Foreign Relations

The ideals underlying the DPRK's foreign relations are independence, peace and friendship. The Government of the Republic strives to further strengthen friendship and solidarity with the world's people on the basis of the ideas of independence, peace and friendship and to make the international community independent and democratic and thus actively contribute to the common cause of mankind to build a free, peaceful, friendly new world, free from domination and subjugation.

On the principle of independence the Government of the Republic promotes friendship and cooperation with the various countries of the world and makes positive efforts to destroy the old international order of domination and subjugation, establish a new one, based on equality, justice and fairness and develop the South-South cooperation on the principle of collective self-reliance.

At the same time it makes every effort in unity with all the peace-loving peoples of the world to frustrate the aggression, interference and disturbance of imperialists, reduce armaments, nuclear armaments in particular, thereby meeting the desire of human beings to live in a world, free from nuclear weapons, and to safeguard peace and security in Asia and the rest of the world.

Today the Government of the Republic has established diplomatic relations with more than 140 countries. It is promoting economic and cultural exchange and cooperation with most of the countries of the world. It has up to now joined more than 210 international organizations and plays an active part.

Today the ties of friendship between Korea and many other countries of the world have become closer; the Korean people's cause of national reunification and socialist construction is gaining increasing support and encouragement.

Committees supporting Korea's reunification have been organized in many countries of the world and are active. In addition, the International Institute of the Juche Idea and organizations for the study of the Juche idea including regional institutes established in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa are expanding their sphere of activity. The Government of the Republic makes contributions to ensurihg the peace and security of the Korean peninsula, Asia and other parts of the world through its invariable independent stand, policies for its peaceful reunification and nuclear development for peaceful purpose.

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National Reunification

Down through the ages the Korean nation has lived in this land as a homogeneous nation with one culture. However, now the Korean people are suffering the tragedy of national division due to the schemes of the foreign forces. Half a century has already passed since the nation was divided into the north and the south.

A ferroconcrete wall runs 240 kilometres along the front line south of the Military Demarcation Line as a barrier across the Korean peninsula. The separated families and kinsmen do not hear what has happened to each other, alive or dead, let alone visit each other; meanwhile, the generations are changing. The national division prevents the coordinated use of the country's natural wealth and the inexhaustible strength and talents of the people for the prosperity of the country.

The problem of Korea's reunification presents itself not only as an internal problem of the Korean nation but also as an urgent task of the times for the world peace.

The Government of the DPRK has advanced proposals for the independent, peaceful reunification on more than 200 occasions up to now.

Three Principles of National Reunification,

In his speech on August 6, Juche 60 (1971), President Kim Il Sung gave an analysis of the domestic and foreign situation which was developing in favour of national reunification and put forward a policy for holding negotiations on a broad scale. He declared that the north was always ready to have contact with the Democratic Republican Party, the then ruling party of south Korea, or individual personages. This proposal marked an historic turn in the struggle to realize the cause of Korea's peaceful reunification.

When the proposal was made public, the voice of the people at home and abroad, demanding that the proposal be met, grew irresistible. The south Korean authorities, which had previously opposed any contacts between the north and the south, had no choice but to agree to the opening of a dialogue, though initially only in the form . of Red Cross talks.

In August Juche 60 (1971), the first contact took place between the representatives of the north and south Korean Red Cross organizations. Dialogue was opened at last. A breach was made in the barrier that had stood between the north and the south for a quarter of a century.

Afterwards President Kim Il Sung reiterated his principled stand on national reunification on several occasions and advanced a new proposal for extending the scope of north-south dialogue. As a result, north-south high-level talks were held separately from the Red Cross talks.

In May Juche 61 (1972), President Kim II Sung received in Pyongyang the south Korean delegates to the high-level political talks between north and south Korea. In his talks with them, the President explained the principles of national reunification, saying that the north and the south must combine their efforts for national reunification. To this end, there should be some principles which both sides should observe, he said.

He continued: "The three principles of realizing independent reunification without outside interference, achieving great national unity by transcending differences in ideas, ideals and systems, and reunifying the divided land by peaceful means without recourse to armed force, are the starting point of and the basis for the solution of our reunification question.

" The North-South Joint Statement was announced on July. 4, Juche 61 (1972). The three principles laid down by President Kim II Sung constitute the keynote of this statement.

