On the Path to Further Glorifying My Country's Famous Mountain Throughout the World

Tracing the Days of Exploration Devoted to Registering Mt Kumgang as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage

At the 47th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Paris, France last July, Mt Kumgang, a famous mountain of Korea, was registered as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Thus, Mt Kumgang, which has been the pride of our people since ancient times, has gained fame as a more significant common treasure of mankind as a mixed heritage of nature and culture.

There are people who contributed to making Mt Kumgang shine more brightly throughout the world.

They have cherished every stone, every blade of grass, and every tree of Mt Kumgang as precious treasures of the country and have silently paved the way of exploration for nearly ten years.

The traces of devotion they have engraved, pondering how to protect and glorify all precious things of the country, speak for themselves.

The First Steps Taken with a Scientist's Conscience

The project of registering our country's excellent heritages as World Heritages emerges as a very important issue in highly elevating our country's status and deeply instilling the pride and honor of being citizens of a powerful country in the people.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

"We have registered the Koguryo Tomb Murals and the Historical Relics in Kaesong City as World Cultural Heritages. We must continue activities to register our country's excellent material, non-material, and natural heritages as World Cultural Heritages."

It was from 2016 that we started the project in earnest to register Mt Kumgang as a World Heritage in the field of cultural heritage protection, upholding the Party's lofty intention.

Speaking of that time, the whole country was seething with the 70-day campaign to greet the historic 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea with high political enthusiasm and brilliant labor achievements.

At a meeting attended by officials of the relevant unit, scientists and educators from scientific research and educational institutions, the project to register Mt Kumgang, known as a world-famous mountain since ancient times, as a World Heritage was presented for discussion.

The majority of people were brimming with confidence that Mt Kumgang certainly should and could become a world heritage.

However, there were also some skeptical people.

There was a reason.

In fact, the standards and conditions for registering a country's valuable heritage as a World Heritage were very strict.

UNESCO adopted the "World Heritage Convention" in 1972 with the aim of identifying, protecting, preserving, and exhibiting natural and cultural heritages of outstanding universal value and passing them on to future generations. Accordingly, if a nominated heritage meets one or more of the ten criteria, it is considered to have outstanding universal value and is registered as a World Heritage.

The fact that dozens of authoritative scholars from various international organizations such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) are mobilized for the evaluation work related to World Heritage nomination and review it most strictly from a professional standpoint gives an idea of how demanding the work of World Heritage registration is.

At that time, including educators from Kim Il Sung University, many people regarded this project not merely as a practical task but as an honorable mission entrusted by the Party, an important project to widely explain and propagate our Party's policy of cultural heritage protection to the world, and a patriotic undertaking connected to the future of our country, and actively supported it.

Thus, a research group was formed and relevant practical measures were taken.

In June of that year, there were people confidently climbing up to the Kuryong Research Area of Mt Kumgang.

Even on the way up, they stopped several times, each looking around, measuring necessary figures in front of rocky cliffs, picking up rocks and examining them closely with a magnifying glass.

Seeing them, not only local residents but also tourists thought they were scholars engaged in some research work.

But no one knew what special sense of mission they had for this exploration.

They were precisely the members of the research group mobilized for the project to register Mt Kumgang as a World Heritage.

They were Comrade Ri Song Chol, a practical official in the field of cultural heritage protection, section chiefs Kim Jong Chol and Ryu Dok In, research scientist Ryang To Jun from the Faculty of Resource Science at Kim Il Sung University, research scientist Jon Won Sok from the Academy of Natural Sciences, section chief O Chol Su from the Faculty of Life Science, long-time educator Hwang Chon Bok, course head Ri Mu Il from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature, and section chief Ri Ryong Su from the Geo-Environmental Information Institute of the State Academy of Sciences.

Their backpacks contained rice balls, water bottles, and various pieces of equipment.

"Professor Ryang To Jun, how long will this exploration take?"

"Probably about three years...."

Comrade Jon Won Sok, exchanging these words with Comrade Ryang To Jun while climbing the mountain, had a serious look in his eyes. As a young scientist of the new generation, he was firmly determined to distinguish himself in this research project.

