The full text of the New Year Address reads:
Dear fellow countrymen and brave service personnel of
the People's Army,
Dear compatriots,
Today,
recollecting with great pleasure and pride and deep emotion the proud
achievements we performed last year through our diligent and worthwhile labour
and sincere efforts and by the sweat of our brow, we are all seeing in the New
Year 2018 with fresh hopes and expectations.
Greeting the
hope-filled New Year, I wish the families across the country good health,
happiness, success and prosperity. I also wish that the beautiful dreams of all
our people, including the hopes of our children in the New Year, would come
true.
Comrades,
As I look back
upon last year, when I worked strenuously on the road of achieving national
prosperity, gaining great strength and wisdom from the pure minds of the
dauntless people who invariably trusted and followed the Party even in the face
of manifold difficulties and trials, I feel my heart swelling with the pride in
waging the revolution shoulder to shoulder with a great people.
On behalf of the
Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea, I extend sincere thanks and New Year greetings to all the people and
service personnel who won miraculous victories to be noteworthy in the national
history of 5 000 years by sharing mind and purpose with the Party and
supporting its determination on the road of arduous yet glorious struggle.
My New Year greetings go also to the compatriots in
the south and abroad who are fighting for the reunification of the country and
to the progressive peoples and other friends across the world who opposed war
of aggression and gave firm solidarity to our cause of justice.
Comrades,
The year 2017
was a year of heroic struggle and great victory, a year when we set up an
indestructible milestone in the history of building a powerful socialist
country with the spirit of self-reliance and self-development as the dynamic
force.
Last year the
moves of the United States and its vassal forces to isolate and stifle our
country went to extremes, and our revolution faced the harshest-ever
challenges. In the face of the prevailing situation and the worst trials on the
road of advance, our Party trusted the people and the people defended the Party
death-defiantly, turning adversity and misfortune to good account and achieving
brilliant successes on all the fronts where a powerful socialist country is
being built.
Through last
year's grandiose struggle we powerfully demonstrated at home and abroad our
immutable faith and will to follow to the end the road of Juche-oriented
socialism opened up by the great Comrades Kim II Sung
and Kim Jong II and the single-hearted unity of
socialist Korea in which all the people are firmly united behind the Party.
An outstanding
success our Party, state and people won last year was the accomplishment of the
great, historic cause of perfecting the national nuclear forces.
On this platform
one year ago I officially made public on behalf of the Party and government
that we had entered the final stage of preparation for the test launch of an
intercontinental ballistic missile. In the past one year we conducted several
rounds of its test launch, aimed at implementing the programme, safely and
transparently, thus proving before the eyes of the world its definite success.
By also
conducting tests of various means of nuclear delivery and super-intense
thermonuclear weapon, we attained our general orientation and strategic goal
with success, and our Republic has at last come to possess a powerful and
reliable war deterrent, which no force and nothing can reverse.
Our country's
nuclear forces are capable of thwarting and countering any nuclear threats from
the United States, and they constitute a powerful deterrent that prevents it
from starting an adventurous war.
In no way would
the United States dare to ignite a war against me and our country.
The whole of its
mainland is within the range of our nuclear strike and the nuclear button is on
my office desk all the time; the United States needs to be clearly aware that
this is not merely a threat but a reality.
We have realized
the wish of the great leaders who devoted their lives to building the strongest
national defence capability for reliably safeguarding our country's
sovereignty, and we have created a mighty sword for defending peace, as desired
by all our people who had to tighten their belts for long years. This great
victory eloquently proves the validity and vitality of the Party's line of
simultaneously conducting economic construction and building up our nuclear
forces and its idea of prioritizing science, and it is a great historic
achievement that has opened up bright prospects for the building of a
prosperous country and inspired our service personnel and people with
confidence in sure victory.
I offer my noble
respects to the heroic Korean people who, despite the difficult living
conditions caused by life threatening sanctions and blockade, have firmly
trusted, absolutely supported and dynamically implemented our Party's line of
simultaneously promoting the two fronts.
