Feeling the Enthusiasm for Volunteering That Is Rising Day by Day after the 11th Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League

The vigorous march of the youth of our era, entering the struggle of a new phase of transformation with redoubled passion and spirit, is shaking the whole country.

With the aspirations of the young people, who will proudly inscribe the merits of scouts and shock brigades at the vanguard of carrying out the Party's cause, merging into one, the enthusiasm for volunteering among the youth rushing to the major fronts of socialist construction in various parts of the country is rising day by day after the 11th Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League.

After the May 9 issue of Rodong Sinmun carried the news that young people in Pyongyang City and North Phyongan Province had volunteered for the difficult and hard sectors with the determination to become a cornerstone supporting the revival and development of the motherland, meetings were held to congratulate the young volunteers in South Hamgyong Province on the 10th, in South Hwanghae Province on the 11th, in North Hamgyong Province and North Hwanghae Province on the 14th, and in South Phyongan Province on the 20th.

This surging advance momentum of the young people is further heightening the pulsating atmosphere of our era, which is filled with creation and feats.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said as follows:

“In retrospect, the upsurge of our revolution always began with the surging volunteering enthusiasm of the young people, and this volunteering storm always stirred up a revolutionary wind and a patriotic wind across the country, giving birth to dynamic eras.”

On May 7, as many as 1 500 young people gathered at the Central Youth Hall.

On that day, a meeting was held there to congratulate the young people of Pyongyang who, deeply cherishing the great love and trust of the Party bestowed upon our youth at the 11th Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, had volunteered for the difficult and hard sectors.

Young people who talked about the volunteers out of curiosity about who they were, girls who proudly boasted that among the volunteers was a close comrade with whom they worked…

The venue of the meeting was thus greatly stirred with the unanimous empathy for the deeds and spiritual world of the volunteers who had made the proud determination to fully display the bravery and spirit of youth on the rewarding struggle fronts for the comprehensive development of our-style socialism.

After a while, when the volunteers entered to the tune of the welcome music, the participants congratulated them with bouquets and enthusiastic applause.

Soon the meeting began, and the volunteers were awarded volunteer certificates.

The volunteer certificate was not a glittering order or medal. However, it was like a valuable commendation of our Party and the fatherland presented to the young people who had made a proud determination to repay, so a solemn light shone on the faces of the volunteers who received it.

Among them was Comrade Ri Ok from Sunan District.

She was a girl who used to like living very quietly in a comfortable life. But seeing countless girls of her age spend their youth rewardingly on the seething fronts of socialist construction and stand proudly near the respected father Marshal, she realized that the true life of youth never lies in enjoyment and comfort, and that life shines as much as it is devoted to the fatherland. Therefore, she resolutely determined to glorify her youth with the most valuable sweat of devotion at the most difficult and hardest place.

That is why, at the place where she received the volunteer certificate bearing her name, she firmly resolved to cherish today's meeting eternally in her heart and to walk the path of volunteering unchangingly and vigorously, upholding the trust of the Party and the fatherland and the expectations of the countless people who sent her respectful looks and applause.

One of the heroes of the meeting that day, Comrade Jon Chol Song from Hyongjesan District, was a young man who had led a wrong life in the past. Truly realizing the gratitude of the motherly Party and the socialist system that embraced and brought him up, he determined to make a new start in life at the most difficult and hardest post for the prosperity of the fatherland.

Though he had taken only one step for the fatherland, the officials and many young people warmly congratulated him, valuing that single step so highly. Indeed, the meeting that day was a meaningful occasion for him to be reborn as a proud member of the reliable youth ranks who are the pride of the Party, the state and the people.

That is why he also firmly pledged to walk the path of devotion for the fatherland consistently all his life, cherishing the volunteer certificate dearly in his heart.

The volunteers differed in their life experiences, ages and motives for volunteering. But they all proudly showed, through their vigorous volunteering march and surging advance enthusiasm, what kind of attitude the new generation, having grown up happily in the embrace of the Party, should take before the call of the era and the fatherland.

Is it only the youth of Pyongyang?

On the 14th, the atmosphere of the North Hwanghae Provincial Art Theatre, where the meeting to congratulate the young volunteers of North Hwanghae Province was held, was truly extraordinary. This time, a large number of young volunteers were produced in the province, which was the highest figure nationwide and unprecedented in the province as well.

The greater the accumulation of experiences and emotions, the more fervent and sincere the eruption, and the greater the afterglow.

