Present there were Ju Chang Il, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, other Party Central Committee officials, youth league officials, and participants in the celebrations of the Korean Children’s Union’s 80th founding anniversary.

Ju Chang Il made an address.

He warmly congratulated the Korean Children’s Union members on celebrating the 80th anniversary of the organization and noted that the occasion had been marked under the loving care of Marshal Kim Jong Un.

He added that the gifts reflected the warm and profound affection of Marshal Kim Jong Un, who wishes the KCU members to grow up uprightly and stoutly.

He called on all the Children’s Union members to study diligently, take an active part in their organizational life so that they could grow into knowledgeable, morally sound and physically strong young patriots and future pillars of a thriving Korea.

Based on: KCNA (2026-06-07)

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Source: KCNA (2026-06-05)

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The Ninth Congress of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea was held here on May 11 and 12.

The congress analyzed and reviewed in depth the work done by the GFTUK during the period under review and discussed the practical tasks and ways for the federation to fully discharge its mission and role as an ideological education organization in implementing the decisions of the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea by radically improving its work as required by the era of comprehensive development.

Present there were the members of the 8th-term GFTUK central leadership and delegates elected by trade union organizations at all levels.

Officials of the Party, armed forces organs, ministries and national agencies and those concerned were on hand as observers.

The platform was taken by Kim Jae Ryong and Ri Il Hwan, members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretaries of the WPK Central Committee, Ju Chang Il, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the C.C., WPK, Kim Tok Hun, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK and first vice-premier of the Cabinet, executive members of the C.C., GFTUK, chairpersons of the provincial committees of the GFTUK, exemplary trade union officials and members and officials in charge of the trade union work of armed forces organs.

The congress elected the presidium and the secretariat.

The agenda items discussed at the congress are as follows:

1. Review of the Work of the Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea

2. On the Revision of the GFTUK Rules

3. Election of the Central Leadership of the GFTUK

Kim Jae Ryong read out a congratulatory letter of the Central Committee of the WPK to the participants in the Ninth Congress of the GFTUK and all the workers and trade union members across the country.

The WPK Central Committee in the letter said that the period under review of the GFTUK is shining with the pride and honor of the trade union organizations and their officials and workers who injected vigor and vitality into the advance of our revolution by turning out as one to live up to the expectations of the Party Central Committee which put them forward in the vanguard of the struggle for fresh upswing and development in socialist construction, and highly appreciated their responsible and devoted efforts for it.

The period of the new Five-Year Plan is a very important period when the patriotic enthusiasm and practical ability of the working class and trade union members, who are intensely loyal to the cause of the Party and the state and their responsibility as the eldest son of the country, should be redoubled, the letter said, indicating the basic tasks and ways for the GFTUK in inspiring the working people to perform proud feats from the first year of implementing the decisions of the Ninth Congress of the WPK.

Ri Won Jong, chairman of the Central Committee of the GFTUK, made a report on the first agenda item.

The reporter reviewed the work of the 8th-term GFTUK Central Committee.

He referred to the fact that the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un put forward the working class and trade union members as the vanguard and backbone unit that are taking the lead in ushering in a new era of upsurge for the comprehensive national prosperity and developed the GFTUK into an ideologically pure and organizationally integrated entity for the past five years.

He noted that a great upsurge in production has been brought about and unprecedented successes achieved in increasing production in the major fields of implementing the Five-Year Plan set forth by the Eighth Congress of the WPK thanks to the patriotic devotion and extraordinary creativity of the working class and trade union members.

He said that true to the intention of the Party Central Committee to prepare the GFTUK to be a revolutionary organization by preserving its nature as a mass political organization of the working class, the GFTUK has attached importance to its internal work and raised a strong wind of enhancing its fighting efficiency and strengthening its primary organizations.

All the successes achieved during the period under review are the brilliant fruition of the wise leadership of the respected Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un who led our workers in every aspect of their work to remain faithful to the historic mission they assumed before the Party and the country, the times and the revolution, the reporter stressed.

He called for bringing about a radical improvement in the GFTUK work as required by the era of comprehensive development.

The report analyzed and reviewed a series of deviations revealed by trade union organizations at all levels during the period under review and their causes on the basis of detailed data and indicated practical ways for putting the GFTUK work on the track of new qualitative development.

The reporter called for more dynamically conducting the revolutionary mass movement, the socialist patriotic movement to arouse the enthusiasm, initiative and ingenuity of the trade union members and make miracles and innovations on all fronts of economic construction.

Speeches were made on the first agenda item.

