House-moving Season

n the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a larger number of families moved into new houses last year than any of the previous years. In April, 10 000 families moved into new houses in Songhwa Street in the capital city of Pyongyang, followed by 800 families of labour innovators and other meritorious persons into the luxury houses built on the shore of the Pothong River. In the countryside, too, house-moving took place almost every day from the autumn to the end of the year. Many miners in the Komdok area also moved to new houses in the mountain gorge town built there.

Days Representing the Era of Transformation

Two years have passed since the Workers’ Party of Korea adopted at its Eighth Congress a decision to build 50 000 flats in Pyongyang in the period of the new five-year plan (2021-2025). At the Fourth Plenary Meeting of its Eighth Central Committee held in late 2021, the Party advanced a grand programme of rural construction in the new era for transforming the rural villages into more civilized socialist ideal communities.  

Looking back, launching into large-scale housing construction, which demands a colossal amount of investment, was not an easy decision to make; the country was still in a difficult economic situation due to the persistent sanctions and blockade imposed upon it by the forces hostile to it, as well as the global healthcare crisis and natural disasters that hit it. 

However, Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the WPK, regarding the decision of the Party Congress on solving the housing problem as a solemn pledge to the people, ensured that a large-scale housing construction campaign was forcefully pushed ahead across the country. He saw to it that powerful construction forces were mobilized for the campaign and all problems arising in it were solved.

Even when the country moved to the highest anti-epidemic emergency level after the malignant virus entered its territory in May 2022, he made sure that housing construction was pushed forward more powerfully, saying that work for the wellbeing of the people must not be suspended even for a moment. 

It can be said that last year’s boom in housing construction was a fruition of his wise leadership. 

Entering this year, house-moving still continues in the countryside.

This year, too, many houses will be built in the rural communities and Komdok area, to be provided to the local people in autumn.

Seeing their dreams coming true even in the face of difficulties, the Korean people keenly feel that their rosy future is not far away and that they can surely achieve national prosperity in the near future if they work hard united with a single mind and will. 

In a word, the season of house-moving in the DPRK is a season of confidence in a better tomorrow and of ardent will to bring it earlier.

Season of Leap Forward to the Future

The new houses built recently in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are luxurious ones which ordinary working people in capitalist countries cannot even dream to have. But in this country such houses are provided to ordinary people, and free of charge at that.

What is worthy of particular note is that the level of civilization of the Korean people is raised to a higher stage with the completion of each housing construction project. 

When Mirae Scientists and Ryomyong streets were inaugurated several years ago, they considered them to be ideal streets. And when new houses were built in flood-stricken areas in 2020, they regarded them as models of rural houses. But when they saw Samjiyon which had been renovated into a model of a cultured mountain city, the 10 000 flats in Songhwa Street which combines formative and artistic qualities, the luxurious Pothong Riverside Terraced Houses District and modern houses built at the Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm and in various other rural areas of the country, they learned that they had to upgrade their cultural standards.        

These standards will be raised again to a higher level soon when people move into the 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area which have been built as the first stage. It is clear that this raised level will be reflected in the rural houses to be built this year.  

What is also interesting is that each house-moving season effects a rise in the creative level of the Korean people, too.

It is their will to build a modern economy by their own efforts and technology as they have constructed new modern houses with their own efforts. Propelled by this will, the innovations and successes in the construction sector are spread to other sectors. 

The work of readjusting and reinforcing the country’s economy is now being conducted vigorously, and this work is planned to be finished in the main this year. The main objective of this work is to develop the economy into a sustainable one unaffected by external influences by making it rely entirely on the domestic resources and technology. 

This can be proved with the successes the country achieved in economic construction last year; the regional-industry factories in Kimhwa County were renovated to rely on the local raw materials and technology so that they can become models for all other units in the country; a large-scale sodium carbonate production line was established in the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex and the first-stage renovation of the Kumsong Tractor Factory was completed.  

The Korean people are trying to apply their raised cultural level and the requirements of the new era, whether they produce an article or renovate a production line. 

It is Kim Jong Un’s creed that we should nurture ideals with an eye to the next century however difficult the situation is. Proceeding from this point of view, he examines and guides all the formation plans of the houses to be built.  

The house-moving season in the DPRK can be called a season when it is advancing to a brighter future.