My warm,
comradely greetings go also to our defence scientists and workers in the
munitions industry who made devoted efforts all the year round, to demonstrate
to the world that the plans and decisions of the Party Central Committee are a
science and a truth and that they automatically mean their materialization.
Last year we
also made notable headway in carrying out the five-year strategy for national
economic development.
As a result of
our vigorous endeavour to establish the Juche orientation in the metallurgical
industry, an oxygen-blast furnace of our own style was built at the Kim Chaek
Iron and Steel Complex to maintain regular production of pig iron by relying on
anthracite, and prospects were opened up for consolidating the independent
foundations of the chemical industry and attaining the five-year strategy's
goal for the output of chemical products.
Numerous
light-industry factories in such sectors as textile, footwear, knitwear and
foodstuff industries raised high the banner of Juche orientation and made
proactive efforts to propel the modernization of several production lines by
means of our own technology and our own equipment. By doing so, they provided a
guarantee for making the range of consumer goods varied and improving their
quality.
The
machine-building industry, by upholding the banner of self-reliance and relying
on science and technology, creditably attained the Party's goal for the
production of new-type tractors and trucks, and thus laid solid foundations for
speeding up the Juche orientation and modernization of the national economy and
the comprehensive mechanization of the rural economy. The agricultural sector,
by actively introducing scientific farming methods, increased the ranks of
high-yield farms and work teams and reaped an unusually rich fruit harvest in
spite of unfavourable climatic conditions.
Our service
personnel and people built magnificent Ryomyong Street and the large- scale
livestock farming base in the Sepho area, and completed the task for the first
stage of the forest restoration campaign, thereby demonstrating the might of
great army-people unity and the potential of the socialist independent economy.
Amid a vigorous
struggle for the creation of the Mallima speed, new model units emerged one
after another, and a large number of factories and enterprises fulfilled their
quotas of the yearly national economic plan ahead of schedule and made a proud
achievement of surpassing their peak-year levels.
Successes were
also made on the scientific and cultural fronts last year.
Scientists and
technicians resolved scientific and technological problems arising in the
building of a powerful socialist country and completed research projects in the
cutting- edge field, thereby giving stimulus to economic development and the
improvement of the people's living standards. The socialist education system
was further improved and the educational environment upgraded, while medical
service conditions were bettered. An example of artistic performance activities
was created to infuse the whole country with revolutionary optimism and the
militant spirit, and
our sportspeople
won victories in different international competitions.
All the
successes made last year are the triumph of the Juche-oriented revolutionary
line of the Workers' Party of Korea and a precious fruition of the heroic
struggle of the service personnel and people who are firmly rallied behind the
Party.
Our Party and
people achieved such signal victories others could never think of achieving by
their own efforts in the face of the sanctions-and-blockade moves the United
States and its vassal forces perpetrated more viciously than ever before to
stamp out the rights to sovereignty, existence and development of the DPRK.
Herein lays the source of their dignity and their great pride and
self-confidence.
I would like to
extend my warm thanks once again to all the people and service personnel who
victoriously advanced the cause of building a powerful socialist country,
always sharing the destiny with the Party and braving all difficulties and
trials on the eventful days of last year.
Comrades,
This year we
will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the glorious Democratic
People's Republic of Korea. To mark the 70th anniversary of their state with
splendour is of real significance for the great people, who have risen with
dignity the status of their socialist country, the greatest patriotic legacy of
the great Comrades Kim II Sung and Kim Jong II, to that of a strategic state recognized
by the world.
We should make
constant innovations and continued progress until we win the final victory of
the revolution by carrying on the tradition of heroic struggle and collective
innovation which adorned the founding and course of development of Juche Korea.
A revolutionary general offensive should be launched to achieve fresh victory
on all fronts of building a powerful socialist country by taking the historic
victory in the building of the DPRK's nuclear forces as a springboard for fresh
progress.
"Let us
launch a revolutionary general offensive to achieve fresh victory on all fronts
of building a powerful socialist country!"-this is the revolutionary
slogan we should uphold. All officials, Party members and other working people
should launch an all-people general offensive to frustrate the challenges of
the hostile forces who are making last-ditch efforts and raise the overall
strength of our Republic to a new stage of development as they brought about a
great upsurge in socialist construction overcoming all difficulties through the
great Chollima upswing after the war.