20 delegates including Kong Un Chol, delegate of the trade union organization of South Hamgyong Province, Ri Kwang Dok, delegate of the trade union organization of the Pyongyang Construction Commission, and Kim Yong Chol, delegate of the trade union organization of the Ministry of Railways made speeches and presented written speeches.

The congress discussed the revision of the GFTUK Rules as its second agenda item.

There was a report on the revision of the trade union rules.

The reporter submitted the revised rules for deliberation at the congress.

The congress adopted a decision on the revision of the GFTUK rules with full approval.

The congress discussed the election of the Central Leadership of the GFTUK as the third agenda item.

First, the Central Committee of the GFTUK was elected.

All the candidates were elected members and alternate members of the GFTUK Central Committee with the unanimous approval of the delegates.

The First Plenary Meeting of the Ninth Central Committee of the GFTUK was held.

Ju Chang Il, secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK, made public a decision of the plenary meeting.

The Executive Committee of the GFTUK Central Committee was elected.

Ri Won Jong was elected chairman of the Central Committee of the GFTUK and Choe Jong Chol, Choe Song Nam, Pak Yang Thae and Kim Song Ho were elected vice-chairmen.

The Organizing Committee of the Central Committee of the GFTUK was formed.

The chairperson, vice-chairpersons and members of the Central Inspection Commission of the GFTUK were elected.

Department directors of the Central Committee of the GFTUK were appointed.

The congress elected a committee for drafting the decision of the congress with members of the newly elected ninth-term central leadership of the GFTUK, and the committee deliberated the realistic and constructive opinions raised by delegates and supplemented the draft decision.

The decision of the Ninth Congress of the GFTUK was adopted with unanimous approval.

A letter of pledge to the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un was adopted at the congress.

Source: KCNA (2026-05-13)

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The Eleventh Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League was held in Pyongyang from April 28 to 30.

The congress reviewed in a comprehensive way the work done by the youth league during the period under review, and discussed practical tasks and ways for channeling the great strength of the large contingent of young people into the implementation of the fighting programme of the Workers’ Party of Korea to further cement it as the powerful driving force for the overall prosperity and development of socialism.

Attending it were delegates elected by youth league organizations at all levels.

Present as observers were officials of the Party and armed forces organs, ministries, national agencies and the field of education of youths and children.

The platform was taken by Kim Jae Ryong and Ri Il Hwan, members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretaries of the WPK Central Committee, Ju Chang Il, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the C.C., WPK, Kim Song Gi, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK and director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army, executive members of the C.C., SPYL, chairpersons of the provincial youth league committees, exemplary youth league officials and members, officials in charge of youth work in the field of the armed forces and service personnel.

The congress elected the presidium and the secretariat.

The agenda items discussed at the congress are as follows:

1. Review of the Work of the Central Committee of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League

2. On the Revision of the SPYL Rules

3. Election of the Central Leadership of the SPYL

Kim Jae Ryong read out a congratulatory letter of the WPK Central Committee to the participants in the Eleventh Congress of the SPYL and all other youths across the country.

Mun Chol, chairman of the SPYL Central Committee, made a report on the first agenda item.

The reporter noted that the DPRK young people have grown up to be creators and performers of feats and vanguard fighters of the revolution in the struggle to pioneer a new era of comprehensive national prosperity, flying high the sacred flag of the youth league.

He also briefed about the valuable successes achieved in the course of directing the work of the youth league to training all the young people as the patriotic youth who staunchly defend socialism and devote themselves to the struggle for socialist construction.

He referred to the wise leadership of the respected fatherly Marshal Kim Jong Un who set it as a matter of great importance for the steady development of our cause to prepare our young people as the reliable driving force of socialist construction and energetically led the work.

The reporter highlighted the great heroic feats performed by young servicepersons in the forefronts of defending the country, revolution and people and in major theaters of socialist construction at the cost of their blood, lives and sweat over the past five years, true to the orders and instructions of the Party.

The young servicepersons, who regard the Party’s order as their absolute mission and unconditionally realize the Party’s desire, fully displayed their honor as reliable revolutionary soldiers and hardcore youth not only in defending the country’s existence and the people’s health from the global health crisis but also in the gigantic creation campaigns such as accomplishing the historic cause of regional transformation and building 50 000 flats in Pyongyang Municipality, he said.

He reviewed the achievements made in ideologically educating young people and enhancing the activity of the youth league organizations during the period under review.

Stating that the youth league organizations will steadily develop only when they thoroughly overcome the shortcomings and deviations in line with the requirements of the times while consolidating the successes and experience, the reporter comprehensively analyzed and reviewed the shortcomings revealed in the work of the youth league in the period under review and their causes and the ways for overcoming them on the basis of the data on the actual states of the youth league organizations at all levels.

