General Secretary Kim Jong Un’s Revolutionary Activities

Dear Pyongyang citizens,

Delegates attending the celebrations of the October holiday,

Officers and soldiers of the construction unit and the construction workers, who have realized another long-cherished wish of the Party by building a wonderful modern hospital in our capital city of Pyongyang,

Medical workers and other employees of the Pyongyang General Hospital,

Comrades,

The long-awaited moment has come at last, when we are proclaiming the inauguration of this hospital.

I am proud that we have achieved the first result of the public health revolution, which our Party decided to launch in order to protect our valuable lives and inject vigour into our precious living. I also find it intensely moving that we have managed to translate into reality something that was one of our ideals some years ago.

This is really one of the strongest wishes I have wanted to fulfil, something that has always been in the forefront of my mind.

In recent years there have gone up modern medical facilities in different places of the country, and this is a perfect hospital that is up to all standards.

Modern medical facilities are indispensable in ensuring that the working people enjoy the rights granted by the state.

With the development of the times, the people’s requirements regarding the protection of their lives and the promotion of their health far exceed those regarding their material and economic life, and the public health situation in a country can be called a mirror of, and a yardstick for, that country’s appearance and the character of its social system.

Our country’s public health system is most advantageous and people-oriented in that it values the people’s lives most and the state takes responsibility for the health of the entire population. Yet, in terms of material and technical foundations, the public health sector is weaker than any other sectors; hospital facilities in particular are outdated.

That is why, long ago, I conceived a plan of building a first-rate general hospital that would perform the functions and role of the backbone in our country’s public health sector, and I ensured that necessary preparations were made for several years.

The Pyongyang General Hospital is a modern medical centre, whose architectural style, components and space environment are designed to help patients remain stable both mentally and psychologically, and which meets the general requirements of modern architecture. The specialized facilities and equipment of all its systems meet all health and hygienic standards, and they help ensuring the scientific accuracy and smoothness of medical service.

The construction of the hospital was costly, but I am really pleased that we now have a perfect hospital that can provide our people with an excellent environment for medical treatment and advanced medical service. And my pride in waging the revolution is greater than ever before.

Located in the heart of the capital city is this modern general hospital, whose operation is conducive to the promotion of our people’s health and the protection of their lives. This is an auspicious event to be recorded in the annals of our times when transformations take place true to the people’s beautiful dreams and ideals.

Today I am more pleased that I have achieved my real desire and objective, which is to build the Pyongyang General Hospital as befits a present of sincerity for our people.

As I said before, some troubles and complicated problems cropped up in the course of building this hospital, owing to the undisciplined arrangements made by some fame-seeking persons. However, we have adopted necessary measures to remain unfailingly faithful to our basic mission and fulfilled our sacred duty of absolute service for the people.

In no case should we allow Party policy to be undermined by personal fame.

We are now standing here with pride in having defended the people-oriented character of Party policy which must never be undermined.

I would like to affirm that the vitality of the policies pursued by the Workers’ Party of Korea lies in their absolutely people-oriented character.

The Pyongyang General Hospital will leave its name in history as an aggregation of genuine and deep sincerity shown by the Party, a hospital which was built from A to Z on its own responsibility and equipped with the best possible facilities for the sake of the people.

Herein lies the true value of this present that our Party offers to the people on the occasion of its founding anniversary.

Availing myself of this happy opportunity, I would like to express my special thanks to the officers and soldiers of our Guards unit, all the construction workers and the staff of design institutions, who have made devoted, sincere efforts to build this excellent hospital, true to the Party’s policy and decision on the development of the public health sector.

Also, I would like to congratulate the officials, doctors, nurses and other employees of the hospital, who are present here with delight in getting posted to work at this excellent hospital and with an ennobling mission of serving the people.

Comrades,

All the plans conceived and pressed forward by our Party are aimed at protecting the people’s lives and improving their quality of life, and this certainly demands that we accelerate the development of the public health sector.

Our Party’s strategy for modernization of the public health sector is, in a nutshell, a strategy of simultaneous promotion.

