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During the term of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea a new history of regional transformation began with the full implementation of the regional development policy in the new era of the WPK.

Crucial decision ‘Regional Development 20×10 Policy’

The Eighth Congress of the WPK set it as the ultimate goal of strengthening cities and counties to turn all of them into the strategic bases of a highly civilized and prosperous socialist state and developed regions with specific characters peculiar to them.

The Regional Development 20×10 Policy the WPK adopted to develop the regional industry in a comprehensive and balanced way is for the WPK to accurately carry out the construction of modern regional-industry factories in 20 counties every year as an unerring policy task, so as to raise a level higher the basic material and cultural living standards of the people in all cities and counties, in other words, across the country within ten years.

This policy was declared at the Tenth Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK and confirmed and clarified as an epochal milestone for the development of the regional industry at the 19th Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK.

The policy was never a decision that could be made easily.

At the time the rural housing construction was being undertaken on an unprecedentedly large scale across the country to eliminate the backwardness of the rural areas.

However, the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un, who has a strong will to make all the Korean people who were born on this land, whether they live in the capital or the provinces, equally enjoy an affluent and civilized life under the socialist policies of the state, put forward the grand action programme for the regional development and made the decision to wage a new struggle without hesitation to implement it.

The policy is the revolutionary and scientific strategic programme the respected General Secretary declared after determining the policy orientation and confirming its feasibility through the stage of gaining experience.

He said at the Second Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK that in order to implement the line of strengthening cities and counties set forth at its Eighth Congress and to create new standards for the regional-industry factories, the Party Central Committee decided to boldly remove the old and backward factories in a county and build new ones that can become the standard of the times and regional civilization there that year, the first year of implementing the Five-Year Plan. And after repeated consideration, it planned to flawlessly build the regional-industry factories in Kimhwa County with the poorest living conditions and weak economic foundations and provide a model, he added.

As a result, modern regional-industry factories were built in the county, which marked the beginning of the struggle to turn all cities and counties of the country into developed areas.

Two years have passed since the regional-industry revolution was launched.

In the period the regional development policy was perfectly implemented without delay, with the result that modern regional-industry factories sprang up in 40 cities and counties across the country and a new history of regional transformation actually pushing the comprehensive development of the country came to flow.

New domains of regional development continue to expand

Among the exemplary entities of regional development are offshore farms in Sinpho City and Ragwon County, which were built according to the grand aspirations of the WPK to develop the regional economy and radically improve the people’s living standards by actively exploiting and making effective use of their natural and economic resources.

Having matured since long ago a far-reaching plan to improve the people’s living standards as early as possible by making effective use of the sea in line with the natural and geographical features of the country with a long coastline, the respected General Secretary set the city of Sinpho, a typical coastal area with small cultivated acreage compared with the population, as a model unit of offshore farming and ensured that the issue of building the Sinpho City Offshore Farm as a new a new model base for offshore farming was adopted as a decision at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK..

As he guided the consultative meeting concerning the regional economic development on a visit to the Phungo-dong area in Sinpho on July 15 2024, he said that if it did the scallop and kelp farming well in the waters off the Phungo-dong area, the city of Sinpho with barren land and poor economic potentials would become the richest of all cities and counties in the country in three to four years. And he expressed his determination to successfully build the Sinpho City Offshore Farm into a model entity of sea culture in the new century and present it to the people in the city as a gift.

A few months later he visited Sinpho City again to acquaint himself with its construction, the building of a nursery and preparations for the farm management and operation. And he took all measures to complete the project, which was pushed ahead as a major policy task of the year, perfectly before the Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK.

He selected the site of the farm in the best place and sent essential means of production and equipment to be used in the offshore farm.

A modern offshore farm and houses of stylish designs were also built to suit the topographical features of the coastal area in Ragwon County, which is one of the smallest counties in the country and had weak economic foundations.

The respected General Secretary, who has devoted tireless efforts to promoting the people's well-being, further expanded and intensified the regional development policy.

At the consultative meeting on regional development work on August 31 2024 he said that the Party’s regional development policy in the new era should not be confined to the construction of light-industry factories, but be a comprehensive one embracing public health, science and education and only then, can it make a substantial contribution to the improvement of the material and cultural life of the regional people and radically boost the efficiency of regional development. And he specified all the principles to be adhered to in building advanced city and county hospitals, sci-tech dissemination bases and grain storage facilities.

In the important speech he delivered on the occasion of the 76th founding anniversary of the DPRK, he referred to the importance and significance of the three construction projects added to the Regional Development 20×10 Policy. Saying that sci-tech dissemination centres, which were already envisaged as an additional project, are planned to be built on an expansion basis as comprehensive bases for cultural activities, he pointed to the need to build in cities and counties the multifunctional leisure complexes embracing the commercial network and various other welfare facilities where residents can see films and conduct sports and other leisure activities and which are provided with fine hygienic environment and conditions, not merely sci-tech diffusion bases equipped with modern IT means.

Thanks to the sincere determination of the respected General Secretary to provide the people with better life and brighter future, the huge tasks for regional transformation, which are hard to be decided even in the ordinary times and favourable environment, were set as major targets of the Party and the government and such miraculous successes were achieved that the ambitious construction projects included in the regional development plan for last year were launched and completed that year.

The leadership of the WPK, which turns all cities and counties across the country into regional bases of the socialist state, rich, civilized, developed and powerful, is ushering in a new era of great changes unprecedented in history.