Spiritual World of the People in the DPRK

Worthy of particular note about the politics administered by President           Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea over the past decade are changes in the spiritual world of the people in the country.

The greatest one of them is the fact that the pride in being the people of a world-class military power has taken deep root in their minds.

A country situated in the east of Asia, Korea is small in terms of territory and population. In modern times, it was subjected to all sorts of hardships under the military occupation of the Japanese imperialists for nearly half a century because of its weak national strength. As their country was weak, worship of big powers percolated through the Koreans. Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. president in the early 20th century, once said that the Korean people was a nation that could not raise even a finger to defend their country.

After Korea’s liberation from the Japanese military occupation on August 15, 1945, a great change took place in the spiritual world of its people. The Juche idea that one is the master of one’s own destiny and has the strength to shape it, became the steadfast spiritual mainstay of all the people, powerfully propelling the independent development of the country.

The country which was once a backward colonial agricultural state laid a firm foundation for self-reliant defence capabilities from scratch under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) and Chairman Kim Jong Il (1942-2011). The Korean people feel proud of this. And this self-confidence has grown stronger over the past decade as the country’s defence capabilities have developed by leaps and bounds under President Kim Jong Un’s leadership.

The DPRK has continuously developed and deployed strategic and tactical weapons, including ICBMs, SLBMs, anti-aircraft missile systems and cruise missiles–all of various ranges–and it even test-fired hypersonic missiles the kind of which is in the hands of only a few countries. As a result, the strategic balance of power surrounding the Korean peninsula has changed completely and no country dares to start a war against it.

Today the Korean people are very proud of the fact that their country is a world-class military power equipped with domestically-made up-to-date weapons. It is the present reality of the country that this national mindset has a great influence on all aspects of politics, the economy and culture.

Over the past ten years they have written a new chapter in the history of civilization and leaps forward in the strong creative spirit of self-reliance, in the course of which they have acquired the spirit as an element of their faith. This is another notable change in their spiritual world.

There are many countries and peoples in the world. But no one can be said to be under worse conditions than the Korean people in developing the economy and culture. As is widely known, the DPRK is under extreme sanctions and blockade by the hostile forces.

Notwithstanding this, the Korean people are achieving the prosperity of the country displaying unbelievable creativity.

The creative spirit of the Korean people can be defined as the spirit of challenging the world, competing with the world and beating the world. The more firmly the hostile forces tighten sanctions and blockade against our country, the higher level we will achieve in creating everything by our own efforts in a better way so that we can be proud of them before the eyes of the world–this is the unshakable will of the Korean people.

On the strength of this spirit, they switched from the mode of copying others to that of developing anything they wanted in a creative and innovative way and developed a new type of rocket engine, which is of crucial importance in space development. They have manufactured CNC equipment with their own efforts and technology, and established an iron production system based on domestic fuel. They have also developed many modern machines and equipment and built cutting-edge production lines based on an integrated manufacturing system.

The Korean people’s strong creative spirit can be well illustrated by the structures which have sprung up over the past ten years. In the period they have built many characteristic structures in Pyongyang, the capital city, and various other parts of the country. And practicality and diversity, and formative and artistic qualities are fully embodied in each of them.

Samjiyon, which was built as a model of cultured mountain city, can provide a glimpse of how high the level of the creativity of the Korean people is. Frankly speaking, such a wonderful city seems unlikely to be found even in the developed Western European countries.

The strong creative spirit has become a piece of “DNA” structure of all the Korean people, so to speak. Over the past decade, Kim Jong Un’s politics has brought up a generation of people who are possessed of the ideal, insight and style of work good enough to create a new era of civilization, a new history of leap forward.

The development and future of a state is decided by the spiritual strength of its people. It has already been proved by history that the strength of the people possessed of such a spirit is infinite and will not be conquered by any means.