Officials of the North Phyongan Provincial Committee always keep in their hearts the stories of "The Resolution Made on the Rubber Boat" and "The Party Decision Adopted on the Submerged Paddy Field," and are powerfully striding forward in selfless service for the people and the resolute implementation of Party policy.

Even today, whenever they recall the stories that bring tears to the eyes of our people—"The Resolution Made on the Rubber Boat," "The Party Decision Adopted on the Submerged Paddy Field," those legendary tales of devotion for the people—the officials of the North Phyongan Provincial Committee are filled with extraordinary passion and excitement.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

"Transforming ideals into reality through unyielding and perfect practice, unbound by given conditions, is the sacred mission and true character of struggle of our revolutionaries, who have taken upon themselves the beautiful and grandiose revolutionary task of comprehensive development."

From the day He personally commanded the rescue battle to save thousands of people at the stormy airfield, through the days of endless on-the-spot guidance and deep benevolent measures of the respected President of the State Affairs for the disaster-stricken areas of North Phyongan Province, a great advance was brought about in the ideological spirit and work style of the people of North Phyongan Province, particularly the officials of the province.

The on-the-spot guidance of the respected President of the State Affairs for the disaster-stricken areas of North Phyongan Province, specially recorded in the history of our Party, and the achievements made thereby, provided the Party organizations and officials here with a valuable textbook and experience to be used as a guideline in selfless service for the people and the resolute implementation of Party policy.

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The Rubber Boat of That Day Still Stirs Up Surging Waves

Today, every official of North Phyongan Province has a historical point that serves as a mirror of Party conscience, which they always keep in their hearts and before which they endlessly reflect on their work.

Driving about four kilometers from downtown Sinuiju toward Uiju County, a railway crossing the road and huge embankments stretching on both sides appear. This is precisely the spot where the field train of the respected President of the State Affairs stopped when it broke through the heart of the severe disaster last July. Here, the respected President of the State Affairs boarded a rubber boat to directly reconnoiter the submerged area.

Now it is a beautiful homeland where embankments, stout as an iron wall, soar and a life pulsating with peace and happiness unfolds along the green paddies where rice plants grow fresh like rows of trees, but at that time, it was a horrific wasteland where everything was submerged. The officials of North Phyongan Province know better than anyone how perilous the path of the rubber boat was, cutting through those waters and causing ripples, and what heart-stopping dangers the field train, where the Enlarged Emergency Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee was held, was facing.

For the officials of North Phyongan Province, that starting point, from which the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un brought the dawn of a revolution that would transform the mountains and rivers, the life, and the people through His sacrificial practice, was a point of awakening and exertion that made them keenly realize, as warriors making revolution upholding the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, the attitude with which they must approach their responsibilities before the Party and the people today. From that time, all work organization and review of the Provincial Party Committee proceeded based on the measure of conscience that one is not an official of North Phyongan Province if they forget for even a moment the surging waves stirred by the rubber boat of that day and the sound of the miracle from the field train.

There was an incident during the work review of the Provincial Party Committee early this year.

The responsible official of the Province called the relevant officials regarding the preparation of the review report. The problem pointed out sharply by the responsible official was as follows:

The most important clause of the Provincial Party Committee work review was not emphasized. Just because the year changed and the life of the people in the disaster area has stabilized, can we officials of the Provincial Party Committee forget the rubber boat and field train of that day? This must be the absolute measure for reviewing all affairs of North Phyongan Province, not just for one year, but even after ten years pass and generations change.

The responsible official of the Province presented the basic theme of the work review:

"First, are we always ready to receive the respected President of the State Affairs? Second, if we receive the respected President of the State Affairs in our Province, do we have laudable achievements worthy of bringing Him joy?"

This story about the unchanging clause of the Provincial Party Committee work review contains the answer to the secret behind all the achievements made in North Phyongan Province over the past year.

