Immortal Exploits in the Development of the Country's Railway Transport

Today, in the midst of the offensive conducted vigorously by all the people and service personnel who are waging an all-out offensive to achieve breakthrough for implementing the decision of the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, whistles blow high along the railroad tracks stretching throughout the country.

The whistles of trains running like the wind day and night from the industrial area where the spirit of creation and innovation prevails to the mountains in the northern part of the country give fresh strength and the wings for a leap to the advancing country.

Looking at the trains running on the railroad tracks today, we recollect the brilliant revolutionary exploits of President Kim Il Sung who devoted himself to the development of the country's railway transport.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said.

"Every railway stretching across the country is associated with the revolutionary leadership activities of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il who made a long, arduous journey for the country and people on the people-bound train throughout their lifetimes."

In September, Juche106(2017), the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un gave important instructions for building up railway transport, the pilot of the national economy, saying that boosting up railway transport is rather an important work to glorify the revolutionary career and undying exploits of the great leaders than an economic and technical work.

In retrospect, our country's railway transport is unthinkable without the energetic leadership and loving care of President Kim Il Sung.

After the liberation of the country, President Kim Il Sung clearly indicated the way ahead of the railways and ushered in a new history of the building of the country's railway transport.

At that time, as a result of the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule, the country's railways were too backward. What was worse, while fleeing away from Korea, the Japanese imperialists severely destroyed a lot of iron bridges, tunnels, railways and railway factories as well as locomotives, coaches and other equipment.

There were only a few locomotive engineers, and no technicians in the railway sector.

To make matters worse, the reactionaries were desperate to make false propaganda and sabotage, and some railway workers left their work or even made a fuss about rice.

No one had experience to run the railroad and there was no foundation for the restoration of the railway, so the railways in our country were in a serious crisis where it would never be recovered.

Just at that time, the great leader pioneered the road for building the railway transport in the country.

One day in September, Juche34(1945), the great leader visited the site of the rehabilitation of the railway and said that all the railway workers should immediately restore the railway destroyed by the Japanese imperialists, not just being overjoyed with the country's liberation. In order to inspire them with confidence in victory and call up their courage, he added that if they possessed the revolutionary spirit and patriotism for building a new prosperous Korea with their own hands on the liberated land, there wouldn't be any difficulties.

On November 10, Juche34(1945), he visited Pyongyang Railway Factory at that time to make a historic speech "Let Us Surmount the Difficulties Standing in the Way of Nation-building!" before the workers. In his speech, he said that the Korean people should rehabilitate and develop the economy by restoring the devastated industries as fast as possible in order to build a new Korea and they should first restore the railways, the arteries of the country, and return transport onto a normal footing.

Looking up to the great leader who visited their working place and stressed the importance of their duty in building a new country and clarified the tasks of restoration of railway, the railway workers felt the greatest delight and pride that they, who had lived in all sorts of humiliation and toil, were now the legitimate masters of the country and the railway thanks to the Sun of the nation, the peerlessly great man.

True to the great trust of the great leader, the railway workers repaired the damaged locomotives, coaches and freight cars by their own efforts, thus restoring the chaotic railway gradually.

In order to heighten their momentum, the great leader sent an open letter to arouse the whole country's railway workers to the building of a new country and visited the railway employees in the area of Jong Ju to encourage them to wage a Kim Hoe Il Movement in the field of railway transport, highly appreciating their popular campaign for normalizing transport through their rapid rehabilitation of the destroyed railways.

While encouraging them to wage a vigorous campaign to repair the damaged locomotives, the great leader initiated the railway electrification project and dispatched officials and technicians to the construction sites and preferentially solved all the problems, including manpower, materials and equipment, so as to complete the Kaego-Koin and Yangdok-Chonsong railway electrification projects in our country for the first time after the liberation of the country and ensure railway service by electric locomotives, thus opening up the prospect of railway electrification in our country.

In the days of the Fatherland Liberation War, post-war reconstruction and socialist construction, President Kim Il Sung energetically led the struggle for developing the railway transport of the country.

Even in the decisive period for the destiny of the country and the people, the great leader convened the Conference of Railway Activists. At the conference, he said that the railway played the major role in ensuring the victory of the war and that it was impossible to win the war without the means of connecting the battle line and the home front, no matter how well-prepared and solid the army and the rear were. Adding that one of the powerful means of reliably connecting the battle line and the home front was the railway, he clarified the ways to guarantee the wartime transportation.

With his great trust, the railway workers ensured wartime transportation despite the enemy's huge bombing and inspired the service personnel and people to their victory with a loud whistle.

Thanks to the wise leadership of the great leader who vigorously aroused all the people to the restoration of iron bridges and railway tracks in the days of postwar reconstruction, many of them were restored in a short span of time and they showed once again the mettle of the Koreans to the imperialists who claimed that the Korean railway wouldn't work even after a decade.

He saw to it that the electric locomotive should be built by our own efforts and technology, rooting out conservatism and technical mysticism, and when the first electric locomotive was born, he visited the factory and named it "Red Flag" with deep meaning.

Saying that the railways should be made heavy-duty in order to satisfy the daily-increasing demand for transport, he ensured that heavy rails, heavy-duty trucks and 8-axle electric locomotives were produced by dint of self-reliance, which was the driving force that made the country's railway enter a new stage of development.

Indeed, thanks to the outstanding leadership and care of President Kim Il Sung, our railways could grow into the self-supporting railway transport system and positively promote the building of a powerful socialist country without the slightest stagnation despite the harsh trials and difficulties, giving whistles of an increased transport drive.

The undying exploits of the President who opened up a new history of building the self-reliant railway transport on this land were creditably carried forward by the outstanding leadership of Chairman Kim Jong Il and are shining more brilliantly thanks to the wise leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.

The hearts of the DPRK's laudable railway officials and the working class are filled with loyalty to break through head-on the obstacles and difficulties with the might of self-reliance and self-development and science and technology, cherishing as their lifeblood the trust shown by the Party and the leader, as those were in the 1950s when they ensured wartime transportation through the hail of bullets and those were in the 1960s when they built electric locomotives with their own efforts and technology so as to admire the world.

We Koreans all should glorify the immortal revolutionary exploits performed by the great leaders in the development of the country's self-reliant railway transport generation after generation and bear in mind the line of an offensive for making a breakthrough head-on set forth by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un and become honorable victors in today's offensive.