Significance of the Inauguration of a Street in the DPRK

Last April 11, Songhwa Street in Pyongyang, the capital city of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was inaugurated, and Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs, cut the tape at the inauguration ceremony. 

Last April 11, Songhwa Street in Pyongyang, the capital city of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was inaugurated, and Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs, cut the tape at the inauguration ceremony. 

Symbol of the New Era of Comprehensive Development

At the Eighth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea held in January last year General Secretary Kim Jong Un indicated the general orientation of the five-year plan for national economic development aimed at revitalizing the overall economy and building up the foundations for improving the people’s standard of living. At the report he proposed building 50 000 flats in the capital city by building 10 000 every year from 2021. 

As part this effort, housing construction was launched in the Songsin and Songhwa district at the eastern gateway of the capital city.

The project had to be conducted under unfavourable conditions: persistent sanctions and blockade by the hostile forces and the global health crisis were the greatest challenge; the amount of work to be completed in a limited time was many times greater than it was when building Ryomyong Street; advanced architectural technology and building methods like green architecture and dry processing had to be introduced; moreover, the project demanded corresponding growth of the economy as a whole, including the metallurgical, machine-building and mining industries and rail transport.

The project meant a breakthrough in implementing the plan of the Workers’ Party of Korea to expand the urban areas of Pyongyang to the east, west and north and thus make the capital city even more splendid within five years. In the final analysis, it was an important project that had a bearing on the successful advance of the country which is aspiring to a comprehensive development of socialism.

Since the project would have a direct impact on the life of the citizens of the capital and since it was an important political undertaking in the first year of implementing the decisions of the Party Congress, Kim Jong Un attended its ground-breaking ceremony, delivered a speech and set off the dynamite, signaling the start of the project. According to official reports, he concerned himself with the details of the project during the whole 

project period–artists’ impressions and designs, formation of construction workforce, building operations, supply of materials and the builders’ living conditions. 

Innovations were brought about in the project, and Songhwa Street, the first symbol of the new era of comprehensive development of the Korean style of socialism, was built at the eastern gateway of the capital city. 

True Appearance of the Korean Style of Socialism

Demonstrated in the whole course of the construction of the street was the invincible might of the single-hearted unity between the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people. As the project was launched at the proposal of        Kim Jong Un, who is determined that anything which people wished and wanted should be done even if the sky may fall down, the builders of the street and all other people across the country turned out in the construction: the builders discovered natural bedrock under the depth of the ground, and built on it an 80-storyed apartment house; young people, numbering 143 000 in total, volunteered to work there at night; the working people across the country conducted a campaign for the increased production of building materials. As the premier of the Cabinet pointed out in the speech delivered at the street’s inauguration ceremony, every apartment house was a fruition of the precious sweat and blood of the builders and all other people across the country, who worked against impossibility by racing against time in unity.

The project was literally an exhibition of the indomitable will of the Korean people who are smashing straight through all the difficulties on the strength of self-reliance.

Inauguration of Songhwa Street was followed by inauguration of the Pothong riverside terraced houses district.

Now the spirit that rose high in these two projects is being displayed in various parts of the country. The experience and advanced building methods accumulated and created in the previous projects are being introduced in the site of building   10 000 flats in the Hwasong area in the capital city and in various other parts of the country, giving a fresh spur to the struggle of the Korean people in their advance for  achieving comprehensive development of socialism, a goal set by the Workers’ Party of Korea.

The foundations of not only the construction sector but also the bases that produce building equipment and materials are being strengthened, and other industrial sectors related with construction are increasing production, an upward track of the overall economy. The Third Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea pointed out that, despite the worse conditions and environment, the total value of industrial output for the first half of 2021 exceeded the planned target by 44%, or 26% as against the same period in 2020. The Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party concluded that 2021 was a year of great victory, which opened a curtain of sea changes in the era of comprehensive development of socialist construction. 

Noteworthy is the fact that this trend will continue without letup this year, too, thanks to the fortitude, creative spirit and indomitable fighting spirit of the Korean people.