January 1, Juche 102 (2013)

    Dear comrades,

    Officers and men of the heroic People’s Army and all our beloved fellow countrymen,

    Dear compatriots,

    Having seen out 2012, a year characterized by events that will go down in the history of the nation, we are seeing in the new year 2013 filled with high hope and confidence in final victory.

    Reflecting the unanimous reverence of all the service personnel and people for President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il , the fathers of the nation and eternal Sun of Juche, I would like first to pay the highest tribute and New Year greetings to them.

    I extend my warm greetings to the service personnel and people who are striving with devotion for the prosperity of the country firmly united around the Workers’ Party of Korea, and sincerely wish all the families across the country harmony and greater happiness.

    My New Year greetings go also to our compatriots in the south and abroad who are ringing in the new year with a yearning for and expectation of the reunification and prosperity of the nation, and to the world’s progressive peoples and our foreign friends who love justice and peace.

    Last year was a historic year in which the great Generalissimos were upheld as the eternal leaders of our revolution and a firm guarantee was provided for brilliantly carrying forward the revolutionary cause of Juche to completion under the leadership of the Party.

    The President and the General were great leaders whom our people acclaimed for the first time in their history spanning thousands of years; they are the eternal images of the great Paektusan nation and the banners of all our victories and glory. Last year we celebrated the centenary of the birth of the President as the greatest national holiday, reviewed the 100-year history of Juche Korea with pride and realized the cause of immortalizing the General by holding high as the eternal leader of our Party and people. By doing so, we have been able to glorify the new century of the Juche era as an era of victory and glory for the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche under the unfurled banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism.

    Although they saw in 2012 shedding tears of blood after the sudden demise of the General whom they had believed in as in heaven, our service personnel and people determinedly rose up to follow the Party with a firm faith that the great General would always be with them and fully supported the leadership of the Party. By displaying the purest loyalty, a noble sense of moral obligation and complete sincerity, they refurbished the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in the most sublime way as befits the supreme sanctuary of Juche and erected statues of the Generalissimos on Mansu Hill and in several other places.

    By placing deep trust in and faithfully supporting the Party, they established the ties of blood with it, their hearts pulsating to the same beat as it, and shared good times and bad with it. The major political celebrations held amid the deep interest of the whole nation and indeed the whole of last year bore testimony to the single-hearted unity between the Party, the army and the people which was further consolidated as unbreakable blood ties.

    Last year our service personnel and people achieved historic victories which will shine brilliantly in the history of the country by waging a general offensive to implement the intentions and instructions of the General.

    Our reliable scientists and technicians successfully launched the Kwangmyongsong 3-2 satellite, thus carrying out the instructions of the General with credit and fully demonstrating the high level of space science and technology and overall national power of Juche Korea. That we successfully manufactured and launched a scientific and technological satellite by relying entirely on our own efforts, technology and wisdom was a cause of national jubilation and raised the dignity and honour of the Sun’s nation onto the highest level; it was a great event which inspired all the service personnel and people with courage and confidence in victory and clearly showed that Korea will always do what it is determined to do.

    Through the parade held in celebration of the centenary of the birth of the President, our revolutionary armed forces demonstrated the inexhaustible might of the powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu that is steadfast in ideology and faith and equipped with Korean-style modern military hardware capable of defeating any formidable enemy. And they reliably safeguarded the security of the country by resolutely smashing every war provocation and anti-DPRK smear campaign by the enemy. The officers and men of the People’s Army and the People’s Internal Security Forces achieved breakthroughs on all the major fronts of building a thriving country with the mettle of “All at once” and performed many good deeds for the happiness of the people, thereby living up to the expectations and trust of the Party and people.

    Although the situation was acute and complicated and the country suffered successive natural calamities last year, our army and people made great strides in their efforts to build a thriving socialist country and improve the people’s living standards by displaying an indomitable will and waging an unyielding struggle.

    We commissioned the Huichon Power Station and Tanchon Port, built many Juche-oriented and modern factories and enterprises and reconstructed major production bases in key industrial sectors on the basis of advanced science and technology, thus further consolidating the material and technological foundations of our economy.

    Thanks to the exalted patriotic zeal of the service personnel and people, monumental edifices including Changjon Street and Rungna People’s Pleasure Park sprang up in Pyongyang and many cultural facilities for promoting the wellbeing of the people were built in different parts of the country, changing its appearance.

    Last year, the superior socialist education system was further consolidated through the adoption of the law on enforcing universal 12-year compulsory education; our sports people achieved great successes in international competitions, adding glory to the country; and our revolutionary artistes conducted artistic activities in a fresh and enterprising manner, imbuing society with an animated spirit and greatly encouraging the people in their struggle.

