Kim Jong Un: Let Us Lead the Development of Civilization of Our Own Style of Socialism by Waging a New Revolution in Construction

Letter to Those Attending the Second Grand Short Course of Officials in the Construction Sector

February 8, Juche 111 (2022)

Amid all the sectors of socialist construction seething with the revolutionary enthusiasm to write another glorious page in the history of the country in this meaningful year by carrying out the decisions adopted at the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the Second Grand Short Course of Officials in the Construction Sector has opened.

At a time, when a new era of grand construction is being ushered in for transforming the whole country beyond recognition once again in line with the Party’s far-reaching plan, officials in the construction sector, who are active on a major front of creation and transformation, have got together to review and analyze the successes, experiences, mistakes and lessons in the construction sector in recent years and rearm themselves with our Party’s idea of architecture and its policy of construction. This is quite timely and meaningful.

I warmly congratulate the officials in the construction sector, who are participating in this short course with a soaring will to demonstrate the level of development and dignity of the Juche-oriented architecture, which has entered a higher stage in the struggle for opening up an era of fresh upsurge, an era of comprehensive development, in socialist construction.

I also extend warm and militant greetings to all other builders and soldiers, who are creating legendary tales in construction by giving full play to the strength and mettle of our state at the grand construction sites for building a civilized and prosperous powerful country true to the call of the Party.

In the struggle of the present stage for achieving a fresh victory in socialist construction with a greatest determination under the worst-ever conditions, the position and role of the construction sector are very important. When the sector advances dynamically, leading the civilization of the times in vanguard of all other sectors, the revolutionary mettle of the people and their zeal for struggle will be heightened steadily, our style of socialism will advance full of vigour and the morrow of a great powerful country will come earlier.

This is why our Party attaches great importance to this short course and expects that it will constitute a turning point in achieving a fresh leap forward and development in the Juche-oriented architecture.

The First Grand Short Course of Officials in the Construction Sector, the first ever of its kind in our country’s history of construction, set up an important milestone in ushering in a golden age of construction by thoroughly applying our Party’s people-first ideal in architecture.

The short course has brought about innovative changes in the way of thinking and practice of the officials in the construction sector, and the level of architectural designing and building work has developed beyond recognition. Experiences and foundations have been obtained for designing architectural structures of creative and unique mood to our liking free from the conventional and stereotyped patterns of the past, building forces have grown and the level of their technical skills has been raised remarkably.

Measures have been taken to consolidate the material and technical foundations of the building-materials industry, the arsenal for grand construction, and some progress has been made in producing finishing materials domestically.

In short, amid a golden age being ushered in for construction, our Juche-oriented architecture, our construction sector, has achieved a remarkable development, setting up numerous monumental structures which we can feel proud of in front of the world.

New prospects have been opened in holding the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in high esteem for ever and adding eternal brilliance to the glorious revolutionary history, traditions and achievements of the Party; this is the most precious success born of the ardent loyalty and devoted efforts of the officials and workers in the construction sector, who have remained faithful to the inherent principle and mission of the Juche-oriented architecture.

Since the first grand short course, we have completed a large-scale project tantamount to building a modern street every year and set up wonderful structures that can serve as new standards and models of the Juche-oriented architecture in urban, rural and industrial construction and the construction of cultural facilities. Such creations as the seat and rural villages of the city of Samjiyon, Ryomyong Street, Mirae Scientists Street, Jungphyong Vegetable Greenhouse Farm, Sci-Tech Complex and Yangdok Hot Spring Resort that are permeated with the resourcefulness and talents of our designers and builders are masterpieces of the Juche-oriented architecture, which showcase the new appearance of civilization in the era of the Workers’ Party.

In the last year alone, we made a breakthrough for hitting the target of housing construction envisaged in the five-year plan by building 10 000 flats in the Songsin and Songhwa districts and by successfully promoting construction of 5 000 flats in the Komdok area; while building the Pothong riverside terraced houses district in a characteristic way, we created a new form of architecture and accumulated wonderful experiences that can be propagated across the country. And brilliant successes were achieved in other construction sites across the country, like building the Pyongyang General Hospital, which the Party had promised with the people to build, the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Resort, the project for establishing a C1 chemical industry and the Tanchon Power Station and renovating the regional-industry factories in Kimhwa County.

The success that we recall with a special feeling of dignity is that we implemented the project of sprucing up the city of Samjiyon, which is of great political and strategic significance for our Party, state and people. Thus we demonstrated the faith and will of all our people to defend the revolutionary traditions of the Party and glorify for ever the revolutionary achievements of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, created a model of regional construction and prepared a gift of loyalty dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the birth of General Kim Jong Il. Availing myself of this opportunity, I extend heartfelt thanks to all the people, builders and service personnel across the country, who devoted their strength and wisdom and rendered material and spiritual assistance unsparingly to the project with crystal-clear loyalty to the Party and the leaders.