A breakthrough
should be made in reenergizing the overall economic front this year, the third
year of implementing the five-year strategy for national economic development.
The central task
facing socialist economic construction this year is to enhance the independence
and Juche character of the national economy and improve the people's standard
of living as required by the revolutionary counterstrategy put forward by the
Second Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party.
We should
concentrate all efforts on consolidating the independence and Juche character
of the national economy.
The
electric-power industry should maintain and reinforce the self-supporting power
generation bases, and direct a great deal of efforts to developing new power
sources. A dynamic campaign should be conducted to drastically increase thermal
power generation, and lower the loss of electric power and increase its
production as much as possible by maintaining and reinforcing imperfect
generating facilitates. Provinces should build power generation bases to suit
their local features and put power generation at the existing medium and
small-sized power stations on a normal footing to satisfy the needs of electric
power for local industry by themselves. Alternated production should be
organized scrupulously throughout the country, and a vigorous struggle waged
against the practices of wasting electric power to make effective use of
generated electric power.
The
metallurgical industry should further improve the Juche-oriented iron- and
steel- making technologies, increase the iron production capacity and
drastically raise the quality of metallic materials in order to satisfy the
needs of the national economy for iron and steel. It is necessary to ensure a
preferential, planned and timely supply of electricity, concentrated iron ore,
anthracite, lignite, freight wagons, locomotives and funds for the
metallurgical industry. By doing so, we can fulfil next year's iron and steel production
plans and makes the industry Juche-oriented without fail.
The chemical industry should step up the establishment
of the C1 chemical industry,
push the projects for
catalyst production base and phosphate fertilizer factory as scheduled, and
renovate and perfect the sodium carbonate production line whose starting
material is glauberite.
The
machine-building industry should modernize the Kumsong Tractor Factory, Sungni
Motor Complex and other factories to develop and produce world-level machinery
in our style.
The coal and
mineral production and rail transport sectors should make concerted efforts to
make the country's self-reliant economic foundations prove their effectiveness.
Notably, the
rail transport sector should make the best use of the existing transport
capacity by making transport organization and control more scientific and
rational, and maintain discipline and order in the railways as rigid as in the
army, so as to ensure an accident-free, on-schedule rail traffic.
A turn should be
brought about this year in improving the people's standard of living.
Light-industry
factories need to transform their equipment and production lines into labour-
and electricity-saving ones and produce and supply more diversified and quality
consumer goods with domestic raw and other materials, and provinces, cities and
counties should develop the local economy in a characteristic way by relying on
their own raw material resources.
The agricultural
and fishing fronts should affect an upswing. We should introduce seeds of
superior strains, high-yield farming methods and high-performance farm machines
on an extensive scale, do farming scientifically and technologically so as to
fulfil the cereals production plan without fail, and boost the production of
livestock products, fruits, greenhouse vegetables and mushrooms. We should
enhance our ship building and repair capacities, launch scientific fishing
campaigns, and reenergize aquatic farming.
This year the
service personnel and people should join efforts to complete the construction
of the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist area in the shortest period of time, push
ahead with major construction projects including the renovation of Samjiyon
County, the construction of the Tanchon Power Station and the second-stage
waterway project of South Hwanghae Province, and channel steady efforts into
the construction of houses.
Building on the
success we achieved in the forest restoration campaign, we should properly
protect and manage the forests that have already been created, improve the
technical conditions of roads, conduct river improvement on a regular basis,
and protect environment in a scientific and responsible manner.
Every sector and every unit of the national economy
should enlist their own technical forces and economic potential to the maximum
and launch a dynamic struggle to increase
production and practise economy, so as to create a greater amount of
material wealth.
A shortcut to
developing the self-sufficient economy is to give precedence to science and
technology and make innovations in economic planning and guidance.
The scientific
research sector should solve on a preferential basis the scientific and
technological problems arising in establishing Juche-oriented production lines
of our own style, ensuring domestic production of raw and other materials and
equipment, and perfecting the structure of the self-supporting economy. Every
sector and every unit of the national economy should make a contribution to
achieving production growth by intensifying the dissemination of science and
technology and waging a brisk technological innovation drive.
