On the Orientation of Present Struggle for a Fresh Development of Socialist Construction

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, made a historic policy speech “On the Orientation of Present Struggle for a Fresh Development of Socialist Construction” at the second-day sitting of the 5th Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK on September 29.

In the speech the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un congratulated the deputies who took part in the session of the supreme power organ of the dignified Republic amid the expectations of tens of millions of people waging indefatigable labour struggle for the new, great victory with firm confidence in socialism and with iron determination. He then set forth the administrative policy of the government of the Republic for powerfully propelling the new development of socialist construction under the ever-changing subjective and objective situations.

Saying that the construction of our own-style socialism that has victoriously advanced with the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism as the guideline has entered the stage of epochal development of comprehensively embodying our state-first principle with the 8th Congress of the WPK as an occasion, he reviewed and analysed positive changes that are witnessed in all fields including politics, the economy, culture, national defence and external relations.

Despite unfavourable environment and difficulties, the might of single-minded unity between the Party and the masses of the people, the driving force of socialist construction, has been further cemented thanks to the consistent, in-depth and dynamic struggle of our Party and the state to increase the driving force and internal motive force.

In the course of thoroughly embodying the people-first principle of our Party as the main socialist political mode, the people-oriented character has been evidently displayed in the state affairs and the work method and style of officials have been remarkably improved, and this has resulted in deepening confidence of people in the Party and the state and in enhancing their patriotic enthusiasm and activeness, he said, and continued:

Especially, the admirable tradition of the army-people unity has been steadily carried forward and it has been consolidated to be invincible as the People’s Army defends the people by unsparingly shedding sweats of patriotism and remains faithful to its revolutionary obligation of rendering disinterested help to the people under the leadership of the Party.

Our youth, successors to the revolution, have grown stronger in their spirit and there is a hot wind of volunteering to difficult and labour-consuming sectors among them. This is a very important achievement that added great vitality to socialist construction. Such political achievements promising the sustained victory and bright future of socialist construction serve as inexhaustible strength and great pride for our Party and the state.

In the field of economic construction big operations have been powerfully promoted to drastically prop up metal industry and chemical industry, key pillars of the self-supporting economy, large-scale major construction projects have been dynamically pushed forward and efforts have been deepened to bring about innovative improvement in various sectors including agriculture, land construction, city management, science, education and public health. As a result, achievements that constitute a step forward in supporting the prosperity and development of the country have been made.

In the national defence sector, a spur has been given to ensuring the stable control of the instable military situation in the area of the Korean peninsula and to developing a new, powerful weapon system capable of thoroughly containing the military moves of the hostile forces. One can be confident of the might of our Party and the state powerfully opening up the way for the victory of socialism from our ultra-modern weapons which are being developed at an extremely fast speed and from the militant features of the People's Army, paramilitary and security forces which are growing day by day.

The independent foreign policy of our Republic representing justice and truth and implicating thoroughgoing practical ability has a great impact on the international political arena, and our state is enjoying ever-growing international profile.

In all, we can be proud of our style socialism making a dynamic advance along the orbit of its development with new, greater vitality in reliance upon the driving force that is being steadily consolidated.

Kim Jong Un specified the policy tasks facing the government of the Republic at present.

The most crucial task facing the government of the Republic as it was solemnly declared at the 8th Congress of our Party is to prove the new development of our style socialist construction with substantial achievements and practical changes waited for and welcomed by the people from the first year of carrying out the five-year plan, he said, calling for further consolidating the people-oriented character in all fields of the state affairs, removing all non-revolutionary, non-militant and backward things and bringing about a fresh innovation, bold creation and steady progress on all fronts of socialist construction.

An important task which the government of the Republic should constantly hold fast to is to continue to direct great efforts to strengthening the political and ideological might of our style socialism, he said.

Our political and ideological might with the single-minded unity of the Party and the people as the core constitutes force majeure peculiar to Juche Korea and becomes a decisive factor which promotes new development of socialist construction, he said, stressing the need to unfold the work of consolidating the people-first principle as the political climate and national trait of our state in a more substantial and purposeful manner.

He said that when organizing and executing all work, it is important to thoroughly maintain the principle of giving top priority to the interests of ordinary working people and solving issues in reliance upon the voluntary enthusiasm and active creativity of the masses of the people, to pay primary attention to cultivating popular style of work peculiar to the WPK among officials guiding the execution of the policies of the Party and the state and to steadily carry out education, control and uncompromising struggle to prevent any unpopular acts from being practiced.

