People-first Politics and Korea Today

-Characteristics of Kim Jong Un’s People-first Politics

 The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is achieving great successes under the people-first politics of Kim Jong Un, President of the State Affairs of the DPRK. The single-minded unity between the leader, the Party and the masses of the people is getting more solid, while all fields of the economy and culture are making great progress. This politics has its characteristic features, the most important of which is that it ensures that everything serves the masses.

 As a matter of fact, all politicians the world over advocate politics for the people. But the reality is far from it.

 In the United States which claims to be a “model” of democracy, it is recognized that politics is for tycoons, who account for only one percent of its population.

 It is a common practice in the world to increase tax rate and reduce the fund for social welfare whenever an economic crisis occurs.

 However, Kim Jong Un’s politics is not for any specific group but for the broad masses of the people. 

An example is Kyongru-dong, the first model of a terraced houses district built on the bank of the Pothong River in the capital city of Pyongyang. In capitalist countries, only millionaires can afford to buy such luxury apartment houses in the district. But Kim Jong Un ensured that the houses were provided to workers, scientists, technicians and writers who had worked faithfully for the country.

 Recently, the country built 10 000 flats in Songhwa Street and another 10 000 flats for the first-stage project in the Hwasong area. Each one of such flats would cost hundreds of thousands of US dollars in capitalist countries. Those flats were provided free of charge to the blue-collar and white-collar workers and other ordinary working people.

 Even when it was experiencing difficulties, the country did not abandon its people-oriented policies but, instead, expanded and strengthened them.

 Although the global public health crisis caused it many economic difficulties, it adopted decisions to supply nutritious foods including dairy produce to all the children and new uniforms and bags to all the students across the country at the state expense, build 50 000 flats, 10 000 each year, in Pyongyang and transform the appearance of the countryside by extensively building modern rural houses. What should be remembered is that these decisions were made not because there was a surplus of funds in the country’s coffers.

It is necessary to ponder the meaning of the word first in the phrase the people-first principle.

 The famous Munsu Water Park in the Munsu area in Pyongyang has a moving story.

After inspecting the completed Munsu Water Park of the Eldorado style one day, Kim Jong Un said that the joints of the slides should be treated well to prevent the people from getting injured. Then he organized a “special service” for officials so that they could see if the joints were properly fitted while riding the slides.

 Officials of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government should make selfless, devoted efforts for the good of the people and everything should exist for the sake of the people–this is the people-first politics of Kim Jong Un.

 Thanks to this politics, the masses of the people participate widely in administering state affairs as the real masters of politics, and the state takes full responsibility for the people’s food, clothing and housing and considers the people’s convenience first when building or making something

Another characteristic feature of the people-first politics is that everything is carried out by relying on the masses.

 In building a powerful socialist country, the DPRK is relying mainly on the inexhaustible wisdom, strength and enthusiasm of the masses, rather than any source of funds.

 After he sets goals for each period and stage at Party congresses, its Central Committee’s plenary meetings and on other important occasions, Kim Jong Un pays primary attention to arousing the people to the struggle to attain them. At the end of last year, he stressed that in the coming year all the people, by inheriting the traditions of loyalty and patriotism, should conduct various dynamic mass movements conducive to the building of a powerful socialist country.

 The country relies on mass movements in every endeavour to make progress in various economic fields, be it for developing new technologies or expanding production and improving the quality of products. In the course of the mass movements, the political consciousness and enthusiasm of the people are raised and the whole society becomes vibrant with vigour and efforts for new creations.

 The wisdom and efforts of workers and technicians are bringing about tangible successes in key industrial sectors like the metal and chemical industries, which guarantee the country’s sustainable development. It can be said that one of the factors for the successful promotion of the building of 10 000 flats each year in Pyongyang during the period of the current five-year plan for development of the national economy (2021-2025) is the brisk mass technical innovation drive and socialist emulation movement that construction units are waging among themselves to ensure the construction speed.

 In September this year marking the 75^th anniversary of its founding, the DPRK demonstrated once again to the world that the strength and enthusiasm of the people who are united around the Party with one mind are inexhaustible.

 It is quite natural that the masses of the people should absolutely support the politics that puts forward them as the most precious beings and relies entirely on them. Now the Korean people are fully aware that all the policies of the WPK and the government of the DPRK are for their happiness, and therefore they are devoting all their wisdom, conscience and patriotic enthusiasm to their implementation. This can be called the main reason for the fact that the country, though many things are still in short supply, remains socially and politically stable, and makes new innovations in the economic sector and develops the defence industry at a rapid rate.

-Secret of Rapid Development of the DPRK

 The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is advancing at a surprising speed achieving continuous growth and development in the face of harsh sanctions by the hostile forces. What is the secret then?

Carrying Forward the Tradition

 Always being mindful of and carrying forward the fighting spirit of the preceding generations can be called one of the excellent traits of the Korean people.

