Last February, blasts rang out in succession signalling the groundbreaking for the building of new dwelling houses in the capital city of Pyongyang.

The loud sound that reverberated through the construction sites of the second-stage 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area and the new street in the Sopho area was the declaration of the DPRK to push house construction on a large scale and in a bold way this year, too, after last year.

This is the third year in the construction of 50 000 flats in Pyongyang decided on by the DPRK.

It intends to build modern and large streets as it widens the city block of the capital towards the east, west and north through the construction of 50 000 flats.

Accordingly, modern Songhwa Street was completed in the east, a distinctive terraced houses district at the Pothong riverside and a large architectural group in the Hwasong area in the north.

House construction is not confined to the capital city but pushed all across the country.

According to the new programme for the rural revolution put forward by the WPK, model dwelling houses typifying the new era of rural development are being built in cities and counties across the country.

A unique and civilized mining city in mountain gorge is being formed in the Komdok area, a leading nonferrous mineral production base.

The dwelling houses built there are provided to ordinary workers, farmers and other citizens gratis.

The Korean people actually benefit from the socialist system and the people-oriented policies of the WPK and the state through the dwelling houses the state builds by investing large funds and provides free of charge.

The happy event of moving into new houses that enlivened the whole country from Pyongyang to remote mountain villages from April to the last days of December last year demonstrated to the whole world that Korean socialism is the genuine cradle of the people’s life.

The country was also given a total facelift beyond recognition.

People keenly realized the inexhaustible might of their country and were convinced of its rosy future while seeing epoch-making changes made as distinctive high-rise apartment blocks and skyscrapers, which could be seen only through mockups some months before, and multi-, low- and single-storey houses in local areas rose up in a short span of time as miraculous entities.

Therefore, the construction of dwelling houses constitutes an undertaking welcomed and waited for by everyone.

This year, too, the DPRK presses on with house construction as one of the primary policy tasks.

In the capital city, two full streets are being built in Hwasong and Sopho areas at the same time based on the experience obtained through the construction of large streets in the past two years and a “new farming city” is under construction in the Kangdong area.

Every province, city and county, based on the experience of last year’s rural construction, built up their construction forces and building material bases and buckled down to the building of rural dwelling houses this year.

Characteristic features of house construction are that the architectural form of dwelling houses gets fresh each year and the plane and block layouts get more convenient for the people’s living.

The dwelling houses that are being built in a modern style to meet the national sentiment and aesthetic taste of the Koreans are testimony to the greatness of the people-first politics of the Workers’ Party of Korea which is determined to provide the people with stabler and more civilized living conditions.