Our grand socialist construction has been conducted without a moment of interruption, in an unprecedentedly gigantic and bold way, in a characteristic and modern way and in a three-dimensional way at that, in the circumstances in which our state and people are faced with the harshest-ever challenges and obstacles and amid the intense struggle for achieving the great cause of building up the national strength and innovative transformations in several other sectors. This is a powerful demonstration of the firm faith, extraordinary spirit of creation and boundless patriotic enthusiasm of our people, who are advancing steadily towards a bright future of socialism without flinching in the face of trials, and of the level of development and potential of our state, which is striving to hit a gigantic goal.

We can look back with due dignity the successes we have achieved recently in construction and the architectural art that has leaped towards a higher stage, which instils in us optimism in the bright future of the development of the Juche-oriented architecture. At the same time, we should make a correct review and analysis of and rectify without fail the mistakes and deviations, which we must learn lessons from and overcome for further development of the Juche-oriented architecture that conforms to our far-reaching ideals and ambitions.

At present our construction sector has shortcomings to be promptly rectified, as well as many aspects that must be reinforced. Evident in the designing sector are shortcomings of failing to emphasize the peculiarity of each architectural structure while avoiding repetition and making it reflect the aesthetic tastes and emotions of our people and to ensure the practicality as suited to its mission and functions. We are still far behind in designing interior decoration, furniture designing and landscaping. As far as construction methods are concerned, we remain inclined towards wet process; there is conspicuous difference in ensuring the quality of construction work by construction units and by projects; we rely to a large extent on imports for finishing materials; the rate of mechanization of construction work is very low. These can be called major factors impeding the qualitative leap forward of our architecture. 

What is more serious is that the officials in the construction sector are not well-cognizant of our Party’s ideals of architecture, its policy of construction and the intention of the Party Central Committee of attaching importance to the construction sector in developing our style of socialism, and their vision and insight for beating the world in construction are narrow.

The construction sector’s material and technical foundations are not sufficient enough to launch and push ahead construction work without a hitch as planned and intended by the Party. This, too, is an issue at hand that must be settled without fail.

The Party intends, with this grand short course as a momentum, to bring about a fresh innovation in overall construction work and thus effect another qualitative leap forward of the Juche-oriented architecture to the world standard. We have a large group of resourceful and talented designers and experienced construction officials and skilled workers who are capable of taking charge of and leading the era of a new leap forward and development of construction, as well as ability to support any grand construction. We should tap all these potentialities and bring the revolution in construction to a new stage. In this way, we can continue to write glorious chapters of the Juche-oriented architecture in the history of socialist construction.

Our Party has unfolded a grand blueprint for radically changing the living environment of all the people across the country within 20 to 30 years and turning ours into an ideal socialist country, a socialist paradise, which is admired by the world and where the people live in comfort and harmony, enjoying the highest quality and standard of civilization. The construction sector holds the position of forefront in translating this objective into reality.

Construction is an important part of political work. By helping the people to feel the benevolence of our Party’s people-first politics and our system close and personal and giving an intuitive understanding of the criteria of creation we are aspiring to and the beautiful future, it leads them to the civilization of a new era and inspires every one of them to devote themselves to the socialist patriotic cause, filled with pride in being the citizens of the great state and confidence in a better tomorrow. In this sense, the current revolution in construction can be defined as a worthwhile undertaking to create priceless assets of the country and, at the same time, a process of ideological education and cultural revolution for enlightening people and leading them to a bright future.

Construction is also a prerequisite for a comprehensive development of socialism and improvement of the people’s living standards and a patriotic undertaking of lasting significance for creating civilized future.

If we, preoccupied with prevailing difficulties, fail to direct efforts to construction, we can neither cement the foundations for the development of the state nor provide the people with a happy life. Construction is a hallmark of progress and renovation and investment in the future. Only when we audaciously push ahead with construction with precedence given to it, can we create new potentials for sustained economic growth and build more bases of cultural progress, thereby bringing about substantial changes welcomed by the people in all realms of state and social life.

Our great people have bravely surmounted the period of severe trials and training and entered a stage of a fresh upsurge and development of the revolution. By making a revolutionary turn in construction, we should visually show the world what ideals and ambitions they cherish in their endeavour to achieve progress in this stage, and should demonstrate the dignity of the powerful country more dynamically.

Each structure we are creating on the strength of self-reliance with an eye to the future and in the face of current difficulties will remain as a base of the well-being of our people and posterity, a solid asset for national prosperity and a historic monument which will tell posterity the height of the ennobling ideological feelings and creative wisdom of the people in the era of the Workers’ Party.

By availing themselves of this grand short course, all its participants should bring themselves to deeply bear in mind the Party’s intention to prioritize construction and lead the overall development of socialist construction by dint of innovative changes in the construction sector, master its policy of construction and have a correct understanding of the matters to be adhered to in the future construction.

And they should clearly recognize what have been the good points in construction up to now, what have been the bad points, what were their causes and what could be the ways for rectifying them, and share successes and experiences with one another. In this way they can confidently advance towards bold innovation and development.

The basic orientation we must follow in construction at present is to prioritize construction projects for the people’s well-being, at the same time as pushing forward industrial construction and land development for consolidating the country’s economic foundations.

