Let Us Usher In a Great Golden Age of Construction by Thoroughly Applying the Party’s Juche-Oriented Idea of Architecture-KIM JONG UN

Let Us Usher In a Great Golden Age of Construction by Thoroughly Applying the Party’s Juche-Oriented Idea of Architecture

Letter to the Participants in the Grand Short Course

of Officials in the Construction Sector

December 8, Juche 102 (2013)

It is of great significance that a grand short course of officials in the construction sector is convened for the first time in the construction history of our country when a heyday is being unfolded in construction and a general charge is being waged for the victory of this year under the leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

The current short course, held under the theme Yesterday and Today of the Juche-oriented Architecture and Its Today and Tomorrow, is convened by our Party’s plan and initiative to review the successes and experiences in the work of the construction sector and usher in a great golden age in this sector in line with the demands of the developing revolution and times.

Today, when our Party and revolution have come to a new, historic turning point under the great banner of Songun, they are faced with an important task to scale at an early date the high peak of building a thriving country by leaping from one decade to another.

In opening decades of fresh leap forward of Songun Korea, our Party attaches great importance to the work of the construction sector.

Construction is a patriotic cause of lasting significance for building a thriving socialist country, a people’s paradise, and an important work for raising the economic might of the country and the level of its civilization.

When we build many monumental structures by bringing about innovations in construction, the foundations of a thriving country will be laid all the firmer and the base of people’s happiness will be created all the more excellently. Seeing the daily-changing appearance of their prosperous and cultured country, our people will feel great dignity and revolutionary self-respect and cherish warmer affection for their country. New speeds of construction and the spirit of the times created in the grand construction sites inspire all the people and service personnel to wage a heroic struggle and perform feats in the building of a thriving country.

It is our Party’s steadfast determination to usher in a new age of prosperity of the country by developing the current heyday in construction to a great golden age to create a new history of construction for Songun Korea and by making the torchlight of innovation in this sector flare up as flames of a great leap forward on all other fronts of socialist construction.

Bearing in mind our Party’s purpose of having organized the grand short course, all the participants should get through the short course a clear understanding of the blueprint of our Party’s plan for building a socialist economic giant, a cultured country, and the ways for implementing the plan and thus make the short course an epochal occasion in making another great leap forward in the construction sector.

The history of construction in our country is a proud history of having brought about miracles and changes by racing against time at the pace of Chollima spurred up by the speed campaign, guided by the outstanding idea of architecture of the great Generalissimos and under their wise leadership.

The brilliant leadership exploits of Generalissimo Kim Il Sung, who created a new history of Juche-oriented and people-oriented architecture after the liberation of the country and built on the debris a powerful country with a self-supporting economy, a people’s paradise, and of Generalissimo Kim Jong Il, who put forward a comprehensive Juche-oriented theory of architecture and ushered in a heyday of grand socialist construction, will shine forever as everlasting assets in the building of a prosperous country.

Today a heyday of construction has been unfolded in our country under the leadership of the Party, with the result that the great Generalissimos’ plan of building a thriving country is being translated into reality.

Thanks to the loyalty and heroic struggle of the service personnel of the Korean People’s Army and construction workers, the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the supreme sanctuary of Juche, has been laid out in a more solemn way as a great monument to the immortality of the leaders and the proud structures of the age of the WPK, like the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, Unha Scientists Street, Munsu Water Park and Masikryong Ski Resort, which will go well with the appearance of a socialist cultured country in their characters, contents and architectural styles, have been built in the short period of less than one year, instilling in our people great national dignity and pleasure of a happy life.

The service personnel of the KPA and construction workers devoted their blood and sweat unstintingly to carrying through the Party’s construction plan, thus proving in practice that Korea unfailingly does what it is determined to do and demonstrating to the whole world the wisdom and spirit of our people who are charging at full speed; they are indeed heroes of the Songun era and treasures of our Party.

I extend warm thanks to the participants in the grand short course of officials in the construction sector, the soldier-builders and construction workers across the country who have displayed burning patriotic enthusiasm and unswerving devotion to usher in a heyday of construction in hearty response to the Party’s long-term construction plan.

Today the officials and working people in the construction sector are faced with a heavy yet honourable task to lay solid foundations of a socialist economic giant in near future and take the lead in opening up a new era of cultural efflorescence in the 21st century by carrying forward and developing the great Generalissimos’ leadership exploits associated with their sector.

