“I believe in you and you believe in me.” This is what President Kim Il Sung used to say when he faced challenges while leading the revolution.

After winning the three-year war started by the US in the early 1950s, the Korean people successfully carried out the three-year plan for post-war reconstruction by 1956 – in two years and eight months.

Yet the situation required them to keep themselves at the ready.

The Third Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea held in April 1956 decided on setting out to implement the First Five-Year National Economic Plan starting in 1957.

This plan of great transformation was designed to establish the socialist system free from exploitation and oppression in the country and turn it from a backward agricultural nation to a socialist industrial and agricultural one with a solid foundation for self-sufficient national economy. But it was a rather uphill task at the time.

At the critical moment when the future of the revolution would be decided, Kim Il Sung firmly believed in his people.

He pushed forward with revolution and construction, saying that trying to seek reserve in a technical manner would only lead to passivism, we could rely on our people and we should think of moving forward faster by bringing their strength into full play.

He visited the then Kangson Steel Plant to see the workers there, and told them: Let us brave the trials facing the revolution, you believing in me and I believing in you. I am fully convinced that the flames of collective innovation kindled by you will become the flames to inspire the whole country to turn out for the great Chollima upsurge.

Greatly encouraged by his trust, the workers at Kangson redoubled their efforts. They created a miracle of turning out 120 000 tons of structural steel using a blooming mill with an annual rated capacity of only 60 000 tons.

Kim Il Sung travelled around every nook and cranny of the country to implant the spirit of Chollima into the mind of the people.

He visited the then Kim Chaek Iron Works and led the workers there to the efforts to increase the output, saying that the Party Central Committee believes in them. While harvesting barley with farmers on the Thaesong Plain, he encouraged them to turn out to increase crop yields. He lent an ear to the candid complaint of a fisherman that they failed to conduct deep-sea fishing as they were insufficiently provided with large fishing boats and equipment, and told him encouragingly that he would make sure large fishing boats, radios, binoculars and all the other things in need were provided so that they could be engaged in deep-sea fishing in a bold and proactive way from then on.

With the same mind as his, the Korean people overcame challenges and completed the First Five-Year National Economic Plan ahead of schedule at the economic growth rate of 36.6% a year on average.

“I believe in you and you believe in me.”

Carrying forward this ennobling idea, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un is ushering in an era of self-dependence and prosperity, the most brilliant period in the history of the DPRK, by greatly inspiring the entire population to display the spirit of Chollima in the new era.

Pak Ryong Un