Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), made a concluding speech at the Eighth Congress of WPK.

The following is the full text of the concluding speech:

Dear delegates,

This congress, the eighth of its kind in the history of our Party, presented as its agenda items the immediate fighting plans for opening an era of new upsurge, an era of drastic change, in the revolution and construction and the important tasks in developing the Party, and made an in-depth discussion of them.

The congress first reviewed and analyzed the work of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party in a comprehensive, three-dimensional and detailed way, and made an in-depth discussion of the line and strategic and tactical problems for a new struggle.

The report, speeches and consultative meetings by sector reviewed and criticized in a detailed and severe manner the deviations and mistakes latent in all sectors, ranging from the Party, state and military affairs to the social life, and expressed a solemn determination and will to overcome them.

And an active study and discussion was made for finding the ways of hitting the goals and tasks in the new five-year plan period, and the constructive opinions raised in this course were brought to the committee for drafting the decisions of the Party congress.

Through the discussion of the first agenda item, what and how our Party, state and people must do in the future have become clearer, and our fighting strategies for a fresh victory in our revolution have become more definite.

That our Party at this congress, unlike the previous congresses, reviewed and analyzed its work from a critical viewpoint, not seeing only its merits, is of no less significance than the successes it achieved during the period under review.

The congress also reviewed the work of the Auditing Commission of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party in a critical and strict way, and adopted decisive measures for putting to rights in our own way and in line with the principles of its building the outdated ones of the past, the ones that did not suit the present reality, which were revealed in Party work and activities.

The Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea were revised by correctly reflecting the principles of Party building and work and the demands of the developing reality, and thus an important framework has been built for strengthening the Party's leadership abilities and fighting efficiency and achieving its sound development.

The congress has built the Eighth Central Committee of the Party with the comrades who are faithful to the Party and the revolution and highly qualified, and established a new discipline inspection system within the Party. This constitutes a drastic turning point for our Party to discharge its mission and role as capable General Staff of the revolution.

Dear delegates,

At this congress, thanks to the great trust of all of you and other members of the entire Party, I have again been honoured with the supreme leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea.

I feel greatly honoured that you elected me to the important position of the General Secretary of the dignified Workers' Party of Korea, but I cannot but feel overwhelmed with gratitude and feel my heart heavy.

Fully aware of the sacred mission that I am representing and in charge of the great Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist party, I solemnly pledge that I will make every effort to implement the fighting programmes put forth by the Party congress and, regarding our great people as the god of my life, work at the risk of my life as a faithful servant of the people on the road of devoted service for them.

The Eighth Central Committee of the Party, elected by the unanimous approval and support of all of you, dear delegates, will demonstrate its correct and seasoned leadership abilities to achieve a fresh victory in the building of our style of socialism and faithfully perform the duty the times have entrusted upon it, true to the high expectations and trust of all the organizations of the Party and its members.

Dear delegates,

The current external environment of our revolution is still grim and acute, and our revolutionary work will not be all plain sailing in the future as well.

But now there cannot be hardships insurmountable for our Party and people who have achieved great victories, which others would not dare achieve, in the worst conditions and difficulties.

With fresh confidence and courage, we must quickly take the road of sustainable advance and development by vigorously waging the struggle for consolidating the strength of our Party, revolutionary ranks and state in every way possible.

Achieving a great fresh victory on all fronts by remarkably increasing our own strength, our internal force, in socialist construction–this is the main idea and main spirit of the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea.

In other words, it is the revolutionary will of the Workers' Party of Korea reaffirmed at this congress that our internal force must be readjusted and rearranged in a comprehensive way and, on the basis of this, we must make a frontal attack against all hardships to open up a road of new advance.

The historic heavy tasks facing our revolution require the entire Party to cherish the ideals of "The people are God," single-hearted unity and self-reliance deeply in mind once again and adhere more strictly to them.

Whereas the ideal of "The people are God" reflects our Party's consistent demand that the entire Party must hold fast to the revolutionary Party trait of regarding it as the starting point and absolute and invariable principle of its building and activities to serve the people, the ideals of single-hearted unity and self-reliance embody in a concentrated way the ideological and theoretical viewpoint and political requirements concerning the lifeline and motive force of our revolution.

The ideals of "The people are God," single-hearted unity and self-reliance–herein lie the fundamental key to enhancing the leadership abilities of our Party, the fundamental method for it to strike its roots deeper among the masses and the fundamental and sole guarantee for us to survive and open up our way ahead.

I would like to suggest substituting cherishing our Party's ennobling three ideals of "The people are God," single-hearted unity and self-reliance deeply in mind once again as the slogan of the Eighth Party Congress for putting up a high-sounding slogan.

The entire Party must make a historic, courageous advance in the direction indicated by the Party congress with unexcelled preparedness, self-confidence and enthusiasm for setting out on a new journey.

Above all, we should launch a do-or-die struggle to implement without fail the new five-year plan for the national economic development.

The socialist economic construction is the most important revolutionary task on which we should focus our all-out effort at present.