In other words, it is to shore up the public health sector all at once by simultaneously promoting the construction of central hospitals and regional hospitals, individual healthcare facilities and medical service infrastructures across the country, and combining medical treatment and service, personnel training and scientific research.

It can be said that the Pyongyang General Hospital is just the parent body of modernized public health, a powerful engine that will play the leading role in dynamically carrying out the public health revolution which has just begun and which the whole nation will witness sooner or later.

As a hub of diagnosis and treatment, clinical study and dissemination, academic exchange and expert training, the hospital can play the pivotal, core role in modernizing the public health sector. An engine, pacesetter and assistant in the development of public health, it can provide all other hospitals, which will be built across the country, with scientific, specialized and systematic guidance and human, material and technological assistance.

I expect that standard-bearers and hardcore personnel who will play the major role in modernizing the public health sector will be trained here, and that new models and fine experience in treatment, scientific research, service and management will be created here and will spread across the country.

Today, as we launched a new revolution aimed at rejuvenating and making a leap forward in the public health sector, we have successfully completed a major project of great significance.

Comrades,

The mission of the Pyongyang General Hospital is quite important and all its officials, doctors, nurses, workers and technicians present here shoulder heavy responsibilities.

As the hospital is nearing its opening, it is imperative to make perfect preparations for its operation.

This is the first time for us to run an advanced hospital and conduct the latest medical service in our country.

In particular, as our medical workers lack experience in operating comprehensive modern medical facilities, it would be advisable to normalize the operation of the hospital from November after they have a full understanding of the relevant equipment.

They should take good care of the precious medical equipment and apparatuses, which are indispensable in providing the people with advanced medical treatment, and they should master their different functions so as to bring about a substantial improvement in medical service.

It is important to continually update the functions for improving the level, convenience and utility of the intelligent medical service system established in the Pyongyang General Hospital, so as to steadily raise the comprehensive IT level of the in-hospital medical service and management.

We directed special concern to selecting every medical worker for the hospital and building up the ranks of its staff with competent and promising personnel, who hold the highest qualifications in the public health sector, have rich clinical experience and are capable of operating the country’s hub of healthcare. All of them should become genuine medical workers devoting the medical knowledge and skills, which they learned under the state’s care, solely for the good of the people. In this way they can be a medical team trusted and appreciated by the people.

Now is the era when changes and transformations unimaginable in the past are taking place in the public health sector, too, thanks to the rapid development of science and technology. So, they should never rest content with the existing knowledge, techniques and experiences.

They should work hard to acquire the latest medical techniques and positively apply diagnosis methods and therapies to clinical practice in keeping with the developing trend of modern medicine. By doing so, they can steadily improve the quality of medical service.

It is important to organize refresher courses, practical training, experience-swapping workshops, sci-tech presentations and the like according to a proper methodology in order to widen the horizon of medical workers and improve their skills. And it is necessary to provide conditions for the related specialists to hold joint research and consultation with foreign medical and health institutions.

As I mentioned before, all the duties of the Pyongyang General Hospital are of key importance in carrying out the public health revolution, many of which are pioneering projects involving new research, application, introduction and formulation.

Included in them are the study, introduction and formulation of the most appropriate and effective modes of medical service and management that can satisfy the people’s demand for scientific and advanced treatment at a more modern hospital and by medical personnel with specialist skills and qualifications.

Now our projects are progressing slowly and inadequately, being bound by unrealistic methods of management and old-fashioned laws.

We should go full steam ahead, without any further delay, with the work of fundamentally improving the established institutional mechanisms which, though remaining in force for several decades, have lost their vitality and bring no substantial benefit to the people, as well as the structural systems and irrational methods of operation which are not in keeping with the changing reality and hinder the development of the public health sector.

Our decision is to let the Pyongyang General Hospital, before any others, find and apply rational and effective methods and plans that meet the people’s requirements and the reality, and, with the confirmation of their advantages and vitality, to create necessary legal conditions and environment and generalize them in conformity with the specific conditions of the relevant regions, units and objects.