The announcement of the joint statement marked a definite milestone in the Korean people's struggle for national reunification. The 28th Session of the UN General Assembly endorsed the principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity as the only correct principles to be observed in negotiating a settlement of the Korean reunification issue.

After the announcement of the joint statement the Government of the Republic took a number of measures to implement the agreed issues.

It put forward the five-point proposal to remove the present military confrontation between the north and the south which is the most pressing and key problem in dispelling disbelief and misunderstanding between the north and the south, deepening mutual confidence and creating an atmosphere of great national unity.

In addition, the Government of the Republic proposed to hold a political consultative conference to be attended by the representatives of political parties and public organizations and individual personages from all strata in the north and the south.

In his speech Let Us Prevent a Ntitional Division and Reunify ihe Country, delivered on June 23, Juche 62 (1973), President Kim II Sung advanced the five-point policy for national reunification: to remove military confrontation and ease tension between the north and south, bring about multilateral collaboration and interchange between the two parts, convene the Great National Congress composed of representatives of people of all levels and political parties and social organizations in the north and south, institute the north-south confederation under the single name of the Confederal Republic of Koryo, and enter the UN under that name.

The five-point policy for national reunification received the wholehearted support of all the peace-loving countries and people in the world, to say nothing of the entire north and south Korean people. The Fourth Summit Conference of Non-Aligned Countries acclaimed the five-point policy as being in accord not only with the interests of the Korean people but also with those of world peace. The conference expressed full support for it.

In March Juche 63 (1974), the Third Session of the Fifth Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK proposed that a peace agreement be concluded between the DPRK and the US with a view to dispelling tension in Korea and promoting the independent, peaceful reunification of Korea in line with the new policy advanced by President Kim Il Sung. In the then situation which brought Korea to the brink of war, this proposal mirrored the earnest desire of the Korean people for a genuine guarantee of relaxation of the tension prevailing in Korea and acceleration of independent and peaceful reunification on the principle of national self-determination. For this reason, it was welcomed by peace-loving people throughout the world who urged the US to accept it in good faith.

The US made no response to this peace proposal.

In an effort to remove the danger of war and of permanent national division and to accelerate independent, peaceful reunification, the joint conference of representatives of political parties and public organizations of the Republic held in January Juche 66 (1977) produced the lour-point proposal for national salvation: to establish unity between the socialist forces in the north and patriotic democratic forces in the south, who aspire after reunification; to ease tension between the north and the south and remove the danger of nuclear war; to eliminate the cause of discord within the nation and create an atmosphere of great national unity; and lastly to convene a north-south political consultative conference of the representatives of political parties, public organizations and people of all strata as a forum for discussion of these issues.

In January Juche 68 {1979), the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland convened the joint meeting of political parties and public organizations in the northern half of Korea at the suggestion of the Workers' Party of Korea and made an important new proposal. The main tenets of this proposal were that spirit and principles of the July 4 North-South Joint Statement should be reaffirmed, mutual slander should cease, all military activities should be unconditionally discontinued, and a pan-national conference should be held. Then the committee took a series of practical steps to put the proposal into effect.

Plan for the Founding of the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo, 10-Point Programme of the Great Unity of the Whole Nation

President Kim Il Sung advanced a plan for founding the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo at the Sixth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in October Juche 69 (1980).

He stated that the most realistic and reasonable way to reunify the country independently, peacefully and on the principle of great national unity was to draw the north and south together into a confederal state, leaving the ideas and social systems existing in the north and south as they were. He therefore proposed a new plan to reunify the country by founding a confederal republic through the establishment of a unified national government on condition that the north and the south recognize and tolerate each other's ideas and social system, a government in which the two sides are represented on an equal footing and under which they exercise regional autonomy respectively with equal rights and duties.

He recommended that in the unified state of a confederal type a supreme national confederal assembly should be formed with an equal number of representatives from north and south and an appropriate number of representatives of overseas nationals and that this assembly should organize a confederal standing committee to guide the regional governments of the north and south and to administer all affairs of the confederal state.

He added that it would be a good idea to call the confederal state the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo.

The DCRK should be a neutral country which does not participate in any political, military alliance or bloc. As a unified state, embracing the whole of the territory and people of the country, it should pursue a policy which agrees with the fundamental interests and demands of the entire Korean people.

With its sincere efforts to achieve the peaceful reunification by founding the DCRK, the Government of the Republic put forward several new overtures for peace.

