opinion

The DPRK is now faced with manifold difficulties and obstacles standing in the way of its advance.

But the Korean people are bravely advancing without hesitation and standstill in all aspects–politics, the economy, military, culture and others, overcoming all these trials.

On what strength do they advance towards victory, surmounting the difficulties?

It is patriotism peculiar to the Korean people.

Whenever manifold difficulties and trials stood in the way of the country, the Korean people supported the country by waging various mass movements.

They were not forced by anyone, but voluntarily bore the burden of the country as its citizens, and such voluntary act spread like a wildfire.

In November 1946, a peasant in Jaeryong County, South Hwanghae Province, contributed 30 straw bags of cereals he had harvested in the first year after the agrarian reform to the country. With it as a momentum, a nationwide movement for donating “patriotic rice” to the country began.

Who and how much did they contribute in the movement was not important. What was important was that the movement made ordinary peasants join their simple minds that they do something for the country.

Similar mass movements were conducted not only by the peasants but also by engine drivers.

After the country’s liberation from Japanese military rule, the workers of the then Jongju railway section formed a coal-mining shock brigade to produce coal and provide railway service, while repairing locomotives. The movement was recorded in history as Kim Hoe Il movement. They worked hard, but they never demanded any reward for what they did.

Such mass movements were not recorded only after the country’s liberation. Many of them have so far been staged throughout the history of the DPRK, including the periods of the great Fatherland Liberation War, post-war reconstruction and great Chollima upsurge.

Among them were the ones initiated by schoolchildren, women, workers and service personnel.

These movements are highly praised as patriotic mass movements in the DPRK as they were not promoted for any reward or remuneration, but by regarding national affairs as those of their families.

With such a movement the Korean people completed a huge construction project, which was believed to take 3-4 years, in a matter of 75 days in the past. They also launched a movement for everyone finding out more than one reserve to build over 20 000 flats with the materials, funds and manpower for 7 000 flats. Similar movements are still going on in the country.

They include the volunteering zeal of young people that has continued unabated since the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea and the 10th congress of the youth league, the socialist patriotic movement for increased coal production and the mass movement of women's union members now under way across the country.

In July when a natural disaster unexpectedly hit different parts of the country causing enormous damage, many people helped the people in the flood-hit areas with a single mind to share sorrow and overcome the difficulties together. And in hearty response to the call of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Party members and young people from across the country rushed to the flood-hit areas and are now engaged in their reconstruction.

The high sense of patriotism the Korean people have shown for decades and which has become their everyday life was the source of powerful strength that supported the country in good and hard times.

The Korean people are optimistic about their future as they have such a history, tradition and reality which have been proved to be a truth.

It is their will to attain the goals set forth by the Party and usher in a new era of prosperity on the strength of patriotism.