THE EMBASSY OF THE DEMOCRATIC
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA TO SWITZERLAND
Pourtalésstrasse 43 Tel: +41-31 951 6621
3074 Muri/Bern Switzerland Fax: +41-31 951 5704
E-mail: dprk.embassy@bluewin.ch
No 19/23 March 8, 2023
1. Spokesman for KPA General Staff Issues Statement
2. Women’s Life Flourishes Under Tender Loving Care
3. First State-run Nursery School
4. Gun-Related Violence – Outcome of Anti-Popular Social System
5. U.S. Military Base in Japan - Root Cause of Misfortunes and Sufferings
6. House-moving Season
Spokesman for KPA General Staff Issues Statement
Pyongyang, March 7 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) released the following statement on Tuesday:
In the morning of March 7, the enemy fired more than 30 artillery shells at the Cho-ri shooting range in Jindong-myon, Phaju City of Kyonggi Province, situated in the forward area of the western front.
This is a very grave military provocation further aggravating the prevailed situation.
Promptly after the case occurred, the KPA General Staff ordered the artillery units under the Second Army Corps at 09:00 to get on the firepower alert posture for attack. And it kept the enemy movement under observation and took a step to intensify the overall front guard and the anti-aircraft combat duty.
The KPA General Staff solemnly warns the enemy side to stop at once the provocative military actions in the area of the Military Demarcation Line.
Women’s Life Flourishes Under Tender Loving Care
Greeting the March 8 International Women’s Day amid the blessings of the whole country, our women look back with deep emotion on the road of their proud development where they were valued as flowers of the family, country and society under the tender loving care of outstanding leaders. Before liberation, our women had to live in ignorance and darkness suffering ill-treatment and humiliation.
They were forced into far more miserable life as they had been deprived of their country. They could be reborn cherishing beautiful dreams and ideals only after President Kim Il Sung liberated the country.
The President regarded our women as powerful force turning one of the wheels of revolution and saw to it that women’s organization was established first among the working people’s organizations after liberation. He also put an end to the history of woman maltreatment stained with bitter tears by promulgating the Law on Gender Equality.
Thanks to such love and trust, our women fully displayed the mettle and might of Korean women everywhere they went. Eventually there emerged the first female deputies, female pilots and female heroes.
Chairman Kim Jong Il carried forward the history of valuing women. He published immortal classic works on the idea of women movement and saw to it that women became the powerful driving force of revolution and construction and the atmosphere of valuing and respecting women pervaded the whole country.
He highly appreciated female soldiers and wives of soldiers, whenever he met them on his field guidance trip. He awarded the title of hero and patriot to those women who made contributions to the prosperity of the motherland and gave birth to many children. He saw the performance held on the occasion of March 8 and congratulated women and gave meaningful “Pomhyanggi” cosmetics as gift.
Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, who carries on the will and affection of the President and Chairman, has enriched the beautiful garden of love and respect for women during the past 10 years and developed the dignity and status of women onto a higher stage.
To glorify the dignified life of our women who are shaping the future of our country, he took measures to designate the Mother's Day and open the National Meeting of Mothers. He also took care of the work of the Breast Tumor Research Institute under the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, Okryu Children’s Hospital, Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory and Pyongyang Children’s Foodstuff Factory for the improvement of health and living conditions of our women. Such stories of devotion are still touching the hearts of all the women across the country.
Under his warm care, ordinary female workers live in palatial dormitory and plain meritorious female workers are now the owners of luxury homes in Kyongru-dong, winning the envy of everyone.
Today, our women are fully determined to accomplish their own missions and duties on the road to the prosperity and development of our great nation, feeling greatly proud and happy as they uphold the beloved fatherly leader.
First State-run Nursery School
It can be well said that the biggest happiness for a mother is to bring up her children in a secure environment with nothing to envy in the world.
Having the great leaders in high esteem, our women are leading a happy life, the happiest in fact, enjoying the benefit and care bestowed upon them by the state and the society.
President Kim Il Sung, soon after the liberation of the country, proclaimed the Law on Gender Equality, and also undertook and wisely led the project of bringing up the children on social expenses so that all women across the country, who had just been liberated from the shackles of feudalism, would actively participate in the social life and productive labor.
Our women were then raising their numerous sons and daughters laboriously, subjected to backbreaking labour in the fields with the children either on their sweaty backs or at the edge of the paddies under the scorching sun. They didn’t even know the term: “nursery school.” President Kim Il Sung considered the issue of establishing a nursery school system on state expenses as the top national priority and saw to it that the first state-run nursery school be opened at an early date. When the nursery school finally opened, he personally named it: “March 8 Nursery School”.
Though short, it is a name that symbolizes the miraculous change in the fate of our women, the same women who had to accept with resignation the humiliation and ill-treatment despite all their labour with the tedious domestic chores; the reflection of the legendary and dreamlike reality where the women became masters of the country and their children are brought up on state expenses with the advent of the liberation of the country.