Early in Juche 73 (1984) the Republic proposed holding tripartite talks among the DPRK, the US and south Korea to conclude a peace agreement between the Republic and the United States, in place of the Armistice Agreement, and to adopt a nonaggression declaration between the north and the south, as a fundamental step towards peace on the Korean peninsula. Then in Juche 75 (1986) it took the initiative in suspending military exercises to help ease the tension and offered new proposals for talks between the military authorities and for converting the Korean peninsula into a nuclear-free peace zone.

In his policy speech delivered at the First Session of the Eighth Supreme People's Assembly on December 30, Juche 75 (1986), President Kim II Sung proposed holding high-level political and military talks between the north and the south in order to settle the urgent question of national reunification.

In his policy speech President Kim Il Sung said that if the north-south high-level political and military talks and dialogues in other spheres succeed, the north-south summit talks might be held to discuss the fundamental questions regarding national reunification.

In its statement dated July 23, Juche 76 (1987) the Government of the DPRK advanced a new proposal on massive phased military reduction. It proposed that the north and south of Korea must reduce their armed forces and each maintain a force of less than 100,000; in parallel with this, the United States should withdraw all its forces including nuclear weapons from south Korea and dismantle its military bases there. In publishing its new overture on arms reduction, the Government of the Republic announced that it would take the unilateral step of demobilizing the Korean People's Army by 100,000 men by the end of Juche 76 (1987).

On April 6, Juche 82 (1993) President Kim II Sung published the JO~Point Programme of the Great Unity of the Whole Nation for the Reunification of the Country at the Fifth Session of the Ninth Supreme People's Assembly. It is as follows:

1. A unified state, independent, peaceful and neutral, should be founded through the great unity of the whole nation.

2. Unity should be based on patriotism and the spirit of national independence.

3. Unity should be achieved on the principle of promoting co-existence, co-prosperity and common interests and subordinating everything to the cause of national reunification.

4. All political disputes that foment division and confrontation between fellow countrymen should be ended and unity should be achieved.

5. The fear of invasion from both south and north. and the ideas of prevailing over communism and communization should be dispelled, and north and south should believe in each other and unite.

6. The north and south should value democracy and join hands on the road to national reunification, without rejecting each other because of differences in ideals and principles.

7. The north and south should protect the material and spiritual wealth of individuals and organizations and encourage their use for the promotion of great national unity.

8. Understanding, trust and unity should be built up across the nation through contact, exchange visits and dialogue.

9. The whole nation, north, south and overseas. should strengthen its solidarity for the sake of national reunification.

10. Those who have contributed to the great unity of the nation and to the cause of national reunification should be honoured.

Today the people of Korea and the rest of the world earnestly wish that advances be made in the solution of reunification question of Korea. Korea's division is a tragic legacy left by the politics of the world in the 20th century. So, its continuance to the 21st century is quite abnormal.

Three Charters for National Reunification

On August 4, Juche 86 (1997) Comrade Kim Jong Il made public the works Let Us Carry Out the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung 's Instructions for National Reunification. This is a new programme which elucidaied a way to accomplish the cause of reunification. It reflects his determination to adhere to and carry out President Kim II Sung's will for reunification to the last.

In this works Comrade Kim Jong II defined the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity, the 10-point programme of the great unity of the whole nation and the plan for founding the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo as the three charters for national reunification. At the same time he clarified his programme and determination to accomplish the cause of national reunification. In addition, he provided a significant guide to the realization of independent, peaceful reunification: He stressed that relations between the north and the south should be converted into a relationship of confidence and reconciliation and that the Government of the Republic would make efforts to normalize the relations with the countries which are responsible for the Korean question.

On April 18, Juche 87 (1998) Comrade Kim Jong II made public his works Let Us Reunify the Country Independently and Peacefully through the Great Unity of the Entire Nation. In this works he advanced five principles for great national unity maintaining the principle of national independence, uniting under the banner of patriotism, the banner of national reunification, improving the relations between the north and south, fighting against the domination and interference of the foreign forces and the antireunification forces, and promoting visits, contacts, dialogues and solidarity among our compatriots. This is a great charter for national unity, a development of President Kim II Sung's idea on great national unity as suited to the requirements of the developing situation.