Progress and prosperity of a society are inconceivable apart from the level of its people’s cultural life. We should, by providing our people with better houses and an excellent environment for cultural life, apply the people-oriented policies of the Party and state and the original features of socialism in a more concrete way and lead a positive change in the rhythm, habits and mode of the people’s life and the improvement of their political consciousness and level of civilization.

Housing problem is a matter of greatest concern for our people and a primary issue in providing them with the tangible benefits of the socialist system. The core of the construction policy advanced by the Eighth Congress of the WPK is to make ours the first country in the world, which has solved the housing problem. As decided by the congress, 50 000 modern flats should be built in Pyongyang without fail and a mountain gorge city, a cultured mining city, of 25 000 flats of unique character should be built in the Komdok area; provinces, cities and counties should vigorously push ahead with the regional housing construction on an annual basis. By doing so, we can basically solve the shortage of houses across the country during the five-year plan period.

In order to enable our people and rising generations to learn to their heart’s content, attain a high level of knowledge and civilization and be in good health, we should build many modern educational and public health facilities with excellent conditions and environment so that the Party’s plan of building ours into a civilized socialist country would be implemented at an earlier date. Based on the experiences gained and standards set so far, we should strongly push ahead with the work of modernizing the educational institutions, medical service facilities and pharmaceutical bases at all levels.

To enable our people to fully enjoy the realities of the socialist civilization, we should build cultural and tourist resorts for their own good in perfect harmony with the beautiful natural scenery in the celebrated mountains and scenic spots across the country, continue to lay out characteristic parks and recreation grounds in all the towns and villages and set up modern service facilities on a higher level.

Our Party has put it forward as an important strategic line of socialist construction to fundamentally eliminate the differences between the capital city and provinces and between towns and rural communities.

With a view to stepping up regional construction, especially rural construction, in real earnest, our Party and the government of the Republic formulated a policy and adopted a law on supplying cement to every city and county by the state every year on a regular basis. The Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK set forth a strategic task to build all the rural villages in the country in such a way that they maintain the flavour of our style of socialism and evidently sustain the relevant regional characteristics.

Sprucing up cities, county towns and rural villages is a quite worthwhile undertaking, which is welcomed by our people and which gives an impetus to the construction of a civilized society. True to the Party’s policy of regional construction and rural construction, the state should increase its investment to this end, and every province, city and county should raise the torch of revolution in this construction to transform all their provincial seats, cities, county towns and rural villages into ideal socialist ones.

We should direct efforts to industrial construction and land development so as to steadily lay fresh foundations for economic development.

The objective we have to attain in industrial construction is to create fresh foundations for the development of the national economy and provide the working people with better and advanced working conditions by establishing and renovating in a modern way not only production lines but also all the industrial, and cultural and welfare facilities. Not only the appearances of the buildings but also their operation and economic profitability should be substantial in conformity to the requirements of the new era.

For the present, efforts should be concentrated on the projects for establishing a C1 chemical industry, renovating the Kumsong Tractor Factory, building energy-saving iron furnace and other major industrial construction projects of national significance, so as to step up their completion.With the Jungphyong Vegetable Greenhouse Farm as a model, similar modern large-scale farms should be built, and renovation of the cereal administration agencies of cities and counties and regional factories should be pushed ahead.

While directing efforts to building economic infrastructure such as railways, ports and power plants, which constitute the basis of the country’s development, we should persistently conduct land administration, like building sea walls and hydraulic structures, road construction and river improvement. In this way, we can transform the country’s appearance and defend the people’s lives and property and the material and cultural wealth created by their great efforts from natural disasters.

Like this, the construction work we have to conduct is enormous and challenging; but if we press on with it responsibly without interruption with the mindset that it is an essential process in opening up a broad and smooth road for the state’s development and securing a guarantee for improving the people’s living standards, not only we but also the coming generation will enjoy the tangible benefit and, in the near future, our country will be transformed into a beautiful socialist ideal country good to live in.

The first basic requirement that we should meet consistently in construction work is to thoroughly establish in it the unified leadership system of the Party Central Committee.

As stressed above, construction work, before being an undertaking for creating material wealth, is an important undertaking to apply our Party’s people-first politics, improve the level of the people’s spiritual and cultural attainments and transform the country’s appearance. Only when the unified leadership system of the Party Central Committee is thoroughly established in construction work, can it be conducted in line with the policy-oriented intentions and plans of the Party, which is guiding the comprehensive development of our style of socialism, and can all the architectural structures created in our era correctly embody the Juche-oriented ideas and ideals on architecture.

In every process of construction, from planning to completion, we should concentrate all our thinking and practices on how to implement the plans and intentions of the Party Central Committee, while making sure that the Party’s policy of construction is the one and only guideline and absolute standard in organizing and carrying on construction projects. It should be a strict rule to report all that matters in construction to the Party in time and handle them in accordance with the Party’s conclusion. Only the design ratified by the Party should be adopted in whatever is built even when something more is wanted or can be done; such abnormal practices as undertaking a project without getting any approval from the Party should be the last thing to be connived at.