The Cabinet and
other economic guidance organs should work out a realistic operational plan to
carry out the national economic plan for this year and push forward the work
for its implementation responsibly and persistently. Positive
measures should
be taken by the state to ensure that the socialist system of responsible
business operation proves its worth in factories, enterprises and cooperative
organizations.
Socialist
culture should be developed in a comprehensive way.
It is necessary
to strengthen the ranks of teachers, improve the contents and methods of
education as demanded by the trend of developing modern education, apply the
people- oriented character in public health service in a thoroughgoing way, and
boost the production of medical equipment and appliances and different kinds of
medicines.
We should
conduct mass-based sporting activities briskly, create sporting techniques and
tactics of our own style, and produce artistic and literary masterpieces which
truthfully depict the heroic struggle and life of our service personnel and
people in the Mallima era and the beautiful and sublime features proper to
human beings. In this way, we can crush the bourgeois reactionary culture by
dint of our revolutionary socialist art and literature.
A vigorous
struggle should be waged to tighten moral discipline throughout society,
establish a socialist way of life and eliminate all kinds of non-socialist
practices, so as to ensure that all the people, possessed of ennobling mental
and moral traits, lead a revolutionary and cultured life.
The self-reliant
defence capability should be further consolidated.
In this year of the 70th anniversary of the development of the Korean
People's Revolutionary Army into a regular revolutionary armed force by the
great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the People's
Army should perfect its features as befits the revolutionary armed forces of
the Party. It should organize and conduct combat training in a highly intensive
way, in a real-war atmosphere, to develop all its units in different arms,
services and corps into the ranks of a-match-for-a-hundred combatants.
The Korean
People's Internal Security Forces should sharpen the edge of the sword of the
class struggle and detect and frustrate the schemes by undesirable and hostile
elements in time. The Worker-Peasant Red Guards and Young Red Guards should
enhance their combat capability in all aspects through intensive combat and
political training.
By consistently
holding fast to the line of simultaneously promoting the two fronts in
accordance with the strategic policy set by the Party at the Eighth Conference
of Munitions Industry, the defence industry should develop and manufacture
powerful strategic weapons and military hardware of our style, perfect its Juche-oriented
production structure and modernize its production lines on the basis of
cutting-edge science and technology.
The nuclear
weapons research sector and the rocket industry should mass-produce nuclear
warheads and ballistic missiles, the power and reliability of which have
already been proved to the full, to give a spur to the efforts for deploying
them for action.
And we should
always be ready for immediate nuclear counterattack to cope with the enemy's
manoeuvres for a nuclear war.
The political
and ideological might is the first and foremost strength of our state and the
great propellant for opening up an avenue for building a powerful socialist
country.
In order to
successfully carry out the fighting tasks facing us, we should rally the whole
Party more firmly on its organizational and ideological basis and establish a
thoroughgoing revolutionary climate within the Party. In this way, we can
constantly enhance its fighting efficiency and leadership role in the overall
revolution and construction.
All Party
organizations should never tolerate all shades of heterogeneous ideas and
double standards of discipline that run counter to the Party's ideology, but
strengthen the single-hearted unity of the whole Party centred on its Central
Committee in every way possible.
The whole Party
should launch an intense struggle to establish a revolutionary climate within
the Party with the main emphasis put on rooting out the abuse of Party
authority, bureaucratic and other outdated methods and style of work, so as to
ensure that the ties of kinship between the Party and the masses of the people
are as solid as a rock.
Party organizations
should intensify Party guidance to ensure that the work of their respective
sectors and units is always conducted in conformity with the ideas and
intentions of the Party and the requirements of its policies, and find
satisfactory solutions to the problems arising in the building of a powerful
socialist country by giving definite precedence to political work and
motivating the people ideologically.
We should rally all the service personnel and people
firmly behind the Party ideologically and volitionally so that they throw in
their lot with it whatever the adversity and fight with devotion for the
victory of the socialist cause.
Party and
working people's organizations and government organs should orient and
subordinate all their undertakings to strengthening the single-hearted unity.