In reflection of the desire of the whole nation in the north, south and abroad, Comrade Kim Jong II saw to it that a great national conference, a nationwide negotiation for reunification, was held in Juche 84 (1995) to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the country from the Japanese colonial rule. This historic meeting held in Panmunjom confirmed that President Kim II Sung's proposal for reunifying the country through federation is the nation's common way to reunification. This was a historic event that marked a new milestone in the advance of the reunification movement of Korea.

With a clearer objective, orientation and principles, the Korean people have become able to step up their grand march for national reunification in the next millenium.

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Overseas Korean Nationals

The Korean nationals in Japan and other countries comprise those Koreans who were forcibly taken to Japan as labour draftees, conscripts, etc. or who drifted abroad in search of livelihood in the years of Japanese imperialist colonial rule and their descendants.

As stateless people, they were long subjected to national discrimination, deprivation of rights and destitution in alien lands. The Government of the DPRK instituted the law of nationality to provide all overseas Korean nationals with the legal status of citizens of the Republic and took a number of measures for their protection.

Today all overseas Korean nationals are striving for the reunification and prosperity of the country with a high sense of national pride and self-respect.

The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan

The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) was formed on May 25, Juche 44 (1955).

Chongryon, a powerful organization of overseas citizens of the DPRK, has a close-knit system of organization, from the Central Standing Committee down to the local prefectural headquarters, chapters and branches. It has under its wing many organizations involving all sections of society youth, women, traders and industrialists, educators, men of culture and religious men. It also has its own mass media, publishing houses, news agency, scientific, art and sports organizations and economic and trade organs.

Chongryon publishes scores of periodicals and also translates the works of President Kim II Sung and Comrade Kim Jong II and other books, and newspapers into several languages for distribution to different countries and regions throughout the world.

It has set up a well-organized educational system ranging from kindergarten to university to provide a democratic, national education for tens of thousands of sons and daughters of Koreans in Japan at hundreds of schools at all levels.

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Religion

Every citizen in the DPRK enjoys full freedom of and right to religion. The Korean Federation of Buddhists, the Korean Federation of Christians and other religious groups are a proud part of political parties and public institutions:

During the Korean War, a huge number of temples, churches and sanctuaries in Pyongyang and the rest of the country were ruined. Thereafter, Kwangbop Temple in Pyongyang, Pyohun Temple at Mt. Kumgang, Pohyon Temple at Mt. Myohyang and other Buddhist temples were rehabilitated and new churches were built.

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Political Parties and Public Organizations

The Workers' Party of Korea

The Workers' Party of Korea was founded on October 10, Juche 34(l945). The WPK is a revolutionary party of a Juche type which was founded by great Comrade Kim Il Sung and is now led by Comrade Kim Jong Il. The Party inherits the revolutionary traditions established in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and is guided solely by the Juche idea in its activities. Its immediate objective is to attain the complete victory of socialism in the northern half of Korea and carry out the tasks of national liberation, people's democratic revolution throughout the country;

its ultimate goal is to model the whole society on the Juche idea and build a communist society. The WPK is the political General Staff which organizes and leads the revolutionary struggle and construction work in Korea in a coordinated way. It assumes full responsibility for the destiny of the entire Korean people.

The Korean Social Democratic Party

The Korean Social Democratic Party was formed on November 3, Juche 34 (1945) by medium and small entrepreneurs, merchants, handicraftsmen, petit-bourgeoisie, some peasants, and Christians, out of the masses' antiimperialist, anti-feudal aspirations and demands to eliminate the aftermath of Japanese imperialist colonial rule and build a new democratic society. Its guiding idea is national social democracy befitting Korea's historical conditions and national characteristics and its basic political motto is independence, sovereignty, democracy, peace and the defence of human rights.

The Chondoist Chongu Party

The Chondoist Chongu Party is a democratic party formed on February 8, Juche 35 (1946). Its membership consists mainly of Chondoist peasants. It was formed with the objectives to oppose imperialist aggression and subjugation, join in the work to secure national independence and build a rich and strong democratic country with the patriotic idea of "defending the country and providing welfare for the people" and the independent spirit of "driving out westerners and the Japanese".

Today this party sets it as its important task to establish harmony among all members of society, strengthen solidarity among them, and build a popular welfare society with a highly-developed independent national economy and Juche-based national culture.

This party affirmed that the WPK's line of three revolutions ideological, technological and cultural is the common banner of the nation which clearly shows the way to achieve its goal of building a popular welfare society, and is striving to carry out the line.

The Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland

The Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland was formed on July 22, Juche 35 (1946). It regards it as its main duty to rally, on the basis of worker-peasant alliance, all the patriotic democratic forces desirous of the freedom and independence of the country around the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, irrespective of occupation, sex, religion, and party affiliation, actively uphold and give publicity to his revolutionary line as well as his policy for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country, and organize and mobilize the broad sections of the masses for the nationwide struggle to carry them out .

The Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League

The Democratic Youth League of Korea, the predecessor of the Kim II Sung Socialist Youth League, was founded as a mass youth organization on January 17, Juche 35 (1946), after liberation. Later it was strengthened and developed into the League of Socialist Working Youth of Korea to meet the requirements of the developing revolution.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its foundation in January Juche 85 (1996), it was renamed the Kim II Sung Socialist Youth League and entered a new phase of its development. The league is a militant organization of the youths who are to carry forward the Korean revolution. It is the reliable reserve and supporter of the Workers' Party of Korea. It is guided solely by the revolutionary idea of great Comrade Kim II Sung.

Its general objective is to equip the young masses with the Juche idea and train them into the reliable successors to the revolutionary cause of Juche. It has a membership of 5 million.

 

The General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea

The General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea is a revolutionary political organization of the working masses. It was founded on November 30, Juche 34 (1945). It conducts ideological education to ensure its members fully understand the Juche idea and gets them to take part in socialist construction and the management of the socialist economy with the attitude befitting masters. It has its organizations in different branches of industry.

The Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea

The Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea is a mass political organization of agricultural working people founded on January 31, Juche 35 (1946). It carries on ideological education to equip the agricultural working people with the Juche idea and gets them to carry out the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions successfully in the countryside along the path indicated by the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country.

The Korean Democratic Women's Union

The Korean Democratic Women's Union is a mass political organization of working women established on November 18, Juche 34 (1945) It conducts ideological education to arm women with the Juche idea, transform them into revolutionaries and assimilate them into the working class and thus promote the transformation of the whole society into revolutionary and working-class patterns and enhance their role in revolution and construction.

In addition there are such public organizations as the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, the Korean Journalists Union, the General Federation of the Unions of Literature and Art of Korea, the Korean National Peace Committee, the Korean Democratic Lawyers Association, the Korean Students Committee, the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World's People, the Korean Committee for Afro-Asian Solidarity, the Korean Buddhists Federation, the Korean Christians Federation, the Korean Chondoist Church Central Guidance Committee and the Korean Catholics Association.

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Fundamental Rights of Citizens

The DPRK practically guarantees the people genuine political freedom and rights according to the fundamental requirement of the Juche idea for enhancing man's independence and creativity in every way.

In the DPRK the rights and duties of citizens are based on the collectivist principle, "One for all and all for one." The Socialist Constitution of the DPRK specifies that the state effectively guarantees all the conditions for the democratic rights and liberties as well as the material and cultural well-being of the citizens.

All the citizens who have reached 17 years of age have the right to elect and to be elected, irrespective of sex, race, occupation, length of residence, property status, education, party affiliation, political views and religion. They also have freedom of speech, the press, assembly, demonstration and association, freedom of religious beliefs and they are entitled to submit complaints and petitions.

The workers, peasants and other working people, as masters of power, participate in state administration and freely engage in socio-political activities in political parties and public organizations.

The working people have the right to work and rest, the right to education and free medical care and freedom of scientific, literary and artistic pursuits. Women are accorded equal social status and rights with men. The state affords special privilege to mothers and children. Marriage and the family are protected by the state.

The working people are guaranteed inviolability of the person and the home and privacy of correspondence. The rights and freedom of citizens steadily increase with the consolidation and development of the socialist system.

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Socio-Economic System

Self-reliant National Economy

After liberation, the DPRK government conducted the building of the self-reliant national economy from the beginning of constructing a new society and it stepped the work up on a full-scale after the Korean War. President Kim II Sung set forth the main line of economic construction; that is to prioritize heavy industry and seek simultaneous development of light industry and agriculture and wisely led to embody it at every stage of the economic construction.

The country had to start from scratch in the postwar time since everything was destroyed. It is since then on the Korean people rebuilt the factories in a short span of time and produced steel by their own efforts, and manufactured the huge machine tools, large scale excavators, heavy trucks, electric locomotives, large ships, 10 000-ton¬level of huge press and other huge machines and precision machines.

