Dear fellow
countrymen and brave service personnel of the People's Army,
Dear compatriots,
Today,
recollecting with great pleasure and pride and deep emotion the proud
achievements we performed last year through our diligent and worthwhile labour
and sincere efforts and by the sweat of our brow, we are all seeing in the new
year 2018 with fresh hopes and expectations.
Greeting the hope-filled new year, I wish
the families across the country good health, happiness, success and prosperity.
I also wish that the beautiful dreams of all our people, including the hopes of
our children in the new year, would come true.
Comrades,
As
I look back upon last year, when I worked strenuously on the road of achieving
national prosperity, gaining great strength and wisdom from the pure minds of
the dauntless people who invariably trusted and followed the Party even in the
face of manifold difficulties and trials, I feel my heart swelling with the
pride in waging the revolution shoulder to shoulder with a great people.
On behalf of the Workers' Party of Korea
and the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, I extend
sincere thanks and New Year greetings to all the people and service personnel
who won miraculous victories to be noteworthy in the national history of 5 000
years by sharing mind and purpose with the Party and supporting its determination
on the road of arduous yet glorious struggle.
My New Year greetings go also to the
compatriots in the south and abroad who are fighting for the reunification of
the country and to the progressive peoples and other friends across the world
who opposed war of aggression and gave firm solidarity to our cause of justice.
Comrades,
The
year 2017 was a year of heroic struggle and great victory, a year when we set
up an indestructible milestone in the history of building a powerful socialist
country with the spirit of self-reliance and self-development as the dynamic
force.
Last year the moves of the United States
and its vassal forces to isolate and stifle our country went to extremes, and
our revolution faced the harshest-ever challenges. In the face of the
prevailing situation and the worst trials on the road of advance, our Party
trusted the people and the people defended the Party death-defyingly, turning
adversity and misfortune to good account and achieving brilliant successes on
all the fronts where a powerful socialist country is being built.
Through last year's grandiose struggle we
powerfully demonstrated at home and abroad our immutable faith and will to
follow to the end the road of Juche-oriented socialism opened up by the great
Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and the single-hearted unity of socialist
Korea in which all the people are firmly united behind the Party.
An outstanding success our Party, state
and people won last year was the accomplishment of the great, historic cause of
perfecting the national nuclear forces.
On this platform one year ago I officially
made public on behalf of the Party and government that we had entered the final
stage of preparation for the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic
missile. In the past one year we conducted several rounds of its test launch,
aimed at implementing the programme, safely and transparently, thus proving
before the eyes of the world its definite success.
By also conducting tests of various means
of nuclear delivery and super-intense thermonuclear weapon, we attained our general
orientation and strategic goal with success, and our Republic has at last come
to possess a powerful and reliable war deterrent, which no force and nothing
can reverse.
Our country's nuclear forces are capable
of thwarting and countering any nuclear threats from the United States, and
they constitute a powerful deterrent that prevents it from starting an
adventurous war.
In
no way would the United States dare to ignite a war against me and our country.
The
whole of its mainland is within the range of our nuclear strike and the nuclear
button is on my office desk all the time; the United States needs to be clearly
aware that this is not merely a threat but a reality.
We have realized the wish of the great
leaders who devoted their lives to building the strongest national defence
capability for reliably safeguarding our country's sovereignty, and we have
created a mighty sword for defending peace, as desired by all our people who
had to tighten their belts for long years. This great victory eloquently proves
the validity and vitality of the Party's line of simultaneously conducting
economic construction and building up our nuclear forces and its idea of
prioritizing science, and it is a great historic achievement that has opened up
bright prospects for the building of a prosperous country and inspired our
service personnel and people with confidence in sure victory.
I offer my noble respects to the heroic
Korean people who, despite the difficult living conditions caused by
life-threatening sanctions and blockade, have firmly trusted, absolutely
supported and dynamically implemented our Party's line of simultaneously
promoting the two fronts.
My warm, comradely greetings go also to
our defence scientists and workers in the munitions industry who made devoted
efforts all the year round, to demonstrate to the world that the plans and
decisions of the Party Central Committee are a science and a truth and that
they automatically mean their materialization.
