Changed vocation
Ri Kum Ryon used to be a needle worker at the Pyongyang Children’s Garment Factory. She was a good singer, so she often participated in artistic performances arranged by the factory. She left the factory, however, to be a tram driver. Why?
One early morning in winter in the first of the years of the forced march after the “Arduous March” in Korea, she got on her way to work. But the tram would not come to her anxiety. One of the passengers waiting at the stop said, “These days the tram service is in a poor condition because there aren’t enough drivers in addition to the shortage of electricity, I hear.” Hearing the words Kum Ryon fell into deep thought. If I became a tram driver, then? After thinking it over for several days she finally made up her mind to become a tram driver. Her parents dissuaded her from such determination, saying, “You can’t move the large vehicle as a woman.” But she fulfilled her words. She says, “As a citizen I couldn’t avoid this job when my country was having a hard time.”
This was how she became a tram driver. She has not only ensured accident-free run for a dozen years, but also set an outstanding model in the passenger service. They say the driver of Tram No. 1108 is praiseworthy. She is a mother of a ten-year-old boy.
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