The Proud Path of the Party Center's Special Force, the Powerful Youth Construction Brigade, Displaying Its Heroic Creative Prowess

 

Retracing the 50-Year History of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade

Great Trust, Precious Honor

Kim Il Sung Order

Congratulatory Message from the Great Leader: 6 times

Message of Thanks from the Great Leader: 1 time

Congratulatory Message from the Great General: 2 times

Message of Thanks and Gratitude from the Great General: 13 times

Congratulatory Message from the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea: 10 times

Message of Thanks from the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea: 2 times

National Flag Order First Class

Holder of the Kim Jong Il Order: 1 person

Labor Heroes: 22 persons

Citation from the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung: 1 person

Citation from the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il: 90 persons

Citation from the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un: 24 persons

Recipients of the Kim Il Sung Youth Honor Prize: 183 persons

Recipients of the Kim Jong Il Youth Honor Prize: 15 persons

...

Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade!

Fifty years have passed since that proud and reliable youth construction brigade, blowing the bugle of its founding, powerfully stamped its first mark.

Having glorified the precious business card imbued with the Party's trust and expectations with loyalty and precious sweat, and having erected numerous monumental creations everywhere the nation directed over the past decades, the immortal feats of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade shine proudly today along with the great history of our Party and motherland.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

"The Party Center intends to advance the great prosperous era of construction by placing the Youth Shock Brigade at the forefront, together with the People's Army construction units."

The path of struggle traversed by the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade is a glorious path of growth into the Party Center's special force, a powerful youth construction brigade, amidst the great trust and love of the peerlessly great men, and is a year-ring of loyalty and patriotism that has powerfully displayed the unique heroic creative spirit of Korean youth and proudly illuminated the era and times.

The Primary Motive Force for Creating Miracles and Feats

At the recently held commemorative meeting for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade, a congratulatory message from the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea to the members and commanders of the shock brigade was solemnly delivered.

To repay the repeated love and trust of the Party with loyalty, the members and commanders here are now waging a vigorous struggle to turn the impossible into possible and erect grand creations of eternal value on every front of the construction of a powerful and prosperous nation, including the construction site of the Sinuiju Greenhouse General Farm.

The Party's trust is the primary motive force of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade.

Looking back, it is the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade that was born within the great trust of the great Party and has engraved 50 years of miracles and feats into the history of the motherland.

An article in the February 17, 1975, issue of the Rodong Sinmun contained the following:

...

Our wise youth socialist builders, overflowing with loyal passion and revolutionary spirit, once again raised high the great torch of loyalty. These youth socialist builders, infinitely loyal to the Great Leader and the Party Center, embracing a heart of loyalty to greet the glorious 30th anniversary of our Party's founding with a victors' grand festival, joined the newly organized Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade and vowed to complete the tasks of railway electrification and new railway construction presented by the Leader in the New Year's Address before October 10th, to present it as a gift to the Fatherly Leader and the Party Center.

...

It was the historic moment that first announced the existence of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade to the world.

But people did not all know then that the Great General, early in the year, had already mentioned, while greeting the 30th anniversary of the Party's founding, that by developing work with something like a youth shock brigade, one could firmly do their part in socialist construction and, especially, excellently cultivate youth into talented persons through practical struggle, and had personally named the newly organized shock brigade "Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade."

Possessing that trust as vast as the sky, the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade, from its very beginning, fully displayed the spirit and courage of youth at the sites of great socialist construction.

The fighting spirit of the youth shock brigade members who rushed to the Pyongyang-Madong railway electrification construction site was exceptional.

In fact, they were very lacking in both construction experience and physical training. But what was deeply engraved in each of their hearts was the single thought of repaying the Party's trust with loyalty. With the dispatch certificate from the Party Central Committee deeply held in their hearts, they greatly accelerated the construction speed and completed a project that should normally take over two years in less than two months.

So admirable was the youth shock brigade that from its first steps took the lead in implementing the Party's conception, that the Great Leader personally sent a message of loving congratulations.

How was the fervor of repayment of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members who carried out the Huichon-Koin railway electrification?

The Party Center called us to the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade. Even if our bodies become sleepers and rails, let us finish the construction quickly and report our loyalty!

This was the unanimous pledge of the shock brigade members that resonated everywhere on the construction site. During the work of lowering the roadbed, when trains came running, they made their bodies into sleepers to let the trains pass, while stubbornly pushing forward the construction, completing it by September 9th of that year.