As geology experts, the part they were responsible for was the most important.

To register Mt Kumgang as a World Heritage, scientific data proving it had to be supported.

Moreover, although our country had achieved success in registering the Koguryo Tomb Murals and the historical relics of Kaesong City as World Cultural Heritages, this was the first time for the registration of a mixed natural and cultural heritage.

Therefore, before coming to the site, they collected and analyzed all data related to Mt Kumgang. There were many books and materials describing the beauty of Mt Kumgang, but it was difficult to find materials that scientifically analyzed its geological and biological characteristics. Although some materials mentioned them, their scope and depth were very poor.

Regarding this, they deeply pondered their duty.

They felt self-reproach that although they had lectured and researched on geological structures and phenomena on a world scale until now, they knew too little about Mt Kumgang, the pride of their country and highly renowned in the world.

(Isn't knowing our own things better and glorifying them precisely patriotism and the duty of a scientist?)

Comrades Ryang To Jun and Jon Won Sok told us in reminiscence that they had never thought so deeply about the proper duty and mission of educators and scientists grown under Juche education as they did at that time.

The determination of Comrades Hwang Chon Bok and O Chol Su, life science experts, to uncover the biodiversity of Mt Kumgang and widely boast the mountain beloved by our people to the world was no different.

With the resolve to start everything from scratch, they actively threw themselves into the field exploration of Mt Kumgang.

It was a difficult path of digging into an unknown world.

But the awareness that our generation must definitely pave this way pushed them unhesitatingly onto the first journey.

From then on, their journey of exploration began.

At first, they thought it could be finished in three years; no one could have known at the time that they would devote a full ten years to this research project.

But they never retreated on that path, saying it was hard.

The unyielding attitude of the scientific soldiers who embarked on the honorable revolutionary mission entrusted by the Party, and the conscience of scientists that our generation of scientists should hand over to the next generation not a blank sheet but research results filled with scientific data, were the driving force that made them go to the end of the difficult path of exploration.

Even if Traces Are Not Left in the Deep Mountains

The research group members would set out on exploration trips to Mt Kumgang twice a year. One field trip usually lasted more than a month.

With the data obtained on site, they repeated contemplation and experiment, investigated literature, found clues, went back to the site to reconfirm, and thus uncovered the secrets of Mt Kumgang one by one.

It was during the survey of the Kuryong Research Area.

About a hundred and tens of meters below Kuryong Peak, there is a beautiful Sangpaldam (Upper Eight Pools) connected by eight ponds. The emerald-colored ponds evoke people's admiration.

All the more, Comrade Ryang To Jun could not suppress his heart pulling him towards Sangpaldam.

(To uncover the cause of Sangpaldam's formation, we must go down there.)

It was something no one dared to do because it involved danger.

"Do you really have to go down?"

"How can we know the secret of nature without going down?"

Comrade Ryang To Jun's face, saying this to the dissuading people, was filled with firm determination.

Several researchers followed. When descending the steep cliff with them inch by inch with difficulty, their whole bodies were drenched in sweat. They came here again on a rainy day and conducted the survey even more meticulously.

In this process, they discovered traces of glaciers and learned that Sangpaldam, consisting of multiple steps, was formed through geological processes such as glacial action. Along with this, they scientifically identified various erosion factors, including glaciers, in several areas.

Until then, it had been assumed that there were no traces of the glacial period in Mt Kumgang. Therefore, this discovery caused a new stir in the geological community.

When surveying the Sujong Peak and Par Peak areas, the ridge made of wide, flat large rocks had numerous potholes of different sizes, which troubled Comrades Ryang To Jun and Jon Won Sok for years.

How were potholes of different sizes formed on granite, which does not dissolve in water?

After visiting this place four times and steadily studying the state of the potholes, they were able to find fragments of coarse-grained granite. Because the mineral grains of coarse-grained granite are relatively large, they weathered first, and in this process, the potholes were formed.

Based on this, they were able to publish a thesis titled "Research on the Characteristics and Formation Causes of Weathering Holes in the Mt Kumgang Area."