Calling for doing well the work of inciting our state-first principle and comprehensively embodying it throughout society, he clarified issues for further strengthening the political and ideological position of socialism, including the provision of proper guidance for all citizens to display nobility and personality as befit the people of a powerful country in all aspects of their ordinary work and life.

He elaborated on the policy tasks for powerfully promoting the independent and overall development of the state economy.

He underlined the need to create an occasion of an epochal turn in socialist construction by setting it forth as an urgent task before the times to ensure that the state economy makes a shift to independent and overall development and by organizing a powerful struggle.

The government of the Republic should correctly set up the state plans for the independent and overall development of the national economy and dynamically promote it while creating mature conditions for realizing them on its own initiative and provide proper guidance to sectors and units lagging behind so that they can clearly set up long-term goals and phased plans to put their own fields on a world level and carry them out in a persistent way, he noted.

An issue that needs priority settlement in the economic work at present is to ensure the satisfactory production and provision of raw and other materials, power and equipment, he said, stressing the need to firmly maintain the principle of giving precedence to the development of metal industry and chemical industry, which constitute basic production sectors in providing raw materials to major fields of the national economy, over the overall economic development.

He underscored the need to scrupulously take economic and technical measures to keep the production going at a high rate at the major iron works, steel plants and iron mines and simultaneously and dynamically push forward the capacity expansion and modernization work in the sector of the metallurgical industry for meeting the statewide demand for iron and steel in the near future.

He indicated detailed tasks for the chemical industrial sector to dynamically propel the work for the establishment of the C1 chemical industry being conducted amid the great interest and expectations of the whole country under the scientific and technical guarantee, develop the basic chemical industry whose starting point is glauberite, realize the production of paper and fibre with reed and hasten the work for using brown coal as main raw material of the chemical industry and the work for realizing the domestic production of catalysts.

He stressed the need to increase the national investment in the sectors of electric-power and coal industry and direct efforts to solidifying the material and technological foundations to fully meet not only the urgent demands of the national economy but also its future demands.

He referred to the task for comprehensively remodelling the railways, pilot of the national economy, and underscored the need to develop the machine industry and IT industry to make them play important roles in realizing the domestic production of equipment and the modernization of the national economy.

Saying that it is an urgent demand to remodel the existing production processes in various sectors of the national economy and expand their production capacities for strengthening the independence of the state economy, he stressed the need to carry out the planned work for expanding production capacities by concentrating forces on the major projects of great significance in the national economy under the Party’s strategy of readjustment and reinforcement.

He said that the construction sector should complete the construction of apartment houses in Songsin and Songhwa areas this year and successively begin the next-stage construction of 10 000 flats, and thus build another modern district and street and usher in a new turning point of capital city construction by positively introducing new architectural styles.

He stressed the need to finish the construction in the Komdok area which is being propelled by the People's Army in a short span of time and build dwelling houses in provinces, cities and counties on a large scale to make all the people enjoy a highly civilized life in wonderful houses.

He underscored the need to correctly map out the nationwide master plan for land development and implement the land management including forest and water conservation in provinces, cities and counties in a responsible way to fundamentally remove the danger of flood damage, spruce up the ecological environment of the country and propel the mid- and long-term greening and growth plan in a substantial way for raising the level of city greening in the period of the five-year plan.

Noting that the decisive improvement of guidance and management of the economic work at present arises as an urgent task in strengthening the independence of the state economy and displaying its potential, he referred in detail to the methodological issues arising for the Cabinet to fully play its role as the control tower for carrying out the five-year plan for the national economic development.

He pointed to the need to intensify the state guidance over the external economic work to make all the trade activities expand and develop in the direction of reducing the dependence on import and strengthening independence in the economic sector, and earnestly study and apply the scientific plans for strengthening the executive ability of the state organs for economic guidance in the sector of economic management and ensuring the interests of the working people.

Noting that the most important and vital revolutionary task in achieving new development in socialist construction at present is to stabilize and improve the people’s living, he specified the policy issues for it.

To provide the people with a stabilized and affluent living, primary effort should be put on the agricultural development, he noted, expressing the unshakable will and determination of our Party to completely settle the food problem in the near future by rapidly developing agricultural production.

He stressed the need to correctly work out and thoroughly implement the agricultural development strategy for achieving the stable and continuous development of agricultural production despite any unfavourable weather and climatic conditions, in particular, solve the issue of seeds with a focus on breeding and improving high-yield seeds that stand disastrous abnormal weather.