The second basic requirement that we should meet consistently in construction work is to regard architecture as a political affair, a matter of policy.

Our architecture, separated from its political character, would have no value. We reject the tendency of regarding construction as an undertaking of practical character, pursuing only artistic beauty, art for art’s sake. Making architecture political and policy-oriented is the core and seed for developing the Juche-oriented architecture. It should be a consistent policy to make the architectural structures bear a visual expression of the principle of regarding our Party, our ideology, our system and our nation as the best; this can be done by, for instance, displaying political slogans or catchphrases on them. All the structures we build should be lively ones that fully embody the Juche- and people-oriented characters unique to our Party and state, our national traits, the people’s aspirations and emotions and the dignity and mettle of our great powerful nation.

The third basic requirement that we should meet consistently in construction work is to create and develop new, original styles of architecture, representative and symbolic of the era of the Workers’ Party.

Architectural style is a visual sign of the aspiration, aesthetic view, level of civilization and national strength in the relevant period of time. We should create and introduce into overall construction architectural styles symbolic of the civilization in the era of the Workers’ Party, typical styles of our own that encapsulate the features of the art of architecture we aspire to. What is important in this regard is to make every component of architecture embody the national flavour, the spirit of the times and the mettle of innovation and creation. In other words, we should sustain our inherent flavour and features while meeting the requirements of modern architectural art in our own way.

The fourth basic requirement that we should meet consistently in construction work is to ensure high economic efficiency and practicality.

Construction requires a huge amount of human and material resources, and, once it has been done, it can hardly be reversed–this is the peculiarity of construction. Depending on what kind of purpose it pursues and how qualitatively it is done, construction may powerfully lead social progress or hinder it. Therefore, it should be conducted based on scientific calculation in close combination with long-term national development plan; and in the whole course of construction, ranging from drawing the master plan to designing and building work, we should pursue economic efficiency and practicality by adopting optimum options. We should maintain the principle of profitability, actively encourage resource-, area- and energy-saving models in accordance with the world trend and actual conditions of our country, and make every aspect of all structures perfect so that they can serve as bases for the growth of economic potential and development of civilization and prosperity of the country even after fifty years, nay one hundred years, to say nothing of today.

Keeping to these basic orientation and requirements in construction, we should turn out with a fresh determination in an all-out effort to bring about a revolutionary upsurge in the era of grand construction.

If construction is to make dramatic progress as desired by the Party, progress and change should be achieved first in designing.

An excellent structure which embodies the Party’s Juche-based idea of architectural aesthetic beauty and encapsulates the people’s ideals comes from the designing table, and our big strides towards a civilized socialist country also start at the table.

What our Party demands is that every single line and dot placed on a blueprint reflect the ideology, essence and vibrant spirit of the era of the Workers’ Party and embody the standards of a civilization that can proudly take the global lead. And what is badly needed for architectural designers who are charged with this task is the persistent stamina with which they rack their brains to get an ingenious idea or inspiration that are consistent with the Party’s ideas and ideals and the people’s aspirations, and with which they admit or yield to nothing but new things.

Designers should think, study and endeavour every minute of their life, well aware that each of their design will translate our Party’s line and policy into reality and open up a rosy future of their country.

What is the central task in architectural designing is to maintain the Juche character and national identity, sustain originality and convenience, and promote practicality and functionality.

As the Party has often stressed, the Juche character and national identity is the life and soul of architecture while originality and convenience, practicality and functionality are guidelines in drawing an architectural design. As required by our Party’s construction policy, the designing sector, while maintaining the principle of giving priority to convenience, aesthetic beauty and infrastructure construction, should design all structures in such a way that they accord with the feelings and aesthetic tastes of our people and with our actual conditions, that they are diversified and distinctive, and that they serve their purposes. This will help open a new phase of architectural creation.

Elevation is the face of an architectural structure, whose attractive feature is expressed firstly in its elevation.

It is important to avoid similarity and repetition and sustain the individuality of all structures in designing the elevation. In other words, it is needed to sustain the characteristics of the structural skeleton of a building while ensuring its formative and artistic beauty so that one can tell at a glance over its outer appearance what it is for. We should pay attention to finding an original seed that reflects intensively the mission, purpose and characteristic features of the structure and thoroughly subordinating every part and detail to the seed in elevation formation. In particular, even structures with the same mission and purpose must be designed in harmony with the surrounding environment without being repetitive and monotonous while preserving the characteristics of the area–mountainous area, coastal area and plain area.

The appearance of a structure should look good, but its interior should be not only practical and convenient but also flawless in terms of architectural aesthetics.

What is fundamental in the interior formation is to perfectly realize practicality, convenience and artistic and formative beauty all together. While emphasizing practicality and convenience, formative and artistic beauty should not be neglected, and practicality and convenience should not be overlooked while leaning towards ensuring formative and artistic beauty.

Attention should be paid to rationalizing the floor plan in the direction of fully meeting the functional requirements of the building according to its mission and purpose, increasing to the maximum the utility rate of the building area and ensuring its convenience. At the same time, we should actively create and utilize new and diversified architectural formation methods of our own style.

