Politics

Years of miracle

New history of independence starts from scratch

The victory won by the DPRK people in the three-year war was great, but the damage they suffered was an awful disaster unprecedented in human history.

The postwar rehabilitation in the country, in fact, did not mean reconstruction relying on a certain basis, but completely new construction, creation of new things in all fields.

But the project was successfully carried out in less than three years thanks to the far-sighted leadership of Premier Kim Il Sung who had dynamically pushed ahead with the preparations for the postwar rehabilitation, already convinced of the DPRK’s victory during the fierce war.

As he set forth the three-stage task for reconstruction at the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in August 1953, he clarified the basic line of postwar economic construction on simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture while preferentially restoring and developing heavy industry. It was his creed that the Korean people should not repeat the lot of colonial slavery by industrializing the country at any cost. Heroic Korea and its people who had defeated the US imperialists turned out as one in response to his call.

But what was seriously checking the country’s advance at that time was not the shortage of money and materials but the manoeuvres of big-power worshippers, dogmatists and national nihilists who blindly worshipped everything of big powers without believing in their national strength.

Though living in the country, they thought of other lands. Such people got more obstinate soon after the war because they were mainly influenced by modern revisionism and dominationism that emerged in the world revolutionary movement at that time.

It arose as a momentous and urgent issue to eliminate flunkeyism and dogmatism that had long remained in the mental realm of the nation and establish Juche in the revolution and construction.

Kim Il Sung did not abandon the independent stand, the lifeblood of the nation, in the least. Saying that we should heed and gather together the opinions of our people into a systematic whole, instead of listening to those of other countries, he made public the theses on socialist revolution in the DPRK in April 1955.

In the historic speech “On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work” he made at the First Conference of Ideological Workers of the WPK in December 1955, he said: What is Juche in the Party’s ideological work? We are carrying out the Korean revolution, not the revolution of any other country. The Korean revolution is just Juche in the Party’s ideological work. Therefore, all ideological work should surely be subordinated to the interests of the Korean revolution.

With the day as the starting point he saw to it that a great ideological campaign was launched to put an end to flunkeyism and dogmatism in all fields of state activities and social life in the country.

The Juche idea, founded in the initial days of the revolution and consistently implemented by him, now began to be more thoroughly embodied in the building of the country with the main stress put on independent politics, the self-supporting economy and self-reliant national defence.

With the firm faith that political independence is the first criterion and lifeblood of an independent and sovereign state, he made sure that all problems, ranging from the formulation of the Party’s line and policies to revolutionary practice, were estimated by using the Korean yardstick, not others’, and solved in Korean way. Clarifying the philosophy that economic self-sufficiency is the material basis for political independence and economic dependence just leads to political servility and subordination, he saw to it that the building of an independent national economy was stepped up no matter what others said.

Dispelling some people’s fear that if the country pursued the line of self-reliance in national defence, it would be impossible to get weapons from big powers, he said: The possession of an army does not mean the implementation of the line of self-reliance in national defence. We can defend our country only when our army is armed with the rifles and guns produced in our country.

And he later laid a solid foundation for Juche-oriented defence industry.

Thanks to his undying exploits, the DPRK developed into an independent state with irresistible force, an invincible socialist fortress, which is unfazed by worldwide political upheavals and economic confusion and resolutely frustrates the imperialists’ war moves.

While recalling with pride the fact that he had laid an eternal foundation for independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence to bring lasting prosperity to the Korean people, he said that as he often said, a country should realize independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence in order to become an independent sovereign state and that the line of independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence had been advanced a long time ago and embodied thoroughly.

Leader believes in the people and the latter believe in the former

The Third Congress of the WPK held in April 1956 under the guidance of Kim Il Sung decided to carry out a five-year national economic plan, the first of its kind in the history of the DPRK.

The main tasks of the first five-year plan were to finish the socialist transformation of relations of production in urban and rural areas, lay a foundation for socialist industrialization and basically solve the problems of food, clothing and housing for the people.