Clarifying the plan on boldly changing crop distribution and making a shift of direction to rice, wheat and barley farming, he underscored the need to increase the nationwide areas for cultivating paddy rice and dry-field rice, ensure more than two-time increase in the areas sown with wheat and barley, raise the per-hectare yield and provide the people with polished rice and flour, and thus provide them with the condition for improving their diet in a cultured way.

He said that the agricultural sector should positively study and apply new advanced farming techniques and methods including the proper and rational control of the species distribution and sowing period as one of the measures for minimizing the damage by disastrous weather, and broadly organize and conduct the work for sharing and disseminating the good successes and experience of the leading units.

And he referred to the need to set it as an important policy task to establish the scientific water management system and resolve the water problem, to adjust and reinforce all irrigation structures, equipment, reservoirs and waterways, and to manage water in a scientific way as suited to the weather and climatic conditions so as to prevent the damage by drought and flood and fully provide water needed for farming.

Kim Jong Un stressed the need to update the meteorological instrumentation for timely coping with disastrous and abnormal climate and to thoroughly ensure the promptness, scientific accuracy and correctness in the weather forecast.

He called for decisively increasing goats and cattle and massively conducting the movement for breeding rabbits as an all-people one as required by the Party's policy of obtaining meat from grass in the stockbreeding sector, and paying attention to lowering the feed consumption unit to the utmost and improving the anti-epizootic work.

Especially, the work for implementing the Party's new childcare policy should be waged in a substantial way to treble the nationwide milk production, develop the milk processing technology and thoroughly ensure the quality of dairy products, he said, and went on:

Putting the production of fruit and vegetables on an intensive basis, building more large-scale vegetable greenhouse farms and boosting the production of industrial crops including oil-bearing and sugar crops should be pushed forward to make tangible contributions to improving the people’s living standards.

Pyongyang and other provinces, cities and counties should wage brisk campaigns in which one overtakes and learns from others and swaps experience with one another after creating new model units in the agricultural sector as required by the development of the era. A campaign for rooting out bragging should be waged in that sector. The way of procuring agricultural products including grain should be set and enforced in a proper way in order to increase the agricultural workers' zeal for production activities while fully meeting the nationwide demand.

He indicated in detail the issues of intensifying the state assistance to the agricultural field, sprucing up food administration stations in cities and counties and updating the grain-processing. He also clarified the important plans and ideas of promoting the development of local construction and face-lifting the socialist rural areas by adopting the unconditional supply of cement by the state to cities and counties from next year as a policy and law.

He referred to the political tasks for improving the people's material and cultural life by developing light industry.

Saying that it is the most urgent task arising in the life of the people at present to produce more necessities demanded by them and supply them by operating the light industrial factories in full capacity, he called for unconditionally keeping the state supply of raw and other materials needed for producing consumer goods more than six months ahead.

He said that the light-industry sector should adopt it as an important policy-oriented issue to ensure production relying on locally-available raw and other materials and recycling, while thoroughly relying on science and technology.

Putting a particular stress on enhancing the spirit of service for the people in producing consumer goods, he set it as an important task for the light-industry sector to improve the quality of consumer goods, increase the kinds of products and lower the cost.

He called for bringing earlier the completion of the projects of local-industry factories in Kimhwa County of Kangwon Province which are being remodelled and standardized on an experimental basis and, on the basis of the experience gained in remodelling, completing in a short period the technical modernization of local-industry factories in cities and counties across the country. He also indicated the ways for fully tapping materials for the light industry in local areas to increase consumer goods, putting the production of August 3 consumer goods and daily necessaries production on an active basis and enhancing the role of socialist commerce.

Kim Jong Un referred to the political tasks for directing efforts to developing the fishing industry.

The fishing sector should accelerate the modernization and overhaul of fishing boats and fishing tackle, catch a lot of fish through an intensive fishing campaign and enrich the people's diet by producing various kinds of processed marine products including canned fish, he noted.

He also called for protecting and managing marine resources in a planned way, keeping strict supervision and control over the acts of destroying marine resources, waging a vigorous campaign for stocking the seas, rivers and lakes with fries and conducting fish farming and culture massively so as to produce more marine products.

Saying that the civilization level of the country is an important criterion for appraising the national strength and a symbol of its prosperity, development and future, he clarified the important issues arising in developing all sectors of socialist culture such as science, education and public health.

