(1888PressRelease)
April 14, 2007 - What makes it possible for the country to launch the building of an economic power courageously is the solid foundation of the independent national economy established by President Kim Il Sung.
Socialist industrialization was completed in a short period of 14 years from 1957 to 1970.
After national liberation (August 1945), Korea still remained backward. It was not free from the old feudal production relations, and the one-sided industrial system caused by the Japanese imperialists’ colonial rule. Worse still, everything was destroyed in the country during the Korean war (1950-1953) unleashed by the US imperialists. It went without saying that the state of things at that time made it impossible to improve the people’s wretched life and the national economy at an early date.
With an insight into the situation, the President put forward it as the basic line of the post-war economic construction to ensure the preferential development of heavy industry while developing light industry and agriculture simultaneously, and set it as a principle to implement the line in the spirit of self-reliance by relying upon the strength of the people.
He set it as a goal for the first stage of socialist industrialization to lay a firm foundation for industrialization and solve the problem of food, clothing and housing for the people as the key one during the period of the first five-year plan (1957-1961), and stimulated all the people to the endeavour to attain the goal.
He put great effort in fixing and reinforcing key heavy industrial sectors and expanding and strengthening heavy industry bases on a large scale.
The machine building industry was the core of heavy industry and it needed iron in large quantities, so he put forward the slogan “Iron and the machine are the king of industry!” During his visits to the then Kangson Steel Plant, the then Hwanghae Iron Works, the then Ryongsong Machine Factory, the then Huichon Machine-tool Factory and other factories of the key industry, he consulted with workers and inspired them to further efforts.
In the course of this, vestiges of old ideas such as passivity, conservatism and mysticism about technique were liquidated, and the working class brought about an upswing in production.
The workers of the Kangson Steel Plant turned out 120,000 tons of rolled steel at the blooming mill with a rated capacity of 60,000 tons, and those of the Kim Chaek Iron Works 270,000 tons of pig iron at a mill with a rated capacity of 190,000 tons. The workers of the Hwanghae Iron Works erected a large-sized blast furnace, and the torch of the let-one-machine-tool-beget-another movement as the one of mass innovation was kindled in factories and enterprises across the country.
With the successful implementation of the five-year plan the technical equipment of heavy industry enterprises were improved, and advanced production methods and technical processes widely introduced. This made it possible for the country to establish its own heavy industry base with the machine building industry as the core.
On the basis of the material foundation for the independent national economy, the President proposed the seven-year plan (1961-1967) and aroused all the people in the struggle to bring about an innovative upswing and a great upsurge.
He saw to it that during the period of the seven-year plan the already laid foundation for the independent national economy was consolidated, and that industrialization and technical reconstruction of the national economy was done in an all-round way so as to establish the system of independent national economy.
To establish a system of the independent metallurgical industry, he made sure that the existing iron production bases were expanded, new iron works built and incomplete production processes of the metal industry quickly perfected.
The President pushed ahead with comprehensive technical reconstruction. Successes were made in the latest scientific and technical fields such as mechanical engineering, electronics and metal engineering, and modern technical instruments were manufactured and supplied.
Besides, he developed light industry, the chemical industry and the local industries simultaneously, thus putting the people’s living standard on a new high level.
The whole course of the struggle for socialist industrialization was also the one in which the President’s unique method of guidance to the masses of people was applied, that is, the one whereby he always solved all problems by relying on the strength of the popular masses and by enlisting their wisdom and zeal.
By virtue of his idea and guidance, the whole country stirred and the working class united as one. This culminated in the successful accomplishment of the historical cause of socialist industrialization, which now serves as a firm foundation for building an economic power by their own effort, technique and resources in the DPRK.