Thanks to the successful implementation of the task of overall technical revolution relying on its own powerful heavy industry bases, various sectors of the national economy were put on a firm footing of modern technology and the economy was equipped with a well-streamlined modern national self-reliant economy. And many sided, modernized system of independent national economy which relies mainly on its own materials and fuels has been completed.

General Kim Jong Il inherited the main line of building a socialist economy which President Kim Il Sung put forward and maintained consistently and develop in accordance with the changed reality to present the new line of giving priority to the development of national defence industry while simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture for economic construction in Songun era. The Korean people regarded this line as the powerful weapon for building a great prosperous and powerful socialist country and did their best to realize this so that they made unprecedented great leap and great innovation in economic construction.

 

Socialist Ownership

The DPRK is the socialist country that socialist ownership of the means of production has been regarded as an economic foundation. The socialist ownership of the means of production, the economic foundation of the republic consists of state ownership and the ownership of cooperative organizations.

State ownership means ownership by the entire people and there is no limitation in the object of state ownership. All natural resources, main factories and enterprises, harbours, banks, transportation means and communication organizations are only owned by the state.

The ownership of cooperative organizations is the collective ownership of the working people in the cooperative economy. The cooperative organizations can own land, drought animals, farming tools, fishing boats, buildings, main factories and enterprises.

State ownership was realized through the nationalization of major industries and expanded rapidly with the development of state-run industry. Ownership by cooperative organizations was realized through socialist reforms on production relations strengthened and developed fast according to the development of agriculture.

 

Management of Socialist Economy

The government of the DPRK leads and manages the economy by the principle of right combination between political leadership and economic and technical guidance, the unified leadership of the state and creativity of every unit democracy and unified control, the political and moral incentives and material incentives.

The unified and detailed planning, created by President Kim Il Sung and intensified and developed by General Kim Jong Il, is the best scientific and revolutionary system of planning and method. The unified planning prevents in advance the departmentalism and localism of the producers and subjectivism and bureaucratism of the state organs by combining the state's centralized guidance with the mass line so that it helps to draw up dynamic and scientific plan.

The detailed planning helps to grant the whole and detailed balance of national economy by calculating every element of production concretely and enabling all the branches to come into the finest details in managerial activities in a nationwide scale. Thus, it helps to eliminate the factors of imbalance and spontaneity in economic development and develop national economy rapidly.

 

Labour System

The socialist labour system in the DPRK is the one that is centered on the popular masses, and it provides the working people with independent and creative labor lives free from exploitation and oppression. In the socialist system of the country where people are masters of the state and society, every working-age citizen has the right to labor on equal terms irrespective of nationality, sex, age, social affiliation and religious belief.

The rights to labor include free choice of occupations, offering stable jobs and labor conditions and rewards for labor according to quality and quantity of labor. In the country where unemployment was gone long ago, the right of a citizen to labor has been proclaimed and substantially provided .by law. The labor law which was proclaimed in June, Juche 35 (1946) introduced a 8-hour labor regime and was reinforced by the Socialist Labor Law newly adopted in April, Juche 68 (1979). The daily labor span is also 7 hours or 6 hours according to the conditions of heavy and special labors.

The socialist reward-for-labor regime is materialized through salaries, bonus and bounty according to the quality and quantity of labor and through distribution by working-day in the cooperative economy. Under-age child labor is totally prohibited in the country.  

 

The State and Social Benefits

Apart from gains by labor, the people enjoy enormous additional benefits from the state thanks to socialist policies enforced by the Party and the government.

Food Supply Benefit
The state supplies food to workers, office employees and even newly-born babies. The state purchases rice at the price of 189 won per kg and corn at 96 won per kg from cooperative farms and sells rice at 46 won and corn-processed noodles at 33 won.

Benefits from Providing Houses
The state is involved in building and allotting dwelling houses free of charge, and the people are ignorant of dwelling tax. It is the only country that builds and allots dwelling houses for working people and bears most of the utility costs. The state builds rural dwelling houses for nothing and never receives rentals from the cooperative farmers.

Benefits from Free Medical Care
The country enforced free medical care for workers, office workers and their dependents since January Juche 36 (1947). Universal free medical care was enforced since January, Juche 42 (1953) and the complete, universal free medical care since February, Juche 49 (1960).
Thus, the state bears totally the expenses of medical checkups and treatment, bed and board in hospitals, medicines, and even travel costs to and from sanatoria.