Interior decoration is particularly important in architecture. Interior decoration can be likened to an art. It should be regarded as a principle to sustain modernity and our taste in interior decoration. We should improve the effect of interior decoration by employing such various decorative elements as folding screens and paintings and such a decoration method as openwork, and arranging different pieces of furniture and fixtures in good harmony according to their purposes.

The designing sector should pay special attention to widely encouraging national form of architecture and designing the exterior and interior of architectural structures as suited to the national characteristics.

The formation plan of an architectural structure acquires its detailed features through technical design, and its quality, safety and technical engineering requirements are guaranteed by the quality of the technical design.

Scientific character, accuracy, rationality and delicateness should be guaranteed in technical design. The designing sector, in strict accordance with the formation plans ratified by the Party and the technical tasks, should present optimum technical design options, which can guarantee the quality and safety of structures with less materials and manpower and fully satisfy the functional demands of living and technical engineering demands while properly sustaining the modern aesthetic tastes and decorative effects.

Much effort should be directed to drawing up a draft budget for construction designing. Those engaged in drafting the budget should eliminate such practices as creating reserve or incurring waste as a result of improper calculation of manpower, materials and funds in their work, and ensure that every single man-day, every gram of cement, every piece of steel are made an effective use of.

A fundamental change should be brought about in designing furniture and landscaping.

At present, as the level of furniture designing is not so high, pieces of furniture that are poorly-shaped, unattractive and inconvenient to use are manufactured even though they are made with good materials, degrading the quality of the interior of the building.

Those engaged in furniture designing should hold fast to the principle of designing furniture so that they can meet their purpose, at the same time as blending well with the character of the structure and its interior space and catering to the tastes of the users. While attaching importance to making furniture varied, formative, multi-functional and light, they should transform them from monolithic style to adjustable style and design all pieces of furniture as suited to their purposes. They should encourage the production of light and good-looking furniture not only with wood but also with various other materials, and choose their colours to be congenial to that of the interior space of the structure.

In modern architecture landscaping plays an important role as a means of formation, and its standard is a yardstick by which the level of a country’s civilization is evaluated.

As landscaping is another form of formative art, its designing should be given priority, and it should be done according to the design.

Landscaping designs should be drawn in a characteristically formative and artistic way and in such a way as to raise the dignity of the building and sustain natural scenery, taking into account the surrounding environment, terrain features and ecological characteristics of the garden plants. Those engaged in landscaping designing should guard against the stereotyped manner in their work, and draw designs in various ways, like planting trees of high ornamental value in groups, laying out lawns and flower beds in harmony and enhancing natural beauty by combining such elements as artificial hills and rocks.

We should properly conduct the work of widening the vision of landscaping designers, intensifying research into landscaping and adopting the methods that are widely used in the world as suited to the practical situation in our country.

The designing sector should properly draw up master plans.

Master plans should be drawn up on a long-term basis with an eye to over 50, nay 100 years, ahead; with their ideals first be properly defined in line with the Party’s intention, they should be drawn up on the basis of scientific calculation of the specific conditions and environments of the regions and projects and the direction of their development while making sure their seeds and themes are sustained.

What is important in drawing up a master plan is to properly define the central axis according to the relevant area and project, clearly divide the districts according to the functions and form architectural groups in such a way that they retain the unique features of their own. In the undulated areas it should be a principle to distribute the buildings by making the most of the natural curves and slopes, while in the flat areas it would be a good idea to divide them into square districts and locate the imposing buildings. Artistic interaction, compatibility and connection between buildings should be ensured in a smooth and refined way while the unique style of the individual buildings that constitute the architectural formation is retained. In drawing up a master plan, the networks of technical facilities including those of water supply, sewage treatment, electricity supply and telecommunications should be laid out with great attention so as to provide the people with the conditions and environment in which they could live without any slightest inconvenience.

In keeping with the global trend of development, we should study and introduce options of architectural designing, including green and smart architecture, competing with the world in terms of advancement in the technology of architecture. Along with this, we should exert great efforts to raise to the world class the comprehensive level of designing in the construction of ports, railways, roads, bridges and all others.

The designing sector should eliminate subjectivism and formalism and ensure scientific accuracy and promptness in guidance and deliberation of designs, and fully realize cooperation and unity of designing institutes by branches and systems so as to secure a guarantee of victory from the stage of making an operations plan in construction.

The quality of a structure is precisely the quality of building work.

In ensuring the quality of building work, the primary task is to raise the builders’ level of building work. Construction units should push forward the work of making the builders possess the expertise and qualifications with which they can carry on any building tasks flawlessly. In particular, efforts should be directed to building up the ranks of skilled workers who are good at finishing work. The overall level of technical skills should be raised by effectively organizing technical studies, skills transfer and competition among skilled workers and by forming construction forces in such a rational way that the novices could learn and master the methods of building work while working together with the highly skilled workers.