They are the officials of North Phyongan Province who engraved in their hearts, not as theory but as an unforgettable experience, the weight of each character of the large slogan, made of solid granite erected in front of the main gate of the Provincial Party Committee: "Let Us Be Infinitely Loyal to the Ideology and Leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un!"

Looking back, there is no region in this country today that is not passionately inscribed with the immortal achievements and revolutionary anecdotes of the respected President of the State Affairs that move countless people, as in the case of North Phyongan. The times solemnly ask the officials of the Party committees of each region.

Do the passion and pledge of that day remain in the pages of history, or do they continue to burn as sparks of exertion in the work achievements worthy of the Party Central's special assistant unit, to which the respected President of the State Affairs can safely entrust the destiny of the province's people and Party policy?

The struggle to push forward with both the work for implementing the decisions of the 8th Party Congress and disaster recovery was an unprecedentedly heavy task for North Phyongan Province. However, the Provincial Party Committee treated this opportunity, as intended by the respected President of the State Affairs, as a new starting line for the transformation of North Phyongan Province and as a process of cadre revolutionization bringing about a great leap in the officials' ideological, mental state and abilities. Here, the main focus was to make the officials work with a correct understanding that absolute loyalty to the respected President of the State Affairs is evaluated by their viewpoint towards our great people, whom the President of the State Affairs upholds like heaven, their attitude of selfless service willing to risk their lives for the people, and their ability to create miracles by relying on those people.

There was a shocking opportunity that made the officials of the province realize how wonderful our people are and what kind of miracles the explosion of their spiritual strength brings.

It was late July of last year, when floodwaters over the Amnok River threatened Sinuiju City hour by hour. As all residents of the city were hastily evacuated to the South Sinuiju area, the place, where a huge population was suddenly concentrated, became chaotic in an instant. Although all officials were mobilized, it was not easy to maintain order. Then, from the broadcasting propaganda truck of the City Party Committee, a female broadcaster's voice shook the streets.

"The respected President of the State Affairs came out to an airfield not far from here and personally commanded the aerial rescue battle to save thousands of lives to the very end. Everyone was rescued without a single casualty. Now that place is..."

The city became silent in an instant. Until then, the citizens had not known that fact. The broadcaster's voice was filled with emotion, and the citizens shed tears.

The citizens began to act in an orderly manner according to the instructions of the officials. In accordance with the measures taken by the respected President of the State Affairs, relief materials and support materials sent from all over the country arrived one after another, and amidst the shocking story of the rubber boat and field train once again shaking the streets, the flow of the citizens' passionate emotions, which continued to gush out like lava, curved and flowed towards the construction site where the mosaic visual artwork portraying the loving image of the respected President of the State Affairs was newly being installed at the entrance of the South Sinuiju area.

The fact that Sinuiju City was the first among the provincial capitals of the country to install a mosaic visual artwork portraying the loving image of the respected President of the State Affairs overlooking the abundant farm fields, and that subsequently many cities and counties also respectfully installed them, has this story as its burning core. This fact made the Party organizations and officials within the province keenly realize through actual experience that the irresistible force that can turn any severe crisis into a miraculous victory lies precisely in the people, and what kind of political and ideological work is most effective in moving the hearts of those people.

Never before had the public sentiment of the province been so fervently heated. The ideological feelings of the people, who became direct experiencers and witnesses of the sacred devotion for the people of the respected President of the State Affairs, boiled fiercely with the desire to repay the Party's grace.

Making Party policy yield actual silver in the lives of the people is the most powerful political work. The Provincial Party Committee made all officials roll up their sleeves and work to ensure that the warm benevolence of the respected President of the State Affairs and the policies and measures adopted by the Party reach the lives of the people timely and warmly.

Along with this, they roused the officials to genuine and effective political and educational work to root out the formalism that remained in ideological work and to make the people's fervent feelings of gratitude and absolute trust in the Party flare up into the flames of the struggle for the implementation of Party policy.

