The words youth power is inconceivable separated from the history and tradition of giving prominence to young people in the DPRK.
Kim Il Sung, eternal President of the DPRK, in his early years put forward young people as the vanguard detachment and main-force unit in shaping and advancing the destiny of the country and nation and achieved the historic cause of national liberation by closely rallying them under the banner of the anti-Japanese revolution. In his memoirs With the Century, he wrote that to look back upon the history of national liberation struggle, young people always stood in the vanguard, and young people of the new generation emerged as masters in the arena of the national liberation struggle since mid-1920s, writing a new chapter of the annals of the anti-Japanese revolution. The hot-blooded young people braved through the flames of the anti-Japanese struggle by cherishing a thoroughgoing revolutionary spirit and indomitable mettle and creed; even on the gallows they shouted that they could see victory in the revolution. This served as a priceless ideological and spiritual foundation on which such a dignified youth power is built.
Under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, Korean young people, carrying forward this precious tradition, displayed unparalleled bravery and self-sacrificing spirit in the building of a new country, during the Korean war and at sites of socialist construction after the war.
True to this tradition, Kim Jong Il, eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, renamed the youth organization of the country Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League in the 1990s, when socialism was collapsing in one east European country after another, and put forward the slogan “Love young people!”
Masters of the Youth Power
Kim Jong Un, current Supreme Leader of the DPRK, is now bringing up young people into masters of the youth power.
On his visit to the construction site of the Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station in April 2015, he said that members of the youth shock brigade were building a gigantic hydraulic power station in a remote mountainous area by displaying patriotism, and that this demonstrated that the country is a youth power that cannot be found elsewhere in the world. His great trust was an ideological sustenance which enabled Korean young people to perform brilliant exploits for the times and history. The shock brigade members worked day and night for 120 days, placing five times more concrete than they did on annual average in the previous years, or twice greater than their peak-year level, and thus creating a legendary tale of heroic youth of completing the building of a dam ahead of schedule. In 2016, challenging the theory that the building of a hydraulic power station cannot be conducted in winter, they continued their work even in winter and built Unit 3 of the power station in less than half a year.
Korean young people also performed heroic exploits in major construction sites like those for building stockbreeding base in the Sepho area, rehabilitating flood-stricken northern areas and building Ryomyong Street.
They could grow up into masters of the youth power because their politico-ideological world is unstained and pure.
The politico-ideological character unique to them is that they place absolute trust in their national leader and revere him; they are willing to follow their leader to the end of the earth, and devote their all–their blood, flesh and even their life–for the prosperity of their country and happiness of fellow people.
Future of the Youth Power
Today under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, full of youthful vigour, the whole country as well as all its people are advancing towards a bright future full of youthful vigour and passion, demonstrating the mettle of the youth power.
Kim Jong Un sent historic letters to major meetings of young people and posed for photographs with the attendants; he ensures that wide publicity is given to young people who have performed heroic feats for society and the collective; and he also renamed the youth league Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League.
Cherishing his trust in and love for them, the Korean young people fully play their role as honourable defenders of their socialist country and the main force in building a powerful socialist country. As a vanguard detachment on major fronts where a powerful socialist country is being built, they are dynamically opening up the way for advance by displaying a thoroughgoing ideological spirit and bravery and at lightning speed. They are also playing the leading role in developing cutting edge science and technology with a great ambition to turn the country into a sci-tech power at an early date possible true to the far-reaching objectives advanced by the Seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea. They are defending the security of the country and people reliably at the outposts of national defence by resolutely frustrating the enemy’s reckless moves to ignite a war.
The international community is in the belief that the youth power will demonstrate its dignity and mettle in the future, too.
