2026-01-23 KOREAN NEWS

THE EMBASSY OF THE DEMOCRATIC
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA TO SWITZERLAND

No 08/26
Jan 23, 2026

1. Onpho Working People's Holiday Camp Inaugurated in DPRK

2. Rodong Sinmun on WPK's Outlook on Absolute Service to People and on Revolution

3. Korean Toffee Making - Part of DPRK's Intangible Cultural Heritage

Onpho Working People's Holiday Camp Inaugurated in DPRK

Pyongyang, January 21 (KCNA) -- Thanks to the noble aspiration and energetic guidance of the great Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee to build in famous mountains and noted places of the country modern holiday resorts and sanatoriums in good harmony with the natural scenery and make them serve as the bases for cultural progress of our style and contribute to the cultural life of the working people, the Onpho Working People's Holiday Camp, famous from long time ago, has been remodeled into a monumental edifice representing the spa culture of the state, boasting of its unique attraction.

The holiday camp, built in an excellent place with beautiful landscape as a unique architectural group comprising hot-spring therapy and recuperation facilities and comprehensive service bases with the best conditions, is a gift of love provided by the motherly Party for our people and a precious asset to promote the well-being of the people generation after generation.

An inauguration ceremony of the Onpho Working People's Holiday Camp took place with splendor on Jan. 20.

The venue of the ceremony was full of excitement and joy of the participants facing the entity of cultural efflorescence brought by the benevolent love of the Workers' Party of Korea, which is making devoted efforts to hasten the future of prosperity when the people enjoy an affluent and happy life improved in quality under the benefits of the socialist policy to the full.

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, attended the ceremony.

When the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un arrived at the venue of the ceremony, all the participants raised stormy cheers with boundless reverence for the dear father of the great family of the country who is dynamically ushering in a new era of socialist civilization.

Present at the ceremony were senior Party and government officials and other members of the central leadership body of the WPK, officials concerned, officials in North Hamgyong Province and Kyongsong County, working people, builders and employees of the holiday camp.

Ri Il Hwan, secretary of the WPK Central Committee, addressed the ceremony.

He said that the Onpho Working People's Holiday Camp with a history of nearly 80 years has been completely transformed into a comprehensive cultural recreation and medical service base for the people, another proud edifice demonstrating the development of the region, adding that visitors to it will come to recruit their health and vigor and feel greater pride and joy of the socialist life, enjoying charm peculiar to the excellent attraction.

Saying that the fresh transformation of the Onpho area, a well-known scenic spot, started on the day of July, 2018 when Kim Jong Un visited it, the speaker referred to the great painstaking efforts of Kim Jong Un who devoted himself to newly building the holiday camp with refined architectural beauty of our style and diverse service functions in a picturesque place.

Noting that Kim Jong Un gave officials a stern warning against their ideological viewpoint and work attitude evidenced by the old and gloomy facilities and service conditions of the holiday camp and formulated a grand plan to newly construct in a comprehensive way the camp capable of serving the convenience of the people and fully meeting their growing cultural and emotional demands and make the precious wealth of the country render a sincere service to the people, he said that Kim Jong Un repeatedly visited the camp under construction and carefully guided the work to complete all its elements as required by the new era making steady progress.

Kim Jong Un set it as an important principle in the construction of the holiday camp in Onpho area to well preserve the natural environment and paid deep attention to making its landscape contribute to the promotion of the people's health and their emotional life, the speaker said, adding: Thanks to his earnest sincerity, a walkway leading to the thick forest and a stream meandering through the area of the holiday camp for all seasons came to present a unique natural beauty and the flawless edifice with enough functional conditions according to the mission and purpose of the hot-spring therapy could be provided for the people.

He said that the days of newly building the holiday camp served as another textbook clearly teaching our officials once again what to do in order to be faithful to the mission they have assumed to exist for the people and serve the people for their interests and convert the natural and topographical features and potentials of a region into a firm foundation for the economic development and the improvement of the people's living standards.

As its name indicates, the holiday camp is a product of the people-first policy of our Party that thinks of the working people before any others and puts forward them as the enjoyers of all the welfare benefits, he said, adding it is the real value of this edifice which cannot be evaluated by any natural beauty or architecture and measured in terms of huge amount of funds.

The speaker ardently called on all to work harder with towering spirit and optimism to attain the higher goal of promoting the people's welfare and bring the future of more civilized and beautiful motherland.

Kim Jong Un cut the inauguration tape.

Confetti was thrown and balloons rose up into the sky over the venue of the inauguration ceremony which presented a magnificent scene of transformation thanks to our Party's noble policy of loving the people.

Kim Jong Un looked round the holiday camp.

He appreciated that all the sections of the camp were practically arranged in a balanced way and all the elements of architecture were formed in good harmony with the surroundings.

He referred to our Party's stand of giving utmost priority to steadily expanding cultural life sphere for the improvement of the people's well-being.

Saying that another cultural recreation ground, the base for civilization has been provided in the Onpho hot spring area with a long history to suit our era which pursues steady development, he recollected that he had severely criticized the situation of the holiday camp where every section and element remained uncultured and whose operation was also unsanitary although it had the signboard showing that it is the historic building associated with the leadership exploits of the Party, when he visited the camp some years ago. He said that taking a look at the holiday camp, which has been remodeled as a wonderful holiday service base for the people, made him feel proud that he has done another worthwhile thing.

The leadership exploits of the Party should be defended and glorified with the result of struggle favored by the people and the substantial benefits enjoyed by the people in their life, not with the signboard, words or letters, he said.

It is an important component of the people-oriented policy of our Party and government to actively develop the natural resources of the country to contribute to the improvement of the people's well-being, he said, adding that we should move ahead of the times even in the creation of socialist civilization with persevering and innovative pioneering and progress.

He said it is irrational that the Recreation Management Bureau of the Ministry of Labour is managing and guiding the Onpho Working People's Holiday Camp. He noted that new tourist resorts, holiday camps and sanatoriums are being built across the country on a large scale for the improvement of the people's well-being. However, different ministries are in charge of cultural life service bases respectively at present, he said, adding that it means that they can't conduct management of facilities and talents and technical control efficiently in a future-oriented manner to say nothing of the supply of equipment and materials needed for the normal operation of the excellent cultural service bases provided by the Party with much care.

He gave instructions to study the issue of taking rational structural measure for exercising unified control over treatment, recreation and holiday bases across the country and improving the level of specialization in service as required by the new era of socialist cultural efflorescence.

Our Party's people-oriented policies should be intensified without letup, which will make our struggle more proud and worthwhile, he said, indicating the new orientation and ways for continuously expanding various cultural life spheres and spaces to contribute to the promotion of the people's health and the improvement of their well-being on a nation-wide scale.

He gave instructions to the officials and employees of the Onpho Working People's Holiday Camp and relevant units to make full preparations for operation and service such as conducting test run of equipment and open the camp in February.

All the participants in the inauguration ceremony looked round the comprehensive cultural recreation and medical treatment base, which preserves the charm and character peculiar to the mountainous area and thoroughly meets all the requirements of modern architecture, and felt very grateful to our socialist system.

The Onpho Working People's Holiday Camp remodeled under the great love of the Party will be filled with people's happy laughter year after year along with our times prospering day after day.

 

Rodong Sinmun on WPK's Outlook on Absolute Service to People and on Revolution

Pyongyang, January 22 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun Thursday in an article says that the countless new edifices being built in different parts of the country every day are the precious fruition of the noble intention and will of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea to accomplish the great cause of promoting the people's wellbeing faster and better.

The WPK's outlook on absolute service to the people and on the revolution is the viewpoint of putting the interests and conveniences of the people above all, the attitude of vigorously waging the struggle to promote the people's wellbeing irrespective of the favourable and unfavorable conditions, and the stand of steadily setting higher goals for realizing their cherished desire and of vigorously implementing them, the article says, and goes on:

The entities of high civilization and prosperity on this land reflect the WPK's spirit of selfless, devoted efforts for the good of the people in which it is fully implementing anything wished by the people quickly, unconditionally and perfectly with much effort.

It is the Party's steadfast stand that the work for realizing the long-cherished desire of the people should be done without fail, irrespective of favorable and unfavorable conditions, and that the work for the people should be done as soon as possible even with the maximum efforts.

Many monumental edifices for the people which have been built on this land every year for the past five years fully reflect the Party's outlook on absolute service to the people in which it realizes without fail anything wished by them in the shortest period by dedicating all the wealth of the country.

All the dreams and ideals of the people will be translated into reality of the times as steadfast is the will of the WPK to set steadily a higher goal for promoting the people's well-being and providing them only with the best ones.

 

Korean Toffee Making - Part of DPRK's Intangible Cultural Heritage

Pyongyang, January 22 (KCNA) -- Korean toffee making is a part of the intangible cultural heritage of the DPRK.

It is a chewy sweet that was made by our ancestors.

In their daily life, they found that the germinated barley malt decomposes the starch of grains into sugar, and, on this basis, they mixed the barley malt into boiled rice or gruel to ferment it. And then they pressed the liquid from the sack containing the mixed things, and boiled it down into the Korean toffee.

According to a historical record, the glutinous-rice toffee is most tasty, for being made by mixing the malty powder into the glutinous rice gruel and boiling it down with pepper, ginger and roasted sesame.

There are two kinds of Korean toffees. One is a soft toffee and the other is a hard toffee.

The soft toffee was used to prepare various dishes and make them more palatable, and the hard one was a snack food for children.

According to what is mixed, the variety of the toffee was divided into radish, pumpkin, jujube, chestnut, walnut, beans, sesame and pine nuts toffees.

Since the olden times, maize toffee has been the specialty of Phyongan and Kangwon provinces, radish toffee the specialty of Hwanghae Province, and potato toffee the specialty of Hamgyong Province.

Many customs related to toffee have been handed down.

Koreans had a custom of making white taffy as well as various foods on the lunar New Year's Day.

Among the customs are taffy-related games, stories and proverbs.