Superiority of Socialism Fully Displayed in Struggle against Sanctions and Epidemic

Nikolai Polishk

Chairman of the Ukrainian “Treasured Sword of Songun” Association

for the Study of the Juche Idea

As is known, the report was made to the work of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party from January 5 to 7, Juche 110 (2021) at the Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, an important political event in the development of the Korean revolution and the international communist movement. In his nine hour-report Comrade Kim Jong Un analyzed the successes achieved and the mistakes revealed after the Seventh Congress of the Party and set forth ways for the future socialist construction.

Last year was the year of serious distinction unprecedented ever before. The DPRK was under the most severe (so-called “partial”) sanctions. Moreover, its national economy suffered great damage due to typhoons for one year. In addition, many labour and fund were invested in the anti-COVID-19. It was the first time that different negative situations were created, and it was a serious challenge for the country.

Unprecedented difficulties required creative solutions. Comrade Kim Jong Un, the General Secretary of the WPK, said that such obstacles could be overcome when superiority of the socialist system was fully displayed.

Comrade Kim Jong Un correctly pointed out the harmfulness of the phenomenon of ascribing faults to objective conditions instead of transforming nature and reforming social relations (including economic relation) on the basis of the scientific principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. The report noted that it was necessary to take steps for decisively switching the overall work of the Party and the state to aspiring after and encouraging fresh innovation, bold creation and steady advance in a new condition and rearranging the overall work system efficiently in accordance with a new requirement.

As is known, superiority of the socialist economy is that it is a planned one. Thus, Comrade Kim Jong Un in his report paid a big attention to drawing up the new five-year plan. He said that the DPRK’s national economy is a self-supporting and planned one that serves the people. The report set forth the new five-year plan which had it as its goal to advance toward sustained economic growth and remarkable improvement of the people’s standard of living on the basis of the present situation and potentiality of the national economy. The new five-year plan for the national economic development reflects the scientific demands for perfecting the self-supporting structure of the national economy, lowering the proportion of dependence on imports and stabilizing the people’s living by taking the practical possibilities into consideration. The main seed and theme of the plan are, as always, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. In this way, the planned economy relying on self-reliance and self-sufficiency will eradicate negative aftereffects caused by international sanctions and border blockade due to the COVID-19.

Sanctions become the main tool of the US and its allies in the world, and the only way to safeguard sovereignty and independence of the country is to hold fast to the Juche-oriented principle of self-reliance in the economy. Comrade Kim Jong Un said that the fundamental requirement and direction in improving the management of the socialist economy are to place the masses of the people, the masters of society, at the centre of all considerations and give precedence to their demand and interests. The revolutionary principle clarified by the report is urgent not only for the WPK but for all the world people advancing along the road of independence. The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung put forward self-reliance as a principle of the Juche idea early in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, and since then, self-reliance has displayed constantly its great vitality.

Comrade Kim Jong Un stressed several times in the report that it was necessary to rely on science in building the national economy, which can be said to be a characteristic of the Korean revolution in the present stage. Especially, Comrade Kim Jong Un said in his report that many fields such as agriculture, external economy, land management, national defence, exploiting of underground natural resources, economy, production and land management should rely on science. He also stressed that exact demands should be made in training scientific and technical talents and educators.

Since the DPRK is limited in introducing technologies of other countries due to the sanctions, the only way out for not lagging behind others in technology is to develop scientific foundation by relying on its own strength. Now it is the dream of many countries to get rid of technical dependence on big monopolies that move to affect politics of other countries through economic sanctions or limitation of supplying equipment and introducing technology. In this context, various local programs are realized and encouraged on a world-wide scale, especially in Russia, but they are not effective in the capitalist economy. It is because investing funds to purchase completed scientific and technical products is more profitable for individual companies than to develop their own. Only the DPRK which has the single national economy can accord science and production on a national scale by learning from and overtaking advanced countries in the field of science. Science contributes to safeguarding sovereignty of the country by developing advanced armed equipment which is very important in modern war conducted with such high-tech weapons as drone, nuclear submarine and missile system.

Superiority of the DPRK’s socialist system was displayed also in eradicating aftereffects of natural disasters in 2020. The WPK organized the capital Party member divisions to rehabilitate damages. They eradicated damages and built hundreds of dwelling houses in a short span of time, thus consolidating the trust between the Party and the people. Comrade Kim Jong Un made inspection and guidance to the reconstruction sites in the area of the East Sea including Sinpho and Hongwon County, South Hamgyong Province. Based on accumulated experiences of leadership, Comrade Kim Jong Un in his report delivered at the Eighth Congress of the WPK pointed out the matters of enacting right laws and regulations for the protection of land and environment and implementing them strictly and preventing natural disasters in advance through an intensified campaign of afforestation and water conservation. All of these are to put nature protection on a scientific basis to minimize damages from possible disasters. The campaign for eradicating aftereffects of the natural disasters is not only the victory of man in nature but the demonstration of superiority of socialism compared with capitalism. It is necessary to remind that in south Korea, victims of such flood and typhoon were neglected, and as a result, tens of people died or missed and no attention was paid to their fates.

This Congress of the WPK was held under the situation that damage from the COVID-19 was especially worse in China and other East Asian countries. But unlike several neighbouring countries and south Korea, no COVID-19 cases are found in the DPRK. It was also manifestation of superiority of the socialist health system established by the state. As the DPRK was not affected by the virus spread, some experts in Europe said that high sense of responsibility and trust of citizens in anti-epidemic directives of the WPK, the prompt establishment and maintenance of anti-epidemic system as in the army and the nationwide establishment of unique sterilizing system were the guarantee for victory in the campaign against the epidemic. Comrade Kim Jong Un in his report delivered at the Eighth Congress of the WPK synthesized experiences gained in the campaign to prevent the epidemic and said that material and technical foundations of the public health sector were further strengthened, and a well-regulated working system and foundations were built in the hygienic and anti-epidemic sector through the pre-emptive and powerful emergency anti-epidemic work of checking the inroads of the pandemic disease. He set forth the future task in the public health sector to make the DPRK resist any pandemic on its own strength. He said that the public health sector should substantially carry out the work of renovating treatment and prevention institutions and pharmaceutical and medical appliances factories, build up the ranks of medical workers and create a reliable anti-epidemic basis for coping with whatever world health crisis.

Comrade Kim Jong Un in his report delivered at the Eighth Congress of the WPK set forth the tasks for developing the economy, culture and national defence by modeling the whole society on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism and displaying further superiority of the socialist system.

What is clear is that the plan for the socialist construction put forward at the Eighth Congress of the WPK is continuity of revolutionary practice that turns unfavourable into the favourable, which is the characteristic of Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il’s leadership mode.