Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, made an important policy speech "On the Immediate Tasks for the Prosperity and Development of Our Republic and the Promotion of the Wellbeing of Our People" at the 10th Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK on January 15.

He said:

Dear Comrade Deputies,

Respected Comrade Chairman of the SPA Standing Committee and Comrade Chairman of the SPA,

Comrade observers,

The 10th Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly is being held at an important time when the DPRK, our motherland, proudly reviewed 2023, specially recorded as a year of great turn and change in its history of development, and started the advance of 2024 to ensure the practical guarantee for the fulfillment of the five-year plan set forth by the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea.

As we all have experienced, last year was an unforgettable year when our Party, government and people displayed their utmost efforts and fighting spirit in the face of manifold difficulties and registered important successes and events in history with pride.

It is rare that the nearly 80-year-long history of the DPRK witnessed such a clear advance in increasing our national power in an all-round way and the full-fledged demonstration of our national sovereignty and prestige as in 2023.

The successes achieved in all fields of politics, economy, military affairs and culture last year were already reviewed and evaluated at the Ninth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. So there is no need to mention them again. But it is clear that as all the members of the state actively supported and upheld the leadership activities of the Party and the government, the cumulative strenuous efforts of several years have finally resulted in good fruitions.

It was proved through our 2023 struggle that the Party and the government of the Republic correctly adopted the line and administrative policy on achieving the comprehensive development of socialist construction in the right time and they not only overcame manifold difficulties and crisis and staunchly maintained the set course of state development, coordinating the state affairs in a flexible and vigorous way every year, but also achieved a sure upward trend by rousing the patriotic enthusiasm and heroic devotion of all the people.

The confrontation hysteria of the hostile forces has driven the situation to an extreme phase, but we turned it to our advantage and more boldly carried out the undertakings for bolstering up the self-defence capabilities and military counteractions. This was not merely a demonstration of our will to safeguard our national interests or of our overwhelming power.

Internally, it lifted the spirits of all the people and the service personnel of the armed forces of the Republic, and externally, made the country emerge as an absolute entity to be reckoned as a military power and brought about a dramatic change not only in its national prestige but also in the world geo-political landscape.

It is the fact to be held dearer than anything else that our people have once again confirmed the justice of their cause of building a powerful country they have chosen and pushed ahead with, realized in actuality the period of overall development of socialist construction and hardened their faith in it through the current growth of our country.

All these valuable successes are associated with the efforts of you, Comrades Deputies who have strived for the proper exercise and development of our state power, always mindful of the people's expectations.

I express my thanks to you, deputies who have made efforts to fulfill your responsibility and duty with loyalty to the sacred cause of the Party and the state and in the spirit of devoted service for the people.

Comrade Deputies!

Of course, all these are not enough for us to be satisfied and we have just taken the first step in realizing our ideal for building a powerful country and winning a victory of socialism.

The issue of making continuous development and success in 2024 after gaining valuable achievements in 2023 and providing the next-term government with a solid foothold was a key agenda item of today's session which will discuss the state affairs for the new year.

The Ninth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Party Central Committee defined 2024 as a decisive year of determining the victory in attaining the goals of struggle set forth at the Eighth Party Congress by further raising the offensive spirit on all fronts of socialist construction, and unanimously adopted scientific and feasible resolutions.

The resolutions comprehensively deal with the long-cherished desire of our Party for the beloved people and children and policies for the uninterrupted development of our great state social system.

The Party's resolutions are the guidelines for state building and activities and the political task the government of the Republic should carry out without an inch of deflection. Only through their thorough implementation, a radical turn in the economic construction and improvement of the people's living standard, elevation of the national power, defence of the national interests and enhancement of national prestige are guaranteed.

We should regard the Party decisions as the lifeline in all fields of state affairs and carry them out perfectly without any mistake and without any shortcomings, thus continue to write the sacred development history of the Republic with more definite and innovative successes.

An important task facing the government of the Republic at present is to continue to increase the trend of upturn in the national economy and thus firmly put the overall economy of the country on the track of stable and sustainable development.

The economic front is the basic front of socialist construction and without the strong and modern support of the self-supporting economy, it is impossible to think of the high dignity and independent development of our state and the rich and civilized life of the people.

As we all have seen with our own eyes and felt with our own hearts, the struggle of our Party and people to implement the five-year plan is progressing successfully while steadily following the steps of progress and development, which are in sharp contrast to each year, despite unprecedented trials.

We should further boost the rising phase of the national economy and the spirit of dynamic advance which has been achieved through dear efforts, blood and sweat, and thus fully prove that our ideal is a reality ahead of us not the one in the distant future.