We should speed up production-related construction on all fronts of the socialist economy including its vanguard sectors, the sectors of basic industries, and light industry and agriculture so as to revitalize the national economy as early as possible and provide a stable springboard for the building of an economic giant.

We should lay out the capital city of Pyongyang, the heart of Juche Korea and the hub of Songun-based culture, into a city of global standards in all aspects and raise a hot wind of construction in local provinces, cities and counties to refurbish them in a beautiful fashion as suited to their characteristic features. By so doing, we should turn the country into a socialist fairyland.

We should bring a new, higher phase in building a socialist cultured nation by pushing forward the projects for updating the conditions and environment for learning at educational institutions and ensuring best quality in setting up healthcare, sports and cultural facilities as demanded by the times.

The goals for the construction sector are so gigantic and ambitious. However, as there is the wise leadership of the Party and there are construction officials and workers who are boundlessly loyal to it, the ideals and dream of our Party and people for building a socialist paradise, powerful and cultured, at the earliest date possible are sure to come true.

The officials and working people in the construction sector should not rest on their laurels but redouble their efforts in the van of the grand campaign for building a thriving country to lead today’s success to a more brilliant victory for tomorrow.

The guidelines to be followed in carrying out our ambitious construction plan and goals are the Party’s Juche-oriented idea and theory on architecture and its construction policy.

The Juche-oriented socialist architecture is, in essence, based on the principle of giving first and foremost importance to the masses of the people, who are responsible for architecture in our country. It is none other than the people who create it and benefit from it. So it is a natural requirement in construction to give top priority to the aspirations and demands of the people and their convenience and to ensure perfect ideological and artistic value and usability in conformity with their emotions and aesthetic sense. In construction we should preserve the Juche character definitely by applying the principle of giving first and foremost importance to the masses of the people, bring the national identity in proper combination with modernity, and build at an extraordinary speed monumental structures that would surpass global standards and be immaculate even in the distant future. This is the basic principle which we must keep to in construction and the core of the Juche-oriented idea of architecture.

Let us usher in a great golden age of construction by thoroughly applying the Party’s Juche-oriented idea of architecture!–this is the militant slogan that the officials and working people in the construction sector should hold up at present.

They should bring about a revolutionary change in designing, execution of construction and production of building materials to make the work of the country’s construction sector as a whole catch up with global standards.

Designing, execution and building materials are three elements of construction. The important key to building excellent structures in this sector is to bring these elements into proper combination.

The requirements of our Party’s policy in developing designing, execution of construction and production of building materials are to hold fast to the principle of prioritizing convenience over aesthetic beauty, and construction of infrastructure over that of superstructure, to make construction specialized, industrialized and modern on a high level and to complete projects at a go by adopting finish-one-at-a-time tactics and pressing ahead with them in a three-dimensional way.

First of all, it is necessary to develop the sector of architectural designing rapidly.

Architectural designing is the initial process of construction and presents an operations map for it. Keeping in mind that the future of a cultured country is visualized first on their drawing boards, designers should ensure highest level of excellence in their work as intended by the Party and desired by the people.

They should fully embody the requirements of our Party’s Juche-oriented theory on architecture and construction policy in architectural designs.

In drawing designs for an architectural structure, primary attention should be given to providing the people, its users, with convenience for comfort and then with the highest level of environment and conditions, safe, hygienic and sanitary, cultured and emotional. It is also important to constantly update the formative and artistic features of architecture. It should be regarded as an iron rule in architectural designing to give precedence to the designs of infrastructure, with due concern paid to modernizing the infrastructural network in keeping with the world trend.

It is important in architectural designing to sustain the utility and characteristics of structures.          General Kim Jong Il instructed that architecture is a composite art, so similarity and repetition are taboo practices in architectural designing.

Designers should always rack their brains to make distinctive designs for architectural structures in various forms in conformity with their characteristic features, utility and capacities. As the characteristics and utility of the structures are manifested intensively in the formation of the exterior and the interior space, their exterior should be so configured and their interior plane arrangement so designed to conform with the missions and functions of the structures. In drawing architectural designs for local areas it is important to avoid the tendency of blindly copying the models in Pyongyang or of drawing them only for style’s sake; they should assume varied and unique forms to bring out the character of each locality. In keeping with the world trend of architectural development towards green architecture the structures to be built should be designed on the principle of promoting ecological environment and making them friendly with the surroundings. On the other hand, precautions should be taken against adopting architectural forms and trends that are incongruous with the Korean style on the pretext of presenting distinctive designs.