The word revolution itself means a struggle to replace everything old and backward with something new and advanced, and it inevitably goes with qualitative change.

We must solve this problem without fail if we are to ensure that the results of the public health revolution, which we achieve with so much effort, make a substantial contribution to protecting the people’s lives and promoting their health, and to provide a guarantee for the sustained and long-term development of our socialist public health sector which is responsible for the health of the entire population.

There is an obvious reason why the public health sector is weaker and more sluggish than other sectors in development.

It is the very political disease, that is, a wrong way of thinking and manner of work that have been prevalent in this sector; although they are well aware that the existing management and running system and methodology retain obvious limitations of the times, which allow not a step forward in the sector as a whole, they are persistent and obstinate in maintaining them on the pretext of the permanency and characteristics of the public health system.

There should be an inevitable change to be made, and there is a clear roadmap for it; but as the officials are making no effort to devise any appropriate measure for it, obsessed with how to shirk their responsibility and to keep holding their posts, the hospitals are not functioning as properly as they ought to do, and the medical appliances industry and the pharmaceutical industry are plodding along sluggishly and have even regressed. This is a well-known fact.

I want to make it clear that solving this problem is part of the mission and responsibility of our public health law which is designed to maintain the people-oriented character of our socialist public health system and accelerate its development. And it is one of the important state affairs.

What I would like to mention as well in this regard is that we should find the main indicator of the public health revolution in steadily developing the nation’s medical science and technology and updating the public health law, and that in carrying out the revolution hospitals should bear due responsibility and offer cooperation for it, as well as engaging themselves in it.

Hospitals should preferentially be prepared in both material and technological terms to introduce the latest achievements of medical science and technology into clinical work. This alone will provide the basis on which to develop the public health law of the country and advance its medical science and technology quickly.

In future we should set up a relevant framework which can provide a legal guarantee for drawing up a long-term plan for building hospitals on the basis of not only the estimation of the present level of medical science and technology and the immediate demand but also a proper estimation of the perspective trend of their development and possible change in the demand, producing their designs accordingly and ensuring their construction.

Present here are Party central leadership members, and I would like to ask you to identify your own tasks in ensuring that the Pyongyang General Hospital fully performs its mission as the central base in facilitating the development of our country’s medical and other public health organs.

I believe all of you will adopt a responsible standpoint and make voluntary practical efforts to realize the Party’s intention of putting our public health sector onto the most advanced level by strongly pushing ahead with its renovation.

Comrades,

Today we have made a huge step forward in the journey for the public health revolution.

Yet, this is only a new landmark and another starting point for us.

Building modern healthcare facilities should be continued and steadily promoted until all the people in the country have full access to beneficial medical service.

Availing myself of this opportunity, I would like to refer to a number of projects for building modern healthcare facilities.

First, we intend to establish an independent organ for specializing in designing healthcare facilities.

The foremost process of the campaign for modernizing the public health sector, which is going full steam ahead at the moment, is the designing of its facilities.

A healthcare facility can be called an ensemble of architectural art, an integration of architectural technology.

A hospital is a space of specialized technology which makes a strict demand as its technical interaction must be ensured from terminals of the infrastructure to the last piece of medical equipment or appliance. It is also a sort of cultural space which should be coupled with comprehensive welfare service facilities. So, hospital designing needs a much higher level of proficiency than that of other kinds of structures like theatre or hotel.

Considering the characteristics of healthcare facilities, upgrading their designs steadily in terms of the architectural aspects is what we have to pay continuous attention to.

It is necessary to make it a rule to draw up a design reflecting the final thoughts whenever an important project is finished.

The Pyongyang General Hospital is what has been further upgraded and developed on the principle of making an architectural design by attaching importance to the utility, capacity, specialization and functionality of a relevant facility while ensuring its economic effectiveness and profitability.

Still, there are some parts which have undergone reconstruction due to shortcomings of its design, and there is also something I feel regretful about, albeit trifling, from the perspective point of view.

Only when we make a design reflecting the final thoughts, will we be able to make the most of the good things and rectify the inadequate ones to move steadily ahead for the advanced. With this can we blaze the trail and make uninterrupted progress in each construction project.