After that, the new railway construction between Kujang-Parwon was completed in just seven months, followed by the completion of new railway constructions and railway electrification projects including Tanchon-Kumgol and Kilju-Hyesan.

The great trust of the Great General, who entrusted the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade with important construction projects to be carried out according to the Party's conception, and his fiery love, even personally coming to the construction sites where the shock brigade members worked to encourage their struggle, and even sending a loving airplane for shock brigade members in mortal danger due to an unexpected flood, were the precious motive force that enabled the youth to perform miracles and feats.

The glorious news of struggle of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade, performing feats everywhere the nation directed, made the whole country seethe with excitement. From all over the country, numerous youth passionately appealed to join the shock brigade.

Afterwards, the shock brigade actively contributed to excellently arranging revolutionary battle sites and revolutionary historical sites, including Wangjae Pass and Samjiyon, where the Party's glorious revolutionary history resides, into bases for revolutionary traditional education, and participated in the construction of important projects for strengthening the independent economic foundation, and in the construction of the International Friendship Exhibition Hall, the People's Grand Study House, the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace, etc., fully displaying the wisdom and courage of youth.

The Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade, born in the era of the succession of the Juche revolutionary cause, breathing and stepping together with the Party Center, powerfully displaying an indomitable spirit and unparalleled creative power, grew stronger within the great love and trust of the respected Fatherly Marshal.

It was when the respected Fatherly Marshal unfolded the conception of erecting a new street at the northern gate of Pyongyang and bestowed the highest and greatest trust by entrusting the entire task to the youth.

The Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members tasked with constructing the 60-story and 40-story residential buildings, though they had no experience in erecting such high buildings yet, powerfully displayed the dignity of the youth construction brigade with an indomitable belief and will that if it is the trust of the Party Center, even the earth can be lifted.

The respected Fatherly Marshal, who attended the completion ceremony of the Pothong River Residential Street last year and bestowed overflowing praise, saying that this time the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade, grown under the care of the Great General, also fully displayed its combat power in the construction of the Pothong River Residential Street—embracing his great trust, the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members spread their wings of bravery more vigorously.

They, with the pride and self-esteem of being the special force dispatched by the Party, waged a bold struggle in the reconstruction project in North Phyongan Province, creating the feat of once again excellently erecting housing for hundreds of households.

What should we spare? What should we hesitate about? We have the trust of the great Party!

This is precisely the eternal breath and primary motive force of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade, which spreads the honor of the youth vanguard, the youth construction brigade of the Workers' Party, in all directions.

There Is No Impossible for the Sons and Daughters of the Workers' Party

The spirit of determined implementation, struggling without hesitation of fire or water to realize the conception and intention of the Leader—this is the unchanging fighting spirit of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members, the sons and daughters reared by the Workers' Party.

With that spirit and mettle, the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members knew no屈服 before severe difficulties and found the greatest reward and pride therein.

Let us recall once again the spirit of determined struggle and spirit displayed by the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members in the northern railway construction in the 1980s.

As recorded in history, the northern railway construction was literally a great battle against nature, having to tunnel through mountains, build bridges, and pave roadbeds under conditions where the cold was more severe than any other region and transport conditions were very unfavorable.

But the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members, even in the harsh cold of the north with temperatures rising and falling dozens of degrees below zero, unhesitatingly jumped into icy water to expedite the foundation work for iron bridges, and cut through cliff faces, paving the roadbed inch by inch.

The days when they broke through unimaginable difficulties and obstacles—the reason the youth shock brigade members could display indomitable mass heroism in the northern mountains was that their hearts were filled with the firm belief that the order given by the Party must be carried out unconditionally with determination, even at the cost of one's life, and the bold pluck that there is no fortress the sons and daughters of the Workers' Party cannot capture.

How could it be only then?

A story still recalled today by a cadre who participated in the construction of the Youth Hero Motorway as a member of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade deeply movingly reminds us of the fighting spirit of the youth builders who know no impossibility in carrying out the Party's orders and instructions.

It was when the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members tasked with building a certain bridge were digging a nearly 5-meter-deep pit and pouring the pillar foundation.

Suddenly, as the frozen ground thawed, a risk arose of one earthen wall collapsing. Though the order was given to evacuate quickly, with the spirit of determined implementation that they must absolutely guarantee the time of order fulfillment pledged before the Party, even if their bodies become supports, everyone unhesitatingly jumped into the foundation pit.