It is urgent to radically raise the level of scientification in architectural designing as required by the new century.

Scientific methods should be introduced in designing and its means modernized. Designers cannot present satisfactory designs for world-class structures only with their sense of responsibility and duty. The days are gone when designs were drawn on paper. The most urgent issue in putting methods of architectural designing on a scientific basis is to develop and use the advanced CAD applications and system of Korean style. National institutions for architectural designing and similar units in provinces should equip themselves fully with modern devices such as latest versions of computers and multidimensional designing programs so as to ensure scientific accuracy and promptness in their work.

Special attention should be paid to ensuring scientific accuracy of calculation of cost-effectiveness in designing. A misplaced dot or line on a design will result in the country’s materials, funds and manpower being wasted in large amounts. From a standpoint that they are answerable to the country and people for the structures of their designs, designers should map out plans for them carefully in the light of economic profitability and draw designs of every structure after repeated deliberation.

The sector of architectural designing should develop all its branches rapidly with a great ambition to beat the world. In recent years a great number of monumental structures have been built, in the course of which our designers have widened their horizon and improved the level of their skills; however, they lag behind in still many aspects in view of the requirements of the Party and people and the world trend of architectural development. For the present, it is important to develop designs for interior decoration, furniture and landscape gardening. Proactive efforts should be made to create green architecture and intelligent architecture, in conformity with the aspirations of mankind by introducing world trends and excellent styles of other countries in architectural designing.

Fresh innovations should be brought about in execution of construction.

Execution is the major process of construction. However excellent a design may be, if execution of construction is not done properly, an architectural structure will not be in keeping with the requirements of the Party and people.

Execution of construction should be put on a specialized basis.

To make execution of construction specialized constitutes an important guarantee for higher speed and quality.

Radical measures should be taken to consolidate the material and technical foundations of central construction enterprises, improve their employees’ level of technical knowledge and skills, and fill up the shortage of manpower. Provinces, too, should build up their own construction forces. Specialized construction enterprises should be effective in reinforcing their technical personnel and training skilled construction workers. Given the experience in construction for this year, it is advisable to second construction forces in provinces to major projects in Pyongyang so that they can learn advanced construction methods and gain experience for themselves.

It is important to decisively raise the level of industrialization and modernization in execution of construction.

Only then will it be possible to make work easier in the construction sector and carry out construction projects more quickly and more excellently with less expenditure of manpower and materials.

What is fundamental to putting execution of construction on an industrialized and modern footing is to upgrade equipment, machines and tools. As we are to undertake many projects in the upcoming years in answer to the Party’s call for a construction campaign, we should replace old building equipment, machines and tools with modern ones. As we have the experience of manufacturing various building equipment and as we are supported by firm industrial foundations, we are surely capable of producing and supplying modern building equipment, machines and tools if we buckle down to it. Factories and enterprises in the sector of machine-building industry and construction units should make positive efforts to produce building equipment, machines and tools on their own. It is also important to make scrupulous arrangements for importing from foreign countries up-to-date building equipment, machines and tools in complete sets.

Advanced construction methods should be introduced proactively. People’s aesthetic standards rise and construction methods develop in step with the times. A struggle should be waged to invent and apply various construction methods suited to the requirements of the times and the characteristics of construction projects, and positive efforts be made to adopt up-to-date construction methods. In order to develop construction onto a higher phase, we should switch from wet to dry process.

Technical regulations and requirements of construction methods should be strictly observed in execution. The slogan “Let us take responsibility for the safety of the project and guarantee its quality for all eternity” is put up at every construction site; this slogan should not be regarded as being simply for the sake of publicity. We should make it a slogan of loyalty and patriotism under which the officials and working people in the construction sector support their Party and love their country, a slogan of clear conscience and practice under which they devote themselves to the well-being of the people and rising generations.

We should be effective in creating an example in executing construction of structures and generalizing it. It is our Party’s traditional method of work to create a model in a unit and generalize it across other units. We should raise the overall level of execution by setting up exemplary, model units in the capital and provinces and making all other construction units follow suit.

When carrying out a construction project, close attention should be paid to laying out the area surrounding the construction site. Construction of a structure should be finished in parallel with cleaning out the surrounding area and landscaping it with trees and lawns so that the traces of construction are removed entirely along with the completion of the project.

