Opinion

The Korean people vividly remember May of last year.

The journey of the Korean revolution has been a continuation of hard and bitter trials, and especially May of last year was literally a time of turbulence.

The most serious emergency occurred in the DPRK, which had prevented the influx of novel coronavirus and kept peace and order for two years and three months despite the global turmoil by building and resolutely maintaining a super high emergency epidemic prevention barrier from the beginning of the outbreak of the world pandemic. COVID-19 was transmitted to it.

A state measure was taken to block and isolate all the country by regions and units.

All traffic and travel were prohibited across the country, the rhythm of normal work and activities was broken and difficulties and obstacles grew several times in the life of every family and citizen as well as in state affairs.

The streets were empty as if all the country had left somewhere without notice and an increasing number of families suffered from the shortages of food including subsidiary food and daily necessaries, to say nothing of medicines.

The locals were more worried about the fate of their beloved parents, brothers and sisters and children.

It was the worst crisis they had ever experienced since the founding of the country.

However, their memory of May last year was not merely painful. A more shocking news warmed their hearts.

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea who knows no compromise or concession on the personal safety of the people, called the Eighth Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK on May 12 last year when the spread of the malignant virus into the country was confirmed and ensured the state epidemic prevention efforts were switched to the top emergency anti-epidemic system. And he convened meetings of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee in succession to propose a series of measures and ways, and visited the theatres of the anti-epidemic campaign day and night, putting forward ingenious plans to fight the world pandemic and protect the valuable lives of the people.

Saying that as the stealth omicron variant spread into the country, he would personally take charge of the emergency anti-epidemic campaign from that time, and it was his official responsibility to do that, he stood at the forefront of the campaign for defending the people.

On the night of the first day when the top emergency anti-epidemic system was set in motion, he visited the state emergency anti-epidemic headquarters and instilled confidence into its officials encouraging them to fulfil their heavy responsibility without being exhausted. He also visited pharmacies in Pyongyang with a high risk of infection with the malignant virus without hesitation to learn about the supply of medicines in detail and took practical measures.

While ensuring that the state reserve medicines were urgently released so that necessary medicines could reach all the cases with fever as early as possible and all pharmacies switched to a 24-hour working system, he took a crucial measure to dispatch combatants in the field of military medicine of the Korean People’s Army to the emergency anti-epidemic campaign in the capital city on the special order of the Party Central Military Commission. 

As he regarded every one of his people as his own flesh and blood he could not or should not lose, he said he donated to the headquarters committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea reserve medicines his family had prepared with a fervent wish that peace and laughter would settle on all families of the country again as soon as possible, asking it to send them to a needy family. And on June 15, a month later, he sent medicines prepared by his family to the Haeju City Committee of South Hwanghae Province of the Workers’ Party of Korea as acute enteric communicable diseases broke out in the city. 

In the period of the top emergency anti-epidemic campaign which reminded the locals of a war, over a dozen important Party meetings took place under the guidance of the General Secretary and he examined 22 956 pages of 1 772 documents concerning the country’s anti-epidemic efforts.

The self-sacrificing efforts of him who throws in his lot with the people, the scientific and people-oriented anti-epidemic policy of the WPK and its bold crucial measures enabled the country to stand a good chance of winning the emergency anti-epidemic campaign.

In fact, the General Secretary was also seriously ill with high temperature at that time, but he could not fall ill in bed even a moment as he thought of the people for whom he had to take full responsibility to the last but worked at the forefront of the campaign for defending the people. 

May 2022 was indeed unforgettable days for the Korean people which instilled in them once again the iron truth that as they are led by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, they can overcome any disaster.