editorial

February passed in this year which started towards steady progress and development.

Though it is the shortest month of a year, February this year carried a significant meaning incomparable to the other months not only because of the inauguration of and groundbreaking for the construction of entities welcomed by the people and the significant holidays but because of the political event to be specially recorded in the history of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

The Ninth Congress of the WPK took place from February 19 to 25 amid the profound interest of all the people across the country and high political enthusiasm of the participants in the Congress.

The Congress reviewed the work of the Party Central Committee in the past five years when the country advanced along the milestone of the struggle put forward by the Eighth Party Congress, identified the lines and policies to develop socialist construction onto a higher stage in the new five years and took organizational and structural measures for readjusting and strengthening the leadership ability of the Party.

The Congress re-elected as the general secretary of the WPK the great Comrade Kim Jong Un, who has led the socialist cause only to victory with his outstanding ideas, theories, strategy, distinguished political ability and art of leadership and cool grit, by reflecting the unanimous desire of all the Party members and all other people. As soon as the news was reported, the whole country bubbled with enthusiastic cheers and all the people paid the highest tribute and extended the warmest congratulations to him.

The Ninth WPK Congress was recorded in the history as a political event which demonstrated once again the outstanding leadership ability and absolute prestige of the Party and as a banner which powerfully encouraged the state and people to advance to the acme of a powerful and highly civilized socialist country.

The Korean people further burned with fighting zeal in February in the run-up to the Ninth WPK Congress, achieving brilliant labour successes.

The Wihwa Island area, which would be reduced to barren land by natural calamities every year, turned into a splendid greenhouse island with the inauguration of the Sinuiju Combined Greenhouse Farm and the Sinuiju Vegetable Science Research Centre on February 1. It was followed by the successive inauguration of the Samgwang Livestock Farm where stockbreeding is on an industrial footing, Saeppyol Street, the crystallization of reverence for the combatants who fell in overseas military operations, and 10 000 flats at the fourth stage in the Hwasong area which marked the conclusion of the five-year plan for capital city construction set forth at the Eighth Party Congress, and the groundbreaking for the fifth-stage construction of the Hwasong area which heralded a new upsurge in the era of prosperity of Pyongyang.

The workers in the munitions industry, who are providing a sure guarantee for a continuous development and radical leap forward of the self-reliant defence capability, presented fifty 600mm-calibre multiple rocket launchers, which embody their spirit of death-defyingly implementing the Party’s policies and patriotism and loyalty, to the Ninth WPK Congress.

The mood of February holidays this year was ever more festive.

On the occasion of the 78th anniversary (February 8) of the founding of the Korean People’s Army, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un paid a congratulatory visit to the Ministry of National Defence of the DPRK and said that as it was the Army Founding Day they were celebrating in the lead-up to the Ninth Party Congress, which would open soon, he felt more keenly the greatness and preciousness of the army, before warmly congratulating and encouraging all the officers and soldiers of the army.

The Korean people celebrated with splendour February 16 this year, the 84th anniversary of the birth of Chairman Kim Jong Il, who had devoted his all to the people and the prosperity of the country all his life, with the mind of telling him about the epochal achievements they made in the past five years under the guidance of the Party.

Indeed, the month was significantly decorated along with the Ninth WPK Congress as it witnessed important events almost every day.