The reporter ardently called upon all to courageously advance, redoubling the firm faith and will for the eternal dignity and glory of the DPRK and for the brilliant hope of youth and bright future as befitting the young vanguard in the great era of Kim Jong Un.

Speeches were made on the first agenda item.

Introduced in the speeches were excellent experiences gained in educating and training young people into reliable revolutionary soldiers and hardcore youth of the WPK, regarding the ideas and leadership of the Party Central Committee as the lifeline, and in training them to be honorable pioneers of socialist construction and those ready to make practical contribution to the country by conducting the organization and guidance over the youth league organizational and ideological life in close combination with the implementation of the revolutionary tasks.

The speakers expressed their resolve to bring about a new innovation in the youth league work, strictly analyzing the shortcomings and causes in the work of the youth league during the period under review.

The congress discussed the second agenda item “On the Revision of the SPYL Rules”.

There was a report on the revision of the rules of the youth league.

The reporter summarized the contents of the rules to be amended and supplemented in conformity with the new tasks facing the youth league and the principles of building the youth league.

Noting that the rules of the youth league to be revised reflected the practical requirements for developing the youth league into elite militant reserves of the WPK and enhancing its organizing ability, unity and activity, the reporter submitted it for deliberation at the congress.

A decision on the revision of the rules of the youth league was adopted with full approval.

The congress discussed the “Election of the Central Leadership of the SPYL” as the third agenda item.

First, the Central Committee of the youth league was elected.

All the candidates for the members and alternate members of the Central Committee of the youth league were elected members and alternate members of the Central Committee of the youth league with the unanimous approval of the delegates.

The First Plenary Meeting of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League was held.

Ju Chang Il, secretary of the WPK Central Committee, made public the decision of the First Plenary Meeting.

The executive committee of the SPYL Central Committee was elected.

Paek Un Chol was elected chairman of the Central Committee of the youth league and Kim Ju Hyok, Pak Myong Jin, Wang Chol U, Kim Song Il, Ri Myong Hyok and Kim Song Il were elected vice-chairmen.

The Organizing Committee of the SPYL Central Committee was formed.

The chairperson, vice-chairpersons and members of the Central Inspection Commission of the youth league were elected.

Department directors of the SPYL Central Committee were appointed.

The congress elected a committee for drafting the decision of the congress with members of the newly elected eleventh-term central leadership of the youth league, and the committee deliberated the creative and constructive opinions raised by the delegates and supplemented the draft decision.

The decision of the Eleventh Congress of the youth league was adopted with the unanimous approval of the delegates.

A letter of pledge to the respected Marshal Kim Jong Un was adopted amid all the delegates’ enthusiasm for single-minded loyalty.

The congress ended with the chorus “We Will Defend General Kim Jong Un with Our Lives”.

Source: KCNA (2026-05-01)

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Large crowds of visitors paying their respects came to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il lie in state. Korean people also laid flower baskets and bouquets at the statues and mosaics honoring the great leaders in different parts of the country, including Mansu Hill in Pyongyang.

As part of the April holiday celebrations, many people visited the President’s birthplace at Mangyongdae, to reflect on his immortal legacy and pay tribute to him.

Schoolchildren across the DPRK joined the Korean Children’s Union. They received warm congratulations and were encouraged to prepare themselves to become the future pillars of the country.

National flags and celebratory displays decorated major sites in the capital as well as other cities, counties, factories, farms, and institutions throughout the DPRK.

Colorful concerts and performances took place in theaters and public venues in Pyongyang and other regions.

In Kanggye, a horseback riding demonstration was held.

The joy and excitement of celebrating the Day of the Sun could also be seen at dancing party venues in South Phyongan, North Hwanghae and Ryanggang provinces, Rason Municipality and other parts of the country.

Meanwhile, popular attractions such as the Central Zoo and the Natural History Museum were filled with visitors having a good time, and public catering establishments across the country saw large crowds celebrating the holiday.

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The unusual ties between President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and former President Sukarno of Indonesia are well known around the world.

Objectively, a striking contrast existed between the two leaders. Kim Il Sung was a thoroughgoing communist and atheist while Sukarno was a dyed-in-the-wool nationalist and faithful religionist. Their age gap was more than ten years and their relations as heads of state were no more than two years long. But they were in unusually friendly relations.

There may be several factors contributing to their close ties, but the main factor was that they both aspired to independence and opposed imperialism and dominationism. This is well testified to by the fact that Sukarno advocated self-reliance and self-supporting economy.

