Striking Contrast

Recently Rason, a northern-tip city of Korea, has witnessed a miraculous event.

In August this year torrential rain hit different places of the city, inflicting heavy human and material damage: lots of houses were submerged and numerous people left without shelter. The survivors were at a loss what to do.

However, their adversity was turned into a blessing under the care of the Workers’ Party of Korea which pursues the politics of love for people.

To cope with the urgent situation, the WPK Central Military Commission convened an enlarged meeting. Kim Jong Un, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, presided over the meeting, the first agenda of which was how to rehabilitate the damaged city.

At the meeting Kim Jong Un ordered the KPA in his capacity as Supreme Commander to take full charge of the rehabilitation and complete it before the forthcoming WPK’s founding anniversary, and organized the headquarters for the operation.

Upon his order a powerful construction force was seconded to the city and the rehabilitation campaign went full steam under nationwide support.

So worried about the victims, Kim Jong Un toured the flood-stricken area. The military and civilian workers built at least one-storey homes for 1 300 families in Paekhak-dong in the Sonbong area and dwelling houses for over 500 families in Chonggye-dong, Yuhyon-dong, Kwangok-dong and other places in the city in a matter of a month. The new dwelling houses were incomparably larger and more beautiful.

The supreme leader made sure that consumer goods, including TV sets, clothes, hard glassware and foods, were provided to the flood victims.

Noting that he might feel at ease if he looked round the new homes, he again visited the face-lifted city and ensured that the soldier-builders helped the victims move to new homes.

Deeply moved by the leader’s parental affection and deep care of the WPK and their socialist system, the victims gave a hearty shout, shedding tears of gratitude.

Such a miraculous event can only occur under the people-centred socialist system of Korea.

It is far from being imagined in capitalist societies where money decides everything.

In those societies people are bound to face death and bankruptcy when they fall victim to natural disasters, and even undergo artificial misfortune.

Such a tragic reality can be explained simply by the sinking case of large ferry Sewol in south Korea which claimed lives of hundreds of children last year, an outcome of the enterprise hell-bent on moneymaking and the unpopular politics of the south Korean authorities. The south Korean ruling quarters invited the disaster for their failure to take proper relief measures and did not trace the truth behind the incident for more than a year. This sparked off strong indignation of the bereaved families and other people from all walks of life. Far from consoling the bereaved families, they fired tear gas at the protestors who rose up in demand of the probe into the truth. South Korean people from different social standings gave vent to their anger, shouting, “South Korea is not qualified to be called a country. We will forsake this society which forsook us”.

The citizens in Rason who moved to new homes in delight in the wake of the grave natural disaster and the bereaved families of the ferry disaster present a sharp contrast between the political landscapes of north and south of Korea.