The Training of Personnel: The Vanguard for Building a Powerful Socialist State

At a time when talent has become a direct factor in the rise and fall of nations, and education is a matter of utmost urgency for socio-economic development, our Party has designated the training of personnel as the vanguard for building a powerful socialist state—a priority above all other fields.

Our Party's goal is to make our country a state that attaches the greatest importance to education and where education is the most advanced.

This grand objective of building an educational powerhouse embodies the lofty will of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un to chart the course for the country’s long-term prosperity and national development through education.

Today's struggle to fully and perfectly realize the noble intentions of the great Party Central Committee requires all educators, officials, Party members, and working people to display even greater patriotic enthusiasm, with extraordinary preparedness and resolve, for the development of the nation’s education, on which the future of the revolution and the fatherland depends.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

“We must develop our educational work and make our country a nation of education and a nation of talented people.”

Today is a significant day, marking the 48th anniversary of the publication of the immortal classic, “Theses on Socialist Education,” by the Great Leader.

The immortal educational program of the Great Leader, who laid the eternal cornerstone of Juche-based education, shines brilliantly as an inspiring banner, illuminating the path toward building an educational and talent powerhouse alongside the comprehensive revitalization of our country.

Further strengthening the training of personnel—the vanguard for building a powerful socialist state—is a sacred undertaking to forever glorify the immortal achievements of the Great Leader and the Great General on the road of educational development.

The fact that our fatherland is boldly overcoming challenges and difficulties, demonstrating its dignity and prestige while achieving leaps in development across all fields, including the economy and culture, is due to the socialist educational system of Juche, which nurtures vast ranks of revolutionaries.

The path to making our education the world's best lies in further glorifying the immortal educational ideas and achievements of the Great Leader and the Great General, who built the most superior and unparalleled socialist educational system in the world and laid the eternal foundation for Juche-based education.

Further strengthening the training of personnel is a fundamental guarantee for building our fatherland into the world's most powerful and civilized state, upholding the lofty intention of the respected Comrade General Secretary, who is ushering in the great new era of comprehensive national revitalization.

Now that we have entered a period of comprehensive socialist development, talented people are urgently required in every sector, unit, and region without exception.

Only when the country’s education is swiftly elevated to an advanced global level can we qualitatively train more talented individuals—the core force leading socio-economic development—and successfully accomplish the historic great undertaking of building a powerful state by relying on them.

It is the noble intention of our Party that comprehensive national revitalization, local prosperity, and rural prosperity are also advanced through the promotion of education.

The urgency of further strengthening the training of personnel is also closely related to the global trend of educational development.

No country can achieve development without the precedence and backing of education. Nowadays, the fierceness of competition in education and talent is reminiscent of an invisible war. Many countries are prioritizing the improvement of educational work as a key national policy to gain an upper hand in the competition for national power. Education has emerged as a fundamental front supporting the development of all fields of society—including politics, the economy, the military, and culture—and an important element of national strength.

Building an educational and talent powerhouse is precisely building an economic powerhouse and a powerful socialist state.

Today, our Party regards educational work as the primary state affair, to which priority must be given and the greatest efforts directed at all times and in every stage. It is the first among the most crucial state affairs that must constantly advance.

The 11th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Party, where issues for strengthening the educational foundation were tabled and discussed as important agenda items on the majestic march to implement the decisions of the 8th Party Congress, became a historic occasion that once again clearly highlighted the importance of further strengthening the training of personnel, the vanguard for building a powerful socialist state.

All educators, officials, Party members, and working people should keep pace with the lofty vision and intention of the Party Central Committee to always put education first. The greater the scope of creation and innovation and the greater the revolutionary tasks become, the more we must prioritize it and actively step forward in the sacred patriotic work of building an educational powerhouse.

Above all, educators, who are the direct bearers of the educational revolution, must fulfill their role.

Whether the policy tasks the Party is emphasizing at present—including the work to reduce the educational gap between the capital and local areas, and between cities and rural areas, and the work to decisively enhance the quality of education—are successfully carried through depends entirely on the conscience, devotion, ability, and responsibility of the teachers. All teachers must firmly prepare themselves to be true patriots and ardent revolutionaries with high educational qualifications and noble character, as the Party intends, so as to become the roots for the future of the fatherland and the solid cornerstone for building a powerful state.

