Deputy Kim Tok Hun, premier of the Cabinet of the DPRK, made a report at the 4th Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK, in which he called for thoroughly carrying out the five-year plan for national economic development set forth at the Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea WPK.

All the people and service personnel of the Korean People’s Army who turned out in carrying out the five-year strategy for national economic development true to the decision of the Seventh Congress of the WPK had made devoted efforts to provide precious assets for carrying on the economic development by their own efforts in the past five years, he said, and went on:

“The building of power stations was positively propelled to increase power generation capacity, the Juche-based iron production system was established and other new construction and renovation projects were dynamically pushed forward in different sectors, thereby further strengthening the independence and Juche character of the national economy.

“Under the wise leadership of the WPK, Samjiyon City was radically transformed into a standard and model of modern mountainous city, monumental edifices were splendidly built across the country as epitomes of modern civilization including Ryomyong Street, the Yangdok Hot Spring Resort and the Central Zoo and a drive for recovering from the damages of consecutive natural disasters and providing the afflicted people with homes of happiness was dynamically conducted. This made the people feel grateful to the socialist system of the country in reality.

“The security of the state and personal safety of the people were protected from the epidemic sweeping across the world, the stable anti-epidemic posture maintained and the regular working system and foundations established in the hygienic and anti-epidemic sector.

“During the 80-day campaign of loyalty, an upsurge in production was made in the leading sectors and several major construction projects were successfully concluded, propelling the effort for consolidating the foundations of the self-supporting economy.

“These precious successes are the valuable fruition brought about by the guidance of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un who made patriotic devotion in a ceaseless, high-intensity forced march for the country and the great people.”

The report referred to the serious mistakes and their causes observed in the work of the Cabinet during the period of carrying out the five-year strategy for national economic development.

“Today, we are facing the honourable, heavy task of unconditionally carrying out the five-year plan for national economic development set forth at the Eighth Congress of the Party,” he noted.

He stressed that the Cabinet will definitely put the economy on normal track of sustainable development, unaffected by any outside influence while holding fast to the adjustment strategy and reinforcement strategy which was set forth by the Party as the economic strategy and to self-reliance and self-sufficiency as the main seed and theme during the period of the new five-year plan.

He stressed that they would put primary efforts into the development of key industries including metal and chemical industries, which constitute twin pillars of the national economy, and open up a breakthrough in carrying out the five-year plan so as to keep the overall economy afloat.

The Cabinet will drastically increase the production of electricity, the major power of independent economy, and reliably guarantee the stable development of the national economy and the material and cultural life of the people, he noted, and continued:

“In the field of electric power industry, we will conduct the drive for increased production for meeting the immediate demand for electricity and adjust and reinforce its overall production foundation and expand it on a long-term basis.

“We will increase investment in the coal industry sector, the outpost for developing self-supporting economy, and thus satisfactorily meet the demand for coal in the key industrial fields of the national economy.

“We will promote in a bold and powerful manner the work for nationwide provision of equipment, materials, labour and funds to the field of coal industry and further consolidate the material and technical foundations of mines and drastically increase the proportion of mechanization in the mining pits.

“We will turn the machine industry into the one with reliable foundation and into development- and creation-oriented industry and actively develop and produce modern and efficient machine products, and thus make sure that the machine industry takes the lead and steer the overall economic fields.

“In the mining industry, the force for geological prospecting will be strengthened and the work for the unified and effective development and exploitation of underground resources of the country will be propelled in a realistic way and thus reinforce and expand the production foundations of mines, refineries and factories and basically meet the demand for nonferrous metals and nonmetal minerals of the national economy.

“In the fields of railway transport and land and marine transport, we will actively push forward with the modernization of railways and improve transportation in a revolutionary way to satisfy the demand for railway transport and ensure that more large-tonnage cargo ships in line with the worldwide trend for ship-building technical development and new types of underground trains, trolley-buses, tramcars and passenger buses are produced.

“In the construction sector, professional construction forces will be built up and the level of mechanization for construction will be raised. A yearly plan for massive construction in the capital city will be worked out including the construction of dwelling houses for 50 000 families in Pyongyang and dwelling houses for 25 000 families in the Komdok area and, to this end, the construction management and guidance will be meticulously organized so as to provide people with more civilized living conditions and give a facelift to the appearance of the country.

“The Cabinet will ensure the unified management of products and put the focus of the improvement of the economic management on lowering costs while improving the quality on the principle of enhancing its function as the organizer of the national economy and making sure that the results of the economic work are directed to the promotion of the people’s wellbeing.”

He noted that the agricultural sector, the major thrust area of the socialist economic construction, would surely attain the goal of crop production set forth by the Party and further consolidate the material and technical foundations for the sustainable development of agriculture.

More efforts will be directed to the development of light industry to increase the production of consumer goods and to raise their quality so that people would favour home-made products, he said, and continued:

“We will systematically increase the production of marine products in the fisheries field.

“We will make sure that the cities and counties would set up realistic development strategies and long-term goals suited to their local characteristics and implement them purposefully in a planned way and on an annual basis and thus turn all cities and counties into strategic strongholds of the highly civilized and prosperous socialist state and developed regions with their special characteristics.

“We will actively solve urgent scientific and technical problems arising in carrying out the new five-year plan for national economic development and promote the development of core and advanced cutting-edge technologies.

“The Cabinet will bring about a definite turn in the overall economic work in the direction of promoting fresh innovation, bold creation and steady progress and take measures for removing the old work system and irrational and ineffective work methods that prevent our advance and thus make a stride forward in the economic construction and in the improvement of the people’s standard of living.”

The report stressed that all the officials in charge of economic guidance would cherish deep in their minds the heavy responsibilities they have assumed before the Party, the revolution, the country and the people, and creditably fulfil their revolutionary duties in the struggle for implementing the decision made at the Eighth Congress of the WPK.