The path they walked, always recording in their research journal only what was confirmed with a scientist's eye and proven by science, was not a sightseeing path to enjoy the scenery of the famous mountain from above.

Sometimes they had to walk through rocky fields, and sometimes they had to experience perilous adventures, clutching ladders hanging over dizzying rocks, supporting their bodies swaying in the wind, and climbing hundreds of meters inch by inch.

What they always carried on their exploration were a geological compass, geological hammer, camera, geological survey record book, and simply prepared lunch, but even these sometimes felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

There was no set time for lunch. Lunchtime often became late, making it lunch and dinner combined, and this happened more than once or twice.

Experts from the cultural heritage protection field, including Comrades Kim Jong Chol and Ryu Dok In, rechecked and recorded every relic and cultural heritage of Mt Kumgang one by one, fixed them with photographs, and devoted their passion to making the data more scientific, detailed, and abundant.

When a day's exploration ended, their lodging did not know the light going out until late at night as they input the data investigated during the day into the computer and analyzed it one by one.

But the next day, they would again continue the exploration path towards a new destination.

One day, after finishing the exploration of the Manmulsang area, everyone was preparing to descend, but Comrade O Chol Su was missing.

The situation required returning quickly before dark, so it was extremely frustrating. When everyone was worried after quite a delay, he appeared.

In his hand was a small bush-like plant, resembling a blade of grass.

As everyone looked puzzled, Comrade O Chol Su apologized and said this:

"This is Kumgang noodles plant. It's a plant only found in Mt Kumgang. It originally takes root in rock crevices, but how is it rooting in soil? It's so rare..."

Comrade O Chol Su gently stroked the young plant with both hands as if it were a precious treasure.

There was more than one occasion when anyone marveled at his passion, which was extreme in neatly arranging the plants collected in the field press he always carried and, at the lodging, classifying and drying them one by one to make specimens.

Through his lectures given in spare moments, everyone now knew as common knowledge that there are more than 60 species of animals and plants with the name Kumgang.

"We've come to know well how much Teacher O loves plants. This is love for Mt Kumgang, love for the country."

At Comrade Ryang To Jun's words, everyone nodded.

Indeed, it was so. They were people who cherished every path, rock, water, and blade of grass of Mt Kumgang as affectionately as their own flesh and blood.

This was attachment to the beautiful Mt Kumgang, and it was pride and self-respect in having such treasures in our country.

Mt Kumgang evoked new emotions every time they climbed it.

Whether in Outer Kumgang or Inner Kumgang, wherever you go, high and low peaks and valleys, various forms of rocks, waterfalls, and ponds are harmoniously combined, presenting excellent landscapes—Mt Kumgang was truly the number one famous mountain under heaven. Moreover, with abundant cultural heritages such as temple sites, old pagodas, many inscriptions carved on rocks, numerous legends and anecdotes, and their combination with nature, it captivated people's hearts all the more, and the conviction that Mt Kumgang would undoubtedly gain fame as a World Heritage spurred them on.

This self-respect and pride were highly demonstrated even in the stage of preparing the nomination document based on the research and investigation data.

Research group members often say that the process of preparing the nomination document was more difficult than the exploration path.

The research to uncover the world value of Mt Kumgang through comparison with already registered World Heritages was another arduous process of inquiry.

A research project was comprehensively conducted to synthesize and analyze tens of thousands of pages of practical guidance books and various reference materials related to World Heritages, and a vast amount of documentary materials on World Heritages of other countries in a short period, and to compare them with Mt Kumgang.

Although there were many difficulties and obstacles, based on the overall geological composition and specific characteristics of rocks obtained through concrete on-site surveys conducted while crossing the high and rugged mountain ranges of the Mt Kumgang area, they scientifically revealed the crustal development history of Mt Kumgang and comprehensively systematized its landscape characteristics, including biodiversity.

Also, through concrete and quantitative comparative analysis with World Heritages of other countries along with abundant cultural heritages, they objectively evaluated the outstanding value of Mt Kumgang and scientifically demonstrated that Korea's famous mountain, Mt Kumgang, is indeed a world-famous mountain in name and reality.