Last
year we also made notable headway in carrying out the five-year strategy for
national economic development.
As a result of our vigorous endeavour to
establish the Juche orientation in the metallurgical industry, an oxygen-blast
furnace of our own style was built at the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex to
maintain regular production of pig iron by relying on anthracite, and prospects
were opened up for consolidating the independent foundations of the chemical
industry and attaining the five-year strategy's goal for the output of chemical
products.
Numerous light-industry factories in such
sectors as textile, footwear, knitwear and foodstuff industries raised high the
banner of Juche orientation and made proactive efforts to propel the
modernization of several production lines by means of our own technology and
our own equipment. By doing so, they provided a guarantee for making the range
of consumer goods varied and improving their quality.
The machine-building industry, by
upholding the banner of self-reliance and relying on science and technology, creditably
attained the Party's goal for the production of new-type tractors and trucks,
and thus laid solid foundations for speeding up the Juche orientation and
modernization of the national economy and the comprehensive mechanization of
the rural economy. The agricultural sector, by actively introducing scientific
farming methods, increased the ranks of high-yield farms and workteams and
reaped an unusually rich fruit harvest in spite of unfavourable climatic
conditions.
Our service personnel and people built
magnificent Ryomyong Street and the large-scale livestock farming base in the
Sepho area, and completed the task for the first stage of the forest
restoration campaign, thereby demonstrating the might of great army-people
unity and the potential of the socialist independent economy.
Amid a vigorous struggle for the creation
of the Mallima speed, new model units emerged one after another, and a large
number of factories and enterprises fulfilled their quotas of the yearly
national economic plan ahead of schedule and made a proud achievement of
surpassing their peak-year levels.
Successes were also made on the scientific
and cultural fronts last year. Scientists and technicians resolved scientific
and technological problems arising in the building of a powerful socialist
country and completed research projects in the cutting-edge field, thereby
giving stimulus to economic development and the improvement of the people's
living standards. The socialist education system was further improved and the
educational environment upgraded, while medical service conditions were
bettered. An example of artistic performance activities was created to infuse
the whole country with revolutionary optimism and the militant spirit, and our sportspeople
won victories in different international competitions.
All the successes made last year are the
triumph of the Juche-oriented revolutionary line of the Workers' Party of Korea
and a precious fruition of the heroic struggle of the service personnel and
people who are firmly rallied behind the Party.
Our Party and people achieved such signal
victories others could never think of achieving by their own efforts in the
face of the sanctions-and-blockade moves the United States and its vassal forces
perpetrated more viciously than ever before to stamp out the rights to
sovereignty, existence and development of the DPRK. Herein lies the source of
their dignity and their great pride and self-confidence.
I would like to extend my warm thanks once
again to all the people and service personnel who victoriously advanced the
cause of building a powerful socialist country, always sharing the destiny with
the Party and braving all difficulties and trials on the eventful days of last
year.
Comrades,
This
year we will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the glorious
Democratic People's Republic of Korea. To mark the 70th anniversary of their
state with splendour is of real significance for the great people, who have
raised with dignity the status of their socialist country, the greatest
patriotic legacy of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, to that of
a strategic state recognized by the world.
We should make constant innovations and
continued progress until we win the final victory of the revolution by carrying
on the tradition of heroic struggle and collective innovation which adorned the
founding and course of development of Juche Korea. A revolutionary general
offensive should be launched to achieve fresh victory on all fronts of building
a powerful socialist country by taking the historic victory in the building of
the DPRK's nuclear forces as a springboard for fresh progress.
"Let us launch a revolutionary
general offensive to achieve fresh victory on all fronts of building a powerful
socialist country!"‒this is the revolutionary slogan we should uphold. All
officials, Party members and other working people should launch an all-people
general offensive to frustrate the challenges of the hostile forces who are
making last-ditch efforts and raise the overall strength of our Republic to a
new stage of development as they brought about a great upsurge in socialist
construction overcoming all difficulties through the great Chollima upswing
after the war.