Noting that the government of the Republic should consistently keep it as an important state policy to facilitate sci-tech development and thoroughly implement it in all fields and sectors, he called for establishing a national trait of drawing up plans, setting goals and resolving all problems arising in production and construction on the strength of science and technology, directing primary efforts to sci-tech development and innovation, training one's own sci-tech forces and making them play a leading and key role.

He said that the scientific research field should regard it as the core, main assignment and priority task to immediately resolve the urgent sci-tech problems in economic construction and people's living, step up the research and development for it and introduce its successes into practice in order to gain actual benefits.

Saying that it is one of very important tasks facing the government of the Republic to turn the country into an advanced country in education, he called for opening up a new period of development in socialist education, guided by the Party's policy of attaching importance to education and talents.

He also stressed the need to constantly conduct the work for properly training teachers, proactively exploring and introducing new contents, system and methods into further improving the quality of education, promoting university education as required by the global education development trend in order to train more talents majoring in development and creation and those with practical knowledge. He also referred to the important tasks in improving educational conditions and environment and the issue of increasing the stipends for university students.

Saying that establishing the health system capable of tangibly promoting the health of all the people is an important task of our socialist state, the fulfilment of which brooks no further delay, he called for taking decisive measures to put the material and technological foundations of the public health sector on a high level and improving the quality of health service.

Noting that the government of the Republic should develop the art and literature, media and sports as required by the times and the reality, the people’ s demand and desire, as it is duty-bound to assume the responsibility for taking care of the destiny and moral and cultural life of the people and the rising generations and for leading them to a correct path, he laid down the immediate tasks for doing so.

He said that the government of the Republic should ceaselessly intensify education in communist morality and collectivism in a methodological way among officials, working people and the younger generations in accordance with the people’s state of consciousness and the changed environment.

He advanced the tasks to be fulfilled to further tighten epidemic prevention measures, the top priority work of the government of the Republic at present that requires flawlessness.

Calling for turning the present epidemic prevention system into more reliable and developed one, he referred to the important issues arising in steadily preserving the public epidemic prevention atmosphere and the people's voluntary unity of action by making the work of abiding by the epidemic prevention regulations and order, their own vital requirements and habit, and in putting the country's epidemic prevention foundations on a scientific basis and thoroughly ensuring the popular character in the emergency epidemic prevention work.

Noting that it is the top-priority right of a sovereign state to bolster the national defence capability and the existence and development of our own-style socialism would have been absolutely unthinkable without the steady strengthening of the national defence capability, Kim Jong Un called for attaining with thoroughgoing practices the goals of defence up-building set forth at the 8th Party Congress by strengthening the armed forces of the Republic in every way and putting the defence industry on a high-level Juche, modern and scientific basis.

He underscored the need to strengthen the socialist legal system, further improve the function and role of the people's government as required by the times and thus fortify our politico-ideological position and class position in every way.

People's power organs should make sure unconditional service for the people run through all their activities in conformity with their duty, direct them towards the realization of the will, demand and interests of the people and never allow any slightest practices and elements against the nature of the people-centred socialist system, he said.

He noted the methods to build up the ranks of power organ officials with men of ability, who will conduct every work in a bold and innovative way cherishing high Party spirit, revolutionary spirit and loyalty to the people, rationally rearrange the structure and work system of power organs and thus make our people's power fulfil its role as a political weapon dynamically advancing the cause of socialism.

Kim Jong Un outlined and assessed the present inter-Korean relations still locked in insecure and grave deadlock and the situation of the Korean peninsula, before clarifying the policy towards the south at the present stage.

He said that different military drills and arms build-up under the pretext of "containing" the DPRK have become conspicuous in south Korea and dishonest remarks and behaviours getting on our nerves and provoking us regardless of time have been heard from it.

Noting that the south Korean authorities are bent on begging external support and cooperation while clamouring for international cooperation, toeing the line of the US, he added that as regards the issue of declaring the termination of war proposed by south Korea recently, though the termination of war is declared, hostile acts would be continued and, therefore, unexpected different clashes repeated, only to arouse the anxiety of all the fellow countrymen and international community, as long as there remain factors, the spark of distrust and confrontation between the north and the south, intact.

It is the invariable demand repeatedly explained by us to ensure the respect for each other and withdraw the partial view, unfair and double-dealing attitude and hostile viewpoint and policies towards the other side before declaring the termination of war, and this is an important task to be settled beforehand in order to control the inter-Korean relations and open up a bright future, he stressed.

Pointing out the attitude of the south Korean authorities who have shown no sign of change while ignoring and neglecting the sources of aggravated inter-Korean relations though they are well aware of them, he stressed that now the inter-Korean relations stand at the crossroads of serious choices—either to advance towards reconciliation and cooperation after warming the present cooled-off relations or to suffer from national division amid a vicious cycle of confrontation, and advanced the principled matters for the fundamental settlement of the north-south relations.

It is important for the south Korean authorities to change its confrontational and habitual attitude towards our Republic, keep the stand of national independence through practices, not in words, deal with the inter-Korean relations with a view to settling the essential matters and give weight to and sincerely implement the north-south declarations, he stressed.

Kim Jong Un said we are closely watching the fact that recently, the US and south Korea are destroying the stability and balance around the Korean peninsula and inviting more complicated dangers of clash between the north and the south through excessive arms build-up and allied military activities that arouse concerns, underscoring the need to stand against the gangster logic of the US and south Korea, bitterly denounce it, firmly maintain our invariable standpoint to check such dangerous trend, and take all necessary tough measures.

Saying we obviously remind the south Korean authorities of the fact once again that it depends on the attitude of the south Korean authorities whether the inter-Korean relations would be restored and develop onto a new stage or continue to keep the present state of worsening, he added that we have neither aim nor reason to provoke south Korea and no idea to harm it and it is necessary for south Korea to promptly get rid of the delusion, consciousness of crisis and awareness of getting harmed that it should deter the north's provocation.

He expressed the intention to see to it that the north-south communication lines that had been cut off due to the deteriorated inter-Korean relations are restored first from early October as part of the efforts for realizing the expectations and desire of the entire Korean nation to see the earlier recovery of the north-south relations from the present deadlock and durable peace settling in the Korean peninsula.

He analysed the current international political situation and underlined the need for the sector in charge of foreign affairs to cope with the ever-changing eventful external environment more proactively and positively.

Saying that there now exist not a few serious crises and challenges facing the world but the fundamental danger comes from the US and its vassal forces’ high-handed and arbitrary practices that destroy the foundation of international peace and stability, he analysed that the current international situation is mainly characterized by the fact that it has got more complicated as the structure of the international relations has been reduced to the structure of "new Cold War" due to the US unilateral and prejudiced bloc-forming style of external policy.

Pointing out that the US remains utterly unchanged in posing military threats and pursuing policy hostile towards the DPRK but employs more cunning ways and methods in doing so, as proven by the deeds done by it over the past eight months since the emergence of its new administration, he said that the US is touting "diplomatic engagement" and "dialogue without preconditions" but it is no more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community and hiding its hostile acts and an extension of the hostile policy pursued by the successive US administrations.

He tasked the field in charge of foreign affairs with concentrating on providing tactical measures for thoroughly implementing the strategic policy of the DPRK government towards the US on the basis of strictly studying and analysing the present US administration's stand on the DPRK, the prospects of the US political situation and ever-changing international balance of forces within the framework of their correlations.

He urged the field to channel primary efforts into firmly protecting the sovereignty of the country and its independent development interests while proactively coping with the international political situation and the surrounding environment that get more and more unstable.

He affirmed that the DPRK government will as ever develop its good neighbourly relations with all the countries of the world that respect its sovereignty and are friendly to it, and perform its responsibility and role in the struggle for preserving peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

Saying that all the people in the country entrust their destiny entirely to the Republic, regarding it as the very one ensuring their worthwhile life, he noted that such great trust is the dearest and most valuable asset possessed by the WPK and the DPRK government and it is the most sacred and glorious obligation we have assumed before tens of millions of citizens of the country to live up to the trust.

Solemnly evincing the iron will of the WPK and the DPRK government to remain boundlessly loyal to the great people and do their best to fulfil their weighty mission and responsibility, he ardently appealed to everyone to work hard for the prosperity of the DPRK, the great country, for happiness and wellbeing of the great people and for fresh development of Korean-style socialist construction under the uplifted slogan of "The people are God", single-minded unity and self-reliance.

The important policy speech made by him at the session is an undying programme that powerfully accelerates the development of Korean-style socialist construction by injecting great vitality and courage into the all-people struggle for attaining the goals for victory set by the 8th Party Congress and enhancing the fighting efficiency of the state power organs in an all-round way.

The full text of the historic policy speech will be published to be distributed among Party organizations and working people's organizations, people's power and armed forces organs, judicial, prosecutorial and public security organs at all levels and organs in charge of south Korean and foreign affairs.

KCNA

2021-09-30