DPRK's History of Self-reliance (16)

Pyongyang, July 1 (KCNA) -- The auto industry of the DPRK began under the postwar difficult situation, with the first truck produced in Juche 47 (1958).

In September 1958, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea sent all the party members a letter that called for bringing about a great upswing in socialist construction by rejecting conservatism, passivism and mysticism about technology, obstructive to progress, and thinking and acting boldly.

In hearty response to the letter, the workers of the then Tokchon Automobile Plant buckled down to the production of trial truck, the first one in the country's history.

It was not easy to manufacture the truck by their own efforts at that time as the technological development was restrained during the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule and everything in the country was destroyed due to the war. The plant had neither any experienced person nor a piece of design, and its workers even didn't know what kind of technical equipment was needed for the production of accessories.

In October that year, President Kim Il Sung visited the plant and stressed that a large number of motor vehicles should be made with domestic raw and other materials by our own efforts and technology in order to develop the country's economy into an independent national economy.

Designers, engineers and workers of the plant completed lots of designs and technical innovation schemes and manufactured hundreds of kinds of parts and accessories in less than one month to make a breakthrough in auto production. They also made various jigs to process accessories.

After all, the first truck, a product of their indomitable spirit, came into being within 40 days.

The President examined it and sent a congratulatory message to the workers, technicians and office employees of the plant, saying that the truck production in the country is a great event in the industrial development and the technical revolution.

Encouraged by his high appreciation, the working class of the plant produced 3 000 trucks in 1960, no more than two years after emergence of the trial product.

This fact goes to prove that there is no difficulty insurmountable for the people working in the spirit of self-reliance. -0-