The benchmark in planning and launching their work should be the people's
demands and interests. And they should go deep among the people, sharing good
times and bad with them and solving their mental agony and difficulties in
their lives. They should ensure that the shorter the supply of everything is,
the fuller play is given to the beautiful traits of comrades and neighbours
helping and caring for one another with all sincerity.
We should give
free rein to the indomitable mental strength of the heroic Korean people on the
present grand Mallima march.
Party and
working people's organizations should ensure that all the working people
cherish patriotism in their hearts and bring about collective innovations one
after another in the great campaign to create the Mallima speed with the
revolutionary spirit of self- reliance and science and technology as the
dynamic force. They should see to it that officials, Party members and other
working people carry forward the fighting spirit displayed by the elder
generations who brought about epochal changes on the grand Chollima march and
all of them become Mallima pioneers who vigorously rush forward in the vanguard
of the era.
Comrades,
Last year, too,
our people made strenuous efforts to defend the peace of the country and hasten
national reunification in keeping with the aspirations and demands of the
nation. However, owing to the vicious sanctions and pressure by the United
States and its vassal forces and their desperate manoeuvres to ignite a war,
all aimed at checking the reinforcement of the self-defensive nuclear deterrent
by our Republic, the situation on the Korean peninsula became aggravated as
never before, and greater difficulties and obstacles were put on the road of
the country's reunification.
Even though the conservative "regime" in
south Korea, which had resorted to fascist rule and confrontation with fellow
countrymen, collapsed and the ruling circles were replaced by another thanks to
the massive resistance by the enraged people of all walks of life, nothing has
been changed in the relations between the north and the south. On the contrary,
the south Korean authorities, siding with the United States in its hostile
policy towards the DPRK against the aspirations of all the fellow countrymen
for national reunification, drove the situation to a tight corner, further
aggravated the mistrust and confrontation between the north and the south, and
brought the bilateral relations to a fix that can be hardly resolved. We can
never escape the holocaust of a nuclear war forced by the outside forces, let
alone achieve national reunification, unless we put an end to this
abnormal situation.
The prevailing
situation demands that now the north and the south improve the relations
between themselves and take decisive measures for achieving a breakthrough for
independent reunification without being obsessed by bygone days.
No one can
present an honourable appearance in front of the nation if he or she ignores
the urgent demands of the times.
This year is
significant both for the north and the south as in the north the people will
greet the 70th founding anniversary of their Republic as a great, auspicious
event and in the south the Winter Olympic Games will take place.
In order to not
only celebrate these great national events in a splendid manner but also
demonstrate the dignity and spirit of the nation at home and abroad, we should
improve the frozen inter-Korean relations and glorify this meaningful year as
an eventful one noteworthy in the history of the nation.
First of all, we
should work together to ease the acute military tension between the north and
the south and create a peaceful environment on the Korean peninsula.
As long as this
unstable situation, which is neither wartime nor peacetime, persists, the north
and the south cannot ensure the success of the scheduled events, nor can they
sit face to face to have a sincere discussion over the issue of improving
bilateral relations, nor will they advance straight ahead towards the goal of
national reunification.
The north and
the south should desist from doing anything that might aggravate the situation,
and they should make concerted efforts to defuse military tension and create a
peaceful environment.
The south Korean
authorities should respond positively to our sincere efforts for a detente,
instead of inducing the exacerbation of the situation by joining the United
States in its reckless moves for a north-targeted nuclear war that threatens
the destiny of the entire nation as well as peace and stability on this land.
They should discontinue all the nuclear war drills they stage with outside
forces, as these drills will engulf this land in flames and lead to bloodshed
on our sacred territory. They should also refrain from any acts of bringing in
nuclear armaments and aggressive forces from the United States.
Even though the
United States is wielding the nuclear stick and going wild for another war, it
will not dare to invade us because we currently have a powerful nuclear
deterrent. And when the north and the south are determined, they can surely
prevent the outbreak of war and ease tension on the Korean peninsula.
A climate
favourable for national reconciliation and reunification should be established.
