Visiting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for the 16th time ,and my first time to visit for the Day of the Shining Star in February , I was impressed that by the fact that People's Korea was forging ahead along the path of self-reliance despite the intense sanctions imposed on it by the anti-DPRK hostile forces .I stayed in the DPRK from the 12th of February to the 19th of February
I had visited the DPRK in September 2018 for the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK and found the prices in the shop of the Koryo hotel and at the Wolhyang Exhibition exactly the same as five months before . This may not sound remarkable at all to many but in fact the DPRK faces massive sanctions from the UNSC, US , EU and Japan . The last two sets of UN sanctions were particularly severe banning both the export of many DPRK products and capping oil imports . A number of other countries face similar sanctions by the imperialists , however they have been hit hard by shortages, rising prices and economic chaos .
Going around Pyongyang , there seemed to be economic stablity . There were plenty of cars on the roads and a lot of construction work going on .Not only were the prices in the shops the same but the shops were well stocked with many different products available . I was able to buy a big bag of instant 3 in 1 coffee sachets ( a new product for the DPRK) , insam coffee , insam tea and a number of other products .People looked well dressed . Women were wearing very fashionable clothes and looked attractive and well-turned out.
. I was told that in Pyongyang an annual travelcard for the Metro is less than 50 cents but here in
London I paid "2000 for a 1-4 zone (what a rip off ) , The bourgeois imperialist media never tell
people.Korean people also benefit from the abolition of taxation , virtually free housing and subsidised food as well as free educationand free health care. Public ,social and cultural services were in good shape , unlike the UK where they have been affected by austerity ,cutbacks and privatisation. I saw the Ryugyong Opthamlic Hospital opened in 2016 and constructed in the space of 7 months .It is was very clean and has a high staff ratio. When I was leaving Pyongyang it snowed heavily but legions of workers turned out and there were tractors with snowploughs . In the UK local authorities have had their budgets cut and have no staff to clear roads when it snows .
How is the DPRK able to maintain a stable economy , a high level of social benefits and a high rate of construction in the face of such severe sanctions by the imperialists .What is the secret weapon of the DPRK in combating the sanctions ? It is self-reliance . Respected Marshal KIM JONG UN defined self-reliance as the treasured sword for prosperity. President KIM IL SUNG had said that "building an independent national economy means building a diversified economy equipping it with up-to date technology and creating our solid bases of raw materials,thereby building up an all embracing economic system in which every branch is structurally interrelated so as to provide domestically most of the products of heavy and light industry and the agricultural produce needed to make the country wealthy and powerful and to improve the people's living conditions .((KIM IL SUNG Selected Works 2nd English edition vol 3 p 399). Even in the early days of building a new People's Korea , President KIM IL SUNG stressed that "For complete national independence and sovereignty and for nationalprosperity and development, one must build an independent national economy and thus firmly ensure economic independence." Futhermore the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il in his work "ON THE JUCHE IDEA" wrote of the independent national economy as follows ;
"Building an independent national economy means building an economy which is free from dependence on others and which stands on its own feet, an economy which serves one's own people and develops on the strength of the resources of one's own country and by the efforts of one's own people"
At the 7th congress of the Workers' Party of Korea respected Marshal KIM JONG UN said that
" The history of the Korean revolution is the one of self-development; the revolution was pioneered and has advanced victoriously by means of it. The basis of this spirit is the great leaders' revolutionary idea that a country must carry out the revolution on its own, and the form of struggle for applying it is self-reliance and fortitude. The great leaders' spirit of self-reliance and self-development, based on the principle that man is the master of his destiny and should carve out his destiny by himself, inspired our people to become stronger than anyone else in spiritual strength, not knowing the word impossible, and to develop theirs into an indisputably powerful nation". This approach was reaffirmed by his New Year Address for 2019 which concluded with the remark that "What we are convinced of once again as we proudly review the past year when we made rapid progress while paving our way by our own efforts with belief in our own strength in the face of harsh economic blockade and sanctions, is the truth that our state is fully capable of dynamically advancing along the road of development of socialism of our own style by dint of our people's great strength and efforts, without any external assistance or any other's help"
The DPRK's self-reliance is not an abstract concept nor a lofty slogan nor a throwaway line but a fundamental priniciple that is applied in real life . I saw this for myself at the Ryugyong Kimchi Pickle Factory where imported machinery had been replaced with DPRK produced machinery.
Some sneer at and deride self-reliance but self-reliance not only enables the DPRK to survive the sanctions and blockade of the hostile forces , it is the road to true prosperity and increasing living standards . Importing equipment means that growth does not benefit your own country but benefits others . Money that was spent on importing foreign machinery can instead be spent on accumulation , on improving public and cultural services , on improving living standards. If you do not have self-reliance, then a country becomes dependent , without self-reliance a country can fall in debt and without self-reliance growth only benefits foreign capitalists and bankers .
Visting the DPRK again I was even more convinced of the correctness and vitality of the line of self-reliance, the indepedent national economy and the Juche idea . In fact a post Brexit Britain could learn a lot from the DPRK's example of self-reliance and Juche .
Dr Dermot Hudson
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK
Official Delegate , Korean Friendship Association UK
Chairman British Solidarity Committee ofr Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula.
Hon general secretary International Central Committee For Songun Study
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