According to the plans formulated by the President to open more state-run nursery schools based on the first nursery school’s managing experience, big and modern state-run nursery schools as well as small ones were built across the country.
As a result, nursery schools were built in the major industrial complexes of the country and temporary and seasonal nursery schools were organized and run in the rural areas during the busy farming season to help female farmers work without worry.
In 1970, owing to the development of healthcare system for polyembryony and orderly education system for orphans, the number of nursery schools increased by 4.6 times and the number of children by 3.6 times across the country compared with the year 1960. At that time our country took the first place in the world in terms of the overall number of nursery schools.
Now whenever a new street and village are built up in our country, the best sunny spots are allocated to nursery schools and kindergartens. The number of state-run nursery schools built since the opening of the first of its kind in February 1948, is literally countless.
Thanks to the system for nursing and upbringing of children aimed at raising children of preschool age at the expense of the state and society, our women are participating in the social life without any inconvenience.
When the sophism: “Avoid being born a woman; should one be born a woman as a divine punishment, avoid at least the mistake of being a mother” goes viral in the western world, our women feel the happiness as mothers free from all worries under the care of the state – this indeed is the pride and honour peculiar to our women.
Gun-Related Violence – Outcome of Anti-Popular Social System
Recently, the U.S. president Biden said in his statement that the gun-related violence is now endemic and the U.S. society is getting divided by the gun-related violence.
It can be said as a confession of the true picture of the U.S., the universally-accepted kingdom of gun-related crime.
According to the data available, the number of guns confiscated at its domestic airports is at all-time record, reaching 6 542 and more than 330 people were shot dead or wounded at schools.
In this year alone, there was a spate of gun-related crime of all hues in California, New Mexico, Louisiana, South Carolina and other states.
Hence, it became a commonplace that people are shot dead in such peaceful public places as streets, shops and schools, which are far away from the battlefields. And people feel that it is a mercy if they do not fall victim to a volley of bullets. This is the picture of the U.S. society today.
This is an unavoidable outcome as the all sorts of gun-related crimes are becoming ubiquitous in the U.S. where the law of jungle prevails and gun possession by individuals are guaranteed by law.
The problem is that, though numerus people are shedding blood by gunshots at the streets and school compounds, others are hell-bent on manufacturing and selling of lethal weapons.
Not a few arms manufacturers of the U.S. are reaping a colossal of pecuniary profits, at a boom time of gun-related crimes.
The U.S. administration is now clamoring for “gun control” and “reformation of gun law” while leaving intact such patrons and sponsors of murder which vie for the production of lethal tools with an excuse that the gun possession by individuals is an inalienable “right” of the citizen. This can’t but be a mockery of the working people as well as an act of deceiving them.
This clearly corroborates that the U.S. society system is an anti-popular one which gives priority to the pecuniary profits through the sales of guns over the protection of people’s safety.
Concerning the gun-related violence, the malignant tumor of the U.S. society, the international community is now deploring that the U.S.-touted democracy indeed ignores the life of people and the freedom advocated by the U.S. is really the one which allows the random shooting. This is quite natural.
Under the anti-popular social system where 99% of people are being held at gunpoint to satisfy the cupidity of a handful 1% of plutocrats, the U.S. would never evade from such an incurable nightmare as gun-related crime.
U.S. Military Base in Japan - Root Cause of Misfortunes and Sufferings
People in Japan are raising their voices of concern and resentment over the government’s moves of arms build-up and the U.S. military bases in Japan.
Recently, Governor of Okinawa said at the discussion on the security policy of Japan and its share of the upkeep of the U.S. military base that the government’s decision to deploy long-range missile in the prefecture as a link in the chain of exercising “counterattack capability” (capability to attack enemy base) is “different from the spirit of the constitution” and that “he definitely objects it”.
He also said that the three documents on security which the government adopted at its Cabinet meeting in the late 2022 “give rise to concern that tension could be increased in the region and unexpected situation could be created”.
It is never accidental that even the circles of politics and society in Japan are expressing their fear and apprehension that the deployment of long-range missiles as a part of the possession of “counterattack capability” will further increase regional tension and that not only Okinawa but also the whole land of Japan with the spread of the U.S. military bases will become a target in emergency.
Against this backdrop, the U.S. military base in Okinawa also incurs continuous grudges.
People in Okinawa are suffering severe mental and physical attack and they live in manifold apprehension due to the irritating noises coming out from the U.S. airplanes day and night, a large quantity of toxic materials detected in the rivers and underground waters near the U.S. military base, and violent crimes committed by the U.S. soldiers.
It is not confined to Okinawa Prefecture.
Citizens living near Yokota air base filed suit against the state where they demanded the flight ban of the U.S. transport planes and compensation. This shows that the life and security of the citizens in this area are under constant threat.
