A groundbreaking ceremony took place with a thunderous roar of blasting on February 16 for the fourth-stage project to build 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area, the final-stage task of the five-year plan of the capital construction decided at the Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Addressing the event, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un referred to the proud successes over the past four years making a record of great transformations, a record so outstanding that the phrase groundbreaking accompanied by inauguration has come into common use. Then he added: To be frank, these days I am really tired and busy attending inauguration and groundbreaking ceremonies that have been scheduled one after another. We are facing such moments of drastic change.

Up to now a large number of construction projects have started and ended one after the other across the DPRK.

Last year witnessed the successive completion of modern rural dwelling houses up and down the country, and this year also began with a series of groundbreaking and inauguration ceremonies of regional-industry factories according to the Regional Development 20×10 Policy.

In February alone, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for a hospital and a leisure complex in Kangdong County, regional-industry factories and a hospital in Nampho Municipality’s Ryonggang County, the largest-ever modern greenhouse farm and vegetable science research centre in North Phyongan Province and an offshore farm in Ragwon County. Meanwhile, inauguration ceremonies took place for regional-industry factories in Ichon County of Kangwon Province and Kumya County of South Hamgyong Province.

Kim Jong Un attended several of the ceremonies.

While declaring the start of the fourth-stage project for building 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area which is to include both dwelling houses and modern leisure facilities, he said as follows: The obvious signs of our country improving its appearance and the rapid succession of remarkable changes in different fields of state and social life, never seen in the history of our nation building, are directly associated with the miraculous development our architecture has achieved amid the flames of a new revolution in construction. With the extensive construction projects now underway across the country, the trend of irreversible change and upturn is becoming more and more dominant, and our cause is gaining greater momentum for its dynamic advance.

The spectacular events marking the start and completion of a number of projects at the outset of this year convince the Korean people that the Party’s plan and decision are a science and truth and they are sure to emerge victorious.

Pak Jong Hyok