In order to break through the current difficulties facing us, stabilize and improve the people's living standards as early as possible and provide a firm guarantee for self-prosperity, we must resolve the economic problems, the knottiest problems, as soon as possible.

First of all, we should fix the right direction for major thrust on the economic front and concentrate our efforts on it.

The central task of the new five-year plan for the national economic development is to substantially promote economic revitalization by holding fast to the metal and chemical industries as the main link in the whole chain of the economic development and consolidating the organic ties among the key industries, and improve the people's living standards onto a new, higher level by enhancing the material and technical foundations of agriculture and increasing the proportion of domestically-available materials in light industry.

We must follow the road of focusing our efforts on definitely putting the metal and chemical industries first back onto their normal track, the track of revitalization, and, based on it, shoring up other sectors all together.

We must efficiently organize nationwide economic work on the principle of giving priority to the development of the metal and chemical industries.

It is important to intensify economic operations and guidance in such a way as to make the most rational use of the national economic capabilities for radically increasing the capacity of steel and chemicals production, instead of dispersing them here and there without any calculation.

We must orient all economic work towards achieving balanced stability and improvement of the people's living standards.

What is important here is to continue to direct effort to agricultural production and thus solve the food problem of the people in the main.

During the new five-year plan period, the agricultural sector must rise up with redoubled effort and the state must increase its investment in it, so as to attain the target of grain production without fail.

In particular, in the coming two to three years, the plan for compulsory procurement by the state must be set on the level similar to that in 2019 and implemented without fail and the amount to be procured must be increased in a prospective way, so as to make it possible to put the grain supply to the people on a regular basis.

During the new five-year plan period, the light-industry sector must increase the output of consumer goods by regarding it as the main link to obtain available raw and other materials domestically and recycle wastes, and thereby bring about a fresh advance in the effort for improving the people's living standards.

The state should take strong economic and technical measures so that all the sectors supplying the light-industry sector with raw and other materials can normalize their production.

Next, all sectors and units must identify their concrete tasks and ways for executing the new five-year plan for the national economic development, and implement them without fail.

By drawing on the lessons we learned during the period under review, this Party congress made an objective and strict examination of this plan and set new feasible fighting tasks by bringing them to the reality as close as possible.

It is very important that all sectors and units first set out well-worked-out plans by stage and by year while foreseeing the conditions and environments that can be created in the future.

Once their plans are set out, the relevant units must execute them without fail by conducting scientific and concrete operations and command, and the state must establish rigid discipline of strictly grasping, propelling and reviewing the implementation of the national economic plan in all indices.

The success or failure of the new five-year plan for the national economic development depends on how economic management is improved.

The economic departments of the Party Central Committee, the Cabinet, the State Planning Commission, factories, enterprises and all other sectors must work in concert to take decisive measures for improving economic management.

We must push forward energetically with the research and perfection of the economic management methods, which are both suited to our specific situation and geared to optimization and best effectiveness, for example, by combining the methods, which have been developed and introduced on a trial basis, and the experiences of the units, which are effective in their business and enterprise management.

During the new five-year plan period, the Party and state must direct their effort to restoring and strengthening the system and order by which the economy runs under the unified guidance and management of the state.

Strict sanctions must be imposed on whatever the units concerned if they hamper the unified guidance of the state, claiming special importance even after this Party congress.

The Cabinet and the State Planning Commission must intensify organization and guidance of economic work so that sectors, factories and enterprises achieve full ties and cooperation in production with a view to strengthening the independence of the national economy and increasing production.

Science and technology must fully guarantee economic construction and improvement of the people's standard of living with its practical development.

Science and technology is the engine of socialist construction and major driving force for the national economic development.

The sector of science and technology must set as their targets the high-priority tasks and other research projects aimed at accomplishing the new five-year plan for the national economic development, and concentrate its efforts on implementing them.

During the new five-year plan period, we must raise the level of the country's science and technology to a higher level and strengthen the creative cooperation among scientists, technicians and producers so as to solve one by one the sci-tech problems arising in economic construction and improving the people's standard of living.

We must lay the foundations for developing the local economy and improving the local people's living standards by promoting the independent and diversified development of the cities and counties.

Now the living standards of the people in the local cities and counties including the rural communities are very low and backward.

We intend to pay attention from now on to developing the local economy and improving the local people's standard of living.

The state must press ahead with the work of providing 10 000 tons of cement to every local city and county on an annual basis.

While taking preferential measures for ensuring that the local cities and counties have reliable economic foundations of their own and develop in conformity with their own characteristics, state economic guidance organs must provide them with accurate guidance and assistance.

We must vigorously step up the three revolutions–ideological, technological and cultural–in the rural communities and increase state support so as to decisively strengthen our rural position, consolidate the material and technical foundations of agricultural production and transform the socialist countryside into a civilized and rich one.

During the new five-year plan period, nationwide efforts must be directed to developing education and public health, so that all the people, whether they live in the capital city or local areas, can enjoy tangible benefits of the socialist educational and public health systems.