All sectors of the national economy should put steady spurs to the growth of production and concentrate their efforts on finishing the work of reinforcement and readjustment.

Last year we set it as the main task of economic work to mainly finish the plan for reinforcement and readjustment decided by the Party Congress while revitalizing the production of the overall sectors and units of the national economy and conducted vigorous struggle. But there are some incomplete projects.

Since the fulfillment of the plan for reinforcement and readjustment is a conclusion of the struggle to implement the resolutions of the Eighth Party Congress, we should continue to intensify this work, irrespective of the conditions and the changing situation, and thus bring about good results this year, too.

Consistent is our Party and state's policy of attaching primary importance to the key industrial sectors and bringing about a rapid upswing in the overall economy by further fostering independence and modernizing them.

The metallurgical and chemical industrial sectors should accelerate the completion of the projects now underway and ensure that they are in normal operation in a substantial way so as to further strengthen the pillars of the self-supporting economy, while consolidating the successes already achieved in the work of making them Juche-oriented and modern.

The power industrial sector is now striving to meet the country's demand for electricity despite difficulties, but decisive measures should be taken to increase production in keeping with the expansion of economic and the progress of many construction projects.

If we make the use of the existing generating capacity to the maximum and accelerate the construction of the Tanchon Power Station and several other power stations, and operate atomic and tidal power stations in the future, we can solve the problem of power shortage as we want.

The coal and mining industrial sectors should not slacken their high fighting spirit but carry out their production plans without letup, thus fully supplying raw materials and fuel necessary for the major production sectors, and vigorously pushing ahead with the work of reinforcing and readjusting production processes and increasing their capacity.

The machine-building industrial sector should play a special role in economic work this year.

The machine-building industrial sector should vigorously push ahead with the work of turning the Ryongsong Machine Complex into a standard and model of modernization and, at the same time, produce and supply the machines and equipment needed at different sectors of the national economy in good time and qualitatively, thus actively supporting the upsurge and development of overall national economy.

The successes achieved by our Party and state in recent years by concentrating efforts on construction work are certainly laudable, but we can never rest on such laurels.

In particular, housing construction is an important affair directly related to the Party's authority and the people-oriented character of the government of the Republic. And it is the nature and duty of our Party and the government to unconditionally keep the promise made with the people, however harsh trials they may face.

Since the number of houses to be built in the remaining two years, including the completion of the construction of 50 000 flats in Pyongyang Municipality, is considerable, we should make thorough preparations and continue to make vigorous offensive so as to live up to the expectations of the people.

We should make more strenuous progress in rural construction to eliminate the centuries-old backwardness and thus make the joy of our agricultural workers moving into new houses be filled in the whole country this year, too.

In addition, the construction sector should make full preparations from now for the planned gigantic operations such as the remodeling of provincial seats and the construction of a large canal connecting the East and West Seas.

In order to step up the construction of houses and public buildings and industrial establishments on a nationwide scale, the building-materials industrial sector should continue to bring about a surge in production.

It is necessary to increase cement production by revitalizing the newly built or expanded building materials production bases and to massively produce and supply tiles, building stone, glass, vinyl wallpaper and other various building fixtures so as to prevent any practices of interrupting the schedule of construction.

The upward tendency of the overall economy inevitably results in an increase in the volume of freights transport and this requires further enhancement of the role of the railways, the main transport means of the country.

The railway sector should improve the organization and command of transport and direct efforts to maintaining the current state of railways to meet the demands of the national economy for transport without fail and successfully carry out the work for cementing the material and technical foundations of the railway industrial establishments.

Provinces, cities and counties adjacent to railways should always pay attention to the maintenance of railways and ensure the timely supply of necessary manpower and materials, thus contributing to increasing the stability of railway operation.

And the sectors of the IT industry, land and environment protection and urban management should also steadily push ahead with the fulfillment of the immediate tasks and long-term plans for continuously improving the conditions and environment necessary for state management, economic growth and the people's civilized life, as required by the overall development of socialism.

In order for the socialist economy to give full play to its advantages and might, it is essential to thoroughly ensure the unity in the guidance and management of the economy and establish strict discipline and order that all sectors unconditionally obey the decisions and instructions of the Cabinet of the Republic.

Gone are the days when economic sectors fomented with impunity imbalance and disorder in the state economic affairs through their pursuance of self-centeredness and improper implementation of the administrative orders by the government.

The Cabinet should exercise all the authority granted by the Party and the state in a responsible manner and take revolutionary measures to set right the administrative and economic work system and order.

The Cabinet should proactively and dynamically conduct all the work by putting the overall economy of the country under its firm control and continuously improve the phase of the overall development by displaying strong leadership, controlling ability and executive power.

The Cabinet should make sure that no unit is out of its control, and intensify the struggle against the practices of unit specialization and egoism so as to make the climate of giving priority to the interests of the state and the whole society definitely prevail throughout the country.

Moreover, it should correctly predict the important factors of economic development such as economic infrastructure, population and manpower management, take necessary measures and establish a system for developing the work of the state economic organs in a far-sighted way so as to promote the stable and sustainable development of the overall national economy.

Comrade Deputies!

The supreme task, to which the DPRK government should attach the utmost importance and pay great efforts at present, is to stabilize and improve the people's living as early as possible.

Our people always and invariably support the Party and the government and accept any policy as their own and uphold it with absolute and unconditional executive ability. This is because they firmly trust in the Party and the government of the Republic, which have put forward the promotion of the people’s well-being as the supreme principle of state activities.

It is reality that the Party and the government yet fail to meet even the simple demand of the people in life although they are said to be striving to live up to the people's deep trust without fail.

The foremost important task in improving the people's living standard is to do farming well.

Kim Jong Un said that confidence and enthusiasm has been increased in the agricultural sector through the attainment of the grain production goal last year and only when such a victory is sustained for several years, can the people's living be put on a normal track and the people's trust in the Party and government be consolidated. He continued:

Like last year, the Cabinet and economic guidance organs should give priority to the supply of fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, fuel and other farming materials so as to provide the farms with adequate conditions for doing farming with ease. And the whole country should raise a hot wind of supporting the countryside from the beginning of the year so as to encourage the agricultural sector ideologically, morally, materially and technically.

The agricultural sector should further arouse patriotic enthusiasm and collective spirit of the agricultural workers, raise a strong wind of scientific farming on the basis of advanced agricultural science and technology and push ahead with increasing soil fertility and perfecting irrigation systems so as to unconditionally make this year a year of rich harvest again, in any climatic conditions.

At the same time, it is needed to change the structure of grain production by expanding the fields under wheat cultivation, push ahead with the construction of wheat processing bases, the mechanization of agriculture and the reclamation of tideland on a full scale and develop vegetable farming, stockbreeding, fruit farming and industrial crops farming simultaneously.

In particular, we are going to provide our people with more eggs and meat by building another modern poultry farm in Pyongyang Municipality within this year and farms in every province in the future.

It is necessary to develop the fisheries, too, in order to diversify fishing in keeping with the ever-changing fishing conditions, conduct fish farming and aquaculture on a large scale and thus increase the output of marine products. And practical measures should be taken properly to ensure an even distribution of seafood to the people.

An important issue arising in improving the people's living standard at present is to tackle the differences between the capital city and the provinces and the imbalance between regions.

It is the immutable principle of our Party and government that there may be differences between regions in their geographical setting, resources, economic potentials and living environment, but there should be no backward region in the aspect of the people's living in the territory of our Republic.

At present, there is a great disparity of living standards between the capital city and provinces and between towns and the countryside. Such a gap also exists in every province, city and county according to their conditions.

We can never ignore such phenomena that run counter to the idea of the comprehensive development of socialist construction, and we should take strong state support measures to improve the overall regional economy.

It is true that we, of course, built the Jungphyong Greenhouse Farm and the Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm, gave complete face-lifts to the regional industrial factories in Kimhwa County in recent years, push ahead with the construction of rural dwelling houses across the country, focus on helping Kaesong City live on its own efforts and carry on other projects for the people in provinces, but this is still too insufficient.

The implementation of important policies adopted at the central level during the seventh- and eighth-term Party Central Committees has been successfully pushed ahead with without a moment's delay to bring about many changes, but the work for developing the regional economy was not so.

The recent plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee specified in its resolution a decision to put the regional industrial factories in the urban districts of Kaesong City, Jaeryong, Yonthan and Usi counties on the level of those in Kimhwa County and step up preparations for future construction in the remaining cities and counties. I think we can never develop the regional economy and bring about a marked change in the people's standard of living with such passive attitude.

Referring to the successes Kimhwa County achieved by concentrating on the work to supply by itself raw materials needed for the normal operation of modern regional industrial factories after the inauguration of those factories, Kim Jong Un said that cities and counties would face not a few problems to be immediately resolved in order to build modern regional industrial factories and keep high-rate production with locally available raw materials. But if they are determined to push ahead with the construction of regional industry factories and the establishment of raw materials production bases at the same time like Kimhwa County, they can improve their regional economy as much as they want and bring about a substantial change in the living of regional people, he added.

In general conclusion, we have no ground or reason to view and approach the present backwardness of provinces from an onlooker's viewpoint and fail to take important measures for the development of regional industry under the pretext of economic conditions, he noted, adding all cities and counties are similar in their conditions and situations and the point is to secure the possible way of building regional industrial factories and ensuring their successful operation.

He continued:

If we do not work hard, waiting only for improved situation and conditions, when will we remodel the regional industry factories and who will bring about the possibility of raw materials supply?

We have to candidly ask ourselves in agony about when we will develop the overall regional industry, if we fail to take revolutionary measures, merely paying lip-service to building new factories and improving their capacity in the future as we have done so for decades.

As for the Changsong Joint Conference, how many years have passed since then?

In the 1970s and 1980s, too, many policy issues on the development of regional industry directly related to the people's living standards were discussed, but no revolutionary measures were taken on a nationwide scale, and due to the wrong viewpoint and attitude of our officials, many people-oriented policies and Party policies remained merely as paragraphs of resolutions or policy documents, and no fundamental change was witnessed in the actual standard of living of the regional people.

It is easy to reflect ideals and ideas in writing but they don't come true at all with supernatural power or the lapse of time.

They can be realized only when we have correct fighting policy and proper methodology, make a revolutionary decision and put it into bold practice.

There is no iconic regional factory meeting the requirements of the times in provinces.

We should no longer ignore this fact but face up to it.

The Party and the government, being aware that the regional economy directly related to the life of regional people is in such a bad state as having no elementary conditions, have neither justification nor right to approach the matter later.

The 80th founding anniversary of our Party is close at hand and 75 years have passed since the establishment of the power of our Republic.

To our Party and government, which are obliged to be concerned of the life of regional people and prioritize the policy of regional development more than any other countries in the light of the idea of the Party founding, the main objective of its struggle and the nature of our power, it is a very serious problem that they have not yet eliminated the century-old backwardness of regions but taken a hands-off approach toward it.

I think that to create and proactively use locally available economic resources and raw materials of cities and counties and provide elementary living convenience and conditions to the people by always supplying citizens in every province with quality condiments, foodstuff and consumer goods is an urgent task, the fulfillment of which brooks no further delay, for our Party and government obliged to open up a period of comprehensive development of socialism.

It is an immediate task facing our government and a long-cherished desire of our Party to liquidate the century-old backwardness, decrease the gap between the capital city and provinces, develop the regional economy in a comprehensive and balanced manner, while accelerating the peculiar economic development in each province and making a competitive trend of development.

The recent plenary meeting discussing the implementation of immediate national economy plan failed to focus on making the fulfillment of such urgent tasks related to the people's living a policy. So feeling deeply responsible for having not lived up to the great expectations of the people, I am determined to proposed this crucial issue to the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee and make it a policy.

We have accumulated such excellent experience as building modern regional industry factories as icons in Kimhwa County and operating them by itself. This is actually essential for improving the people's living standard in the county and other cities and counties can cultivate such capabilities and this is an issue which should be resolved without fail any time in the future, I think.

Of course, it would be right to determine the order of constriction in the light of the capabilities of cities and counties and start it in those counties capable of operating such factories first. We can set an order of construction but we should not prioritize someone or discriminate against others by documenting or setting such order in taking care of the living of the citizens in this country and in implementing the resolution of our Party and the policy of the government of our Republic for the settlement of this problem.

I am going to make our Party keep hold on the construction of modern regional industry factories in 20 counties every year as an unerring policy task, carry it out successfully on such level as Kimhwa County and thus raise on one stage the basic material and cultural living standards of the people in all cities and counties and, in another word, across the country within ten years.

In addition to the line for rural prosperity, I am going to call this policy of our Party to develop onto a higher stage the basic material and cultural living standards of regional people across the country at the earliest date possible by pushing forward with the regional industrial development "local development 20×10 policy", and push ahead with its implementation.

This is another gigantic change and revolution, not just empty words, to eliminate the century-old backwardness of regions, realize the long-cherished desire of regional people and bring about a turn in the realm of our people's understanding.

Kim Jong Un said that the Party would continue to provide funds, labor force and materials annually and compulsorily to each county on the basis of the experience gained in the course of building regional industrial factories in Kimhwa County as an example, and referred to the measures for establishing a state guidance work system.

He went on:

And I think of setting up a section for guiding regional industry construction in the Organizational Leadership Department of the Party Central Committee and reviewing its work on my own responsibility and pressing ahead with it.

To this end, I am going to convene an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee soon and discuss and decide on the "regional development 20×10 policy".

We should take big substantial measure to achieve our centuries-old desire so as to push ahead with our Party's far-reaching plan for building a socialist power.

We should take this heavy responsibility by ourselves and fulfill our own responsibilities with confidence and certainly live up to the expectations of the people by bringing about such a substantial change.

Is this possible? It's quite possible.

We have enough ability, possibility and will to implement this plan.

I think that if we adopt the issue of turning all the regional industry factories in cities and counties to the level of those in Kimhwa County as an important state policy and push ahead with this project, the regional people will be pleased and confident.

Noting that regional industry factories should push ahead with the work to increase the production of consumer goods and improve their quality as intended by the Party Central Committee, Kim Jong Un stressed that what should be specially improved in implementing this year's socialist policies is to decisively raise the quality of school uniforms, bags and shoes as the Party Central Committee strongly reviewed and assigned at the 9th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Party Central Committee.

We took a measure to newly build the factories specializing in the production of school uniforms and shoes to meet the needs in provinces as factories for producing school bags were built in all the provinces, he said, adding that the deputies and the officials of the government bodies should render a special sincerity to the work of providing skilled workers and equipment to those factories and improving the quality so that the policies of the Party and the state can reach any regions, town or mountainous area, on an equal footing.

He stressed the need to take state measures to reduce regional lopsidedness in the people's living and foster the independence of relevant regions so that they can live by themselves.

The Party has already stressed the need for provinces, cities and counties to secure funds for the people's living by making rational use of the characteristics and resources of their regions, but the economic, practical and legal follow-up measures needed to guarantee this have not been taken in time, the procedures and processes of approval are intricate, many restrictions have been placed and other different factors made the regions not benefit from it clearly, he said, and went on:

After eliminating such evil practices on a nationwide scale, we should take practical measures to make the people in the coastal areas turn the sea to good account and those in the mountainous areas make the good use of mountains while encouraging them to offer tourist services and effectively exploit and mobilize resources, so as to contribute to improving their living conditions.

In this way we should bring about substantial improvement in our people's clothing, food and housing.

On behalf of the Party Central Committee, I have already defined the happy laughter of our people and the younger generation as a symbol of the socialist system, the mightiness of the Korean-style socialism and a criterion deciding the position of a powerful country.

We should bring about changes and innovations in the overall space of socialist construction and the improvement of the people's livelihood in a multi-stage, three-dimensional and offensive way by further hastening the struggle and conducting continuous struggle for greater successes.

Comrade Deputies!

The present reality, in which every field of socialist construction is aspiring to an overall development, requires the might of science and technology and vehement activities of talents as never before.

In order to make the sci-tech sector which plays a great role in our revolutionary work for national prosperity fulfill its responsibility, we should further strengthen the state's integrated control over the development of science and technology.

When adopting the state strategy for the development of science and technology and setting the important tasks and research goals of the state, we should properly establish the political standard, correctly determine the order of priority for investment and make the most rational and effective use of the existing scientific and technological forces in the economic development and the improvement of the people's livelihood.

We should continue to take additional state measures to provide the scientists and technicians with conditions for their research work and to generalize their sci-tech achievements.

For the state's prosperity and development, it is ideal to make the climate in which everyone is willing to learn science and is most proud of contributing to the prosperity of the country by dint of science and technology prevail throughout the country.

We need to reexamine the existing laws of the state, system of talent management and all sorts of regulations and renew them if necessary such as strengthening the political and material assessment system to make all the people take active part in the sci-tech researches and technological innovations for the progress of the state and society.

In order to build a highly civilized and powerful country which is developed in a comprehensive way, education and public health should be duly put on the advanced world level.

In recent years our Party and the government of the Republic have made great efforts to correct the educational structure of the country, improve the contents and methods of education and modernize the educational conditions and environment, but the educational revolution in the new century has only taken the first step.

In particular, the educational level and environment in the local areas are still in poor conditions.

The educational sector should conduct the work for raising the quality of primary and secondary education and higher education to a higher level in a planned and long-term way as required by the Party's educational policy and step up the on-going construction of the comprehensive educational equipment and materials factory to increase the capacities for supplying teaching tools and equipment for experiment and practice.

Importantly, central educational institutions should direct efforts to training talents with clear edge in the world competition and, at the same time, should develop rural schools and other regional educational institutions under the state assistance, thus decisively reduce the difference between urban and rural educational levels.

The public health sector, too, should improve the quality of medical services for the people.

If the Pyongyang General Hospital is completed and start its operation and a modern general hospital is built in Kangwon Province at the same time this year, models of health facilities suited to the new era will be provided.

Modern general hospitals should be built in other provinces every year and good hospitals be built in cities and counties in the future in order to make all the people receive advanced medical service everywhere.

At the same time, we should improve the material and technical foundation of the public health sector by modernizing pharmaceutical factories and medical appliances factories and pushing ahead with the work to build a central Koryo medicine pharmaceutical factory, and direct attention to properly carrying out the medical care system based on the health insurance fund which is expanding on a nationwide scale.

Comrade Deputies!

Our Republic is a peace-loving socialist state and remains unchanged in its desire for taking the road of independent development in a peaceful and stable environment free from aggression and interference and we have paid dearly for it.

But our country's security environment has been steadily deteriorated, far from being eased, and today it has become the world's most dangerous zone with the risk of the outbreak of a war.

The frequent remarks made by the US authorities about the "end of our regime", vast nuclear strategic assets stationed in the peripheral area of the DPRK nearly all around the year, ceaseless war exercises with its followers staged on the largest scale, the military nexus between Japan and the Republic of Korea boosted at the instigation of the US, etc. are seriously threatening the security of our state moment by moment.

The policy of confrontation with the DPRK pursued by the US century after century and the suicidal acts of such servile states as the ROK unconditionally submitting to the US inflame the enmity of our Republic and at the same time offer reasonable and full justification for strengthening the military capability and more rapidly improving the overwhelming nuclear war deterrent.

The US and its stooges are now buoyed with war fever.

We should invariably cover the road of bolstering up our military capability for self-defence to ensure wellbeing of the country, the people and the posterity.

The deputies present here should not regard the indiscriminate war holocaust in the Middle East as a matter of other but do their best to bolster up our military capability for self-defence to the maximum, cherishing the firm belief that military strength is the security, dignity and prestige of the state and people.

Once again, I emphasize that our army should keep a sharp watch on even the enemy’s slight military move and make confident and full preparedness to thoroughly and mercilessly control and frustrate provocative acts of any type through overwhelming counteraction, mindful of its noble mission which is to devotedly defend the security of the country and the wellbeing of the people.

As preparations for a great event have become urgent reality and our army has been entrusted with the important mission of ensuring it through a powerful military action, every level of the entire army should sincerely study and implement the spirit of the plenary meetings of the Eighth Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Party, intensify training under the simulated conditions of an actual war and, at the same time, direct great efforts to the political and ideological education as usual so as to prepare itself enough to surely win in the confrontation with the enemies by dint of political, ideological, military and technological superiority.

Kim Jong Un said that the People’s Army’s preparations for war are unthinkable without modernization of its military hardware.

He set forth the strategic tasks to be maintained and carried out by the munitions industry in its responsible struggle for bolstering up the DPRK's nuclear war deterrent and augmenting the national defence capacity this year as required by the prevailing situation and the developing revolution and referred to other issues.

He went on:

All citizens living on this land should regard national defence as the greatest patriotic work and turn out in it voluntarily.

It is our Party’s strategic plan to defend the country and greet a great revolutionary event through all-people resistance.

The civilian defence sector should draw a serious lesson from the fact that it had conducted the work for perfecting the preparedness for war in a formalistic and blindfolded way in the past, taking it as routine in the past, and make strenuous efforts in a revolutionary way with the viewpoint and attitude that it makes a new start.

As the work for strengthening the country’s defence capabilities and military muscle is a nationwide undertaking both in name and reality, all institutions, enterprises, organizations and citizens in the territory of the Republic should have a correct view of military affairs and regard it as an immutable iron rule to provide everything needed for strengthening the military capability on the top-priority basis and in the highest quality.

The people’s government organs at all levels should take thoroughgoing measures to immediately switch over to the wartime system in case of emergency and make full material preparations for all-people resistance.

The deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly should regard it as their due duty to play a key role in strengthening the country’s defence capability, and carry out the military tasks entrusted to their sectors and units without fail and promptly make an issue of practices of neglecting the military affairs to thoroughly overcome them.

Comrade Deputies!

Today the Supreme People's Assembly newly legalized the policy of our Republic toward the south on the basis of putting an end to the nearly 80 year-long history of inter-Korean relations and recognizing the two states both existing in the Korean peninsula.

As solemnly clarified at the 2023 December Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, our Party, government and people had shown great magnanimity and tireless patience and made sincere efforts always with the view that those of the ROK are still the fellow countrymen and compatriots in the long period of history and even discussed with them the great cause of national reunification in a candid manner.

But it is the final conclusion drawn from the bitter history of the inter-Korean relations that we cannot go along the road of national restoration and reunification together with the ROK clan that adopted as its state policy the all-out confrontation with our Republic, dreaming of the "collapse of our government" and "unification by absorption," and lost compatriotic consciousness, getting more vicious and arrogant in the madcap confrontational racket.

The north-south relations have been completely fixed into the relations between two states hostile to each other and the relations between two belligerent states, not the consanguineous or homogeneous ones any more. This is the present situation of the relations between the north and the south today caused by the heinous and self-destructive confrontational maneuvers of the ROK, a group of outsiders' top-class stooges, and the true picture of the Korean peninsula just unveiled before the world.

We have formulated a new stand on the north-south relations and the policy of reunification and dismantled all the organizations we established as solidarity bodies for peaceful reunification at the current session of the Supreme People's Assembly which discusses the laws of the DPRK. It can be said this is an indispensable process that should take place without fail.

As the southern border of our country has been clearly drawn, the illegal "northern limit line" and any other boundary can never be tolerated, and if the ROK violates even 0.001 mm of our territorial land, air and waters, it will be considered a war provocation.

In this regard, I think it is necessary to revise some contents of the Constitution of the DPRK.

I have already recalled at the recent plenary meeting that the so-called constitution of the ROK openly stipulates that "the territory of the ROK covers the Korean peninsula and its attached islands".

Recently I studied the constitutions of some other countries and found that they clearly stipulate the political and geographical definition of the territorial parts in which state sovereignty is exercised, the territorial land, territorial waters and territorial airspace in other word.

There is no provision specifying such definition in the existing constitution of our country. Since our Republic definitely defined the ROK as a foreign country and the most hostile state after completely eliminating the original concept contradictory to reality that the ROK is the partner for reconciliation and reunification and the fellow countrymen, it is necessary to take legal steps to legitimately and correctly define the territorial sphere where the sovereignty of the DPRK as an independent socialist nation is exercised.

In my opinion, we can specify in our constitution the issue of completely occupying, subjugating and reclaiming the ROK and annex it as a part of the territory of our Republic in case of a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula.

And I think it is right to specify in the relevant paragraph of our constitution that such linguistic remnants misinterpreting the north and the south as fellow countrymen as "3 000-ri tapestry-like land" and "80 million compatriots" are not used in the political, ideological, mental and cultural life of our people, and that education should be intensified to instill into them the firm idea that ROK is their primary foe and invariable principal enemy.

Besides, in my view, it is necessary to delete such expressions in the constitution as "northern half" and "independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity".

I think the constitution of the Republic should be revised in consideration of such matters and the issue should be discussed at the next session of the Supreme People’s Assembly.

The constitutional revision should be followed by timely practical measures to get rid of the remnants of the past era which may be seen as symbols of "north and south Koreas with consanguineous and homogeneous relations", "By Our Nation Itself" and "peaceful reunification".

For the present, we should take strict stepwise measures to thoroughly block all the channels of north-south communication along the border, including the one of physically and completely cutting off the railway tracks in our side, which existed as a symbol of north-south exchange and cooperation, to an irretrievable level.

We should also completely remove the eye-sore "Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification" standing at the southern gateway to the capital city of Pyongyang and take other measures so as to completely eliminate such concepts as "reunification", "reconciliation" and "fellow countrymen" from the national history of our Republic.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to make clear once again the revolutionary character of the work for strengthening the self-reliant military capabilities, which our Republic firmly preserves as its own life, unfazed by any changes of situation.

I reaffirm that the strongest absolute strength we are cultivating is not a means of preemptive attack for realizing unilateral "reunification by force of arms" but the capabilities for legitimate self-defence pertaining to our right to self-defence, which should be bolstered up without fail definitely to defend ourselves.

In the present world where jungle law prevails, and to our country located in the hot spot where the danger of war have lingered for decades, the possession of powerful military muscle is an inevitable process of struggle to be indispensably chosen to defend the destiny of our country and nation and a historic task to be accepted as a fate.

Despite the worst difficulties accompanied by the enemy’s persistent pressure and sanctions, we have remarkably bolstered up our self-reliant military capabilities and nuclear war deterrent to be strongest without any slightest vacillation. As a result, any aggressor forces on the earth have long dared not push the situation to such worst phase as the outbreak of a war.

Explicitly speaking, we will never unilaterally unleash a war if the enemies do not provoke us.

The enemies should never misjudge this as our weakness.

Then, will we confine our national self-defensive capabilities to serving the purpose of only defending ourselves and preventing war?

Absolutely not.

I have already clearly mentioned the second mission of our nuclear force, in addition to its basic duty of deterring war.

A level-headed judgment of the special environment, in which the most hostile state, the Republic of Korea, exists in our nearest neighborhood, and of the situation, in which instability of the regional situation is soaring due to the US-led escalation of military tensions, has found that the danger of the outbreak of a war to be caused by a physical clash has considerably aggravated and reached a red line.

We do not want war, but we also have no intention of avoiding it.

There is no reason to opt for war, and therefore, there is no intention of unilaterally going to war, but once a war becomes a reality facing us, we will never try to avoid it, and we will take perfect and prompt action we thoroughly prepared in order to defend our sovereignty, security of the people and right to existence.

The war will terribly destroy the entity called the Republic of Korea and put an end to its existence.

And it will inflict an unimaginably crushing defeat upon the US.

Our military capabilities, already in readiness to do so, are being rapidly updated.

If the enemies ignite a war, our Republic will resolutely punish the enemies by mobilizing all its military forces including nuclear weapons.

Comrade Deputies!

Anti-imperialist independence is justice and truth, and dignity and sovereignty, peace and security can be firmly defended only in this way.

It is the foreign policy stand of our Party and state to safeguard justice and peace, aspire toward progress and development and promote friendship and solidarity.

The DPRK will never tolerate the heinous infringement on its sovereignty by the U.S. which is wantonly trampling down and plundering world peace and stability with illegal double standards, regarding anti-imperialist independence as its immutable and consistent first national policy, but will strive to realize international justice based on respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and establish a new international order.

The external affairs sector should strategically and positively conduct the work to cope with the rapid change in the international political structure and security environment on the initiatives, so as to create conditions and circumstances favorable for our revolution and prevent any deviation or concession in the principle of defending national rights and interests.

It should set the development of relations with socialist countries as its primary task, further strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation, launch a courageous anti-imperialist joint action and joint struggle on an international scale, and achieve new progress in the work for further expanding the sphere of external relations of the country, uniting and cooperating with all countries and nations aspiring after independence and justice, irrespective of ideology and social system.

The above-said tasks are the immediate major policy to be maintained and carried out by the government of the Republic without fail.

The result of the sacred tasks to be carried out for the dignity of the state, the well-being of the people and the victorious advance of socialist construction depends largely on the role of the people’s government organs.

Our people’s government is a powerful political weapon for socialist construction and an executor of the Party’s lines and policies.

All the people's government organs should establish a steel-like work system and order of unconditionally remaining faithful to the idea and leadership of the WPK, completely eliminate the manual and meditative attitude and implement the Party's policies set forth before their regions and units with a high sense of responsibility and with due care.

In conformity with their original mission of existing for the people and serving the interests of the people, they should display boundless sense of responsibility so that the people-oriented policies of the Party and the state can reach our children and every citizen correctly and turn the work for solving problems in improving the people’s standard of living into the one for giving people real benefits, not for being in one's favor.

They should be burdened with the urgent tasks of solving the economic problem of the country, including the work for boosting the local economy, by themselves and carry them out to the last and thus make a tangible contribution to the development of the state.

The people’s government organs should play a due role in defending, maintaining, consolidating and developing the socialist system.

In the course of organizing and guiding the activities of all units and inhabitants, they should always pay attention to strengthening the single-hearted unity and encouraging and developing the people’s patriotic spirit and strictly preserve the socialist character of our society and thoroughly guarantee the smooth function of the state through principled control and management.

The mission and responsibility of the deputies are important in the new year’s advance for further advancing and developing the socialist construction and promoting the people’s well-being as they were before.

The deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly and other people’s assemblies at all levels are political activists who are elected by the support of the people, participate directly in state affairs, reflect the will and demands of the people in the government’s policies, lead their correct implementation and propose to take timely measures for correcting the deviations that appear.

Only when they are properly aware of their position and authority as representatives of the people and fulfill their duty, can the Party, the government and the people form an organic body, the overall state and social life become active and the lines and policies for the people be carried out thoroughly.

They have no right to be in a state of self-protection or idleness and indolence even for a moment but should ensure the execution of state affairs through active and substantial practice.

Comrade Deputies!

I emphasize again that our state now has the bright prospect of overall prosperity under a sure guarantee with the prestige and authority reckoned by the world thanks to the precious blood, sweat and devotion of the great people who have devoted their all to the victory of the socialist cause firmly believing in only the Party and the government of the Republic even in difficult times.

In comparison with the expectations of the people who have absolutely supported and wholeheartedly upheld the policies of our Party and the government of the Republic, the successes achieved so far are too small and we have no right to spoil the devotion and efforts of the people made despite extreme difficulties.

The stronger our national power and our confidence grow, the further we should redouble our efforts, not forgetting even a moment the journey of hard ordeals our people have traveled, and bring without fail the rich and civilized era in the near future which we have promised to the people.

There are still many difficulties and trials to be faced, but our ideals and cause are truth and science and we are full of courage and spirit to win victory.

Let us all unite firmly with patriotism and fight vigorously for the eternal prosperity of our dignified state, for the happiness and glory of our great people and for the overall development of our style of socialism.

Long live the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, our great state!