culture

The word “elderly woman” reminds us first of the term “mother”.

But Mun Yong Son, manageress of the Tonghungsan Unha Garment Factory, has not lived simply as a mother, but worked as factory manageress and deputy to the Supreme People’s Assembly discussing state affairs. 

After graduating from a college 40 years ago, she was appointed as a staffer for technical preparation of the factory at the age of 20.

Her diligent character manifested itself from the beginning of her career. 

She spent day and night at the production site to get familiar with the production processes and equipment of the factory, and devoted all her energy to every clothes design and product. 

Although small in height and frame, she always made a smart job of it and would almost run at the workplace, so the factory employees called her “eager beaver”, saying “A little body often harbours a great soul”.

For such thirst for work and high sense of responsibility, she was promoted to the chief engineer of the factory some years later and then to its manageress. 

She got more enthusiastic after becoming manageress. 

She busied herself every day with every work of the factory, big and small, saving every minute and second.

Her passion for work did not wane even after marriage. 

Those were the years when the whole country was having a hard time. 

She would travel long distances to secure raw and other materials needed for production and made painstaking efforts to lay sound material and technical foundations of the factory under the situation where everything was in short supply. The factory officials and employees said they saw a woman of indomitable will as they worked with such an assiduous manageress. 

Thanks to her efforts, the factory overfulfilled its annual national economic plan every year despite such hardships, and Mun was elected deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly in her thirties.

She was zealous not only for production.

She initiated constructing afresh factory buildings. In those days when production and construction were being pushed at the same time, she worked hard as a constructor, operator and material supplier. 

Following the example of her who devoted herself to every most difficult job, all the employees redoubled their efforts for a better future. 

As a result, the factory completed the three- and four-storey production buildings covering a total floor space of thousands of square metres and welfare facilities for employees in a few years. 

The factory recently succeeded in duck feather processing which had been researched for several years, thus laying a firm foundation for putting production on a normal footing, unaffected by any fluctuation.

Mun continues to work with great zeal.