 The country has the record of having removed the aftermath of the Korean war (1950-1953) unleashed by the United States in a short time and completed the socialist industrialization in merely 14 years.

 In particular, the rapid progress it made in all fields of the economy and culture in the 1970s and 1980s is still encouraging its people in their struggle.

 In the 1970s it trained a million intellectuals, carried out huge construction projects like the large, long-distance conveyor belt at the Unryul Mine and the Pyongyang Subway and reaped good harvests year after year in spite of disastrous weather conditions

The construction speed of the Grand People’s Study House built in the early 1980s was six times as fast as that of the Pyongyang Grand Theatre in the 1960s and 5.5 times as fast as that of the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium in the 1970s. The renovation project of the Kim Il Sung Stadium was carried out at the speed 18 times as fast as that of the Pyongyang Grand Theatre and 16.5 times as fast as that of the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium. The West Sea Barrage, the 10 000-ton press and the large-sized oxygen plant were also built in the 1980s.

 By carrying forward the tradition the Korean people have built a new street in Pyongyang every year beginning with Changjon Street and are now building    10 000 flats each year. They accomplished the great cause of building up the country’s nuclear forces in only four years, which would have been impossible even in 20 or 30 years by using existing formulae.

 In April 2023 the miners of a coal mine in South Phyongan Province kindled the flames of a campaign for increased production by producing an extra amount of coal while overfulfilling the quarterly plan by 4 percent. In doing so, they inherited the tradition of the preceding generations in the 1970s, who had initiated and led a socialist, patriotic campaign for producing more coal.

 The DPRK is changing morning and evening by splendidly carrying forward the tradition

The Leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea

 The correct leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea is also a propellant of the DPRK’s rapid progress.

 Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the WPK, is guiding the Korean people’s cause of building a socialist power along the right path by dint of scientific and wise lines of development.

 The line of achieving prosperity with self-reliance put forward by him is a line for orienting the country’s economy to the stable and sustainable development even in any global economic crisis.

 Under his wise leadership the DPRK has cemented the foundations of its self- sustaining national economy with the metal and chemical industries as the buttresses, which are powerfully propelling its rapid economic growth.

 His outstanding organizational ability and strong drive, too, provide a guarantee for the rapid development of the DPRK.

 The Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm, the world’s largest of its kind, is a good example. Kim Jong Un personally proposed its construction, organized powerful construction forces for the project and wisely led the whole process of the construction, thereby ensuring that it was built as a modern large-scale greenhouse farm in only 230 days.

 The WPK, by mobilizing its organizations at all levels, is giving a strong encouragement to the people across the country in their struggle to achieve the targets of the five-year plan for national economic development.

 True to his intention, the Korean people are extensively waging socialist emulation campaigns, socialist patriotic movements and revolutionary mass movements whose main contents are helping and leading one another forward, learning from others and swapping good experiences. In this course the political enthusiasm and creative initiative of the masses have risen markedly, and this is another factor for the rapid development of the DPRK.

The People with a Strong Sense of Patriotism

 Another secret of the rapid progress of the DPRK is the patriotism displayed by its people who invariably support the country no matter how difficult the situation may be.

 According to available data, more than 204 100 young men and women voluntarily worked at night at the housing construction site in the Hwasong area in Pyongyang in a little over a year after the beginning of the project in February 2022.

 Earlier, 140 000 young volunteers worked for the project of building 10 000 flats in Songhwa Street. Prompted by a desire to contribute to the prosperity of their country, many other patriotic young people in the country have volunteered to work at farms, collieries and other mines, major construction sites, branch schools in remote mountain villages or on far-flung islands, far from their dear home towns.

 Such laudable deeds are also found among other people. They are caring for bereft old people as their own parents; they like helping one another in their neighbourhoods; and there are people who are tending forests, the country’s asset, or faithfully working at tough jobs all their lives whether they are appreciated or not.

 In May 2022 when a serious public health crisis occurred after the malignant virus had entered the country, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK had to take the forceful measure of locking down regions and units throughout the country.

It meant hardships and difficulties many times greater than anything in the past for all the families and citizens, not to mention the affairs of the state, as all travels and movements were prohibited throughout the territory, not just in some parts or regions of the country, to the point that the rhythm of normal work and activities was destroyed.

 However, the Korean people displayed the outstanding trait of accepting all the regulations and directives issued in relation to the emergency anti-epidemic work. Regarding doing so as a patriotic undertaking for the country and as a natural duty and mission for the sake of their families and for themselves, they observed them voluntarily and conscientiously and executed them without fail, thereby achieving victory in the anti-epidemic campaign within a little over 90 days.

 All the citizens willingly put the interests of the country before their own personal and family affairs.

 As they have such a sense of patriotism the Korean people are devoting their wisdom and enthusiasm to the work for the country, and the DPRK is continuing to advance by leaps and bounds.