    The brilliant successes we achieved in the revolutionary struggle and construction work last year can be ascribed to the fact that the General had unfolded an ambitious blueprint and laid firm foundations for the building of a thriving country. Last year’s significant successes were a priceless fruit of the unshakeable determination and correct leadership of our Party in glorifying Kim Il Sung ’s and Kim Jong Il ’s Korea around the world by translating the far-reaching plan and instructions of the General into reality, and of the lofty sense of loyalty and patriotic devotion of our service personnel and people who are unfailingly faithful to the Party.

    I extend my warm thanks to all the service personnel and people who adorned the first year of the new century of the Juche era with great victories in hearty response to the Party’s militant call.

    Comrades,

    The new year 2013 will be a year of great creations and changes in which a radical transformation will be effected in building a thriving socialist country on the road of the onward march in the new century of Kim Il Sung ’s and Kim Jong Il ’s Korea.

    All the people and service personnel should turn out dynamically in the grand onward march for building a thriving country full of pride in being victors and with confidence in a bright future.

    The road of Juche is the only path our Party and people will follow and great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is the ever-victorious banner of our revolution. We should march forward along the road of independence, the road of Songun and the road of socialism to the end, upholding the banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism. Our Party will triumphantly build a thriving socialist nation, the most powerful country, on this land in our own way, the way the General did, by relying on our people who are the best in the world.

    This year we will be greeting the 65^th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, our glorious motherland, and the 60^th anniversary of victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War.

    The dignified and glorious present day of our people and the bright and prosperous future of our country are ensured by the immortal nation-building exploits the Generalissimos performed while founding a genuine state of the people for the first time in the 5 000-year history of our nation and developing it into a powerful socialist country that is independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant in national defence, and by the great achievements the President made while leading the Fatherland Liberation War to brilliant victory on the strength of his outstanding strategy and tactics and wise leadership.

    In this significant year we should add brilliance to the immortal achievements of the great Generalissimos and carry them forward to accomplish the cause of building a thriving socialist country and reunifying the country.

    Building an economic giant is the most important and task foremost at the present stage of building a thriving socialist country.

    We should further consolidate the successes achieved in economic construction, and thus realize the wish of the great General who devoted all his life to raising the status of our country to that of an economic giant in the new century and ensuring that our people are well off and have nothing to envy in the world.

    In the same manner as we demonstrated the dignity and might of Songun Korea through the manufacture and launch of the Juche-based application satellite, the entire Party, the whole country and all the people should wage an all-out struggle this year to effect a turnaround in building an economic giant and improving the people’s standard of living.

    “Let us bring about a radical turn in the building of an economic giant with the same spirit and mettle as were displayed in conquering space!”–this is the fighting slogan our Party and people should uphold this year.

    All sectors and all units of the national economy should launch a vigorous general offensive to boost production in hearty response to the Party’s militant slogan.

    All economic undertakings this year should be geared to effecting a radical increase in production and stabilizing and improving the people’s living standards by solidifying and making effective use of the existing foundations of the independent national economy.

    By adopting decisive steps to shore up the vanguard sectors of the national economy and the basic industrial sectors, we should develop the coal-mining, electric-power and metallurgical industries and rail transport on a priority basis and provide a firm springboard for building an economic giant. We should make innovations in the coal-mining and metallurgical industries in particular so as to revitalize the overall economy of the country.

    The success of economic construction should be manifested in the people’s standard of living. We should direct great efforts to bolstering up the sectors and units that have a direct bearing on the people’s livelihood and increasing production there, so as to ensure that they receive more benefits.

    Agriculture and light industry remain major fronts in economic construction this year, too. We should fulfil this year’s plan for grain production without fail by concentrating a nationwide effort on farming and raising the efficiency of agricultural production by dint of more scientific and intensive methods. We should adopt concrete measures to ensure the supply of raw and other materials to light-industry factories and thus increase the output of quality consumer goods.

    We should decisively improve livestock, fish and fruit farming so as to provide the people with a better, more bountiful diet. The soldiers of the People’s Army and the shock-brigade members who volunteered to work at the reclamation site of the Sepho plateau in response to the Party’s call should achieve miraculous successes and perform heroic feats in this year’s campaign and thus open up bright prospects for carrying the Party’s grand nature-remaking plan to completion at an early date.

    We should wage a dynamic struggle to boost production at the modern factories and production bases that were built under the leadership of the General who made such painstaking efforts to improve the people’s living standards during his super-intense forced march. By doing so, we should ensure that his ennobling affection reaches the people.