A breakthrough should be made in reenergizing
the overall economic front this year, the third year of implementing the
five-year strategy for national economic development.
The central task facing socialist economic
construction this year is to enhance the independence and Juche character of
the national economy and improve the people's standard of living as required by
the revolutionary counterstrategy put forward by the Second Plenary Meeting of
the Seventh Central Committee of the Party.
We should concentrate all efforts on
consolidating the independence and Juche character of the national economy.
The electric-power industry should
maintain and reinforce the self-supporting power generation bases, and direct a
great deal of efforts to developing new power sources. A dynamic campaign should
be conducted to drastically increase thermal power generation, and lower the
loss of electric power and increase its production as much as possible by
maintaining and reinforcing imperfect generating facilitates. Provinces should
build power generation bases to suit their local features and put power
generation at the existing medium and small-sized power stations on a normal
footing to satisfy the needs of electric power for local industry by
themselves. Alternated production should be organized scrupulously throughout
the country, and a vigorous struggle waged against the practices of wasting
electric power to make effective use of generated electric power.
The metallurgical industry should further
improve the Juche-oriented iron- and steel-making technologies, increase the
iron production capacity and drastically raise the quality of metallic
materials in order to satisfy the needs of the national economy for iron and
steel. It is necessary to ensure a preferential, planned and timely supply of
electricity, concentrated iron ore, anthracite, lignite, freight wagons,
locomotives and funds for the metallurgical industry. By doing so, we can
fulfil next year's iron and steel production plans and make the industry
Juche-oriented without fail.
The chemical industry should step up the
establishment of the C1 chemical industry, push the projects for catalyst
production base and phosphatic fertilizer factory as scheduled, and renovate
and perfect the sodium carbonate production line whose starting material is
glauberite.
The machine-building industry should
modernize the Kumsong Tractor Factory, Sungni Motor Complex and other factories
to develop and produce world-level machinery in our style.
The coal and mineral production and rail
transport sectors should make concerted efforts to make the country's
self-reliant economic foundations prove their effectiveness.
Notably, the rail transport sector should
make the best use of the existing transport capacity by making transport
organization and control more scientific and rational, and maintain discipline
and order in the railways as rigid as in the army, so as to ensure an
accident-free, on-schedule rail traffic.
A turn should be brought about this year
in improving the people's standard of living.
Light-industry
factories need to transform their equipment and production lines into labour-
and electricity-saving ones and produce and supply more diversified and quality
consumer goods with domestic raw and other materials, and provinces, cities and
counties should develop the local economy in a characteristic way by relying on
their own raw material resources.
The agricultural and fishing fronts should
effect an upswing. We should introduce seeds of superior strains, high-yield
farming methods and high-performance farm machines on an extensive scale, do
farming scientifically and technologically so as to fulfil the cereals
production plan without fail, and boost the production of livestock products,
fruits, greenhouse vegetables and mushrooms. We should enhance our ship
building and repair capacities, launch scientific fishing campaigns, and
reenergize aquatic farming.
This year the service personnel and people
should join efforts to complete the construction of the Wonsan-Kalma coastal
tourist area in the shortest period of time, push ahead with major construction
projects including the renovation of Samjiyon County, the construction of the
Tanchon Power Station and the second-stage waterway project of South Hwanghae
Province, and channel steady efforts into the construction of houses.
Building on the success we achieved in the
forest restoration campaign, we should properly protect and manage the forests
that have already been created, improve the technical conditions of roads,
conduct river improvement on a regular basis, and protect environment in a
scientific and responsible manner.
Every sector and every unit of the
national economy should enlist their own technical forces and economic
potential to the maximum and launch a dynamic struggle to increase production
and practise economy, so as to create a greater amount of material wealth.
A shortcut to developing the
self-sufficient economy is to give precedence to science and technology and
make innovations in economic planning and guidance.
The scientific research sector should
solve on a preferential basis the scientific and technological problems arising
in establishing Juche-oriented production lines of our own style, ensuring
domestic production of raw and other materials and equipment, and perfecting
the structure of the self-supporting economy. Every sector and every unit of
the national economy should make a contribution to achieving production growth
by intensifying the dissemination of science and technology and waging a brisk
technological innovation drive.
The Cabinet and other economic guidance
organs should work out a realistic operational plan to carry out the national
economic plan for this year and push forward the work for its implementation
responsibly and persistently. Positive measures should be taken by the state to
ensure that the socialist system of responsible business operation proves its
worth in factories, enterprises and cooperative organizations.
Socialist culture should be developed in a
comprehensive way. It is necessary to strengthen the ranks of teachers, improve
the contents and methods of education as demanded by the trend of developing
modern education, apply the people-oriented character in public health service
in a thoroughgoing way, and boost the production of medical equipment and
appliances and different kinds of medicines.
We should conduct mass-based sporting
activities briskly, create sporting techniques and tactics of our own style,
and produce artistic and literary masterpieces which truthfully depict the
heroic struggle and life of our service personnel and people in the Mallima era
and the beautiful and sublime features proper to human beings. In this way, we
can crush the bourgeois reactionary culture by dint of our revolutionary
socialist art and literature.
A vigorous struggle should be waged to
tighten moral discipline throughout society, establish a socialist way of life
and eliminate all kinds of non-socialist practices, so as to ensure that all
the people, possessed of ennobling mental and moral traits, lead a
revolutionary and cultured life.
The self-reliant defence capability should
be further consolidated. In this year of the 70th anniversary of the
development of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army into a regular revolutionary
armed force by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, the People's Army should
perfect its features as befits the revolutionary armed forces of the Party. It
should organize and conduct combat training in a highly intensive way, in a
real-war atmosphere, to develop all its units in different arms, services and
corps into the ranks of a-match-for-a-hundred combatants.
The Korean People's Internal Security
Forces should sharpen the edge of the sword of the class struggle and detect
and frustrate the schemes by undesirable and hostile elements in time. The
Worker-Peasant Red Guards and Young Red Guards should enhance their combat
capability in all aspects through intensive combat and political training.
By consistently holding fast to the
line of simultaneously promoting the two fronts in accordance with the
strategic policy set by the Party at the Eighth Conference of Munitions
Industry, the defence industry should develop and manufacture powerful
strategic weapons and military hardware of our style, perfect its
Juche-oriented production structure and modernize its production lines on the
basis of cutting-edge science and technology.
The nuclear weapons research sector and
the rocket industry should mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic
missiles, the power and reliability of which have already been proved to the
full, to give a spur to the efforts for deploying them for action.
And we should always be ready for
immediate nuclear counterattack to cope with the enemy's manoeuvres for a
nuclear war.
The political and ideological might is the
first and foremost strength of our state and the great propellant for opening
up an avenue for building a powerful socialist country.
In order to successfully carry out the
fighting tasks facing us, we should rally the whole Party more firmly on its
organizational and ideological basis and establish a thoroughgoing
revolutionary climate within the Party. In this way, we can constantly enhance
its fighting efficiency and leadership role in the overall revolution and
construction.
All Party organizations should never
tolerate all shades of heterogeneous ideas and double standards of discipline
that run counter to the Party's ideology, but strengthen the single-hearted
unity of the whole Party centred on its Central Committee in every way
possible.
The whole Party should launch an intense
struggle to establish a revolutionary climate within the Party with the main
emphasis put on rooting out the abuse of Party authority, bureaucratism and
other outdated methods and style of work, so as to ensure that the ties of
kinship between the Party and the masses of the people are as solid as a rock.
Party organizations should intensify Party
guidance to ensure that the work of their respective sectors and units is
always conducted in conformity with the ideas and intentions of the Party and
the requirements of its policies, and find satisfactory solutions to the
problems arising in the building of a powerful socialist country by giving
definite precedence to political work and motivating the people ideologically.
We should rally all the service personnel
and people firmly behind the Party ideologically and volitionally so that they
throw in their lot with it whatever the adversity and fight with devotion for
the victory of the socialist cause.
