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.