As a matter of fact, the process of carrying out the first five-year plan became a course that the country should surely follow to put the Korean revolution on a new stage of development and a course of verifying whether or not the Party, government and people could really get along on their own and build socialism in their own way.

The WPK which rejected flunkeyism and dependence absolutely believed in and relied on the strength of the people as its only asset and strength. Kim Il Sung firmly believed in the people even at the fateful moment when the self-existence of the country and the success or failure of the revolution would be decided.

Big-power worshippers thought of depending only on big countries beyond the border and eagerly tried to imitate even subtle changes taking place there. But he steadily led the revolution and construction, saying that only passivism would prevail if reserves were searched for only in a businesslike manner and that as they had nothing to believe except the strength of the people, they should think of advancing faster by enlisting the people’s strength.

Prior to the December 1956 Plenary Meeting of the WPK Central Committee, which discussed the national economic plan for the first year for implementing the first five-year plan, he visited the workers of Kangson (the then Kangson Steel Works) and said:

Did we really resolve to do what we cannot do with our own efforts? Have we really walked a wrong path?

Let us brave the difficulties of the revolution together, you believing in me and I believing in you.

I firmly believe that the flames of collective innovation kindled by you will light a torch for inspiring the whole country to the great Chollima upsurge.

The great trust he showed to them at the time when the advance of the revolution and the fate of the country would be again decided encouraged the workers to redouble their efforts.

After putting forward the revolutionary slogan “Let’s produce more, practise economy, and overfulfil the five-year plan ahead of schedule!” at the plenary meeting, he visited workplaces across the country to implant in all the people the spirit of Chollima, the spirit of taking ten or a hundred strides when others do one.

It was the spirit of the people advancing at the speed of Chollima to regard what he desired as their goal and rated capacity.

The workers of Kangson found out more reserves for increased production to shorten the melting time by three hours and five minutes and turned out 120 000 tons of steel billets from a blooming mill with an annual capacity of 60 000 tons and those of the then Kim Chaek Iron Works produced 270 000 tons of pig iron using a blast furnace, though some people insisted that it was difficult to produce 19 tons in a year with the furnace, thus defending the Party.

The builders of the capital city performed a miracle of building over 20 000 flats with the materials, funds and manpower for 7 000 flats in a year and the countryside produced 3.2 million tons of grain for the first time in the history of the country.

As a result, the huge national economic plan for 1957, which had envisaged a 22 percent increase in industrial output over 1956, was overfulfilled by 100 percent, while the total industrial output value increased by 44 percent. And the Korean working people overfulfilled the national economic plan for 1958 by 40 percent as compared with the previous year.

The strength of the people, who realized their true position and weight, was as good as that of storm and waves.

Though people of other countries insisted that it was impossible for the Koreans to do, the latter carried out the first five-year plan ahead of schedule, at the economic growth rate of 36.6 percent on an annual average, while overcoming difficulties with the same mind and intention as their leader. They also worked a miracle of completing industrialization in a matter of 14 years though others had accomplished it in decades or hundreds of years.

Then the world came to look at the DPRK with a new point of view.

Foreigners, who visited the country, saying they wanted to see how it was advancing at the speed of Chollima, were amazed to see many streets and villages built on the land in a matter of five years after the war, and referred to it as a miracle. Some others described the Pyongyang speed as the rate faster than the first artificial earth satellite of mankind.

In 1961, which was set as the final year for the implementation of the first five-year plan, the Chollima Statue, the largest equestrian statue in the world, was erected on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang on the initiative and under the guidance of Comrade Kim Il Sung. Saying that it is the era of the people, he saw to it that the statue was designed to have two persons on the back of the horse so as to make them represent the people. Among the foreigners who visited the DPRK to see the statue was a European writer. He had visited Korea in the early 20th century and after returning home he had made a sculpture of a boy standing sorrowfully with an A-frame on his back and referred to it as the image of the Koreans. Now, after seeing the Chollima Statue on a visit to the DPRK half a century after, he said that it was the true image of the Koreans.

The appellation of Chollima, which demonstrated before the world the dignity and honour of the Koreans, will shine forever as a symbol of their nature and characteristics.