    All sectors and all units of the national economy should push ahead with a socialist emulation drive to reenergize production and should fulfil their quotas as set in the national economic plan for this year.

    We should bring about a radical turn in the building of an economic giant on the strength of science and technology by fanning the flames of the industrial revolution in the new century.

    The industrial revolution in the new century is, in essence, a scientific and technological revolution, and going beyond the cutting edge is a shortcut to building an economic giant. Like the satellite scientists who conquered outer space we should wage a dynamic campaign to push back the frontiers of science and technology and thus raise the country’s overall science and technology to the world standard as soon as possible. All sectors of the national economy should direct primary efforts to the development of science and technology, closely combine science and technology with production in order to boost production by relying on domestic resources and technology, and introduce CNC technology in equipment and production lines so as to achieve their full automation in the long run.

    We should improve economic guidance and management as demanded by the developing reality.

    All sectors of the national economy should make scrupulous arrangements for economic planning and guidance to boost production by tapping every possible reserve and potentiality. They should work out in a scientific way immediate plans and long-term strategies for stage-by-stage development and push ahead with them without letup. We should hold fast to the socialist economic system of our own style, steadily improve and perfect the methods of economic management on the principle of encouraging the working masses to fulfil their responsibility and role as befitting the masters of production, and widely publicize the good experiences gained by several units.

    We should continue to channel great efforts into consolidating our political and military might in all aspects.

    The single-hearted unity of the army and people around the Party is our strongest weapon and a powerful propellant for building a thriving socialist country.

    We should invariably carry forward the proud tradition of single-hearted unity, the tradition of adorning the red flag of the revolution only with victories on the strength of the harmonious whole wherein the Party believes in the people and the people absolutely trust in and follow the Party.

    All officials, Party members and other working people should become genuine comrades who, united with a single heart, share ideology and purpose, weal and woe with our Party on the road of the Songun revolution, and they should work with devotion for the sake of their country and people. They should orient all undertakings towards defending and cementing their single-hearted unity, and make the political and ideological position of our revolution as solid as a rock by grasping the people’s sentiments and rallying broad sections of the people firmly behind the Party.

    The military might of a country represents its national strength; it is only by building up its military might in all aspects that it can develop into a thriving country and defend the security and happiness of its people. We should continue to stress increasing our military might under the great banner of Songun, safeguard the security and sovereignty of the country and help to ensure regional stability and global peace.

    This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the slogan “a-match-for-a-hundred” put forward by the great Generalissimo Kim Il Sung . It is important this year to bring about a fundamental change in strengthening our revolutionary armed forces and perfecting their combat preparedness.

    The People’s Army should establish a revolutionary command system and military climate, create steel-strong military discipline and perfect itself as befits an elite revolutionary force. It should make its training more intensive, as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did on Mt. Paektu, so as to prepare all its officers and men as a-match-for-a-hundred combatants who are capable of fighting a war and maintain full combat readiness. If the aggressors dare launch a preemptive attack against our sacred country, the People’s Army should mercilessly annihilate them and win victory in the war for the country’s reunification.

    The officers and men of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces and members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards should step up their combat and political training and maintain full combat readiness with a determination to safeguard their Party and leader, country and people, and defend their hometowns.

    The defence industry should develop larger numbers of sophisticated military hardware of our own style that can contribute to implementing the Party’s military strategy, thereby fulfilling its mission as the arsenal of the powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu.

    We should step up the building of a civilized socialist nation in order to usher in a new era of cultural efflorescence in the 21^st century.

    The thriving socialist country we are building is a civilized socialist one where all its people are possessed of profound cultural knowledge, sound physique and noble moral virtues, enjoying a socialist life to their heart’s content under the most cultured conditions and environment, and where a beautiful and sound lifestyle pervades the whole society.

    All sectors in cultural construction should implement to the letter the ideas, lines and policies set out by the General, and develop education, public health, literature and the arts, physical culture, public morals and all other areas as appropriate for an advanced civilized nation.

    We should develop Pyongyang into a more majestic and picturesque city as befits the capital of Juche Korea, the centre of Songun culture, and turn all the streets and villages, mountains and rivers in the provinces, cities and counties into a socialist paradise. At the same time we should set up modern cultural and welfare facilities, parks and pleasure grounds in larger numbers, thus ensuring that our people enjoy a cultured life in the new era to their heart’s content.

    In order to effect a radical change in this year’s campaign to build a thriving socialist country, officials should make a fundamental advance in their ideological viewpoint, work style and attitude.