The construction sector should establish a proper system of quality management, introduce advanced methods to this end, and never make a concession or compromise concerning the quality of building work.

Construction units should strengthen the building work guidance forces and give correct guidance so that building work could be done in accordance with the requirements of architectural engineering and aesthetics; they should also correctly inform their employees of the standards of the design and building work and the engineering requirements, and make exacting demands so that they would thoroughly meet them; they should make a sharp review of the work with the focus on the quality of the work done. When the builders, preoccupied with wrong habits and empiricism, have violated the engineering requirements, they should call them to serious account and put it to rights.

The construction sector should overcome the deviation of attaching importance to speed alone through a crash campaign under the pretext of completing the project by a fixed date, and give precedence to ensuring the quality of the building on the principle of giving priority to quality over quantity.

The quality and speed of building work are improved by advanced engineering methods. The construction sector should launch a new innovation movement to introduce advanced building methods. It should intensify research into and invention of material- and labour-saving building methods, including introduction of dry process and perfecting the method of coloured mortar plastering, and the construction units should continuously explore and apply the advantageous and new building methods.

If we are to push ahead construction without interruption on the level intended by the Party and according to our determination, we need larger quantities of building materials.

Today, when the flames of the revolution in construction are flaring up, what is needed everywhere is cement. We should conquer the goal of cement production set by the Eighth Party Congress by operating at full capacity the existing cement factories, pushing ahead with the expanding of their production capacity and building modern cement factories in the areas favourable for cement production.

From this year on all the amounts of cement to be supplied to cities and counties should be produced, and supplied to them without fail.

In particular, the building-materials industry should achieve substantial results in carrying out the Party’s policy of attaining self-sufficiency in finishing materials and diversifying building materials in terms of kind, shape and colour. We can proudly say that only the structures set up by our builders from our own designs and completed with the finishing materials of our style symbolize the Juche-oriented architecture.

It should forcefully push ahead the work of developing finishing materials needed for construction with our own raw materials and installing their production lines. It should set proper standards and targets of domestically producing finishing materials, including not only tiles, stone materials, glass and metal and vinyl materials but also heat insulators, coating materials, waterproofing materials, wall paper, vinyl flooring and wall panel, and attain the standards and targets in a planned way.

It should strive to lower the production cost of finishing materials while improving their quality and increasing the amount of their production. It should modernize the production lines, proactively introduce advanced technologies for producing building materials, and make the building materials standardized by kind, material, size, form and colour.

It should intensify research into green building materials, and study how to use the various waste materials effectively in the production of building materials.

We should be efficient in protecting and developing our building-materials industry. While increasing investment in the building-materials sector, the state should encourage from the stage of architectural designing the use of our own building materials, and take measures of restricting the import of the finishing materials, whose demand can be satisfied through domestic production.

The Party’s policy of making construction professional and concentrated should be carried out consistently.

The main point in making construction professional is to train specialized building forces that can fulfil any building tasks. It is a matter of course that construction should be undertaken on a mass basis, but the principle to be adhered to here is for the specialized building forces to undertake it.

The state should ensure that the specialized construction enterprises play their full roles. It should take measures for readjusting and reinforcing the enterprises that are not playing their proper role, replenish them with labour force and equip them with modern construction equipment.

The construction enterprises should not rely on the supply by the state, but train their technical forces, increase the ranks of their skilled workers and obtain construction equipment and tools.

Construction should be conducted in a concentrated way in strict accordance to construction plan.

To this end, planning should be done properly first.

Not only the state but also provinces, cities and counties should make it an iron rule to regard the Party’s policy of construction as guidelines, make a detailed calculation of their actual conditions, potentials and possibilities and, on this basis, set their annual tasks and carry them out without fail. Construction should be done with proper orientation and proper order of priority in close connection with the long-term objectives for the development of the national and regional economy and the improvement of the people’s standard of living.

When the plan has been drawn, designing and building forces, materials and funds should be supplied in a concentrated way in a reasonable order, and arrangement and command of construction should be conducted vigorously so as to finish the project in time. Such practices as giving an impression that they are doing something by conducting construction projects here and there out of subjective desire and without any detailed calculation or wasting labour, materials and funds by delaying construction should be eliminated.

Substantial improvement should be brought about in making construction scientific and modernized.

There should be a change first in the view of officials and builders and their stand to making construction scientific. As construction is directly related to the lives and safety of the people, provision of living for them and social and economic development, they should always be aware that the whole process of construction, from foundation work to erecting framework and finishing, must be run through with scientific accuracy. They should get rid of the deviation of working haphazardly by relying on their experiences while neglecting the scientific and technical requirements, and support the whole process of construction with science and technology; in particular, everyone of them should take the stand of a master in introducing the achievements of the latest science and technology.

The scientists and technicians in the construction sector, by setting high objectives, should launch a drive to conceive and develop new, advanced designing and building methods, and building materials, equipment and tools on a Juche-oriented standpoint.

They should, through seminars and symposiums, hold broad discussions and debates on problems arising in practice, new conceptions and experiences gained, so as to find out reasonable solutions, and learn and generalize good successes.