Officials in the education sector must bear in mind that the development of the country’s education depends on their role. They must scientifically and prospectively design the goals and plans for educational development—including the reorganization of the educational structure, the improvement of content and methods, and the enhancement of teachers’ qualifications—and resolutely push forward the struggle for their realization. In particular, they must firmly orient our education to contribute to realizing the new conceptions and policies of the Party and powerfully arouse the masses of teachers to implement the Party’s educational policy.

Educational work, which decides the rise and fall of the country and plays an important role in people’s growth and development, should rightly be a concern of the entire society, and our revolutionary practice today demands that more effort be put into supporting education.

If one is an official who truly loves the country and is concerned about the future of the fatherland, one must know how to share the Party's burden regarding educational work and must always live with the sense of mission that one is defending the front for training personnel alongside educators.

All officials must possess the high ideal and ambition to make our education one that leads the world—an education to which we can safely entrust our future. They must make it their personal responsibility to tackle and perfectly solve all problems arising in educational work.

The Party has recently clarified important issues for bringing about a radical turn in educational work.

Every commanding member of the revolution must be armed with our Party’s educational policy. They must deeply grasp not only educational knowledge and common sense, such as its structure, content, and methods, but also the actual state of global educational development, including advancements in school supplies and equipment. Accordingly, one must take an interest in the educational work of one’s own unit and region, find one’s part, and carry it out responsibly in innovating educational content and methods in line with global trends and pedagogical requirements.

One must also collaborate with relevant educational institutions to train the talented people needed for the development of one’s own sector, region, and unit. One must take responsibility for spreading and generalizing new educational content and methods, guarantee the necessary conditions to increase the proportion of practical skills in education, and become a true human being and a genuine parent who dedicates everything for the younger generations.

Like the officials of the Pyongyang City Power Distribution Bureau, who have become widely known as a patriotic collective by supporting dozens of educational units in recent years, and the officials of the Toksong Farm of the South Hwanghae Provincial Rural Economy Committee, who are devoting unsparing sincerity for the children of their hometown, one must first think of the nation's prospects and splendidly fulfill the responsibilities and duties one holds in educating the younger generations, no matter how difficult the task.

Provincial and central agencies must establish a system to prioritize and guarantee the needs of the educational sector from the planning stage of economic construction and steadfastly carry it through. Officials of all units and regions must unanimously step forward to identify and address tasks for educational development on their own initiative. They must also devote efforts to strengthening cooperation with educational guidance institutions and units, and deepen the guidance and assistance for educational work, including the reorganization of the educational structure and the innovation of its content and methods, along with the implementation of the educational program.

Alongside this, they must actively promote and give preferential treatment to educators, turn primary attention to guaranteeing their working and living conditions, and become the sparks and flames that heighten the concern of the entire society for educational work.

The role of Party organizations must be further enhanced in implementing the Party’s educational policy.

Party organizations at all levels must treat educational work as a Party committee-level task and deepen Party guidance to ensure that not even the slightest deviation occurs in the implementation of the Party’s educational policy. In particular, Party organizations in the education sector must deepen their guidance of the political and organizational life of the teaching staff and students so that they strive to implement the Party’s educational revolutionary policy and ensure that the achievements of Party work are reflected in the actual practice of teaching and education.

Let us all dedicate our whole hearts to the sacred patriotic work of building our country into a state with the most developed education in the world under the leadership of the Party.

Correspondent

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Adding Lustre to the Honour of the New Generation of Educational Revolutionaries at the Places the Party Desires

Over 800 graduates of teacher training universities and colleges have volunteered for branch schools, frontline areas, and mountain villages since the 8th Party Congress.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

“Before the call of the fatherland and the people, one must not answer with words but with practice by offering one’s own body; this is the attitude of a patriot.”

Since the 8th Party Congress, many graduates of teacher training universities and colleges from across the country have volunteered for branch schools, frontline areas, and mountain villages, their number now exceeding 800.