The improvement
of inter-Korean relations is a pressing matter of concern not only to the
authorities but to all other Koreans, and it is a crucial task to be carried
out through a concerted effort by the entire nation. The north and the south
should promote bilateral contact, travel, cooperation and exchange on a broad
scale to remove mutual misunderstanding and distrust, and fulfil their
responsibility and role as the motive force of national reunification.
We will open our
doors to anyone from south Korea, including the ruling party and opposition
parties, organizations and individual personages of all backgrounds, for
dialogue, contact and travel, if they sincerely wish national concord and
unity.
A definite end
should be put to the acts that might offend the other party and incite discord and
hostility between fellow countrymen. The south Korean authorities should not
try, as the previous conservative "regime" did, to block contact and
travel by people of different social strata and suppress the atmosphere for
reunification through alliance with the north, under absurd pretexts and by
invoking legal and institutional mechanisms; instead, they should direct
efforts to creating conditions and environment conducive to national concord
and unity.
To improve
inter-Korean relations as soon as possible, the authorities of the north and
the south should raise the banner of national independence higher than ever
before, and fulfil their responsibility and role they have assumed for the
times and the nation.
Inter-Korean
relations are, to all intents and purposes, an internal matter of our nation,
which the north and the south should resolve on their own responsibility.
Therefore, they should acquire a steadfast stand and viewpoint that they will
resolve all the issues arising in bilateral relations on the principle of By
Our Nation Itself.
The south Korean
authorities need to know that they will gain nothing from touring foreign
countries to solicit their help on the issue of inter-Korean relations, and
that such behaviour will give the outside forces, who pursue dishonest
objectives, an excuse for their interference and complicate matters further.
Now it is not time for the north and the south to turn their backs on each
other and merely express their respective standpoints; it is time that they sit
face to face with a view to holding sincere discussions over the issue of
improving inter-Korean relations by our nation itself and seek a way out for
its settlement in a bold manner.
As for the Winter Olympic Games to be held soon in
south Korea, it will serve as a good occasion for demonstrating our nation's
prestige and we earnestly wish the Olympic Games a success. From this point of
view we are willing to dispatch our delegation and adopt other necessary
measures; with regard to this matter, the authorities of the north and the
south may meet together soon. Since we are compatriots of the same blood as
south Koreans, it is natural for us to share their pleasure over the auspicious
event and help them.
We will, in the
future, too, resolve all issues by the efforts of our nation itself under the
unfurled banner of national independence and frustrate the schemes by
anti-reunification forces within and without on the strength of national unity,
thereby opening up a new history of national reunification.
Availing myself
of this opportunity, I extend warm New Year greetings once again to all Korean
compatriots at home and abroad, and I sincerely wish that in this significant
year everything would go well both in the north and in the south.
Comrades,
The
international situation we witnessed last year was clear proof that our Party
and our state were absolutely correct in their strategic judgement and decision
that when we are confronting the imperialist forces of aggression who are
attempting to wreck global peace and security and make mankind suffer a nuclear
holocaust, our only recourse is the power of justice.
As a
responsible, peace-loving nuclear power, our country will neither have recourse
to nuclear weapons unless hostile forces of aggression violate its sovereignty
and interests nor threaten any other country or region by means of nuclear
weapons. However, it will resolutely respond to acts of wrecking peace and
security on the Korean peninsula.
Our Party and
the government of our Republic will develop good-neighbourly and friendly
relations with all the countries that respect our national sovereignty and are
friendly to us, and make positive efforts to build a just and peaceful new
world.
Comrades,
The year 2018
will be recorded as another year of victory for our people.
At this moment
when this year's gigantic march has begun, I am filled with confidence that our
cause is ever-victorious
as it is
supported by the people, and I harden my resolve to make devoted efforts to
live up to their expectations.
The Workers'
Party of Korea and the government of the Republic will never cease to struggle
and advance until
achieving the
final victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche by relying on the trust and
strength of the people, but surely hasten the future of a powerful socialist
country where all the people lead a dignified and happy life.
Let us all march forward dynamically towards fresh victory of the
revolution by displaying the unyielding mettle of heroic Korea under the
leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea.
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