The Provincial Party Committee began the improvement from ideological work, as taught by the respected President of the State Affairs. Regardless of department or position, they made all officials care about ideological work and consider mobilizing the spiritual strength of the masses to the maximum as the first process of work.

The fact that the work to better arrange the Provincial Revolutionary History Museum was completed in just half a year, and that during the period of the arduous disaster recovery struggle at that, and that the revolutionary history education rooms of dozens of regions and units, including Uiju County, Unsan County, Kwaksan County, Sinuiju Textile Mill, Sinuiju Cosmetics Factory, and Sinuiju Chemical Fiber Mill, were even more splendidly arranged, alone is sufficient to gauge how much and in what way the North Phyongan Provincial Party Committee valued the improvement of ideological work over the past year.

Under the guidance of the Provincial Party Committee, the Sinuiju City Party Committee took a big step in making the entire province become a slogan collection and education ground by brightly displaying hundreds more slogans and placards, including slogans with fire decorations in the border gateway city, and spreading the model of the provincial capital to cities and counties.

In accordance with the intention of the respected President of the State Affairs, the Provincial Party Committee unfolded an unprecedented ideological and political work operation to mobilize all of North Phyongan Province for a grand creative struggle to birth not simply disaster recovery, but another new model entity of local transformation.

Propaganda and agitation forces of various names, including the Provincial Party Officials Economic Agitation Team and the Provincial Party Intensive Lecture Propaganda Team, vigorously conducted on-site economic agitation activities at the main fronts of Party policy implementation and units with Party leadership achievements. Whatever agitation, whichever official did it, the political work to rouse the masses was uniformly permeated with stories of the ardent love and devotion of the respected President of the State Affairs for the people of North Phyongan Province, such as "The Resolution Made on the Rubber Boat" and "The Party Decision Adopted on the Submerged Paddy Field." As it was not an old story or someone else's affair, but a story about their own hometown and their own flesh and blood, every North Phyongan person had teary eyes, was deeply moved, and jumped to their feet.

The process of ideological and political work of the North Phyongan officials, who led the boundless admiration for the great Father, whom the people believe and follow like heaven, to tenacious miracle creation, is becoming a good experience for officials of the entire Party.

The respected President of the State Affairs, while providing on-the-spot guidance at the Sinuiju Greenhouse Complex Farm construction site and the permanent embankment construction site in the island area, emphasized that the miracles of construction desired by our Party are guaranteed by the conscious and heightened spiritual strength of the masses, and that we must create a model for political and ideological educational work at construction sites. This teaching is becoming another valuable guideline and goal for the ideological work of the North Phyongan Provincial Party Committee.

Not long ago, a performance of the musical dance story "Our Father," created by the Provincial Art Troupe, was successfully held in North Phyongan Province. This work, which conveys the legendary virtues of the respected President of the State Affairs who saved the people's lives amidst nature's fury, took unprecedented special measures to bring unimagined full happiness, and built a paradise envied by the world upon the wasteland of disaster, gripped the heartstrings of everyone.

The Provincial Party Committee initiated the creation of the musical dance story in August of last year, when the public sentiment of North Phyongan began to boil with the love and benevolence of the respected President of the State Affairs for the flood victims, and devoted heartfelt guidance to complete it in a short period unimaginable in the past and raise the curtain on the first performance on October 10. This distinctive artistic work, performed while continuously supplementing the content with the continuously bestowed warm benevolent grace of the respected President of the State Affairs for the people of North Phyongan Province, played a truly great role in educating the people and officials of the province about the greatness of our Party and rousing them to the struggle for the implementation of Party policy.

The officials of North Phyongan Province, while carrying out the most vast and responsible tasks during the most difficult and arduous period, acquired the valuable experience that the power of Party work, where the greatness of our Party and public sentiment, the correctness of Party policy and people's livelihood, ideological work and reality are closely united as one, gives birth to miracles that surpass imagination, and that this is the fundamental secret behind all innovative achievements. The respected President of the State Affairs taught the officials of North Phyongan Province the true meaning contained in the slogan "Everything for the people, everything by relying on the popular masses!" through His own noble practice.