The fact that they rewrote the nomination document 17 times tells what their painstaking efforts were like.

For the translation work involved, translation forces from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature of Kim Il Sung University, including Comrades Ri Mu Il and Kim Su Ryong, were mobilized to carry out work without distinction between day and night, and they excellently completed the nomination document amounting to over 1,500 pages, retranslating tens of thousands of pages as the content of the recommendation changed.

Here, with the steady efforts of many experts from the faculty, including Section Chief Pak Hui Chol and Research Scientist Jong Son Gyong from the Faculty of Law, the legal grounds related to heritage protection in our country were fully supported, and finally the completed nomination document was submitted to the international organization.

The efforts made by officials in the cultural heritage protection field also became a great strength to the research group members. As an expert in the relevant field, Comrade Ri Song Chol contributed to making our famous mountain shine in the world by promoting work with international organizations, organizing the research group's field exploration, and leading the work of preparing the nomination document.

Their ardent love for the country is also warmly embedded in the first part of the nomination document.

"Mt Kumgang - The Diamond Mountain That Rose from the Sea"

This first sentence, embedded thus, immediately struck a chord with the members of the international organization.

Thus, the field evaluation team dispatched by UNESCO visited our country last year. The members of the field evaluation team did not spare praise for the high level of our experts and for the fact that the preservation and protection management of scenic spots and cultural heritages are conducted as an important policy of the Party and state, under national concern.

Everyone's hot patriotism made our country's famous mountain shine more brightly throughout the world.

The traces they engraved in the deep, deep mountains over the long years of nearly a decade are not visible.

But the traces of patriotism that will never be erased, along with Mt Kumgang shining more brilliantly as a world-famous mountain, will remain long in the hearts of our people and future generations.

Even at this moment, they are silently walking the path of exploration, the path of patriotism, to register the famous mountains of the country such as Mt Myohyang and Mt Chilbo as World Heritages.

Kong Ro Hyok

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People Elevated by the Country with Precious Titles

Merited Scientist Comrade Choe Song

Among the reliable scientists devoting their wisdom and passion to the scientific research project for building an economically powerful nation and improving the people's living standards is also Comrade Choe Song, Director of the Modernization Research Institute of the State Academy of Sciences.

The integrated production systems of modern large-scale greenhouse farms, factories, and enterprises that have risen in accordance with the Party's grand plan to provide the people with a more affluent and civilized life contain Comrade Choe Song's burning efforts and passion for exploration.

Comrade Choe Song, who achieved many successes in the project of researching and introducing integrated production systems essential for realizing the scientification of production, thus contributing to the country's economic development, received the precious title of Merited Scientist in December 2015.

After that too, upheld by the lofty intention of the respected General Secretary, he took on the task of building an intelligent integrated production system for the modernly risen Kangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse Farm, set a high goal of thoroughly defending the Party's authority by introducing our own perfect integrated production system with our own strength and technology, and clung to the research work.

As with greenhouse farms built in the previous period, the Kangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse Farm was a cutting-edge greenhouse where about ten advanced technologies were introduced for the first time, and the production system to manage it integrally had to be much more developed than before. Breaking through and overcoming the difficulties and obstacles that stood in the way, Comrade Choe Song completed an intelligent integrated production system based 100% on our technology and resources, thus giving joy to the respected General Secretary and receiving his highly evaluative words.

Comrade Choe Song and the research group, not satisfied with the achievement of realizing the scientification of vegetable production at a higher level in the newly built greenhouse farms through the perfect establishment of an intelligent integrated production system, are continuing the forced march of contemplation and exploration to faithfully serve the Mother Party with high scientific research achievements.

Text and Photo by Kim Jin Hui

Merited Site Lecturer Comrade Om Song Ok

Comrade Om Song Ok, Section Chief of the Yŏnggwang County Revolutionary Site Management Office, has devoted everything without sparing since her short-haired maiden days for over 30 years to the honorable work of protecting and glorifying the revolutionary history and revolutionary achievements of the peerless great men.