They pressed their bodies against the earthen wall, piled shoulders upon shoulders in the waist-high icy water, and carried out the tense work of pouring the concrete mixture. Their entire bodies froze stiff, but the youth shock brigade members did not know how to move. Through five hours of desperate struggle, the foundation pouring work was finally carried out successfully.

This is by no means only a memory of past history.

The era-monumental traces raised by the youth shock brigade members, engraving the marks of patriotic feats everywhere in the capital and local areas today where the great prosperous era of construction is unfolding—where if a mountain blocks the way, they cut down the entire mountain; if a water layer appears, they pump and pump until they finally lay the foundation for the百年大計—are the shining crystals brought about by the proud fighting tradition of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade, the spiritual power of determined implementation and determined struggle.

We are the sons and daughters of the Workers' Party. Cherishing this as the utmost pride and precious honor, the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade members, even at this very moment, are raising era-exemplary models with extraordinary resolve, self-reliance, and unyielding fighting spirit on every great construction front called by the Party.

There is the duty and true reward for our youth reared in the embrace of the Party to be the first to shoulder the heavy burden of the motherland and pioneer the path of advance at the forefront. Therefore, every Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade member thrills with the happiness of having received the world's most precious treasure when our Party is satisfied with the precious creation they have built with their sweat, and listening to the happy laughter echoing from those creations, they keenly feel with proud hearts the honor and pride of having become the youth vanguard of the Workers' Party.

Their struggle achievements, establishing feats with the pluck that there is nothing in this world that the sons and daughters of the Workers' Party cannot do, even if there are difficult and splendid tasks, having set their assault positions on the front line of creation and construction for the prosperity of the motherland and the welfare of the people, are being splendidly embroidered not only in the annals of the shock brigade but in the great history of our Party and motherland.

* * *

Comrade Jo Hyon Chol, Director of the Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade Management Bureau, said that the proud history of the shock brigade becomes a glorious page in the history of the Korean youth movement strengthened and developed by the Party's idea of prioritizing youth and its leadership, and stated as follows:

"Our Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade will continue to display the dignity of a powerful youth construction brigade that carries out any task entrusted by the Party most thoroughly and most perfectly. This is our shock brigade's ideal and goal that will not change even after another 50 years pass."

Today, as the struggle for the comprehensive development of socialism accelerates, having such a reliable loyal vanguard unit, a powerful youth construction brigade, is a great strength and utmost pride for our Party and people.

The Speed Battle Youth Shock Brigade, which has continued its glorious path under the leadership of the great Party, will in the future also faithfully contribute to the rich and powerful prosperity of the motherland and the advance and development of the Juche revolution with the vanguard role and hundredfold power befitting the special force of the Party Center.

Article by Yun Myong Chol, Staff Correspondent

Kim Kwang Myong

Photos by Ri Kang Hyok, Staff Correspondent

 

---

Are You Righteous Before Party Conscience?

Thoroughly executing Party decisions without the slightest concession is one of the most important duties of Party members.

If so, by what is it guaranteed?

A fact from a certain county is suggestive.

A county Party responsible official, while reviewing the preparation situation for a meeting ahead of a summary meeting on the execution of Party decisions, learned the fact that a certain farm had not yet finished transplanting rice seedlings on several jungbo.

Some officials said that since it would be finished today, could they not consider the Party decision as executed and proceed with the meeting? Seeing the irresponsible attitude of trying to gloss over the fact that the Party decision was not thoroughly executed instead of regretting it as problematic, the responsible official immediately took the officials to the site. Organizational work was carried out to unconditionally finish the transplanting within that day, and the responsible official himself entered the paddy field first.

Thus, the rice transplanting was successfully concluded, and the deadline for executing the Party decision could be guaranteed.

It is one fact showing by what the thorough execution of Party decisions is guaranteed.

Party conscience can be said to be an important foundation guaranteeing thoroughness and perfection in carrying out Party decisions.

There may be difficulties and obstacles in the process of executing Party decisions. But for a Party member with the firm Party consciousness that a Party decision is a pledge made before the Party and that one has no right to live without executing Party decisions, there can be no such thing as impossibility.

Now, numerous Party members are devoting themselves with a spotless clean conscience for the thorough execution of the five-year plan presented by the Party.

However, around us, there are not no people who weigh the possibility regarding the execution of Party decisions or even hope for concessions.

Where does the cause lie? Precisely in the dimming of Party conscience.

Officials and Party members must reflect again. Are they devoting themselves entirely to carrying out Party decisions? Are they righteously engraving the two letters "execution" without shame before Party conscience?