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Who Should Open the Gate to Local Transformation?

Personally nurturing and improving the ideological viewpoint and ability of the Party organizations and officials of each region who will spearhead the implementation of the Party's local development policy forms a major part of the energetic revolutionary activities of the respected President of the State Affairs for local transformation. Correctly perceiving the Party's intention and aligning one's preparedness and work practice accordingly is emerging as a matter of life and death for officials who are responsible for the destiny of a region's people and the results of Party policy execution today.

From the end of July last year, through the sleepless on-the-spot guidance of the respected President of the State Affairs that began on that day of disaster, the officials of North Phyongan Province most passionately realized one thing. It is that repaying the people's pure belief and the heavy trust bestowed by the Party and state with a determination to risk life and death and unconditional practice is the qualification of an official, a commanding member of the revolution of our times.

Witnessing directly the extraordinary sense of responsibility and indomitable practical ability of the respected President of the State Affairs, who without hesitation offered Himself even in life-and-death danger, overcame the crises facing the country and the people, transformed the impossible into miracles, and tirelessly elevated and expanded the advance of the times, the officials of North Phyongan Province coldly reflected themselves against that sublime example.

There can be nothing for which an official is not responsible in his region, his sector, his unit. If such a thing exists, the consequences arising from it will be paid for by the loss of the country and the people, and ultimately, it will become a heavy burden on the shoulders of the respected President of the State Affairs. The officials of North Phyongan Province keenly felt this in their heartrending self-reproach. This is not a lesson to be discussed only for the officials of North Phyongan Province.

It was when the Provincial Party Committee organized for the provincial officials and city and county responsible officials to watch the performance of the musical dance story "Our Father." The tears that moistened the eyes of the officials as they watched the performance were different in weight from the passionate tears shed by the people. The serious reflection and pledge of exertion that struck the officials' hearts—if we fail to do our part, will the respected President of the State Affairs have to break through such perilous paths again, and would that not be an unforgivable act before the Party and the people?

The officials of North Phyongan Province saw with their own eyes during those days when unexpected crisis descended what the qualities and abilities of a commanding member of the revolution of our times, desired by the respected President of the State Affairs, are like. With the know-how that they must work with a sense of responsibility for devoted service that knows to stand at the vanguard before giving orders, like the heroic flight leader of the People's Air Force who received high praise from the respected President of the State Affairs for the miracle of the aerial rescue battle to save flood victims, the officials stepped out with a new stride. The executive members of the Provincial Party Committee themselves took charge of the most difficult fronts of the disaster recovery struggle imposed on the province.

One of the most urgent tasks facing the officials of North Phyongan Province at that time was the water supply project to urgently resolve the water guarantee problem of Sinuiju City, which had reached the worst state due to the disaster. The situation, where even the water trucks of the People's Army were mobilized to supply water according to the emergency measures taken by the respected President of the State Affairs, made the Provincial Party Committee realize that they must surpass their normal capacity several times over.

Under the guidance of the Provincial Party Committee, the officials of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office who took charge and saw through the water supply project still say with deep emotion whenever they recall that time that they did it with the determination to report to the respected President of the State Affairs as soon as possible that water supply to the people had normalized, even if it meant digging a thousand ri underground and connecting water pipes.

An official's ability grows not with the height of their position, but with the awareness of their responsibility.

Under the high goal of fundamentally solving the water problem of the Sinuiju area on this occasion, large-scale projects were launched, including newly building catchment wells and pumping stations.

The responsible officials of the Province came to the construction site several times a day. Women's union members in the city were mobilized, and families of prosecutor's office officials came out to support. After months of round-the-clock hard struggle, clear water finally gushed out from the water pipes, and it is said that hot tears flowed from the eyes of the officials.