They are deploring as follows:
In 1993, Japanese Supreme Court recognized that the noises of the U.S. airplanes are violation of law, and the U.S.-Japan Joint Committee also agreed on the ban of red-eye flight. But the U.S. army is ignoring this. How can Japan be called a law-governed state?
Above facts clearly prove that the U.S. military bases in Japan are the root cause that inflict misfortunes and sufferings upon Japanese people, far from defending peace and security of Japan.
In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a larger number of families moved into new houses last year than any of the previous years. In April, 10 000 families moved into new houses in Songhwa Street in the capital city of Pyongyang, followed by 800 families of labour innovators and other meritorious persons into the luxury houses built on the shore of the Pothong River. In the countryside, too, house-moving took place almost every day from the autumn to the end of the year. Many miners in the Komdok area also moved to new houses in the mountain gorge town built there.
Days Representing the Era of Transformation
Two years have passed since the Workers’ Party of Korea adopted at its Eighth Congress a decision to build 50 000 flats in Pyongyang in the period of the new five-year plan (2021-2025). At the Fourth Plenary Meeting of its Eighth Central Committee held in late 2021, the Party advanced a grand programme of rural construction in the new era for transforming the rural villages into more civilized socialist ideal communities.
Looking back, launching into large-scale housing construction, which demands a colossal amount of investment, was not an easy decision to make; the country was still in a difficult economic situation due to the persistent sanctions and blockade imposed upon it by the forces hostile to it, as well as the global healthcare crisis and natural disasters that hit it.
However, Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the WPK, regarding the decision of the Party Congress on solving the housing problem as a solemn pledge to the people, ensured that a large-scale housing construction campaign was forcefully pushed ahead across the country. He saw to it that powerful construction forces were mobilized for the campaign and all problems arising in it were solved.
Even when the country moved to the highest anti-epidemic emergency level after the malignant virus entered its territory in May 2022, he made sure that housing construction was pushed forward more powerfully, saying that work for the wellbeing of the people must not be suspended even for a moment.
It can be said that last year’s boom in housing construction was a fruition of his wise leadership.
Entering this year, house-moving still continues in the countryside.
This year, too, many houses will be built in the rural communities and Komdok area, to be provided to the local people in autumn.
Seeing their dreams coming true even in the face of difficulties, the Korean people keenly feel that their rosy future is not far away and that they can surely achieve national prosperity in the near future if they work hard united with a single mind and will.
In a word, the season of house-moving in the DPRK is a season of confidence in a better tomorrow and of ardent will to bring it earlier.
Season of Leap Forward to the Future
The new houses built recently in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are luxurious ones which ordinary working people in capitalist countries cannot even dream to have. But in this country such houses are provided to ordinary people, and free of charge at that.
What is worthy of particular note is that the level of civilization of the Korean people is raised to a higher stage with the completion of each housing construction project.
When Mirae Scientists and Ryomyong streets were inaugurated several years ago, they considered them to be ideal streets. And when new houses were built in flood-stricken areas in 2020, they regarded them as models of rural houses. But when they saw Samjiyon which had been renovated into a model of a cultured mountain city, the 10 000 flats in Songhwa Street which combines formative and artistic qualities, the luxurious Pothong Riverside Terraced Houses District and modern houses built at the Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm and in various other rural areas of the country, they learned that they had to upgrade their cultural standards.
These standards will be raised again to a higher level soon when people move into the 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area which have been built as the first stage. It is clear that this raised level will be reflected in the rural houses to be built this year.
What is also interesting is that each house-moving season effects a rise in the creative level of the Korean people, too.
It is their will to build a modern economy by their own efforts and technology as they have constructed new modern houses with their own efforts. Propelled by this will, the innovations and successes in the construction sector are spread to other sectors.
The work of readjusting and reinforcing the country’s economy is now being conducted vigorously, and this work is planned to be finished in the main this year. The main objective of this work is to develop the economy into a sustainable one unaffected by external influences by making it rely entirely on the domestic resources and technology.
This can be proved with the successes the country achieved in economic construction last year; the regional-industry factories in Kimhwa County were renovated to rely on the local raw materials and technology so that they can become models for all other units in the country; a large-scale sodium carbonate production line was established in the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex and the first-stage renovation of the Kumsong Tractor Factory was completed.
The Korean people are trying to apply their raised cultural level and the requirements of the new era, whether they produce an article or renovate a production line.
It is Kim Jong Un’s creed that we should nurture ideals with an eye to the next century however difficult the situation is. Proceeding from this point of view, he examines and guides all the formation plans of the houses to be built.
The house-moving season in the DPRK can be called a season when it is advancing to a brighter future.
(원고처리표는 사진이 끝난 다음페지에 현재와 같이 놓도록 합시다.
