women and the DWUNK organizations were able to confidently advance with their clear objecive.

Kim Jong Suk also paid her deep attention to building up the DWUNK and rallying the broad sections of women around it. She said to officials of the union that the DWUNK should be political organiation in which all Korean women, who loved the country, were rallied as one to strive for the building of a new country, adding that if women who accounted for half of the total population were united as one they could display their great strength. As a result, the union whose membership numbered 150 000 as of November 1945 increased to a million by late 1946.

With a great importance attached to improving the women’s political and ideological standards, she used togo deep among them toconduct the explanatory and publicity work.

She visited many factories, including the Pyongyang Cornstarch Factory and the then Pyongyang Silk Mill, to arouse women in the efforts to build a new country. She took a lead in the Pothong River improvement project, the first nature-harnessing project in liberated Korea, with a pannier on her back, arounsing women in the patriotic work and, through this, encouraging them to display their strength.

True to Kim Il Sung’s instructions that it would be advisable for the women’s union to train women officials needed for nation building, she actively helped the work to set up model technical school for training women officials and technicians. Thus, competent women officials were trained in a short period in the liberated country to become pillars for the building of a new society.

The undying exploits she achieved for women’s emancipation and the strengthening and development of the women’s movement will shine forever with the history of ever-prospering socialist Korea.