What should be emphasized is that the officials of the province accomplished these enormous tasks of disaster recovery while also carrying out their own revolutionary tasks and executing policy tasks. All institutions, all departments, all officials of the province ran and ran at a speed several times faster than in the past, carrying an additional load on top of their existing burden, and on that, yet another added load.

The fruits were as great as the hardship. Tasks that would not have been dared in the past were boldly unfolded here and there, and miraculous achievements were made one after another, to the surprise of the protagonists themselves. Along with those achievements, as new standards and experiences that transcended precedent and limitations accumulated, the officials' courage grew and their abilities grew. The preparation process for the operation of the Sinuiju Greenhouse Complex Farm, a task given by the respected President of the State Affairs, is an intuitive miniature that typically shows the change that occurred in the work ability of the North Phyongan officials.

The operation preparation of the large greenhouse farm, unparalleled in its vastness, originality, and comprehensiveness, is a task that requires as much immense effort as construction. From the composition of employees and training of technicians and skilled workers, equipment manufacturing, seed procurement and fertilizer production, to the preparation of fruit tree seedlings and turf to plant in the greenhouse sections from afforestation and windbreak forests, the effort and labor required were truly not simple. It was all the more burdensome because it was the first time for every official. It was a task that would not have been dared in the past.

To perfectly prepare for the greenhouse operation, the officials poured out all their wisdom and passion. Finding thousands of tons of humus soil sources buried in a certain area, and enabling the massive amount of turf and fruit tree seedlings to be cultivated locally and fully guaranteed even though the island area is sandy soil, were clever ideas that emerged from the process of painstaking exploration by the Provincial Party Committee.

Whenever facing difficulties and challenges, the officials of the province say they ask themselves this: Is there a single thing in today's construction of a powerful country to mention precedent and limitations, conditions and calculation?

Practice proved that before the spirit of absolute and unconditional execution of the words of the respected President of the State Affairs, there can be no impossibility. The Provincial Party Committee powerfully pushed forward the vast construction projects entrusted to the province to transform the island area into a new model of local development, while also firmly and comprehensively pushing forward all tasks presented as Party policy without missing a single one, including farming and rural housing construction, land management and implementation of the childcare policy, and work for improving people's livelihoods.

Under the initiative and guidance of the Provincial Party Committee, the fact that nearly 400 dairy product production bases in the province's cities, counties, and farms this year were all rebuilt and modernized to a level that could be a model for the whole country, that tens of thousands of goats were secured to greatly advance in milk powder production, that highly effective wood vinegar production bases were established in thousands of farms and work teams to improve crop growth even under unfavorable weather conditions, that 500 nutritional rice transplanting machines along with hundreds of mobile grain dryers and mobile threshers were produced and introduced with their own strength and technology, and that the Kujang Cement Plant achieved unprecedented production increases—these are merely fragmentary examples. The severe trials brought by nature rather hardened the belief in self-reliance of the North Phyongan officials, and the struggle that once again transcended the limits of will doubled their abilities.

The fierce waves stirred by the rubber boat of that day and the sound of the miracle from the field train echoing over the submerged paddy field awakened all city and county officials of North Phyongan Province.

The era of transformation does not come automatically to each locality just because new local industry factories are built. As the respected President of the State Affairs earnestly emphasized, the direct bearers of the great revolutionary work for realizing the local development policy are none other than the responsible officials of cities and counties. Bearing this teaching in mind, the North Phyongan Provincial Party Committee placed the focus of guidance on the struggle of cities and counties for local transformation on enhancing the abilities of the responsible officials.

In the guidance of the Provincial Party Committee on the work of the city and county responsible officials, the standard was to emulate the extraordinary leadership ability of the respected President of the State Affairs, who transforms the horrific disaster area into a distinctive stronghold of local development with solid development potential and a symbol of innovative prosperity. The work of the Provincial Party Committee, which actively aroused a sense of responsibility and enthusiasm in every city and county responsible official to inscribe their hometown's name with their own hands with pride in the new era history of local transformation, and guided and helped them with all its strength, had great vitality.