Party and working people's organizations
and government organs should orient and subordinate all their undertakings to
strengthening the single-hearted unity. The benchmark in planning and launching
their work should be the people's demands and interests. And they should go
deep among the people, sharing good times and bad with them and solving their
mental agony and difficulties in their lives. They should ensure that the
shorter the supply of everything is, the fuller play is given to the beautiful
traits of comrades and neighbours helping and caring for one another with all
sincerity.
We should give free rein to the
indomitable mental strength of the heroic Korean people on the present grand
Mallima march.
Party and working people's organizations
should ensure that all the working people cherish patriotism in their hearts
and bring about collective innovations one after another in the great campaign
to create the Mallima speed with the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and
science and technology as the dynamic force. They should see to it that
officials, Party members and other working people carry forward the fighting
spirit displayed by the elder generations who brought about epochal changes on
the grand Chollima march and all of them become Mallima pioneers who vigorously
rush forward in the vanguard of the era.
Comrades,
Last
year, too, our people made strenuous efforts to defend the peace of the country
and hasten national reunification in keeping with the aspirations and demands
of the nation. However, owing to the vicious sanctions and pressure by the
United States and its vassal forces and their desperate manoeuvres to ignite a
war, all aimed at checking the reinforcement of the self-defensive nuclear
deterrent by our Republic, the situation on the Korean peninsula became
aggravated as never before, and greater difficulties and obstacles were put on
the road of the country's reunification.
Even though the conservative
"regime" in south Korea, which had resorted to fascist rule and
confrontation with fellow countrymen, collapsed and the ruling circles were
replaced by another thanks to the massive resistance by the enraged people of
all walks of life, nothing has been changed in the relations between the north
and the south. On the contrary, the south Korean authorities, siding with the
United States in its hostile policy towards the DPRK against the aspirations of
all the fellow countrymen for national reunification, drove the situation to a
tight corner, further aggravated the mistrust and confrontation between the
north and the south, and brought the bilateral relations to a fix that can be
hardly resolved. We can never escape the holocaust of a nuclear war forced by
the outside forces, let alone achieve national reunification, unless we put an
end to this abnormal situation.
The prevailing situation demands that now
the north and the south improve the relations between themselves and take
decisive measures for achieving a breakthrough for independent reunification
without being obsessed by bygone days. No one can present an honourable
appearance in front of the nation if he or she ignores the urgent demands of
the times.
This year is significant both for the
north and the south as in the north the people will greet the 70th founding
anniversary of their Republic as a great, auspicious event and in the south the
Winter Olympic Games will take place. In order to not only celebrate these
great national events in a splendid manner but also demonstrate the dignity and
spirit of the nation at home and abroad, we should improve the frozen
inter-Korean relations and glorify this meaningful year as an eventful one
noteworthy in the history of the nation.
First of all, we should work together to
ease the acute military tension between the north and the south and create a
peaceful environment on the Korean peninsula.
As long as this unstable situation, which
is neither wartime nor peacetime, persists, the north and the south cannot
ensure the success of the scheduled events, nor can they sit face to face to
have a sincere discussion over the issue of improving bilateral relations, nor
will they advance straight ahead towards the goal of national reunification.
The north and the south should desist from
doing anything that might aggravate the situation, and they should make
concerted efforts to defuse military tension and create a peaceful environment.
The south Korean authorities should
respond positively to our sincere efforts for a detente, instead of inducing
the exacerbation of the situation by joining the United States in its reckless
moves for a north-targeted nuclear war that threatens the destiny of the entire
nation as well as peace and stability on this land. They should discontinue all
the nuclear war drills they stage with outside forces, as these drills will
engulf this land in flames and lead to bloodshed on our sacred territory. They
should also refrain from any acts of bringing in nuclear armaments and
aggressive forces from the United States.
Even though the United States is wielding
the nuclear stick and going wild for another war, it will not dare to invade us
because we currently have a powerful nuclear deterrent. And when the north and
the south are determined, they can surely prevent the outbreak of war and ease
tension on the Korean peninsula.