    Those who acquire the President’s and the General’s outlook on the people, who make tireless efforts for the people’s good, who rid themselves of the old ways of thinking and old attitudes and make ceaseless innovations in their work, and who rouse the masses to make breakthroughs on the advance, can rightly be called the genuine officials our Party needs at present. Officials should strive with devotion, upholding the slogan “Everything for the people and everything by relying on them!” They should work to the best of their abilities with a high sense of responsibility, eagerness and an enterprising approach to their work so that their loyalty and performance can be judged by the Party and the people.

    Party organizations should further enhance their militant function and role.

    As the political staff of their units, they should firmly establish policy-based principles in implementing the Party’s policies and conduct their political and organizational work with scrupulous care. In this way they can ensure that a great upsurge is brought about in their respective sectors and units. Party organizations, with a maternal feeling, should embrace all the people, take warm care of them and lead them forward to ensure that they share the same destiny as the Party and fulfil their tasks at their posts in a responsible manner.

    We should conduct Party work in the same battle-line way as it was done in the 1970s, and focus on the work of thoroughly applying Kim Jong Il ’s patriotism in all activities.

     Kim Jong Il ’s patriotism is the eternal soul and breath of Kim Il Sung ’s nation, and a driving force for building a thriving country. Party organizations should ensure that all officials, Party members and other working people cherish Kim Jong Il ’s patriotism deep in their hearts and give full play to their patriotic enthusiasm and spirit of devoted service in the ongoing sacred struggle to achieve the prosperity of their socialist country.

    Working people’s organizations should conduct effective education among their members to suit their specific features, and thus inspire them for an all-out offensive this year. Youth league organizations should educate young people to advance straight ahead and dynamically along the road indicated by the Party and become youth heroes who glorify the present era of a great upsurge with their creative activities and feats.

    The reunification of the country is the greatest national task and it brooks no further delay; it was the lifelong desire and instruction of the great Generalissimos.

    Deeply grieving over the national division, President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il , the fathers of the nation and lodestars of national reunification, worked heart and soul throughout their lives hand down a reunified country to their fellow countrymen; in the course of this they laid firm foundations for the independent reunification, peace and prosperity of the nation.

    We should staunchly safeguard and add brilliance to the undying exploits the great Generalissimos performed for the sacred cause of national reunification, and accomplish the historic cause of the country’s reunification, the long-cherished desire of our nation, true to the lofty intention of the peerlessly great persons.

    This year the entire Korean nation should turn out together in a nationwide patriotic struggle for reunification and thus usher in a new phase in the reunification movement.

    An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove the confrontation between the north and the south.

    The past history of inter-Korean relations shows that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war. The anti-reunification forces in south Korea should abandon their hostile policy towards their fellow countrymen, and instead take the road of national reconciliation, unity and reunification.

    Respecting and thoroughly implementing the north-south joint declarations is a basic prerequisite for promoting inter-Korean relations and hastening the country’s reunification.

    All the Korean compatriots in the north, in the south and abroad should launch a dynamic struggle to carry out to the letter the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, which are great reunification programmes common to the nation in the new century and milestones for peace and prosperity.

    The reunification issue should be resolved through a concerted effort of by our nation in an independent manner.

    The driving force of the reunification movement is the entire Korean nation, and nothing is impossible if it achieves firm unity. All the members of the Korean nation in the north, in the south and abroad should, from the standpoint of giving priority and attaching importance to the nation and achieving its unity subordinate and orientate everything to the great national cause of reunifying the country. The entire nation should vehemently reject any moves for domination, intervention, aggression and war by outside forces, and never tolerate any acts hindering the country’s reunification.

    Whatever trials and difficulties lie in the way of national reunification, we will build a reunified thriving country without fail on this three-thousand-ri land through a concerted effort by the whole nation.

    In the present international arena, the moves of the imperialists to interfere in the internal affairs of other sovereign states and their acts of military aggression pose a serious threat to the peace and security of mankind. The Asia-Pacific region, the Korean peninsula in particular, has become the hottest spot in the world, a place where constant tension persists.

    The aspiration and desire of mankind to lead an independent life free from all manner of domination and subordination is growing stronger, and no force can check the trend of history towards independence and justice.

    The present international situation demands that our Republic continue to advance along the road of independence under the unfurled banner of Songun.

    By holding fast to the ideals of independence, peace and friendship we will, in the future, too, strive to develop relations of friendship and cooperation with the countries that are friendly to us out of their respect for its sovereignty, and safeguard regional peace and stability and make the whole world independent.

    A brighter and broader vista is opening before us in the new year, and only victory and glory are in store for our people on their onward march.

    Let us vigorously strive to achieve the prosperity of our country, our motherland, firmly rallied behind the Party under the banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism.