Thanks to the steadfast will and energetic guidance of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un to develop the public health of the DPRK into the most advantageous and advanced socialist one so that the people can fully enjoy the benefits of modern medicine and lead a happy life in good health, a world-class medical service base has been wonderfully built in the capital city of Pyongyang as a perfect embodiment of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s plan for modernizing public health and its idea on Juche-oriented architectural beauty.

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, visited the completed Pyongyang General Hospital on February 27.

He was accompanied by Pak Thae Song, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK and premier of the DPRK Cabinet, and officials of the Party Central Committee, public health and other sectors concerned.

He was greeted on the spot by senior officials of the hospital and construction and design units.

Guided by the officials, he went round such parts of the hospital as emergency department, specialized treatment departments, general operating theatre, conference hall, service facilities and helipad to learn in detail about its overall construction.

Saying that all demands of advanced architecture were thoroughly embodied in every element of the hospital and building work was done perfectly in conformity with the public health policy of the WPK, which gives precedence to the promotion of the people’s health and regards their lives as the most precious ones, and with the construction policy for its implementation and that the specialized facilities of all systems including outpatient and inpatient wards were furnished on a high quality level, he added that this is attributable to the substantial three-party agreement of design, building work and operation the relevant units made as intended by the Party.

He noted with high appreciation that in particular, the general operating theatre with 30 modern operating rooms was well furnished to ensure best public health and sanitary conditions and scientific accuracy and smoothness of treatment, as befitting the most important core facility of the hospital.

He also toured a restaurant and other public service facilities on the top floor of the building. He said that he was very pleased to think that our people can be completely recovered from diseases and promote their health while enjoying the most advanced medical service as well as civilized and excellent convenience, adding that the hospital is another proud asset of our state which absolutely subordinates everything to promoting the people’s wellbeing.

He expressed great satisfaction, saying that he felt really proud to have the world-level modern medical service base and medical science research centre capable of more reliably protecting the people’s health and wellbeing, that we can see our great strength rapidly growing, overcoming ordeals, and that a solid springboard has been laid for restoring and radically developing the country’s public health sector on an advanced basis.

He highly praised the ardent patriotism, loyalty and devotion displayed by all the builders who contributed to the successful construction of another monumental edifice representing the era, upholding the WPK’s policy with heroic creative practice.

Saying that there should be no slightest weak points in making preparations for the hospital’s operation so that it can fulfil its inherent mission and role in curing people of illness and completely recovering them from it after its opening, he stressed the need to reinforce its emergency system, which can be called the first gateway to it and its face, in aspects of practical utility, rationality and efficiency so as to ensure the promptness and mobility of emergency treatment more thoroughly.

To develop the overall public health of the country on the basis of the completion of this hospital as a model medical centre is an important revolutionary undertaking to defend and develop the advantages and original feature of Korean-style socialism centred on the masses, he said, setting forth important tasks arising in building modern new hospitals that will appear not only in Pyongyang but also in cities and counties across the country in the future. He continued:

What is most important in building a hospital is to design all elements, ranging from site selection to building layout and arrangement of the line of flow, in conformity with the specialized technical requirements on the principle of guaranteeing the level of specialization and functional qualities peculiar to the public health facilities so as to make it convenient for medical service activities including diagnosis and treatment of patients.

The design sector should lead other sectors at the present time when the scope of construction is steadily expanding and the struggle for achieving comprehensive national rejuvenation is being accelerated. The design of an architectural structure to be built by our socialist ruling Party for the people should properly combine modern character with national identity while prioritizing the defending of people’s life and safety and the promotion of their wellbeing, and reflect the great ideology and ennobling political creed of our times that aspire after higher ideals and civilization. In this sense, it can be said that designers are “political artists” who draw the ideas and policies of the WPK in reality.

He gave instructions to be regarded as guidelines in architectural design, adding:

Whether or not this wonderful hospital, provided by the Party, contributes to promoting the people’s health entirely depends on the medical workers’ thoroughgoing spirit of serving the people and specialist qualifications. The public health sector should decisively strengthen the medical forces and effectively conduct the work of raising medical science and technology to the world’s advanced level, so as to ensure that all doctors and nurses devote their utmost sincerity to medical treatment with warm humanity.

In particular, continuous education, internship, experience-sharing workshop, sci-tech achievements presentation and others, aimed at broadening the regional medical workers’ horizons and improving their medical skills, should be organized and conducted with a correct methodology in line with the full-scale construction of hospitals going on in cities and counties under the WPK’s new regional development policy. The central-level hospitals should dispatch guidance and assistance forces to regional hospitals and introduce telemedicine and other systems and methods for giving more reasonable and effective medical service conducive to diagnosis, treatment and health promotion and provide necessary conditions, so as to contribute to making everyone enjoy substantial benefits and protection from the advantageous socialist public health system wherever they live.

Enjoying a panoramic view of the modern medical service centre on the bank of the picturesque Taedong River for a long time, he said with pride that the hospital is, indeed, a symbol of socialist public health in our era aspiring after the building of a highly civilized state and a monumental entity as well.

Saying that public health is a criterion for evaluating the political climate of a country, the level of its civilization and the quality of the life of its citizens, the soil growing the strength of life and an important index of evaluating its national power, he stressed once again that it is the firm determination of our Party to bring about a revolution in public health in the new era and thus turn our public health into the most advanced, modern and world-class one.

It is necessary to perfect the Pyongyang General Hospital, to be opened this significant year set by the WPK as the first year of the public health revolution, as the best medical service centre without any slightest defect and present it to the people, he said, laying out the detailed tasks to this end.

The Pyongyang General Hospital is expected to be inaugurated in October this year marking the 80th birthday of the WPK after undergoing the process of assembly of medical equipment and facilities and their trial operation.