An epochal turn should be made in production of building materials.

Production of building materials is decisive of success or failure of construction. Building materials are to construction what shells and bullets are to the army.

Building-materials factories should normalize their production to supply materials for construction sufficiently. Cement factories and the units producing steel for construction should upgrade and perfect the existing production lines and operate their equipment at full capacity, thus producing and supplying quality cement and steel according to the set items and specifications. Production of standard aggregate and prefabs should be industrialized to boost their output rapidly. Modern bases for producing building materials should be set up in larger numbers to meet the growing demand for them in the construction sector.

The proportion of home-made finishing materials should be raised. To produce building materials by relying on domestic resources is a requisite for the development of construction work and, at the same time, it is an important aspect of political work to inspire the people with trust and pride in their own things and enhance their confidence. We should speed up the work of putting the production lines on a modern and scientific basis at building-materials factories, including the Taedonggang Tile Factory and the Pyongyang Building-materials Factory, which have been built with so much effort under the care of Generalissimo Kim Jong Il, and each factory should specialize in the production of a certain range of building materials on a higher level and make it a tradition. Finishing-materials factories should strive for higher quality and make their product range varied. In future, we should produce all sorts of finishing materials necessary for construction in our country.

We should channel strenuous efforts into developing materials of fittings and furniture so as to produce them in large quantities which are light, durable, convenient and attractive. Positive measures should be taken to turn out varieties of quality coating materials by relying on locally available raw materials.

The responsibility and role of the officials and working people in the construction sector should be enhanced to usher in a great golden age of construction.

They are point men and pioneers who are to perform the honourable duty of taking the lead in paving the way for prosperity of Songun Korea and the people’s happy morrow. By relying on their ardent loyalty and patriotic zeal, our Party intends to open up a great golden age of construction with a view to translating the people’s ideals and dream into reality.

Officials in the construction sector should work to the best of their abilities and make persevering efforts to realize the construction plan of the Party and its intentions.

They should set the order of priority for construction reasonably in keeping with the requirements for the building of a thriving nation and the actual conditions of the country, and carry through the tasks assigned to their units by projects and stages in a sweeping manner by displaying their organizational abilities to the full and through bold, daring operations. They should lend an attentive ear to the creative suggestions of the masses and hold serious discussions on site as to the problems arising in construction from designing and execution to preparation for operating the buildings so as to take proper measures in time. They should all become locomotives that arouse and lead the masses to the grand construction campaign through personal examples by overcoming difficulties and hardships in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and with indefatigable courage.

They should make exact demands in construction work. In construction the criteria are what are required by the Party and people. In carrying on any project, officials should not feel satisfied with what they have done, but make greater demands to construct all structures as monumental creations which reach the standards required by the Party and the people and catch up with global ones.

They should show special concern for the safety of workers and take scrupulous measures to this end to prevent any slight labour accident.

They should endeavour to raise the level of their political and practical qualifications. To them, it is not merely a matter of qualification; it is a matter of eligibility, i.e., whether or not they can keep pace with the Party in the struggle to create a new history of construction for Songun Korea. They should firmly arm themselves with our Party’s Juche-oriented idea of architecture and its construction policy and become competent, talented personnel who are well versed in their field and the work at their own units, as well as the world trend of architectural development.

Construction projects should be carried out on the strength of army-people joint operations. As they have brought about sea changes in all parts of the country by displaying the spirit of moving mountains and filling up seas at the cost of their lives if it is the Supreme Commander’s order, the soldier-builders should keep performing heroic feats in the van of the sacred struggle to open up a great golden age of construction, and thus demonstrate to the full the proud features of the Party’s army and its might as an artist of people’s happiness. By learning from the fighting spirit of the soldier-builders, the working people in the construction sector should ensure fastest speed and best quality in carrying on construction projects, thus leaving a remarkable trace of life in the ongoing vigorous construction campaign with an ardent patriotic view of life.

Construction science and technology should be developed onto a higher stage.

Science and technology are a propellant which drives constant advances for construction, and the shortcut to the great golden age of construction is to rapidly develop science and technology in this sector.

The scientists and technicians in the construction sector should have the national dignity and scientific faith that they will beat the world and make most use of the knowledge and talents, which they have acquired under the care of the Party, to provide a scientific and technological guarantee for and push ahead with the grand construction campaign for the country’s prosperity and people’s well-being. They should further develop architectural designing and execution of construction on the basis of an intensive research into structural diagrams, scientific methods of calculation and advanced ways of execution which are applicable to the actual conditions of our country and may lead the world. They should strive to ensure domestic production of building materials, and increase their variety and better their quality so that they can compete with world-class ones. They should also make proactive efforts to develop and introduce modern and efficient equipment, machines and tools.