Sin Chol Hyok

---

Rousing Employees to the Increased Production Struggle

-At the February 8 Vinalon Complex-

 

 

Photo by Staff Correspondent Jang Song Bok

---

Through Various Forms and Methods

The Party Committee of Maan-ri, Myongchon County, is conducting ideological education work through various forms and methods so that Party members contribute to increased grain production with a vanguard role in this meaningful year marking the 80th anniversary of the Party's founding. The Party organization is putting primary effort into ideological work so that Party members fulfill their duty in today's struggle to achieve the grain production target presented by the Party, while strengthening the role of Party cells to enhance their responsibility.

In particular, primary Party officials are arousing the Party masses by setting examples through their own practice, so that they fulfill their role as standard-bearers in carrying out Party policy.

Along with this, Party cells are ensuring that Party member consultations are conducted suited to the actual situation, thereby enhancing the exertion of Party members in the immediate farming work.

Farm and Village Correspondent Kim Song Chol

---

Grasping Mass Movement as a Weapon for Development

When Embracing with Warm Love and Affection

The Party cell of the Samhwa Revolutionary History Museum, while rallying for the Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement, put effort above all into one problem.

It is taking utmost care of the work and life of the employees with warm love and affection. This is because greater achievements can be made in the mass movement to the extent that the employees are mobilized.

There is an example of consistently guiding Comrade Ri, a youth league member. It was a time when he could not exert himself in his assigned work due to family difficulties caring for his widowed father.

Director Comrade Han Chol Ung frequently met with him to instill the pride and sense of honor of working at a sacred workplace defending the revolutionary history and achievements of the peerlessly great men, while also striving to resolve his life's difficulties.

At times, he valued his strength of meticulous workmanship and entrusted him with suitable tasks.

Thus, under the selfless concern of the Party organization and officials, Comrade Ri exerted himself and today has come to receive the love of the masses.

Also, when Comrade Phyo, originally highly devoted and skilled, had a shadow on his face due to family circumstances, the Party organization made efforts for him. Learning that Comrade Phyo was worried about house repairs, they mobilized primary officials to splendidly arrange it within a few days. Afterwards, through the efforts of officials who continued to show deep concern for his family life and guided him to always fulfill his role as a member working in the revolutionary historical sector, Comrade Phyo is now devoting his clean conscience to his assigned work.

The fact that over the past year the revolutionary history museum was splendidly transformed and could actively contribute to the ideological education of Party members and workers is an achievement resulting from the deep concern for the lives of the employees and the devoted love and affection as of blood kin by the Party organization here.

Last June, this revolutionary history museum had the honor of capturing the Three-Revolution Red Flag.

Ju Chango, Staff Correspondent

---

Implanting the Awareness of Being Masters

In promoting the Three-Revolutionization of the unit, the Party organization of the Wonsan City Pharmaceutical Management Office particularly focuses on one problem. It is the problem of cultivating the employees into true masters of the workplace.

Several years ago, Director Comrade Ra Hyon Il came to think deeply about the actual situation of the unit.

When he raised the problem of renewing the unit's appearance, the opinions of the employees were not unanimous. The outdated appearance of the workplace compared to the demands of the era was also a problem, but what pained the heart more was the wrong work attitude of the employees who regarded it as an unavoidable matter and took an indifferent attitude.

As Party cell vice-chairman, he did not think of this simply. He saw it as a problem arising from the lack of awareness of being masters of the workplace among the employees. Thus, the Party cell reflected this problem in the mass movement resolution target, pushed it forward with purpose-orientedness, and renew the workplace appearance and change the employees' ideological consciousness.

First, effort was put into splendidly arranging the culture and propaganda room as a base for ideological education. While tastefully displaying the Party's basic slogans and visual propaganda materials, furnishings were also newly prepared, renewing the appearance of the culture and propaganda room. Afterwards, construction was also carried out to rebuild the management office building, and the Party cell widely introduced and propagated the positive acts manifested among the employees, actively arousing them into the mass movement, and concluded the construction within three months.

In the process of the mass movement vigorously unfolding, the employees' ideological viewpoints and work attitude changed remarkably. Unlike the past period, the employees, with the awareness of being masters, always managed the workplace cleanly and displayed responsibility and devotion in their assigned work.

And the collective unity was strengthened, so that when work was carried out to newly construct a comprehensive pharmacy, the employees achieved the result of completing the framework construction in a short period with less labor.

Thus, the management office could implant the awareness of being masters among the employees through the mass movement and achieve leaps and bounds in carrying out the Three Revolutions.

Staff Correspondent