The Cradle of People’s Happiness
December 27 is the Socialist Constitution Day of the DPRK. Scores of years have passed since the liberation of the country from the Japanese imperialists’ military occupation, and I think in this period the Korean people have enjoyed a happy life in a society where the people are the master of everything and everything serves them.
This year the Korean people have celebrated as a grand festival of victors the 70th founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea which has led the Korean revolution to victory and glory. Such a great victory our people have gained in all fields of the revolution and construction is ascribable to the full exercise of their rights under the protection of the Socialist Constitution which guarantees the independent rights and interests of the popular masses, the rights to work, to participate in political activities, to get education and to receive free medical care, and so on. In the past the Korean people had no quarters to trust their life and destiny to as they had no genuine popular law representing their independent needs and interests. So, they offer their thanks to President
Our people became the masters of this land in their own right to create and enjoy an independent life when the genuine people’s government was established. Before national liberation (August 1945), our people suffered all manner of maltreatment, deprived of all rights and forsaken in illiteracy and ignorance. With the historic event of national liberation a world of happy life of the people was established to be handed down generation after generation, supported by a genuine popular law that defends the demand and interest of the people. The Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was enacted at the First Session of the First Supreme People’s Assembly in 1948, and on December 27, 1972, the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK was adopted at the First Session of the Fifth Supreme People’s Assembly. It is stipulated in the Constitution: “The State defends and protects the interests of the workers, peasants, soldiers and working intellectuals who have been freed from exploitation and oppression; and the constantly increasing material wealth of society in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is used entirely to promote the well-being of the working people.”
Indeed, the promulgation of the Socialist Constitution was a historic event of great significance in consolidating and developing the state and social system whereby the people are the master of everything and everything in the state and society serves the people to the letter, and in accomplishing the cause of socialism. Afterwards, the Constitution was amended and supplemented several times in keeping with the new requirements of our revolution. At the First Session of the Tenth Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK in 1998, the Socialist Constitution was designated
In July last the elections of deputies to the provincial (city under direct jurisdiction), city (district) and county people’s assemblies were held in Korea. I think our people exercised their rights to the full.
The elections were held on July 19. Our people’s government is the representative of the working people’s independent rights, organizer of their creative ability and activity, master responsible for their livelihood and protector of their interests. Our people are well aware of the value of the socialist system through their experience of enjoying a happy, dignified life as masters of the state and society in the embrace of the Republic for a long time. In particular, the elections to the 13th SPA in March last year and to the local people’s assemblies in July this year are evident proof of their intense and absolute support to and trust in the government of the Republic to entrust it with their destiny and future.
In our country all citizens who have reached the age of 17 have the rights to elect and to be elected, irrespective of sex, nationality, property status, education, political view and religion. The elections under our socialist system are held on the principle of universal, equal and direct suffrage. Industrial and farm workers, intellectuals, government officials, soldiers, women and overseas Korean compatriots are elected deputies to the people’s assemblies. Kye Sun Hui, world judo champion, was elected to the people’s assembly in her girlhood at the age of 19, and Mun Kang Sun, worker of the Pyongyang Kim Jong Suk Textile Mill, was elected deputy to the 13th DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly in March last year. Many other workers, peasants and intellectuals have been elected to the SPA to take part in state administration, among them Jo Kil Nyo, head of the Saemaul workteam of the Urban Facility Management Station in Phyongchon District, Jo Pong Nam, head of the Phyongchon Train Checking Workshop of the Passenger and Freight Trains Service Brigade of the Pyongyang Marshalling Yard, and O Myong Chun, spinner of the Sariwon Textile Mill. In July last Jong Chun Hwa, worker of the Welfare Service Management Station in Kanggye, said that though she is just a cobbler, she has been nominated as a candidate for election to the city people’s assembly, and expressed her determination to work still harder to consolidate the people’s power and promote the benefits of the people. According to the report of the Central Election Guidance Committee, the deputies elected to the local people’s assemblies numbering 28 452 included industrial and farm workers, intellectuals and officials. Through the July elections to the local people’s assemblies, our people came to know better how their happy life is protected and how their cradle of happiness is built up.