Stress should be put on training scientific and technical personnel in the construction sector. Today, when the heyday of construction is being led to a great golden age for the new century of the Juche era, talented designers and architects are in growing demand. Pyongyang University of Architecture is the base of training personnel talented in Juche-oriented architecture and an outpost for the building of a socialist cultured country. The university and other educational institutions in the construction sector should put education on an informatized, modern and advanced basis as demanded by the era of knowledge economy, combine theories with practice, and teaching with labour for production, and ensure best conditions and environment for teaching, so as to increase the number of competent designers and architects who are fully equipped with the Juche-oriented idea of architecture. In order to produce competent personnel talented in construction science and technology who can render a contribution to the building of a thriving nation, it is important to select promising people and send them to other countries for study and internship and effectively organize refresher courses for in-service officials.

A dissemination centre for construction science and technology should be built and put into wide use. A wide range of worldwide architectural data should be put into the central database to enable the relevant organs to gain access to them through computer network.

Supervision and control over construction should be improved and strengthened.

They should be conducted in a responsible manner in the interests of the Party and the state. With a high sense of being supervisors in defence of the demands and interests of the Party, the country and the people, officials in this sector should exercise strict control over construction and make increasing demands on designing and execution of construction.

We should establish a nationwide, unified system of supervision and control over construction. Only then will it be possible to conduct the overall construction of the country in line with the Party’s construction policy, the development orientation of construction set by the state and the law and regulations on construction. Now a unified control system of the state has not been established properly in the construction sector. The construction control sector should establish such an order that its officials deliberate the designs of structures and inspect them upon their completion on their construction sites and exercise control so as to prevent deviations in construction. The construction control organs should establish the system of examining even the preparation for operation of structures when inspecting them upon completion.

Party guidance to the construction sector should be strengthened.

Party organizations should make it its major line to establish a thoroughgoing system of Party leadership in the construction sector and concentrate all types of Party work on this work. Without establishing the system of Party leadership, it is impossible to properly apply the Party’s Juche-oriented idea of architecture and its construction policy and usher in a great golden age of construction in line with the Party’s intention.

All the units in the construction sector should establish strict discipline of accepting the Party’s policy and instructions on construction as being absolute and resolving the problems arising in construction work according to the Party’s decision, and carry out self-sacrificingly and unconditionally the tasks the Party has given them.

Party organizations should conduct political work in a proactive way to give full rein to the mental strength of the officials and working people in the construction sector. The driving force of the construction campaign is the mental strength of the masses of the people. Party organizations should positively encourage and lead the officials and working people in the construction sector so that they would cherish Kim Jong Il’s patriotism and devote their patriotic zeal and sincerity to fulfilling in time the tasks assigned to them. They should encourage all of them to become performers of feats in the ongoing grand construction campaign by learning from the heroic fighting spirit and revolutionary traits possessed by their elder generations who brought about great innovations and changes by dint of the Chollima spirit and high-speed work in every decade of our revolution. By enlisting all the means for information and motivational work, Party organizations should actively motivate them ideologically and widely organize socialist emulation drives; in this way, they can ensure that the spirit of making a leap forward and carrying out tasks self-sacrificingly, militant mettle and revolutionary optimism brim over in all construction sites.

Party organizations should intensify education among officials so as to encourage them to strive to develop ours with a high sense of national self-respect and be proactive in the work of rooting out among them the tendency of depending on other countries.

As builders are engaged in the challenging and labour-consuming construction work away from home for a long time, Party organizations should regard them as their revolutionary comrades-in-arms, comrades, and take warm care of their life with maternal affection, to ensure that they devote their creative wisdom and zeal at construction sites with the feeling of attachment to their job.

Great are the Party’s trust in and expectations of the officials and working people in the construction sector in the gigantic struggle to usher in a great golden age of construction by thoroughly applying the Juche-oriented idea of architecture.

With a firm determination to translate the Party’s far-reaching plan of construction into brilliant reality, they should demonstrate to the whole world the dignity of the powerful Paektusan nation and the spirit of Songun Korea by bringing about a great advance and innovations at construction sites