culture

Natural disasters have brought misfortunes and sufferings to people in any era and any country.

But the reality in the DPRK is surprising everyone.

The people who suffered flood damage in 2024 still cherish the memory of the 130 days and nights they spent in Pyongyang.

The respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un visited the flood-stricken area and personally commanded the rescue operation until the last man was saved and showed great love and favour to the flood victims. During the rehabilitation campaign, he invited old people, sick persons, children, students and nursing mothers to Pyongyang.

For the sole reason that they were flood victims, they were given special privileges to be the envy of all and became the masters of new villages and new houses which were transformed to leave no trace of the disaster.

They were not the first ones to enjoy such privileges.

When an unprecedented flood hit Rason City in the northern part of the country more than 10 years ago, the General Secretary made a long journey to the rehabilitation site, saying that he would feel relieved only when he visited the site and looked round the newly-built dwelling houses first. He asked if the newly-built houses were better than the previous ones and whether the houses were well heated and supplied with water. He said that he was pleased to hear that the people liked them and that he made the revolution to relish such delight, and added that nothing is more delightful and more worthwhile than that.

Six years ago when a typhoon hit North and South Hamgyong provinces, he said that the people in the afflicted areas, those who had been left homeless, were waiting for him in the rain and wind, looking up toward the sky over Pyongyang, and took the lead in making a dangerous journey to the places where landslides might occur at any moment and made a bold decision to turn the flood-hit Komdok area into a mountain gorge city unprecedented in history.

The General Secretary was the first to go to Taechong-ri of Unpha County, when it was stricken by a flood. He saw to it that the homeless people stayed in the office building of the county Party committee, while the county Party officials worked in tents, and took every measure for the recovery from the flood damage.

He believes that he should be by the worrying and needy people, rather than the happy persons who are free from worries.

To him, the recovery from flood damage is not just sharing and relieving the sufferings of the people, but an undertaking for defending their trust and the crucial work of living up to their trust.

No natural disaster can take away the happiness and laughter from the Korean people as they have the respected General Secretary who is devoted to them, holding them in high esteem as Heaven.