Kim Jong Un, TIME’s 2012 Person of the Year

The US weekly TIME announced after summing up the events of 2012 that Kim Jong Un headed the short list of the 2012 Person of the Year. The newsmagazine picked by online voting the persons who distinguished themselves in 2012 in the political, economic, military, cultural and other sectors of state administration and social life. The leader of the DPRK was voted the 2012 Person of the Year by an overwhelming majority.

In the Spotlight of the World

Never before in history has been recorded such a statesman as the Korean leader who attracted worldwide attention upon entering the political arena.

He was thrown into the limelight of the international community in September 2010, when at the Third Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea he was elected Vice Chairman of the Military Commission of its Central Committee. The mass media vied to convey the news and CNN ranked him among the Top Tens.

According to the search result on Google for access to information about Kim Jong Un during the ten days after the demise of Chairman Kim Jong Il of the DPRK National Defence Commission in December 2011, there were 67.4 million hits, or some 230 000 an hour, in English version. Estimated with the inclusion of the number of hits in non-English versions, it would not be hard to perceive the extraordinary concern of the international community about the young Korean leader.

The youngest leader who attracted the greatest attention in the shortest period—this was the gist of the comments in the press.

In 2012 the major media of the world designated him as the notable person of the year. TIME featured his photograph on the cover of its issue for the last week of February.

Brilliant Political Activities

“Brilliant” does not suffice to define Kim Jong Un’s political activities in 2012.

On the first day of the year he inspected the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105^th Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army, the unit associated with the activities of President Kim Il Sung, founding father of socialist Korea, and Chairman Kim Jong Il, guardian of the socialist cause.

All the year round he was on his inspection trips around the army, navy, air and anti-aircraft, and strategic rocket units.

These trips are noteworthy as they were not made on ordinary days. In August when the US and south Korean armies were in the throes of a joint war game Kim Jong Un made his way to Jangjae Islet in the southwestern front on board a small wooden vessel unescorted. The news was a great surprise as the islet was a danger spot within a stone’s throw of Yonphyong Island which saw an exchange of fierce artillery firing between the north and the south of Korea in November 2010. As the next leg of his trip he inspected a unit defending the nearby Mu Islet, where he ordered with a resolute tone that if the enemy dared fire a shell to the DPRK’s territory amid its bungled military action, the unit must not restrict it to a local war in the southwestern front but lead it to a sacred war for national reunification.

The personality of the Korean leader, who has inherited Chairman Kim Jong Il’s Songun politics, matchless courage and pluck, left a deep impression on the outside world.

In a year he made pubic over ten works illumining the road ahead of the Korean people, including Let Us March Forward Dynamically towards Final Victory, Holding Higher the Banner of Songun (April 15), On Bringing About a Revolutionary Turn in Land Administration in Line with the Demands for Building a Thriving Socialist Country (April 27) and Let Us Step Up the Building of a Thriving Country by Applying Kim Jong Il’s Patriotism (July 26).

The Korean leader set it as his priority task to achieve economic prosperity and improve the people’s standard of living, giving field guidance at factories, enterprises, construction sites and cultural service facilities. He visited time and again such construction projects as Changjon Street known as a hub of luxury dwellings for ordinary citizens, Rungna People’s Pleasure Park including the dolphinarium, the alpa mare, the minigolf course and the amusement park, and Ryugyong Health Complex with bathrooms, hairdresser’s, saunas and a fitness centre. Literally, he spared no trouble to provide the citizens with the best conditions for their cultural life.

This year a series of events were arranged on his own initiative: in April the military parade in celebration of the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung; in June the celebrations marking the 66^th anniversary of the Korean Children’s Union; in July the celebrations marking the 59^th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War; in August the Youth Day celebration conference; in October the celebrations of the anniversary of the revolutionary schools; and in November the celebration of Mother’s Day.

Gao Haorong, a scholar at the World Problems Study Centre under the Xinhua News Agency in China, characterized these celebrations as an “unprecedentedly extensive scale comprising all citizens ranging from babbling children to grey-haired people.” Kim Jong Un attended most of the celebrations, delivering speeches or sending letters, posing for a photograph with the participants and sending gifts.

There are other impressive episodes showing the harmonious ties between the leader and his people.

After the completion of the construction of Changjon Street he visited the new flats of workers and teachers and toasted them. When seeing children, he held them in his warm embrace and stroked their cheeks, his benevolent image touching the heartstrings of the people. This year he took measures to supply the newly-harvested fruits and fresh fish to kindergartens and nurseries on a preferential basis. He also read the naïve letters addressed to him by children and autographed them giving his blessings for their rosy future.

Kim Jong Un is the father of all the Korean people. This year he adopted a series of steps for the benefit of the people: the promulgation of the law on enforcing the universal 12-year compulsory education; the construction of the Breast Tumour Institute of the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital and the conversion of a facility attached to the army into a fitness centre for civilian use. Mass cultural activities gained in scope and a hot wind of sports swept all over the country. All the people are full of conviction and optimism as they are marching forward towards the goal of building a thriving nation.

Indeed, Kim Jong Un made the most brilliant achievements in all sectors of state administration and social life.

The Korean leader will attract more attention of the international community.

National Strength of the DPRK

The DPRK launched its first application satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2 into outer space, demonstrating its national strength once again.