Benefits from Free Education
The country enforced universal free education at all educational institutes since Juche 48 (1959). Today the country offers the complete 11-year compulsory free education which enables from kindergarteners to university students to study free of charge. Even college and university students are learning supported by scholarships from the state.

Benefits from Tax Exemption
Thanks to the popular policies pursued by the Party and the government of the Republic, the country eliminated the devilish tax regime enforced by the Japanese imperialists, landlords and capitalists and gradually reduced some taxes which led to abolishing the agricultural tax in kind in Juche 55 (1966) and a small amount of income taxes paid by workers and office workers in April Juche 63 (1974), thus completely eliminating the tax regime, a legacy of the old society.

Benefits from Social Insurance and Social Security System
Female workers take 5 months of maternity leave, and in case of having more than 3 children, receive salaries equivalent to 8 hours' work even though they work for 6 hours. When workers become physically impaired due to diseases, wounds and other factors, they are provided with relevant subsidies, treatment and living conditions from the state. Old pensioners (men over 60, women over 55) receive pensions and old people and orphans devoid of care receive living conditions from the state.

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Political System

Character, Tasks and Ultimate Goal of the State

The DPRK is an independent socialist state representing the interests of all the Korean people. The Republic is the Juche-oriented socialist state which embodies the idea and leadership of Comrade Kim II Sung, the founder of the Republic and the father of socialist Korea. His idea and the achievements made under his leadership are the basic guarantee for the Republic's prosperity.

The socialist system of the Republic is a people-centred social system in which the masses of the working people are the masters of everything and everything in society serves them. In accordance with the nature of its socialist system, the Government of the Republic defends and protects the interests of workers, peasants and intellectuals and all other working people who have become masters of state and society, free from exploitation and oppression.

It is the fundamental revolutionary task for the Government of the Republic to achieve the complete victory of socialism in the northern half of Korea by strengthening the people's power and vigorously performing the three revolutions the ideological, technological and cultural and to reunify the country on the principle of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity.

Under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea the Republic and the Korean people uphold the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung as the eternal President of the Republic and are speeding up the historic march to carry the revolutionary cause started by him through to completion by inheriting and carrying forward his ideas and achievements.

 

System of State Organs

Power Organs

Power organs consist mainly of the central power organ and local power organ. The central power organ is the Supreme People's Assembly and the SPA standing committee during its recession. Local power organ is the people's assembly at all levels.

The Supreme People's Assembly is the supreme power organ of the Republic. It holds a highest position and authority of the Republic and exercises legislative power. It has also the rights to organize the important state organs.

The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly is the supreme power organ during its recession. Local people's assembly is the local power organ and includes provincial (or the city under the direct jurisdiction) people's assemblies, city (or district) people's assemblies and county people's assemblies. 

National Defence Commission

What is most important in the state administration system is the authority of the national defence commission. The National Defence Commission is the supreme military guidance commission in the national sovereign organ and the general national defence administrative organ.

It is the standing supreme power organ of the national defence sector, and at the same time, this becomes the backbone organ in the state administrative organ as an administration organ. The post of the chairman of the National Defence Commission is the highest post of the state where he commands all the work of the politics, military and economy and defends the state system of the socialist country and defends the destiny of the people and organizes and leads the work to strengthen and develop the national defensive power and general state power.

Administration Organs

This consists of central administration and local administration organs. Central administration organ is the cabinet and the local administration organs are the local people's committee at all levels. The cabinet is the government of the Republic. As the administrative execution body and the general state management body of a supreme organ, the cabinet carries out the laws, decrees, decisions and orders and has been seizing in a unified way all the works in the state management and gives a nationwide guidance.

Local power organs are composed of provincial (or the city under the direct jurisdiction) people's committees, city (or district) people's committees and county people's committees. And they also are the administrative executive bodies.

Prosecutorial and Justice System

The prosecutorial body is a state organ supervises the observance and execution of the socialist law. This system has central prosecutorial office, provincial (or the city under the direct jurisdiction), city (or district), county prosecutorial offices and special prosecutorial offices.

The central prosecutorial office controls over all the work in a unified way. The justice body is a state organ exercising the socialist judicial power.

The justice organs have the central court, provincial (or the city under the direct jurisdiction) courts, people's courts and special courts. Every court has judges and people's assessors. The central court is the supreme justice body of the country.

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