A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE SUN (PART 1) IMPRESSIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF KOREA APRIL 2012 by Shaun Pickford

A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY OF THE SUN  (PART 1)
IMPRESSIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF KOREA APRIL 2012
by Shaun Pickford


It had always been an ambition of mine to attend the April 15th celebrations to mark the birthday of President KIM IL SUNG. I was fortune this year (2012) to have been invited to the World Juche Congress held in Pyongyang in the centenary year of the birth of President KIM IL SUNG. Despite many barriers and obstacles in the way, I made it out to the celebrations of the Respected President KIM IL SUNG's birth.

I arrived in Pyongyang to see that there were many thousands of guests and delegates at Susan airport. For the World Juche Congress there were delegations from Austria, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador,Russia, Sweden, Finland, Moldova, Slovenia, Ukraine, France, Cyprus, Malta, The Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania,Egypt,Syria, Lebanon, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh,India, Pakistan, Nepal, Mongolia, Japan, The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the International Institute of the Juche Idea and of course the UK.

The delegation from the Juche Idea Study Group of Britain was met by Professor Li Mun II from the Korean Association of Social Scientists. Professor Li was the head of British studies at Kim IL Sung University and an expert on the culture and history of Britain. Li Mun IL proved to be an efficient and understanding guide. Passing through Pyongyang on to our accommodation, I could see the startling changes which had been made in the DPRK since my last visit in July 2009. The construction around the Mansu area was particularly impressive, the ultra modern high rise apartments had been build in time for the 100th birth anniversary of KIM IL SUNG. On every street corner  there were rows of red flags, showing the determination of the Korean people to uphold socialism under any circumstances.

During our stay in the DPRK, the Study Group delegation was able to see the true nature of Peoples Korea for ourselves. The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is the main target of imperialism's psychological warfare, thus making north Korea one of the world's most maligned and demonized nations. Visiting Socialist Korea counteracts the US imperialists' disinformation offensive.

Education has always been a priority for the Workers' Party of Korea. President KIM IL SUNG actually said that the Korean socialist state had two prime concerns in its activities, education and defence. From the kindergarten to the university, education in the DPRK is totally free and universal. After work study and auto-didactic undertakings are positively encouraged by the WPK as part the initiative to intellectualize the whole of society.

Kim Il Sung university was the first higher educational institute to have been established in the DPRK, October 1st, 1946. Kim Il Sung university as well as being Korea's senior and premier seat of learning, is on the cutting edge of pedagogical and technological development. Kim II Sung university setup an e-library on April 2010. The e-library has a total floor space of 15,000 square meters. Kim II Sung university e-library's data base has stored information on a vast variety of subjects including social and natural sciences, scientific and technological literature, world and Korean history and culture. Kim II Sung university's e-library is linked to other educational institutes throughout the DPRK. The e-library has an high speed circuit which uses the CDMP communication network.

The staff and students of Kim II Sung university are provided with high quality leisure facilities which are free of charge. There were several large scale swimming pools which we encountered on a tour of the university. Kim II Sung university students enjoy many different provisions such as dinning halls, a hospital, a gymnasium, a museum for natural study and dormitories which can accommodate over 10,000 students. The university has an area of over 1.5 million square meters. Kim II Sung university has a scientific library containing two million volumes and reading rooms having a seating capacity of 1,200.
KIM JONG IL always sought the prosperity and well being of the Korean people and now this tradition has been inherited by KIM JONG UN. Since the mid 1990s there has been a campiagn to rationally ulitize land management through re-zoning. Some 10 miles outside of Pyongyang is the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm. To call this agricultural area a farm, is certainly an understatement. The Taedong Fruit Farm is more akin to a massive agro-industrial complex. Bus loads of World Juche Congress delegates and other visitors saw on their visit to the Taedonggang Fruit Farm, apple, pear,apricots and other kinds of fruit trees stretching beyond the horizon. Touring the farm, the delegation was able to see the ultra-modern food processing facilities in operation, a demonstration of the Workers' Party of Korea's policy of bringing the technical revolution to the countryside. KIM JONG IL and KIM JONG UN gave their utmost attention to the progress of the Taedonggang Fruit Farm, visiting the farm on October 13th 2011.