The Sinuiju City Party Committee found a lesson in the work style of making grand pledges that remained in every corner of work, and the responsible officials rolled up their sleeves and came forward to meticulously inspect the sluice gates of the Amnok River embankment, eliminating all risk factors that had been neglected for a long time, and roused the citizens to firmly build nearly 100 ri of embankment. They are also examining tasks for the people with new eyes and a new mindset, and substantially carrying them out to bring real benefit to the people and ensure normalization. They are generating a good response from citizens by splendidly concrete-paving even the corners of the most traveled roads and residential districts, and normalizing the operation of nearly 100 intra-city passenger buses by even painting them well.

Sakju County, which built the largest stylish gymnasium in the country, saw through the beautiful embankment stone laying along the Amnok River in just a few months; Changsong County, which splendidly arranged the revolutionary history museum and is diligently increasing the number of fine breed sheep sent by the Party—although they are mountainous counties, they are struggling with all their might to stand in the ranks of the times.

In Sonchon County, they established wood vinegar and nutrient solution production bases at the county-owned organic compound fertilizer factory and farms, produced many mobile threshers, and meanwhile secured modern tractors, thereby further strengthening the material and technical foundation of the agricultural sector, and from this year's grain farming, they took the foremost position nationally.

Taechon County, which is at the forefront of the national forest restoration project, had the honor of receiving the title of Model Forest County this past May.

Unsan County, renowned as a model of land management, not only boldly pushed forward and achieved results in vast sections of embankment construction once again, but is also pushing forward local construction and rural construction under an ambitious goal to raise the cultural level of the county people to be enviable even to the provincial capital, including erecting the culture hall as a creation of the times that will not be shameful even decades later.

Chongju City is rapidly prospering. The sincere attitude of selfless service and devoted sincerity of the City Party Committee, which strives to protect the people's trust in the Party and firmly connect Party policy and people's livelihood as a solid blood vessel by establishing a people's livelihood reporting system and going deeper and closer among the people, is becoming the powerful driving force of prosperity. Particularly, it draws attention that the city's officials, greatly shocked by the fact that the respected President of the State Affairs arranged excellent classrooms for students from the disaster area at the April 25 Hotel and even observed a model lesson, are conducting active work under the bold determination to change the educational environment and conditions of about 40 schools in the city not in ten years but within one year.

"Let our Chongju City be the first to open the gate to local transformation!" This is the writing on the large bulletin board prominently displayed on the streets of Chongju City. Not only Chongju City, but from all cities and counties of North Phyongan Province, even from the small mountainous county of Tongchang County among them, such confident and powerful voices are resounding. The heartrending echo of the pledge "The Marshal and the People of North Phyongan," which exploded at the climax of the musical dance story "Our Father," thus endlessly shakes the rivers and mountains and the public sentiment of North Phyongan.

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Finishing our coverage, we once again visited that historic site in the Sonsang-dong area of Sinuiju City, which cannot be forgotten. There was no marker. But the marker that tells the story of that day is firmly erected in the hearts of the North Phyongan officials.

The transformation of the localities begins with the improvement of the local officials. That improvement starts from the awareness and practice of taking full responsibility for the destiny of one's local people and Party policy, in accordance with the intention of the respected President of the State Affairs. This is a truth that the officials of North Phyongan Province clearly engraved once again through their struggle experience over the past year.

As long as the waves stirred by the rubber boat of that day and the sound of the miracle from the field train do not cease for a moment in the hearts of the officials, North Phyongan will not slow down in the slightest the speed and intensity of the struggle of exertion that started anew from this point in history.

Correspondent Ri Kyong Sop

Special Correspondent Kim Myong Hun