In building hospitals, we should pursue the highest possible modern, progressive and specialist features.

As it is a backward sector by comparison with others, the public health sector should begin with the stage of laying its foundation by introducing the world’s most advanced and progressive things intensively and assimilating them as ours.

It is necessary to take an immediate organizational measure for setting up an institute which will be specially engaged in designing structures, ranging from central, provincial, city and county hospitals to clinics and pharmacies.

And we are going to consider the formation of a team or organization which will take charge of the project for renovating public health.

It is an undeniable fact that we cannot do anything or make a step forward with the Ministry of Public Health, which exists in name only, being left intact.

If a hospital or pharmacy is to be built, design organs, from habit, demand requirements for building process from the ministry.

So I have reprimanded the design sector recently.

The Ministry of Public Health exists in name only without anyone who has common sense and concept. If they were asked for the requirements for building process, how could they present proper ones?

What can we expect from those who have done nothing about the hospitals, foundations of public health, which have remained stagnant for over half a century?

Let me take for an example the uniforms for doctors and nurses of this Pyongyang General Hospital.

Recently I went over the uniforms. I felt so dumbfounded that I gave a severe reprimand as they looked like white cloth covering sacks.

It was the answer that the nurses’ uniform was tailored according to the design from the Central Industrial Design Bureau as there was no standardization for it. It looked just like a uniform for an attendant or a hairdresser.

Is it as challenging to design the uniforms for doctors and nurses according to common sense as building an industrial establishment? And does designing them require funds?

They could have got help and presented even a few designs if they had only leafed through foreign literature, but this has been the last thing the Ministry of Public Health and the Central Industrial Design Bureau did.

Let me ask. Is this the stand of state organs working for the state and the people and the spirit of service for them we advocate?

Is this all what they could do?

From this simple instance we can easily guess the present state of the Ministry of Public Health–the level of the persons of this organ.

They are devoid of common sense and concept; worse still, they have no desire to do something new. We are too short of time to awaken them and make them do their work properly.

This is the reason that has led us to make a resolute determination to form a relevant team or research organ.

Based on this measure and the experience we have gained in building the Pyongyang General Hospital, we are now going to have a second general hospital built in Pyongyang.

I mean that in addition to the Pyongyang General Hospital that is large in scale and capacity, the second hospital will be built in consideration of the population of the capital city, so as to fully satisfy the demands for outpatient and other medical treatment.

Under study are also a plan for building general hospitals in the provincial seats on a par with the central hospitals and a plan, as a link in the whole chain of the drive for consolidating the foundations of the country’s public health, for setting up indispensable medical facilities in places between city and county hospitals and ri clinics.

We are going to report the above-mentioned perspective work plans to the coming Party congress.

Comrades,

It is our consistent stand that no mightiness or advantages of the social system can be expected from a state that is devoid of the will and capabilities to satisfy the demands of its people for the protection of their lives and promotion of their health.

To make it clearest, it is our will to powerfully push ahead with the building up of the country’s public health so as to transform it in the near future.

Building up the public health capabilities is, in fact, as crucial as building up the nation’s defence capabilities for defending the people’s lives and safety against the threat of war.

In view of the intrinsic demands of our society, which values human lives most, and the demands of reality, in which public health is getting nearer to the security and future destiny of our state, I think that building up the foundations of public health should naturally be regarded as the most important of state affairs.

The heavy duty of carrying out the public health revolution, which we, as revolutionaries, have assumed courageously for our precious people, demands that we, faithful to our duty, wage a steady struggle and make redoubled efforts.

Comrades,

Let us work as hard as we can for a more beautiful future, when our people will enjoy a rich and cultured life in happiness maintaining their good health.

I hope that the Pyongyang General Hospital will remain forever a facility that injects vigour of life and inexhaustible vitality into our people, a palace that defends their health and laughter.

Sincerely wishing that all our people will enjoy good health and lead a happy life and renewing my firm determination to serve them more faithfully, I will end my inauguration speech here.

Thank you.