A bulldozer operator in general reminds people of a man of muscular build.

But bulldozer driver Ri Hyang of the Capital City Construction Commission is a 25-year-old unmarried, quiet-looking woman. The attractive woman with moderate height, graceful figure and double-edged eyelids is good at piano, guitar, singing, table tennis and volleyball.

“I became a bulldozer operator at the request of my mother,” said Ri Hyang.

She lost her father in February eight years ago, or a few months before she finished her middle school course. He died while at work in the construction site of Changjon Street in Pyongyang.

At the time her father was awarded a certificate of socialist patriotic death and Ri Hyang was admitted to Kang Pan Sok Revolutionary School that brings up bereaved children of martyrs at state expense.

“Thanks to such favour, I could brace myself up and harden my resolve to follow in the footsteps of my husband along with my daughter,” recalled Ri Hyang’s mother Hwang Myong Hui.

Later, the mother and daughter spent most of their time at the construction site until the Changjon Street project was completed. On hearing that there was a bulldozer that had successively been operated by women in the construction sector, Hwang asked her daughter to become its operator.

The vehicle was associated with the activities of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il. In the mid-1950s when postwar reconstruction was at its height, the great leaders went to a construction site in the capital and met a 21-year-old woman driver of the vehicle on several occasions, showed her warm affection and led her to work hard and become an innovator.

With a determination to work as hard as her forerunners, Ri Hyang took over the bulldozer and became its fourth operator at the age of 18.

But a desire and its fulfilment were two different things.

The old bulldozer was too heavy to handle with her slender hands.

“The task was so tough that I often cried like a child. But what I found the most hard to bear was to see the girls of my age passing by giving off the scent of perfume, while I was doing repairs under the vehicle with my clothing and all stained with grease,” said Ri.

Whenever she wavered wondering if she could get on with the work, her mother, seniors and fellows were always there to give her courage and assistance. With the help of the collective she acquired the methods of driving and repair one after another, and she finally drove her bulldozer out in the construction site of the Wisong Scientists Residential District.

Everyone’s eyes widened in admiration when the youngest bulldozer operator at the construction site removed mountains of earth for the foundations of structures with remarkable skills.

After the project was over, she proceeded to work at the construction sites of the Sci-Tech Complex and Ryomyong Street.

She also rendered material assistance to major construction projects together with her mother.

And she had the honour of participating in the Second National Conference of Exemplary Young People of Virtue in 2015.

“I want to be a creator of happiness, rather than an enjoyer of it. And my dearest wish is to meet Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un with this bulldozer which keeps the footprints of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il,” said Ri.