The educational institutions in the construction sector, including Pyongyang University of Architecture, should improve their education in conformity with our Party’s idea of the Juche-oriented architecture and with the demands of the developing modern architecture, and produce a larger number of competent talents who will shoulder the future of our architecture. Graduates from universities and colleges in the construction sector should be appointed to the fields related to their majors such as designing institutes and construction enterprises, so that they can play an important role in putting construction on a scientific basis; construction units, on their part, should find out talents and train them with strenuous efforts into the standard-bearers of the development of their respective units. Officials and builders should continually raise their level of knowledge by actively using the system and means of disseminating science and technology.

At present the weakest point of our construction sector is that it is not modernized. It is a usual practice to mobilize a lot of people whenever a state construction project is at hand. This has resulted in the problem of manpower constantly arising, the work of other sectors being affected, the speed and quality of construction not being ensured and a large quantity of materials being wasted. Carrying on construction work manually at construction sites crowded with people even today, the age of the knowledge-based economy, is not appropriate to the level of development of our architecture.

We should regard the modernization of construction as a crucial task that brooks no further delay, and promote it in real earnest.

By modernizing the means of designing and establishing a system of disseminating various advanced designing methods and CAD applications on a regular basis, we should create conditions for drawing designs of any high level at the earliest possible date and on a high quality standard.

We should decisively raise the proportion of mechanization of construction work. We should lay the state’s foundation for producing modern construction equipment and tools and develop and produce construction machines which can be used in various kinds of construction work including not only housing construction but also industrial construction and land development. Construction units should be encouraged to manufacture simple equipment and tools on their own and arrange something like exhibition of tools and exhibition of invented devises on a regular basis so as to generalize good ones.

Supervision and control over construction should be strengthened.

If supervision and control are weak, the Party’s idea of the Juche-oriented architecture and policy of construction cannot be implemented accurately, the interests of the country and people will be infringed, and the security of structures cannot be guaranteed.

The construction supervision organs should be rigorous in the supervision and control over the whole course of construction in line with Party principles and in full compliance with the requirements of Party policy and the country’s construction law. They should adopt the attitude that they have assumed full responsibility for the quality of structures before the Party and the state and work according solely to the supervision rules of the country and without reading anyone’s face.

They should allow only the units which have obtained the state approval as required by rules to execute construction, whatever they would build, and strictly supervise and control the processes–whether the requirements of engineering have been correctly observed in designing and whether the design’s architectural and aesthetic requirements have been satisfied in building work. They should raise the standards for the inspection of all the completed structures and establish strict rules and order whereby structures are used only after they have passed the inspection. They should promptly take issue with and combat any practice of violating the construction law, irrespective of the affiliation of the violator or the reason for the practice, so as to allow no room for illegal acts to take root on all accounts.

On this occasion I intend to emphasize the regional construction and rural construction in particular, once again.

The revolution in regional construction and rural construction, which our Party is determined to carry out without fail, is a grandiose undertaking unprecedented in the history of socialist construction in our country.

This undertaking is a sweeping drive, whose purpose is to wash out the long-lingering historical dirt in the rural areas and develop them into modern ones where socialist civilization would flourish; it is not a campaign that can be completed in just one or two years but a very responsible undertaking that should be resolutely executed with a long-range view so as to create a new era of transformation of regional areas and realize the centuries-old desire of our agricultural workers.

Building up regional forces for architectural designing and building work is the most pressing issue in realizing our Party’s plan for regional construction. As all the provinces, cities and counties across the country are supposed to conduct regional construction at the same time true to the measures taken by the Party, they can never carry out the Party’s policy of regional construction if they merely look forward to the help from the central designing and building forces.

They should build up the designing forces that can play the vanguard role in their regional construction, and steadily improve their qualifications.

One of the main purposes of the current short course is to develop architectural designing of the capital city and regional areas all alike by strengthening the regional designing forces.

Our Party requires regional construction to sustain the characteristics inherent to specific regions. Regional areas differ from one another not only in natural and geographical conditions and environment for economic development but also in living customs handed down throughout history. Therefore, if the characteristics inherent to regions are to be sustained, they should have the designing forces that are fully aware of their respective regions’ characteristics, ranging from natural and geographical features to their unique economic conditions and living manners and customs, and are capable of applying them to architectural designs.

It is necessary to build up the regional designing institutes with talented persons with architectural insight, and enhance their qualifications and role. Regional designers should accumulate experiences through construction practice and learn a lot by availing themselves of the opportunities of working with the designers from the capital city. While making exacting demands on the designers so that they steadily improve their qualifications, regions should provide them with conditions for access to advanced architectural materials of other countries. They should enroll promising persons including those with aptitude for fine art in the universities and colleges in the construction sector so as to train them to be reserves of their designing forces.

Regions should strengthen their own building forces so that they can build any structure on their own and on a high quality level. As I have emphasized before, cities and counties should wind up the work of forming construction brigades and improve their technical skills and qualifications. Provinces, cities and counties should form competent construction units by enlisting those, who have been trained and have acquired high qualifications in specialized construction units of the army or shock brigades, as the core and expand the ranks of skilled workers in such way that they transfer their skills to others.

Provincial, city and county Party committees should play a major role in building up the regional construction forces. Despite the prevailing hardships, the Party has decided to spare a great quantity of cement for rural construction. This being the case, they should, first of all, have their own strong construction forces if they are to push ahead with construction on a long-term basis and in a qualitative way with an eye to 100 years ahead of their respective regions. They should be well aware that the work of consolidating their regional construction forces, designing forces in particular, is not only a major guarantee for developing their regions in a characteristic way but also an undertaking for creating their resources and wealth.

Regions should take the direction of building up reliable bases for producing finishing materials and developing quality ones with locally-available resources, thus enabling the buildings to preserve their characteristics.

They should effectively organize the provincial building-materials exhibitions which are held annually, and properly conduct the review and appraisal so that the exhibitions can accelerate the domestic production of finishing materials and contribute to the development of the country’s building-materials industry.

True to the Party’s intention, they should realistically draw up the plans related to regional and rural construction with top priority given to building houses in rural communities, and establish rigid discipline of carrying them out without fail.

The officials and workers in the construction sector should decisively improve their sense of responsibility and role.

They should seriously approach the important missions and responsibility entrusted to them by the Party and the revolution, the country and the people, and fully discharge their duty and role as befits the main force in the current revolution in construction.

They should be well-versed in the Party’s policy of construction and steadily strive to acquire the latest construction science and technology and all-around construction skills. By doing so, they should be well-prepared so that the Party can entrust them with any task at any time with no worry.

All of them should remember that their patriotism will find expression in the quality of the structures they set up, and devote their pure conscience, sincere heart and skills even when they lay a single brick. They should make it a part of their habit to take loving care of their equipment and tools, economize on the building materials to the maximum and do any work assiduously and scrupulously.

In the new revolution in construction, the might of the joint operation of the army and people should be dynamically demonstrated once again.

Our People’s Army has done a lot in the gigantic struggle for ushering in a golden age of construction as the artist of the people’s happiness even in the super-intense situation, in which they have shouldered the heavy responsibility of national defence. The grand monumental creations, in which we can take great pride before the world as models of the Juche-oriented architecture, and grand construction sites are all permeated with the patriotic devotion, creative wisdom and talents of our soldiers who are always loyal to the orders and instructions of the Party. Our Party will never forget their heroic feats for and ennobling devotion to the country’s prosperity and the people’s happiness, and our people will, for many generations to come, pride themselves on the genuine features of our soldiers who glorified the great era of the Workers’ Party.

The soldier-builders, as they have done so far, should fully demonstrate the might of our army by becoming standard-bearers in the new revolution in construction and perfectly carrying out any task entrusted by the Party by the time set and on the level desired by it.

The officials and workers in the construction sector should learn from the soldiers’ spirit of regarding Party policy as absolute and implementing it unconditionally, their immaculate and scrupulous style of work as befit the teachers of construction skills and their fighting spirit full of vigour and optimism. By doing so, they can work new miracles and feats at every construction site and build every structure on the highest level possible, symbolic of the civilization of our style of socialism.

Party organizations should fully discharge their responsibility and duties in the struggle for waging a new revolution in construction.

They should direct considerable efforts to education of the officials and workers in the construction sector to deeply implant in them the greatness and leadership exploits of Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, who built a socialist paradise on the debris after the war and ushered in a new history of the Juche-oriented architecture, and of our Party that heralded a golden age of construction in the era of the Workers’ Party, so that they can cultivate ardent loyalty to the Party and the leaders and make strenuous efforts to wage a new revolution in construction with pride in their missions and jobs.

They should intensify ideological education among the officials and workers to arm them firmly with our Party’s Juche-oriented idea of architecture and its policy of construction, and to apply them thoroughly, so that they would support the Party’s plans with practical achievements in construction.

They should deploy powerful information and motivation forces at construction sites, and vigorously conduct information work through visual aids and motivational work for increased labour efficiency so as to further increase the spiritual strength of the masses and raise the hot wind of socialist emulation drive, making every construction site seethe with enthusiasm to create new miracles.

They should pay primary attention to the lives and safety of the builders, whom our Party values most, and exercise strict Party control to allow no construction work to be done unless labour safety is guaranteed 100 per cent, and take practical responsibility for it.

They should provide the builders, whose job involves heavy physical labour, with excellent supplies and services and ample conditions for rest, and take warm care of their families so that those who are seconded to the construction sites do not worry about them.

The mission of the officials in the construction sector is very important and heavy in providing the people with the happiest life and bringing about a fresh transformation of the appearance of the Juche-oriented architecture by fully applying our Party’s people-first idea of architecture.

I firmly believe that all the officials and workers in the construction sector will continue to perform proud feats on every theatre of a new revolution in construction for the prosperity and development of our great state and wellbeing of our people, true to the Party’s far-reaching plan for grand construction, and thus dynamically lead the development of civilization of our own style of socialism.

2022-02-09