On the Road for the People: DPRK

-Full-Service Ship and Water Park Tell

 There is a full-service ship, named Mujigae, plying between Okryu and Taedonggang bridges on the picturesque Taedong River in the central part of Pyongyang, the capital city of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

 The sightseeing vessel can accommodate over a thousand guests at a time, and offers Korean and famous foreign dishes. It has a variety of service facilities such as a Korean restaurant, coffee house, soft drinks stand, revolving restaurant and shop.

Saying that if a full-service ship furnished with various service and cultural facilities was built and put between Okryu and Taedonggang bridges on the Taedong River, it would serve as another cultural recreation centre for the people, Kim Jong Un, President of the State Affairs, went over its designs several times and solved problems arising in its building. Then he proposed naming it Mujigae (Rainbow).

 One day in September 2015, he visited the newly-built ship and said: I feel relieved of the accumulated fatigue as I think that people will enjoy themselves cruising the Taedong on board it; I am happiest when the assets for the wellbeing of the people is created one after another.

There is also the Munsu Water Park. Sprawling 109 000 square metres on the bank of the Taedong River, the modern water park consists of indoor and outdoor pools with different slides, gym and other facilities. People can enjoy themselves there all year round.

Kim Jong Un personally proposed its construction and chose its site.

 He paid close attention to all the details–taking measures against the winter cold, providing facilities and ensuring the best service for the people.

 According to a designer who was engaged in the water park project, once Kim Jong Un examined the formation plan of the park at dawn and visited the construction site again early in the morning. In this way he went over as many as 113 formation plans for the water park.

-New Streets Spring up Every Year

 Sighs of homeless people are heard everywhere today when science and technology as well as the economy is highly developed.

 Large cities in the U.S. including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles are well known to the world for overflowing vagabonds.

 According to “The Los Angeles Times”, the number of the homeless has recently increased by 45% in the U.S. The AP commented that the number of vagabonds aged more than 65 will be almost trebled by 2030.

 While the world is troubled with the vagabond issue, our country is vigorously pushing forward the construction of flats for the working people, not only in Pyongyang, the capital city, but also in rural cities, fishing and agrarian villages and remote mountain villages, thus satisfactorily solving the housing problem.

 The construction of 10,000 flats in the areas of Songsin and Songhwa and the terraced residential district in Kyongru-dong which started in April last year was splendidly completed in a short span of less than a year. As a result, Pyongyang City has been newly transformed into a more beautiful city condensed with modern civilization. Mountainous cities and mining towns have also sprung up in completely changed appearance all across the country where the hurray for the Workers’ Party of Korea continuously rings out.

 In spite of great trials and difficulties, our Party boldly initiated another large-scale construction of 10,000 flats this year with an intention to provide the people with homes of happiness. Three months have hardly passed since the beginning of construction, but flats in Hwasong street are already giving an imposing appearance, demonstrating the strength of Korea to the world.

 There is no country in the world that provides people with houses free of charge. In the U.S., for instance, an ordinary worker should save every cent of his wage for 100 years to buy a 170㎡ flat. Even the cheapest two-room flat costs over a million US dollars.

 By contrast, our people are provided with new houses at no cost by the state. So, whenever we hear about these facts, we keenly realize that we are living in the happy paradise holding the great leader in high esteem.

 Our people are protected by warm care of our country, come what may. So we call it “our socialist home” with a surge of affection and spare no sweat and zeal for the country.

-History of Love Permeated in Popular Public Health System

 The glorious 70-year-plus history of our republic is permeated with warm love and devotion of the peerless great men who created and perfected popular public health system.

 After the founding of the country, there were lots of things to do. But President Kim Il Sung, taking account of the status of people who had suffered from poverty and maladies and their pressing needs for healthcare, pushed ahead with the work to establish a democratic public health system without delay and apply popular public health policies.

 Before liberation, there were only 9 state-run hospitals with 450 hospital beds and the total number of doctors amounted to only a few hundreds.

 These scarce medical facilities were concentrated only in cities so that rural population could not have access to any medical care.

 President Kim Il Sung put forward a revolutionary policy to establish a democratic public health system on September 1945 and clarified the main policies - the introduction of insurance system, expansion of state-run hospitals, extermination of epidemics and free medical care for the poor - that should be adopted to conform with genuine democratic public health system serving for people.

 Then, he set up public health department within the North Korean Provisional People's Committee in February 1947, thus reinforcing the state guidance on public health services and establishing well-organized public health administrative structure covering provinces, cities and counties.

 He consecutively enacted and promulgated new popular public health laws and regulations and increased state investment so as to build state public health facilities.

 Thus, the number of state hospitals increased to 58 – more than 6 times that of the period before liberation (there were only 9 of them). First-aid stations were newly set up in the provincial seats and many state-run health establishments of different kinds were built throughout the country, including 2 quarantine hospitals.

 In January 1953, in the middle of war, the universal free medical care system was introduced and the 7^th Session of the Second Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK held in 1960 announced complete universal free medical care system. As a result, the new medical care system was introduced where household doctors provide medical service such as prophylactic treatment, hygienic propaganda and vaccination to the households in charge according to the section doctor system, regardless of distance, be it a remote mountain village or sea village.

 Chairman Kim Jong Il consolidated and developed the vitality of the popular healthcare system which was established thanks to the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung. He also saw to it that the Party’s policy on prophylactic medicine is thoroughly implemented and the medical service and medical science and technology are further developed.

 Today, the socialist healthcare in our country has entered a new stage thanks to the excellent leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.

 In recent years alone, Okryu Children's Hospital, Ryugyong Dental Hospital, Ryugyong General Ophthalmic Hospital, Medical Oxygen Factory, Pyongyang Dental Sanitary Goods Factory were newly built and a large number of medical facilities such as Myohyangsan Medical Appliances Factory and Pyongyang Pharmaceutical Factory were modernized, and the scope of application of the telemedicine system based on advanced science and technology is extending, making a big contribution to the promotion of people’s health.

 The key to the successful control of infectious disease in only 90-odd days and favorable turn of events during the health crisis that broke out in last May owes its full credit to the sincere devotion and service of the respected comrade Kim Jong Un who puts the life and health of the people as the most important affair of state. The vitality and popular character of our public health system also contributed to the success.

 Today, our people have heartfelt gratitude toward our country’s public health system which is engrained to them through their daily lives and they deeply love our social system.