At the fourth-day sitting of the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea on February 22, Ri Il Hwan made a proposal related to the election of the WPK general secretary.

In his speech he said that if our revolution is to successfully carry out the huge tasks for the new stage of development while steadfastly maintaining its lifeline, it is necessary to further enhance the leadership ability of the Party and this can be successfully realized only when this responsible duty of leadership is assigned to a successor who is most loyal to the cause of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism and a political activist who is possessed of outstanding and seasoned skills.

Thanks to the wise and steadfast guidance of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un , we could fill the days and months of the five years with the gigantic miracles and events we could not dare try even when circumstances were favourable, he said and went on:

The great Comrade Kim Jong Un advanced the idea on building a comprehensively developed socialist state and the principles and strategies for political, economic, military and cultural construction to carry it into practice, the Regional Development 20×10 Policy, the line on building armed forces in the new era, the definition on three elements for military capabilities, a theory on warding off any enemy’s aggression only by dint of powerful counterattack muscle and other important programmes. These programmes we have witnessed and received for the past five years are new and brilliant discoveries never to be found in the ideo-theoretical treasures accumulated by mankind and even in the treasure house of our revolution spanning one full century.

In such a grim and difficult situation, Comrade Kim Jong Un read the aspiration and determination of the people to defend their Party and government and build their future by their own efforts, and there he found out the valuable possibilities for starting the revolutionary transformation and boldly made it a policy, regarding it as the mature requirement of the revolution.

His profound and energetic revolutionary thinking covered every field and realm for the good of our people and our DPRK, and the world of his extraordinary study specified the clear development goals for different sectors and units and ways for guaranteeing their implementation.

His peculiar way of thinking and extraordinary insight have become a model of the trend of our state’s development as he steers the current of the times with constantly updated and innovative standards and new discoveries, which make today better than yesterday and tomorrow far better than today, always pursuing originality and perfection in any work while flatly rejecting stereotyped and conventional practices.

Having solved the complex and difficult theoretical and practical problems in the period of comprehensive development of socialism, Comrade Kim Jong Un formulated and enunciated the ideas and theories that would have tremendous influence on the future development of our country by uniting the inquiry and application of new principles and methods and the verification of their scientific accuracy and vitality.

The past five years, when all the goals were fully attained through the accelerated all-people advance along the path of bold pioneering unprecedented in history, have clearly proved the extraordinary leadership ability of Comrade Kim Jong Un , the peerlessly great artist of politics.

The five-point Party-building line in the new era, part of his revolutionary ideas, marked an important milestone in our Party building to ensure the eternal future of the WPK by steadfastly carrying forward its original ideals and spirit.

The period of the comprehensive development of socialism has coincided with the heyday of our Party building and the five-year course of transformation coincided with the course of Party organizations at all levels for implementing their decisions. This outcome is an inevitability of history brought about by the greatness of the far-sighted wisdom of Comrade Kim Jong Un .

The engine of our revolution, shouldering the destiny of the country and the people, has vigorously led the comprehensive development of socialism without a moment’s stagnation. This is unthinkable without the extraordinariness, outstanding commanding art and leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Un , who has placed the Korean People’s Army in the vanguard of the struggle by remarkably strengthening it into the revolutionary armed forces of the WPK.

Wherever he goes, he makes everybody he meets seethe with excitement and joy and wins their heart even with a word. His extraordinary affinity and charisma served as an exceptional force that enabled him to mobilize all the people at a time and give fuller play to their patriotic enthusiasm and initiative and ingenuity.

His noble greatness comes from the true and noble thoughts and feelings as the leader of the people who truly loves and takes care of the people, and it is based on the great gifted qualities and traits as a great man.

Emotion of ardent patriotism taught by him as a living example has been implanted in the hearts of the people across the country, and today everyone is filled with the uncommon solemnity that they have never felt before whenever the solemn melody of the national anthem resounds and whenever they look up to the sacred national flag. And the sound of hurrah for our Republic, which powerfully echoed in the sky of the country in response to his resonant voice, still resounds and ardently calls for patriotism.

The noble patriotic example shown by Comrade Kim Jong Un and his ardent appeal made all the people redouble the pride in and honour of our great state and the unique thoughts, and the feelings peculiar to Koreans were fully displayed as a motive force for the courageous advance towards a rich country with a strong army.

In the era of Kim Jong Un , we have entered the world of advanced civilization at a stride and constantly learned how to make new things and innovations and made ourselves familiar with it, creating our own style of civilization and making great progress ideologically and culturally.

Under the guidance of Comrade Kim Jong Un , who puts forward the young people as a wing of the great campaign for creation and assigns to them main construction projects of politically great significance and, through the course, leads them to display bravery and youthful strength and cultivate patriotism and revolutionary spirit, the ranks of successors to our cause are fully demonstrating their might as the main force that builds and brings earlier the bright future of socialism by their own efforts.

In his revolutionary activities, he has never known stagnation or retreat but only sought the goal of progress and innovations and solutions for them.

The proud conclusion of the five-year plan for national economic development, over-fulfillment of the construction of 50 000 flats in Pyongyang, construction of modern rural dwellings across the country, construction of tourist and cultural resorts and other eye-opening achievements and results of the struggle are so numerous that it is impossible to count all of them. This is just attributable to Comrade Kim Jong Un ’s spirit of uninterrupted revolution and his proactive and offensive leadership mode.

All the fields from the Party work and national defence deciding the destiny of the revolution to the creation of masterpieces that touch the heartstrings of the people are associated with his leadership.

His leadership mode was the driving force for rapid and steady development as he created and generalized one model of the new era after another in all fields and all spheres once the goal of one stage was achieved.

Comrade Kim Jong Un was strong in his sense of responsibility for the destiny of the country and the people and stronger in his ardent love for the rising generations.

It was the most valuable victory of the brilliant ones won in the past five years to have provided the legal tools and strength powerful enough to surely guarantee the dignity and security of our country and the peace of rising generations, and this was the great historic cause that could be accomplished only by Comrade Kim Jong Un .

The whole course of specifying the policy on bolstering up the nuclear forces in the Constitution of the Republic and guaranteeing its position with overwhelming ability in the present world, where the legitimate exercise of the right to self-defence is branded as illegal and military attacks on sovereign states are perpetrated any time, was a death-defying battle with grave challenges and manifold difficulties and a de facto war that could not be overcome even an inch with ordinary willpower.

Pioneering with indefatigable spiritual strength this severe history that no one can control and overcome, Comrade Kim Jong Un made painstaking efforts, suffering agony, with the most staunch patriotic faith and noble conscience.

As we hold in high esteem an incomparably outstanding man as our leader, our country could remain strong, and our people secure and safe, with a miracle of our dignity and strength put on the world’s highest level.

Thanks to him, we could win victory in the past and are emerging victorious at present.

Our Party members and other people are seeing the absolute strength, and inevitability of victory, with which to control any adversity and achieve everything we want, in his outstanding ideas and theories, strategy, great political ability, leadership art, unusual pluck and determination.

The speaker stressed that all our people entrust their destiny and the future of their families and the most beloved rising generations only to Comrade Kim Jong Un and wholeheartedly hope that he will lead this country.

He courteously suggested to the Congress that the important duty of general secretary, the supreme post of the WPK which organizes and guides all victories of the Korean people, be entrusted again to the great Comrade Kim Jong Un , in reflection of the unanimous desire of all the Party members and other people, for the strengthening of the WPK and the brilliant realization of its grand fighting programme, for the prosperity of our state and for the rosy future of socialism.

KCNA