In fact it is not so easy for a country to manufacture, launch and control a satellite by relying entirely on its domestic forces.

The acme of a country’s industrial prowess, space industry cannot be built or operated without the support of a synthesis of advances in cutting-edge science and technology, as well as the support of competent personnel in different technological fields.

The body of a launch vehicle comprises a great many parts, sophisticated and complex, which are made of special metals. These metals should withstand the harsh conditions in outer space. Advanced nations keep to themselves the secret of making the fuel of the giant launch vehicle. The computer technology for controlling the satellite in outer space at a ground station should reach the cutting-edge level.

Production of super-pure materials, sophisticated and complex processing, the combination of sciences ranging from basic sciences to nano technology, the manufacture of a satellite and its launch vehicle, the integration of observation facilities and application technology, the selection and management of personnel—the DPRK made all of these achievements by domestic exertions.

Even the screws of the satellite are domestic products. The scientists and technicians who participated in the manufacture, launch and control of the satellite are all Koreans.

This fact gives a glimpse of the might of the DPRK’s independent economy and its development of cutting-edge science and technology.

The DPRK has long adhered to the line of building an independent national economy, consolidating in recent years the foundations of its economy on the basis of cutting-edge science and technology.

It set up on a comprehensive scale a new steel production system that uses no coking coal and scrap iron, and built up the basis of its chemical industry run by coal and limestone that are abundant in the country. It also set up a modern production line of vinalon cotton by using limestone and anthracite.

Now the DPRK is building a knowledge-intensive economy under the banner of “Break through the cutting edge!”

The scientists and technicians of the country developed by their own efforts the CNC technology which is the acme of the machine-building industry and completed their own version of CNC control system. They are also rapidly developing bio-engineering, nano technology and nuclear technology.

In the present age of knowledge economy the economic might of a country is judged by its industrial structure for developing and applying cutting-edge science and technology.

Now outer space has become a test site for evaluating mankind’s creative abilities of conquering nature and a vast theatre for demonstrating the level of high technology and economic potential that a country has attained as a power.

There are many countries in the world that have failed to conquer space although they have rich resources and great economic potential. Among those which have already developed the satellite-manufacturing technology, there are many that have to rely on other countries for the launch vehicle.

Through the successful launch of the scientific and technological satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2, the DPRK has grasped the core of space science and technology, ranking among the nations with capabilities of manufacturing, launching and controlling artificial earth satellites.

In conclusion, the national strength of the DPRK has reached outer space.

Tribute to Generalissimos

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea successfully launched its application satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2 by means of launch vehicle Unha 3. The artificial satellite that is instrumented for data collection and communications for the observation of the earth is now transmitting “Song of General Kim Il Sung” and “Song of General Kim Jong Il.”

These songs reflect the high tribute the Korean people pay to the DPRK Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

The satellite is permeated with the painstaking efforts made by Kim Il Sung, eternal President of the DPRK, and Kim Jong Il, eternal Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission.

President Kim Il Sung, advancing the slogan “Iron and machine are the king of industry!” laid out solid foundations for developing the machine-building industry on the ruins after the Korean war ignited by the United States. Under his sagacious leadership miracles were wrought in the DPRK: Machines produced machines, factories gave birth to factories, and an electric locomotive, the acme of the machine-building industry, was manufactured. On the initiative of the President and on the basis of the solid foundations of its independent national economy, the DPRK already succeeded in the 80s of the last century in producing multistage rockets that can carry artificial satellites, and has rapidly developed science and technology of manufacturing satellites.

Inheriting the will of President Kim Il Sung, Chairman Kim Jong Il said that the country should develop science and technology to the world level within the shortest period by taking ten or a hundred steps when others were taking one, defined science and technology as one of the three buttresses in building a thriving country, and wisely led the work of satellite development.

In the closing years of the last century, when the DPRK was suffering the grimmest trials, Kim Jong Il saw to it that a strong force of competent scientific personnel was formed and provided with up-to-the-minute technical means so as to pioneer the cutting-edge branches of science and technology. When the DPRK’s first artificial satellite Kwangmyongsong 1 was under development, he acquainted himself with the project and indicated the orientation and ways for its successful implementation.

By the early 1990s the DPRK completed preparations for satellite launch, and sent up its first trial satellite Kwangmyongsong 1 in August 1998, successfully placing it into orbit at the first launch.

It is not fortuitous that the Korean artificial satellites are named Kwangmyongsong or Shining Star (Kim Jong Il is otherwise called the Shining Star by Koreans).

The successful launch of second satellite by the country on April 2009 was another fruition of the painstaking efforts he made to develop science and technology and bring up competent technological personnel.

It was his lifetime instruction that the first application earth satellite should be launched in 2012 marking the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung.

True to his intention Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of the DPRK, wisely led the work of launching the first application satellite without fail in 2012. It was a brilliant outcome of the unshakeable conviction and will of the Korean leader and people to add lustre to the exploits performed by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il that Kwangmyongsong 3-2 was launched successfully into orbit.

By successfully launching the satellite the Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his people paid the highest tribute to President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il. It should, therefore, be interpreted in this vein that the satellite was launched in 2012 that marked the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung and on the eve of the 1^st anniversary of the death of Chairman Kim Jong Il, and is travelling its orbit, transmitting the songs in praise of the Korean leaders.