Engraving in their hearts the Party’s vision to make our country an educational powerhouse that prospers and leaps forward through education, over 100 university graduates charted the course of their lives toward branch schools, frontline areas, and mountain villages in the first year after the 8th Party Congress alone.

Graduates of the Pyongyang Teachers Training College and the Kim Jong Suk Teachers Training University planted the roots of their lives in the schoolyards at the foot of Mt. Paektu, cherishing the precious dream of making the clear reading voices and cheerful laughter of children resound even higher in Samjiyon City, which has been transformed into a model mountain cultural city and a socialist ideal village.

A graduate of the Kim Jong Suk Teachers Training University, who had the honour of accompanying the respected Comrade General Secretary on a tour of guidance during his military service, came forward with the resolution to become an educator at an island guard post.

The fervent spirit of loyalty and patriotism among the graduates of teacher training universities and colleges, who will faithfully uphold the Party’s policy of prioritizing education, grew day by day.

Last year, dozens of graduates from the Ri Su Dok Wonsan Teachers Training University and the Wonsan Teachers Training University volunteered for branch schools, frontline areas, and mountain villages with the singular mind to repay with loyalty the Party’s trust, which places educators at the vanguard of the new century's educational revolution.

This year as well, numerous graduates of teacher training universities and colleges volunteered for such posts with a fiery enthusiasm to contribute even a small measure of their strength to making the Party’s lofty intention—to build a state that attaches the greatest importance to education and where education is the most developed in the world—blossom into reality, and departed for their new posts amid a warm send-off.

The dream and ideal to unsparingly dedicate the wisdom and passion of youth to the path of upholding the Party’s vision of building an educational powerhouse is also cherished in the hearts of the graduates of the Choe Hui Suk Hamhung Teachers Training University, who completed their university courses with excellent grades.

Among them are graduates who were once kindergarteners and secondary school pupils, and sisters who spread their wings of learning together in the same dear schoolyard.

Many graduates of teacher training universities and colleges, including the Nampo Teachers Training University, the O Jung Hup Chongjin Teachers Training University, the Kanggye Teachers Training University, and the Kim Jong Tae Haeju Teachers Training University, volunteered for remote mountain village schools with the single mind to repay the love of the Party and the gratitude of the socialist system that raised them as full-fledged university graduates.

The conduct of these individuals, who engraved the great trust of the respected Comrade General Secretary in their hearts by becoming sentinels of the educational revolution, and who carved the precious first marks of their lives on the path of nurturing the nation's future, is a manifestation of the noble outlook on life of the new generation of educators grown in the embrace of the Party and a fervent eruption of unalloyed patriotism.

Kim Hyok Jun

> From South Hamgyong Province

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Achieving Further Progress in Educational Structure Innovation by Upholding the Decisions of the 11th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Party

By highly upholding the tasks set forth by the 11th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Party for the educational sector, efforts to improve the educational structure are being conducted in full swing this year to provide students with more advanced and practical education, thereby laying a solid guarantee for raising the overall educational level.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

“We must innovate our educational work in our own way and develop it to a new, higher stage.”

Highly upholding the decisions of the Party Central Committee Plenary Meeting, the Education Commission has undertaken a resolute and meticulous operation to successfully implement the new teaching management system from the new school year in major universities and teacher training institutions, and to prepare for the implementation of the second comprehensive 12-year compulsory education program in the general education sector.

The work to generalize the achievements and experiences gained in this process is also being pushed forward.

Major universities have accelerated the integration and arrangement of faculties and departments and the adoption of the new teaching management system in accordance with their specific conditions, filled with the confidence and enthusiasm to make a leap in raising the educational level in this meaningful year marking the 80th anniversary of the Party's founding. In particular, they concentrated efforts on drawing up course plans by subject and forming teaching units in line with pedagogical requirements. While accumulating experience in this process, they are methodologically pushing forward the work of generalization.

Universities in the teacher training sector are also developing and introducing an integrated teaching management system to suit the new framework, solving problems that arise in its operation in a timely manner so that the new system takes effect in educational practice. They are especially focused on resolving various issues in implementing the new system, including strengthening the teaching force and establishing teaching units, and are actively exploring innovative solutions.

The innovation of the educational structure is also being powerfully conducted in the general education sector.

