The General Goal For Building Up Cities And Counties Defined By The Workers' Party Of Korea
Ryang Kyong Su, Faculty of Economics,
The Korean people have courageously turned out in the all-out advance of socialism, upholding the grand program set forth at the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. Building up cities and counties to achieve coordinated development of the whole country is just one of the policies to which the WPK is attaching great importance and directing great efforts in this historic advance to open up a new turning phase of national prosperity.
The respected Comrade
"We must lay the foundations for developing the regional economy and improving local people's living standards by promoting the independent and diversified development of cities and counties."
The historic Eighth Congress of the WPK held early last year clarified the general goal for building up cities and counties, proceeding from the lawful requirements of socialist construction and the actual conditions of our country.
The general goal defined by the WPK is to turn every city and county into a strategic base of a highly civilized and prosperous socialist state and a developed region retaining their inherent characteristics. In other words, it is to turn all cities and counties into civilized local areas which represent both the regional characteristics and the development peculiar to the country in all aspects of politics, economy and culture.
This general goal gives a comprehensive explanation of the strategic tasks to be carried out by cities and counties in the future on the basis of the position in the socialist construction and the basic tasks facing the Korean people at present.
The general goal is, firstly, to turn all cities and counties into strategic bases of a highly civilized socialist state. It means turning all cities and counties into strategic fortresses and bases that the state can trust and rely on in its struggle for epochal advance of socialism.
At present, it is the historic task of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people to build a highly civilized socialist state by breaking through head-on all the difficulties in the way of advance and achieving sustained development. This task urgently demands that the driving force of socialist construction, the internal motive force, be rearranged and reorganized in a comprehensive way, and that the overall state power be strengthened in every way on the basis of the coordinated and simultaneous development of the whole country.
In order to turn all the sectors of socialist construction to a new stage of development and double the overall state power, it is important to strengthen cities and counties, the regional bases that ensure the Party's leadership and promote the unified development of the state.
The cities and counties are the basic units for state development that provide unified and comprehensive guidance to all sectors and regions of the country. For they are the basic units with the leading forces and material, technical and cultural means needed for guiding all sectors of a city or county in a direct, unified and comprehensive way; they are the units that directly implement the policies of the Party and the state and give direct guidance to economy and culture to develop them in an all-round way.
All the Party and state policies are transmitted through cities and counties to all sectors and units of society and they are implemented with city or county as a unit. The human and material resources in each city and county provide a strong foundation for prosperity and development of the country as a whole as well as a sure guarantee for regional development. Developing the rural economy in a comprehensive way with a city or a county as a unit and strengthening the economic ties between different regions accordingly constitute great importance in leading the development of socialist economy as an organic body and stabilizing and improving the people's livelihood. In education, public health and all other cultural fields, a city or county is also a spot for contact and connection for eliminating the differences between the central and local areas and those between town and country and achieving a unified development.
The cities and counties, therefore, should not be developed merely as administrative units in charge of particular area of the country but as powerful supporting bases and strategic fortresses that powerfully propel and guarantee the development of the state as a whole.
Thanks to the wise guidance of the great leaders Comrade
The developing situation emphasizes further the importance and urgency of building up and increasing the role of cities and counties as regional bases for socialist construction.
To cope with such situation, the WPK set it as the general goal for strengthening cities and counties to turn all of them into strategic bases for a highly civilized socialist state, proceeding from the view that building them up precisely means strengthening the national power and developing them means reviving the state.
If each city or county that takes 1/200 of the country is built up to be a healthy, rich and civilized area as befits the features of development peculiar to the DPRK in all aspects of politics, economy and culture, the overall state power will be strengthened and socialism in Korea will make a vigorous advance with cities and counties as strategic bases and a powerful fortress.
The general goal is, secondly, to turn all cities and counties into developed areas, each with distinctive feature.
This means that each city or county should develop its economy and culture in a specific way in conformity with its specific conditions and situations, so that all the cities and counties become civilized local areas, each representing its own characteristics.
It is the intrinsic requirement of socialist society to provide people with an affluent and equal life. It should ensure the balanced and harmonious development of all sectors and regions, but not one-sided development of a particular sector or region.
This, however, does not mean developing all the sectors and regions along the same line based on one standard. The people's demand for living and the actual conditions and circumstances, including density of population, natural resources, topography and climate, are not the same in different cities and counties. If the economy and culture of all cities and counties were to be developed, following one and the same content and pattern with disregard to such differences, it would be difficult to collect and use the established foundations and potentials to the maximum and to expect the rapid development of socialism.
The WPK has long emphasized the need to make good use of mountains in remote areas and the sea in coastal areas. It is associated with the noble intention of the Party that all regions of the country make great contribution to the country's economic construction and the improvement of people's living, each by developing in its own unique way.
For the cities and counties to fully discharge their responsibility and role as regional bases in promoting the overall development of the country, all the activities should be planned and conducted in conformity with the special conditions of each region so as to make the most effective use of its potential and, on this basis, develop itself in an independent and diversified way.
The cities and counties should set their own rational indices for development including agriculture, manufacturing, fishing industry, tourism, commerce, etc. by reflecting the characteristics of their regions, and actively develop economy by tapping all their foundations and potentials: they should also preserve their own special features in cultural fields such as science, education, public health and others. Then the appearance of cities and counties will be renewed and the development of the country as a whole be further accelerated.
When we say we should turn cities and counties into developed areas with their own characteristics, it does not mean developing them in isolation, away from unified guidance of the state and economic relations with other cities and counties.
The decentralization of the regions which seeks the random development outside the centralized guidance and control of the state can never be allowed in socialist society. And, only when the local areas are in close contact and relations with one another under the centralized guidance and control of the socialist state, can they be developed in conformity to their respective regional features.
At present, the WPK emphasizes that it is the specialization and self-centredness of some working units that are detrimental to the unified guidance on economy by the state and the greatest obstacle to increasing the driving force-the internal motive force. It also puts stress on giving a telling blow to such tendencies which encroach upon the interests of the state and people.
The cities and counties, in working out their strategies for development and carrying out the economic and cultural construction in their regions, should always give priority to the interests of the state, and conduct all their activities strictly under the unified command, control, and strategic guidance of the state. They should closely cooperate and achieve solidarity with other cities and counties under the slogan of "One for all and all for one!", and thus vigorously push forward the overall development of the country.
Indeed, the general goal for strengthening cities and counties defined by the Workers' Party of Korea is the most clear and scientific strategy for accelerating the development of the whole country in a balanced and simultaneous way and for achieving a radical advance of socialism. It is an excellent strategy for powerfully demonstrating the might of the state and bringing about a marked improvement in the people's living.
Now the WPK is wisely leading the struggle to put the strategy into effect by displaying outstanding leadership ability. The Party has made it a law that the state provides cement for the construction in the cities and counties every year and has taken other powerful measures to consolidate their material and technical foundations. In particular, the Party saw to it that the Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement should be conducted with a city or a county as a unit to remarkably enhance their role as regional bases.
Thanks to the wise leadership of the Party, Samjiyon, one of the cities, has turned into a standard of mountainous cities; and many other cities and counties including Changsong, Hoechang and Unsan counties are making remarkable progress in their economic construction and improving the people's living with the development method suited to their regional features.
Under the seasoned leadership of the WPK, which has always illuminated the road for the state and people with its brilliant wisdom, the independent and diversified development of cities and counties will be more dynamically promoted, ushering in a new era where the provinces meet a radical change, a great new era of national prosperity, and bringing earlier the future of a powerful socialist country with certainty.
