Monday 1 August 2022

Happy Family in Kyongru-dong






Some days ago, I visited the family of Ho Myong Gum and Choe Hong Gi living in Neighbourhood Unit No. 14, Kyongru-dong, called Pothong Riverside Terraced Houses District which was built distinctively in Pyongyang.


The couple works at the Ryonmot Trolley Bus Station.


The hostess, Ho Myong Gum, welcomed me.


The two-storey flat with an area of over 200m2 consists of four living rooms including a drawing room, and a study and kitchen, provided with all the conditions for living.


When I asked her impression of the new flat, she said, “When I was told that 


this palace-like new house was distributed to me, I felt as if I had been dreaming. I still can’t believe my eyes.”


The couple drove and still drives a trolley bus by turn for over three decades.


The wife began her driving career after her graduation from middle school at 17, and the husband started his social life at the trolley bus station after his military service.


For their scrupulous, careful and diligent working manner, they both had always been models at their workplace. For them, the trolley bus was a “mirror” through which they could see each other as well as a bridge for their meeting.


Thus they fell in love with each other, and continued to drive the trolley bus even after marriage.


The distance they have covered without any accident over the past decades totals over 1 600 000km.


In high appreciation of the feat the state awarded the title of Merited Driver to the couple in November Juche 107 (2018).


She continued her story.


She participated in the celebrations for the 70th founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Seventh Congress of the WPK as a delegate, and now is a Deputy to the Pyongyang Municipal People’s Assembly.


Seven years ago, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un came to the polling station of Sub-constituency No. 102 of Constituency No. 107 for the election of deputies to the Pyongyang Municipal People’s Assembly and voted for her, candidate for Deputy.


Choe Hong Gi, the host, said: “There will be no other country in the world than ours that has put forward me and my wife, who have done what we should do, as labour innovators and meritorious persons and given us this palace-like house free of charge.”


The couple is educating their son to steadily carry forward the spirit of the working class.


Imagining in my mind the rosy future of the country as I saw their happy life, I took leave of them.

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