The young volunteers of North Hwanghae Province were all young people who grew up directly experiencing and hearing about the new legends of happiness blooming in their native villages thanks to the Party's benevolent care, including the great transformations in Taechong-ri, Unpha County, and Kangbuk-ri, Kumchon County. They were the young people who realized through the reality before their eyes that the realization of the Party's policies is precisely the transformation of their own lives and the change of their native villages, and that such transformations can be achieved wonderfully and quickly when the Party's policies are upheld with all sincerity.

That is why, after the 11th Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, they volunteered to rush to the major fronts of implementing the Party's decisions, including the county construction brigades and raw materials base works, in order to better transform their native villages and splendidly implement the Party's regional development policy, unanimously saying that it is the proper duty and loyalty of our youth to rise up first and repay the Party's great love and trust.

What one feels more fully through the meeting that day is that the enthusiasm for repaying and volunteering of all the youth of the country, not just the volunteers, has reached a truly high level.

Many young people who attended the meeting to congratulate the volunteers that day reflected themselves in the image and view of life of the volunteers.

Having received the same love of the Party as the volunteers, they cannot take different steps on the path of repayment. Let us inscribe the proud traces of life in our one and only youth on the rewarding path for the prosperity and development of the fatherland.

Such voices resounded not only among the meeting participants but also among countless young people in the province who heard about the meeting, and in fact, the volunteering enthusiasm of the young people in North Hwanghae Province is now rising unprecedentedly.

When discussing the volunteering wind of the youth that is growing stronger in all parts of the country after the 11th Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, one cannot omit another factor that adds to that enthusiasm.

On the 20th, following the meeting to congratulate the young volunteers of South Phyongan Province at the South Phyongan Provincial Cultural Hall, a meeting was held with the parents of Comrade Yu Myong Sin, a former member of the Cha Kwang Su Youth Shock Brigade of the Hoian Youth Coal Mine of the Pukchang Area Youth Coal Mining Complex, who had sacrificed himself while rescuing comrades in an unexpected situation.

The mother, Mrs. Kim Jong Bok, earnestly asked the volunteers in the name of all mothers of this country to never forget their volunteering pledge and keep it unchangingly, actively encouraging them.

Looking at Mrs. Kim Jong Bok, who had brought up her daughter well and unhesitatingly sent her on the path of volunteering, the volunteers recalled the requests of their own parents and cherished them deeply in their hearts as the request of the fatherland.

Such a heartwarming scene, in which mothers mounted the discussion platform of the meeting to congratulate the volunteers, praising and encouraging the deeds of the new generation of young people who volunteered for the difficult and hard sectors, also unfolded in North Hwanghae Province.

A woman we met not long ago said that she could not help but feel really proud seeing her son holding the volunteer certificate, and that she would always live as a mother who unswervingly pushes her child along the single path of loyalty to the country and contribution to the prosperity of the fatherland.

Such voices could be heard from any mother of the volunteers. Truly, this tells us that it has become the unanimous view of life and firm aspiration of the mothers of this country to regard it as a proud thing that their children devote themselves not for the sake of one family but for the country.

Even now, volunteers are continuously produced in various places, and along with this, meetings to congratulate them are being held one after another.

There is a common feature in those meetings.

Both the heroes of the meetings and the young people and mothers who congratulate and encourage them are all united by the exceptionally soaring patriotic and revolutionary enthusiasm.

This serves as a clear proof that the patriotic outlook of our people is now firmly dominated by the nationwide ideological sentiment.

Let us go to the fronts where the fatherland calls! Let us inscribe the worthy traces of youth!

Just like the youth of the 1950s who put their names on the front volunteer applications, pledging to defend the beloved fatherland at the cost of their lives, young volunteers from all parts of the country are now rushing in droves to the seething high-tide fronts, harbouring the single desire to become the heroes of miracles and feats in the van of building a powerful country.

On the meaningful occasion of having a commemorative photo taken with the participants in the 11th Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, the respected General Secretary Comrade Kim Jong Un said: “There has never been a time like today's era when the youth's extraordinary patriotic awareness, soaring revolutionary enthusiasm and unparalleled bravery and struggle so firmly dominate the broad fronts of socialist construction. The noble traits and iron-willed fighting power of the youth, which cannot be found in any other country in the world, are indeed the proud symbol of our national strength.”

Yes.

The surging advance momentum of the youth is the demonstration of the mighty strength of the youth of our era who are leading the new upsurge and dramatic turn in socialist construction.

Staff Reporter Pak Chun Gun