A climate favourable for national
reconciliation and reunification should be established. The improvement of
inter-Korean relations is a pressing matter of concern not only to the
authorities but to all other Koreans, and it is a crucial task to be carried
out through a concerted effort by the entire nation. The north and the south
should promote bilateral contact, travel, cooperation and exchange on a broad
scale to remove mutual misunderstanding and distrust, and fulfil their
responsibility and role as the motive force of national reunification.
We will open our doors to anyone from
south Korea, including the ruling party and opposition parties, organizations
and individual personages of all backgrounds, for dialogue, contact and travel,
if they sincerely wish national concord and unity.
A definite end should be put to the acts
that might offend the other party and incite discord and hostility between
fellow countrymen. The south Korean authorities should not try, as the previous
conservative "regime" did, to block contact and travel by people of
different social strata and suppress the atmosphere for reunification through
alliance with the north, under absurd pretexts and by invoking legal and
institutional mechanisms; instead, they should direct efforts to creating
conditions and environment conducive to national concord and unity.
To improve inter-Korean relations as soon
as possible, the authorities of the north and the south should raise the banner
of national independence higher than ever before, and fulfil their
responsibility and role they have assumed for the times and the nation.
Inter-Korean relations are, to all intents
and purposes, an internal matter of our nation, which the north and the south
should resolve on their own responsibility. Therefore, they should acquire a
steadfast stand and viewpoint that they will resolve all the issues arising in
bilateral relations on the principle of By Our Nation Itself.
The south Korean authorities need to know
that they will gain nothing from touring foreign countries to solicit their
help on the issue of inter-Korean relations, and that such behaviour will give
the outside forces, who pursue dishonest objectives, an excuse for their
interference and complicate matters further. Now it is not time for the north
and the south to turn their backs on each other and merely express their
respective standpoints; it is time that they sit face to face with a view to
holding sincere discussions over the issue of improving inter-Korean relations
by our nation itself and seek a way out for its settlement in a bold manner.
As for the Winter Olympic Games to be held
soon in south Korea, it will serve as a good occasion for demonstrating our
nation's prestige and we earnestly wish the Olympic Games a success. From this
point of view we are willing to dispatch our delegation and adopt other
necessary measures; with regard to this matter, the authorities of the north
and the south may meet together soon. Since we are compatriots of the same
blood as south Koreans, it is natural for us to share their pleasure over the
auspicious event and help them.
We will, in the future, too, resolve all
issues by the efforts of our nation itself under the unfurled banner of
national independence and frustrate the schemes by anti-reunification forces
within and without on the strength of national unity, thereby opening up a new
history of national reunification.
Availing myself of this opportunity, I
extend warm New Year greetings once again to all Korean compatriots at home and
abroad, and I sincerely wish that in this significant year everything would go
well both in the north and in the south.
Comrades,
The
international situation we witnessed last year was clear proof that our Party
and our state were absolutely correct in their strategic judgement and decision
that when we are confronting the imperialist forces of aggression who are
attempting to wreck global peace and security and make mankind suffer a nuclear
holocaust, our only recourse is the power of justice.
As a responsible, peace-loving nuclear
power, our country will neither have recourse to nuclear weapons unless hostile
forces of aggression violate its sovereignty and interests nor threaten any
other country or region by means of nuclear weapons. However, it will
resolutely respond to acts of wrecking peace and security on the Korean
peninsula.
Our Party and the government of our
Republic will develop good-neighbourly and friendly relations with all the
countries that respect our national sovereignty and are friendly to us, and
make positive efforts to build a just and peaceful new world.
Comrades,
The
year 2018 will be recorded as another year of victory for our people. At this
moment when this year's gigantic march has begun, I am filled with confidence
that our cause is ever-victorious as it is supported by the people, and I
harden my resolve to make devoted efforts to live up to their expectations.
The Workers' Party of Korea and the
government of the Republic will never cease to struggle and advance until
achieving the final victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche by relying on
the trust and strength of the people, but surely hasten the future of a
powerful socialist country where all the people lead a dignified and happy
life.
Let us all march forward dynamically
towards fresh victory of the revolution by displaying the unyielding mettle of
heroic Korea under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea.