We must give precedence to vigorous education and strict discipline in the entire Party and the whole country and amongst all the people, so as to staunchly suppress and control all forms of anti-socialist, non-socialist practices revealed in all fields of social life and all sorts of criminal acts such as the abuse of power, bureaucratism, corruption and imposition of extra economic burdens on the people.

We must regard it as an important task to further strengthen the national defence capability both in quality and quantity.

We must further strengthen the nuclear war deterrent while doing our best to build up the most powerful military strength.

We must continue to give fresh spur to making the People's Army elite and powerful armed forces, so that it is thoroughly prepared to fulfil its mission and role as the driving force of national defence in the face of any form of threat and emergency.

We must raise the defence science and technology to a higher level and carry out the goals and tasks of munitions production without fail, so as to guarantee the historic onward march of our Party with the strongest military strength during the new five-year plan period.

In order to successfully carry out our responsible and important revolutionary tasks facing us today, we must, first of all, strengthen the Party and enhance its leadership role.

A great heyday of the development of the Party and the revolution will be ushered in when the organizations of the whole Party are built up into loyal vanguard ranks, work in a revolutionary and enterprising manner and satisfactorily perform their role as the political general staff of the relevant units.

By directing their main efforts to their internal work, all Party organizations must put the ranks of their cadres and members on a streamlined basis and develop them into an elite force and intensify the guidance over Party life more than ever before, thereby steadily building up the organizational and ideological foundations of the Party.

We must establish a well-knit system and fresh method of Party work throughout the Party so as to make it a working party, a fighting party, a militant party.

Party organizations must brace themselves to launch organizational and political work in a brave, high-spirited manner to carry out the new line of struggle and strategic and tactical policies, and properly play the role of helmsman in their relevant units' work.

They must eliminate such tendencies as taking administrative affairs upon themselves as they are engrossed only in economic work, and regard it as an iron rule to resolve all problems arising in the revolution and construction strictly in a Party-oriented, political way of giving full play to the spiritual strength of Party members and other working people.

In particular, the Organizational Leadership Department, Information and Publicity Department and other departments of the Party Central Committee should intensify Party-oriented, political leadership meticulously and offensively to implement the decisions of the Party Congress.

Officials, the commanding personnel of the revolution, must fully discharge their responsibilities and duties in the vanguard of the advancing ranks.

Their abilities and role decide the destiny of their units and sectors.

The manifold difficulties and trials facing our revolution at present and the great cause of building a powerful socialist country assigned to our generation demand that officials shoulder all the burdens and display extraordinary working ability, enthusiasm and devotion.

This is the very time which badly needs those officials who make painstaking efforts to reduce, even a bit, the concerns and worries of the Party and state, know nothing but the revolution and work and strive to do something for the good of the people, and expedite any tasks.

All officials, with a determination to prove their fidelity to the Party, revolution and people with working ability and results in practice, must make completely new arrangements from the start of the grand journey after the Party congress.

Always remembering the expectations of the people, they must make redoubled efforts so that they can review their everyday result with pride and conscience.

They must learn with open mind what they do not know, improve their insufficient ability even burning the midnight oil and make increasingly exacting demand on themselves without allowing complacency and inertia, and thus bring about revolutionary improvement in their fighting spirit and working style.

All the Party members must play the core, pacesetter role in the effort for implementing the tasks set forth by the Party congress.

If they turn out with redoubled efforts to brave today's hardship in the vanguard, there is no difficulty we cannot surmount nor fortress we cannot seize.

All Party members must play their part in the most difficult and labour-consuming work sites by carrying forward the soul and spirit of the preceding generations who won a great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War with indomitable spiritual strength and heroic struggle and successfully carried out postwar rehabilitation in a short span of time, even tightening their belts.

The heaviest are the duties entrusted to the newly elected members of the central leadership body of the Party and all the delegates here in carrying out with credit the sacred fighting goals and tasks set forth by the Eighth Party Congress.

The newly elected members of the Eighth Party Central Committee must remember the precious trust and expectations of Party members and other people at all times and at all places, and produce substantial results of their work by displaying a high sense of responsibility and devotion in the struggle for implementing the tasks set forth by the Party congress.

All the delegates must throw themselves heart and soul into and stubbornly struggle for making sure that the tasks set by the Party congress, which they personally discussed and decided on, are carried out without fail at their posts and workplaces.

The delegates, who know better than anyone else about the urgent requirements of the Party and the revolution, must deeply implant the idea and spirit of the Party congress in the hearts of the masses and arouse them by setting personal examples, so as to bring about a remarkable development in the work of their sectors and units.

Dear delegates,

We must be prepared to wage a more arduous frontal attack in order to achieve a fresh victory and brilliant advance of our socialist cause.

The hostile forces will try to check our advance more frantically, and the world will watch how the political declaration and fighting programme of our Party are realized.

As long as there are the burning loyalty and invincible might of the single-hearted unity of all Party members and other people and service personnel who support the ideas and decisions of our Party with their consistent actions and practices, we are sure to emerge victorious.

Let us all fight on more vigorously for the brilliant fulfillment of the fighting programme put forward by the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, for the development of the glorious WPK, for the victorious advance of the revolutionary cause of Juche, and for our great people.