Socialist Korea has overcome dogmatism and conservatism in advancing industrial production. Over the past decade, the DPRK has put its industry onto a scientific basis, ensuring the self-reliant essence of the economy. I witnessed this phenomenon at the Hana ( Korea Is One!) Music Information Centre and Factory, which is located in Thongil (Reunification) Street,eastern Pyongyang. The Hana Music Information Centre and Factory was one of the last places which KIM JONG IL gave on the spot on December 15th 2011,before General Secretary KIM JONG IL passed away on December 17th 2011, so this enterprise retains a special significance for the Korean people.
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The Hana Music Centre is divided into two sections. One part of the Hana complex is devoted to cultural enlightenment. The Hana Music Information Centre has an e-library on music of different genres and an multiplexer appreciation room. These facilities are open to experts and amateurs alike. A wide range of music, both Korean and international, can be admired by the users of the centre. Another part of the Hana Music Centre is concentrated on hi-tech production. At the Hana Electronic Company, there is the manufacture of DVD & Blueray players/recorders, portable DVD players with a function of a television, DVDs, CDs and CD-Roms. The production of these electronic devices and goods appeared to be automated. Even in the sphere of electronic manufacture and information technology, the DPRK is fast becoming self-sufficient.

The delegation had the possibility to speak to a shop floor worker at the production line of the Hana Electronics Factory. We had the chance to inquire into the living and working conditions of a typical DPRK worker. About 70 per cent of the Hana Factory's workforce consisted of women. The needs of the female workers were taken into account with free kindergartens for the workforce's children, with provision made for the gynaecological requirements and with two years' paid maternity leave.

A unique feature of working life in the DPRK is the Taean work system. The Taean work system ensures that the workers are the masters of the means of production at every point of contact, in other words there is no alienation between the producer and production. In the DPRK it is the working masses who are responsible for the running of production at industrial enterprises, not the capitalists or the bureaucrats, in effect a form of workers' control.

KIM IL SUNG proposed a mass participatory format of economic management suited to the features of socialism at the enlarged plenary meeting of the fourth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in November 1961. In practical terms, the Taean work system means that production is guided by a factory collective; the party committee, technicians, the management, the trade unions and the workforce. The female worker whom we interviewed briefly, spoke eloquently about the occupational, social and educational rights which are exercised by working people in the DPRK. In Peoples Korea there is the right to employment, the right to education, free housing for all, free medical service, paid leave for workers and peasants, state measures to support older people and children and guaranteed provision of foodstuffs to all citizens at reduced prices. In the DPRK focus is always put by the party and government on the welfare of the working class, the ruling class of Democratic Korea. On May Day 2012, KIM JONG UN spent the entire day with the workers of the Taeguan Glass and Machine Enterprise, and at the Kongsong Health Complex, showing that the WPK's traditional policy of prioritizing the working masses is being carried on.

Observing the streets of Pyongyang, there seemed to be scores of vehicles on the roads, and the streets and avenues of the DPRK capital city were brightly lit up by the new LCD lamps. The quantity and quality of DPRK consumer products had vastly improved as compared to my other visits. Information technology was being applied to everyday use in all walks of life. In many ways, the DPRK has been able to overcome the difficulties and shortages of the 1990s and has entered an era of prosperity based upon self-reliance. Walking around Pyongyang, I could see a population which was well fed and neatly clothed. From the villages and small towns in the DPRK to the capital city,a causal visitor will not find begging,prostitution, homelessness, crime and hooligan gangs, whereas elsewhere in the world these occurrences are common place.

On my final day in the DPRK, I was taken to a Korean folk restaurant, which is located at the back of the Koryo Hotel. Dermot and I were served with such Korean specalilites as Pyongyang Cold Noodles, Sinsollo, Taedong River Mullet and Kimchi, and was washed down by Taedonggang beer and by Kamhongo Whisky. I noticed that the restaurant was packed out with Korean families savouring the delights of this establishment. Everyday, working class Korean families were free to use the facilities of the hotel without any kind of restriction.

Every morning at 7am I was awoken to the sounds of the Korean Children's Union members singing while marching on the pavement outside the hotel. Perhaps the children were heading off to school or a Children's Union camp or the Pyongyang School children's Palace. What optimism in the future could be detected by the cheerful disposition of these Korean children united as a socialist collective.