Since the newly drafted second comprehensive 12-year compulsory education program, to be implemented from the next school year, includes an educational course designed for students to receive elective education according to their individuality at the senior middle school stage, all schools are actively speeding up preparations.

Amid the vigorous trial application of the elective education course at the senior middle school stage in Songrim City, Hoechang County, and Jongphyong County this year and the generalization of this experience to various places, practical training and demonstrations for innovating the educational structure are being substantially conducted. The work to broaden the horizons of provincial, city, and county officials and to ensure teachers completely master the new educational content is being conducted dynamically.

Regional officials are also actively stepping forward to prepare for the implementation of the second comprehensive 12-year compulsory education program.

Through the devoted efforts of officials who deeply understand that this work is not simply a practical matter but a responsible and important undertaking directly linked to the rise and fall of the country and a clear testament to the correctness and viability of our Party’s educational policy, substantial progress is being made in preparing a teaching force to capably undertake elective subject education in the arts, sciences, physical education, and technical fields, and in guaranteeing the conditions for implementing the elective education course.

Through the creative enthusiasm of officials and educators in various places to greet the 80th anniversary of the Party's founding and the 9th Party Congress with outstanding achievements in education, new progress is being made in the innovation of the educational structure, and a solid foundation is being laid to glorify our country as a state with the most developed education.

Kong Ro Hyok

> From Kim Chaek University of Technology

Photo by correspondent O Jin Il

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6th National Sculpture and Craft Festival Opens to Celebrate the 77th Anniversary of the Founding of the DPRK

The 6th National Sculpture and Craft Festival opened to celebrate the 77th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The festival features over 280 works created by sculptors and craftspeople from fine art institutions, as well as enthusiasts and students from across the country, united with the single mind to grandly celebrate the founding day of our powerful and highly dignified mother country as a day of great joy for the entire people.

Works including the woodcraft “New History of Local Prosperity,” the embroidery “New Appearance of My Hometown,” and the osari craft “New Landscape of the East Sea Coast” reflect the proud appearance of the fatherland, which is changing daily in the warm affection of the Party that makes the dreams and ideals of the people blossom into beautiful reality.

Also featured are the mother-of-pearl inlay painting “Our Invincible Warship” and the ten-thousand-year painting “To the Operational Waters,” which vividly depict with delicate skill the majestic character of our naval forces, which are growing stronger by the day, heralding a golden age for the Republic's navy.

Works of various forms containing the boundless joy and pride of happy children who are fully displaying their hopes and talents in the embrace of the grateful socialist system were also exhibited.

The opening ceremony took place at the Pyongyang International Culture Hall on the 4th.

Attending were Comrade Ri Yong Nam, Vice-Department Director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, officials of relevant sectors, festival participants, working people in the city, and others.

The opening address was delivered by Comrade So Jong Gyu, Minister of Culture.

The speaker emphasized that the festival, which showcases the stirring reality of our country's daily prosperity under the wise leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un through works of diverse and unique themes and forms, is a significant political and cultural event that adds to the joy of the meaningful anniversary of the Republic's founding.

After the opening ceremony, the participants toured the festival venue.

[Korean Central News Agency]

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Final Match of “2025 Provincial and Central Organs Officials Basketball Tournament” Held

The final match of the “2025 Provincial and Central Organs Officials Basketball Tournament” was held at the Chongchun Street Basketball Gymnasium on the 4th.

In this tournament, where subordinate units of the Cabinet competed in a single-elimination format from August 18, the teams of the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Electric Power Industry advanced to the final stage.

The final match was watched by Comrade Pak Tae Song, Member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Premier of the Cabinet of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, senior government officials, and officials from the physical culture sector and provincial and central organs.

From the start of the match, the players of both teams actively utilized various offensive and defensive tactics and waged a heated contest.

Whenever wonderful scoring plays unfolded, exclamations and enthusiastic cheers erupted from the spectator seats, heightening the atmosphere of the match as time passed.

In the end, the State Planning Commission team defeated the opposing team to win the honour of first place.

After the final match, the circulating championship flag, championship cup, and other awards were presented to the teams and players who achieved excellent results in the tournament.

[Korean Central News Agency]