During the day, she devoted painstaking efforts to ensure effective lectures while conducting site inspections with visitors on steep mountain paths, and at night, she devoted her clean sincerity without sparing to the work of better adorning the revolutionary site. Also, she ran out to every corner of the country, including units with leadership achievements, and freshly conducted mobile lectures in the style of the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army, boosting people's revolutionary and fighting zeal, and did not spare effort in the work of raising the political and theoretical level and lecturing skills of new lecturers.

In those days, she had the honor of participating in the 8th Conference of Ideological Workers of the Workers' Party of Korea and taking a commemorative photo with the respected General Secretary, and grew to become a Socialist Patriotic Merited Person and a deputy.

The Party highly evaluated her conduct of faithfully guarding her assigned post for decades and bestowed the precious title of Merited Site Lecturer upon her in December 2022.

Text and Photo by Kim Song Hun

Merited Educator Comrade Rim Yong Hui

The first place Comrade Rim Yong Hui, course head at Sinuiju First Middle School, was assigned to after graduating from university decades ago was a rural school far from the city.

With an ambitious ambition to raise the students of the rural school no less than those studying in the city, she devoted her wisdom and passion without sparing to raising the students' abilities under the guidance of the school Party organization.

The reward for this devoted effort came years later when the students she taught participated in the subject contest conducted on a city level and achieved excellent results.

After being transferred to another middle school, she upheld the Party's intention that educators should not keep up with the developing reality but run ahead of it, and made constant efforts to improve her own quality.

In those days, she received over ten new teaching method registration certificates and invention certificates for experimental apparatus and teaching aids, and also had the honor of being an October 8 Model Educator.

Having worked as a course head at Sinuiju First Middle School for over ten years, she dug deep into enhancing the effectiveness of teaching, paid deep attention to conducting all forms of teaching according to the students' level and age-psychological characteristics, and raised dozens of recipients of the July 15 Top Honor Prize.

She had the honor of participating in the 14th National Educators Conference and taking a commemorative photo with the respected General Secretary, and also had the precious honor of being a Socialist Patriotic Merited Person.

Comrade Rim Yong Hui, who received the title of Merited Educator in 2023, is today also devoting her wisdom and passion without sparing on the path to carrying out the Party's educational revolution policy.

Text and Photo by Ri Su Yon

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Two Minds That Cannot Coexist

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

"All members of society must live and work conscientiously and faithfully for the Party and revolution, the country and society."

There is a common point that is invariably found in the Socialist Patriotic Merited Persons and Communist Mother Honor Prize winners, whom our Party and country highly elevate, and in people who receive the respect and love of the masses.

It is that they have all lived without shame before their conscience.

Everyone talks a lot about conscience, but living always uprightly before that conscience is by no means easy.

Every person has thoughts about their own interests and their family's happiness.

But depending on whether one places the interests of the revolution before them or pushes them behind, one can become a conscientious person or a selfish person.

Conscience cannot coexist with selfishness.

Conscience is the mind that feels responsible for one's own actions before the country and people, society and collective.

In a conscientious person who has a mind to live and work truthfully for society and collective, country and people, not for personal gain and fame, there is no place for selfishness to take root.

On the other hand, if one puts forward the selfishness of living comfortably and well oneself no matter what happens to others, unconsciously the conscience becomes clouded and later is completely lost.

If one always thinks of "us" before "me" and lives uprightly before conscience for the country and people, one becomes a patriot; if one becomes soaked in selfishness for one's own comfort and pleasure, one becomes a vulgar person who knows neither parents, wife, and children nor the country.

Let everyone place a hand on their chest and answer themselves.

What do I have? Conscience or selfishness?

Am I upholding the infinitely grateful Mother Party and country with a pure conscience?

Do I regard the grace of the Party and country as something natural to receive as a citizen of the Republic, and am I living only for myself?

Correspondent

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Putting Wisdom into Pattern Creation with a Heart of Patriotism

-At the Sonkyo Knitwear Factory-

Photo by Correspondent Ri Sol Min