Firstly , this meeting is being held on the day of the 109th anniversary of the October socialist revolution ! This is fitting because the ideas of the October revolution are continued by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , a true socialist country and people-orientated country .
Many countries in the world claim to put the people first . In Western countries politicians of different stripes all claim that they are going to put the people first .Some naive people even think that some far right parties in the UK and elsewhere in Europe represent the people or are “for the people “ . Of course nothing could be further from the truth .
Having lived in the UK for six decades and visited other capitalist countries such as Brazil , Spain and Germany it is clear that in any capitalist country the people come last . Ordinary people such as myself are the bottom of the pile .
However , one country in the world is different ,that country is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-DPRK or People’s Korea where the people first principle is implemented. President KIM IL SUNG declared that “the people are my God “ and Chairman KIM JONG Il said we should make flowers bloom on a rock if it necessary for the people.
Under the leadership of respected Marshal KIM JONG UN, the new great people -first era has opened up in People’s Korea. In his first ever public speech on the 15th April 2012 (which I witnessed in person) respected Marshal KIM JONG UN declared that “It is our party’s resolute determination to let our people who are the best in the world — our people who have overcome all obstacles and ordeals to uphold the party faithfully — not tighten their belts again and enjoy the wealth and prosperity of socialism as much as they like”.
I believe that this speech of respected Marshal KIM JONG UN strongly the people-first policies of the DPRK and showed the focus of Marshal KIM JONG UN on people-first -policies. Of course the people-first idea of respected Marshal KIM JONG UN is an application of the great Juche idea first authored by President KIM IL SUNG and developed in depth by Chairman KIM JONG IL . Moreover the people-first policy is the in depth development of people-centred socialism , Juche based socialism initiated by President KIM IL SUNG and carried forward by Chairman KIM JONG IL. The DPRK is now in an era of the comprehensive development of socialism and it can also be termed the people-first era.
The era of KIM JONG UN , the era of the people-first policy, is an era of rapid development in People’s Korea .I have visited the DPRK 20 times since 1992 and I have never seen such a large amount of construction work than I did during my 2024 and 2025 visits . The face of Pyongyang has changed completely. Whole new streets and districts the size of small towns and cities had appeared . Everything looked new and of good quality .
This development is not just confined to Pyongyang . A few years ago Samjiyon City , which I visited in August 2017, has been completely rebuilt and from the pictures looks unrecognisable. Recently 5 new hotels have been opened in the city . Last year the Wonsan -Kalma Tourist resort was opened . The first holidaymakers were not wealthy Western bourgeois tourists but ordinary Korean workers , this shows that Marshal KIM JONG UN is implementing a true people-first policy .It was at the 8th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea held in January 2021 in the midst of the global health crisis that a most ambitious programme of housing construction which aimed to build 50,000 new homes in Pyongyang and 25,000 in Komdok . This target was overfulfilled..A lot of construction has taken place in rural areas with approximately 110,000 new homes built in the countryside since 2023.
The DPRK has also implemented the policy of supplying dairy products to children free of charge . This was decided at a plenum of the central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea in June 2021 and became the law of the country in 2022. School milk in the UK was abolished over 50 years ago by the then education one Margaret Thatcher.
The DPRK has embarked on the 20x 10 regional development programme to finally eliminate any lingering regional disparities .This programme envisages the construction of local industry factories and also cultural and leisure facilities.
In recent years state of the art modern hospitals such as the Pyongyang General Hospital and the Kangdong County Hospital . The Pyongyang General Hospital was opened in October 2025 on the day I arrived in the DPRK . The DPRK is opening new hospitals at a time when the UK is closing hospitals one after the other. It is a fact that the DPRK has more hospital bed and doctors per head of population than the UK .By 2017 , according to the World Bank the DPRK had 3.7 Doctors per 1,000 people . This was higher than south Korea which had 2.4 doctors per 1,000 people ( of course medical care is not free in south Korea ) and the United States with 2.6 doctors per 1,000 . The World Bank also said that Number of hospital beds per 1,000 in the DPRK was 13.2 per 1,000 compared to 2.9 beds per 1,000 in the UK .So basically the DPRK has 4.55 times the number of hospital beds per 1,000 than the UK.
The qualitative difference as well as the quantitative difference between capitalist health care and people -centred health care of the DPRK is also important .Under the unique people-centred health system of the DPRK there is the section doctor system in which doctors take charge of a geographic locality and actually go around visiting people in their homes to give them a health check up . In the UK doctors unless there are private doctors charging a lot of money , very rarely make house calls and it is often impossible to see a GP , sometimes even impossible to phone the GP let alone see them !
All the above achievements will be further developed and consolidated.The 9th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea(WPK) was held earlier this year in February. It was decided to continue with the 20x10 regional development policy as well as expanding the health service by building 100 new hospitals .
The people-first policy and Juche-based ,people centred socialism represent true welfare policies unlike the fake “welfare state “ in some capitalist countries . During my last visit to the DPRK I learned that not only is housing free but food costs only 0.30 dollars or 22p in British money per month ! There is no unemployment In People’s Korea you will not see beggars or homeless on the streets thanks to the socialist system and the great people -first policy of respected Marshal KIM JONG UN.
To conclude People’s Korea is a society where the people are at the centre of everything .KFA UK with its 1,000 strong telegram channel and Facebook page with a following of 6,000 will continue to play its part in publicising the great achievement of People’s Korea ,defending People’s Korea with No Ifs or Buts.
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