During his visit to the DPRK in November 1964 he came to have a good understanding of self-reliance and self-supporting economy and expressed his deep sympathy for them. That’s why in April 1965 he invited Kim Il Sung who was on a visit to his country to a session of the Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly of Indonesia held in Bandung. At the meeting he delivered a political speech in which he stressed the need to switch over to the road of economic independence and hold aloft the banner of self-reliance to that end. He declared that the esteemed Comrade Kim Il Sung who created the famous idea of self-reliance and successfully built a self-supporting economy with bold determination was present at the meeting, and repeated the word Juche denoting the Juche idea four times in Korean. He continued to say proudly that the switchover he had just mentioned referred to strengthening Juche orientation in Indonesia.

He was probably the first foreign state leader who expressed in Korean his admiration for the Juche idea authored by Kim Il Sung and on an official occasion at that. He was sure that when his country with rich natural resources relied on its own efforts in the style of the DPRK, it would surely achieve genuine independence, freed from the neocolonialist yoke of imperialists. Kim Il Sung expressed his active support to Sukarno’s independent and peace-loving stance. It is therefore no accidental that Sukarno definitely made public his determination to turn his country from the dependent economy to a self-supporting economy.

Sukarno conferred the highest order of Indonesia on Kim Il Sung as a token of his respect for the latter who created and applied the Juche idea.

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April 15, 2026 is the 114th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung.

Regarding “The people are my god” as his motto, he devoted his all throughout his life for the wellbeing of the people.

Continuing the journey of on-site guidance, he discussed state affairs with the people to encourage them to work miracles and innovations, and lent an ear to their simple opinions to reflect their aspirations and demands in the policies of the state and the Workers’ Party of Korea and bring them into reality.

The units he gave on-site guidance at from August 1945, the year when Korea was liberated, to 1994, the year when he passed away, number over 20 600.

Under his guidance, the Koreans became an independent and heroic people, and a people-centred socialist system was built in their country.

Holding him in high esteem as the eternal leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Korean people are dynamically pushing ahead with the efforts to build theirs into a powerful socialist country true to his lifetime intentions.

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Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, has set forth a new five-year plan for the DPRK’s economic development at the Ninth Congress of the WPK.

The primary task of the socialist economic construction at the present stage is to cement the achievements made during the eighth term of the Party Central Committee, lay a foundation of development for the stable and steady growth of the country’s economy and substantially improve the people’s living standards. To this end, the period of new five-year plan should be a phase of stabilization and consolidation, a phase of gradual and qualitative development, and this must be set as the general goal, the principle of the work of the ninth-term Party Central Committee, he said at the meeting.

As already known, the WPK set it as the general orientation of the five-year plan for the national economic development in the eighth term of its Central Committee to lay solid foundations for reenergizing the overall national economy and improving the people’s standard of living by concentrating efforts on the main links in the whole chain of economic development. In a nutshell, its economic strategy for the past five years was the one for readjustment and reinforcement.

In its wake, the main thrust of the new five-year plan is to properly coordinate the following two aspects in the coming five years―consolidating the economic foundations and forces built in the past five years in a qualitative way and further developing them.

Accordingly, the DPRK plans to qualitatively consolidate the foundations for the production of the key industries such as the metallurgical, chemical, electric power, coal and machine-building industries during the period of the new five-year plan to guarantee the growth of the overall economy and to ensure sustainable development of the natural resources exploitation, mining industry, forestry and rail transport sectors. The Party Congress also called on the light industry sector to focus on the quality improvement and development of new products and lay a new groundwork for the light industry.

The agricultural sector intends to keep intensifying the work to change the grain production structure with main emphasis put on rice, wheat and barley farming, and expand the wheat-processing capacity and push ahead with the seed revolution, scientific farming, tideland farming, double cropping and land improvement to provide an important guarantee for the increased grain production. On the other hand, the country aims to steadily develop livestock farming, further improve the irrigation system, attain the goal of tideland reclamation and promote the land realignment so as to continue to cement the material and technical foundations of agriculture and, at the same time, further scale up the proportion of mechanized farm work by increasing the production of farm machinery.

The future development of the construction sector is particularly expected. It is reported that the construction sector, as it did in the past five years, will vigorously propel the projects for transforming the capital city of Pyongyang into a magnificent city with an appearance as a world-class city. It also plans to execute the work to transform the provincial capitals across the country year by year.

In addition, the DPRK attempts to develop various levers of economic development in a diversified and comprehensive way, including IT, foreign trade, tourism, land management, ecological environment protection and improvement of urban management.

At the congress Kim Jong Un also indicated the tasks and ways for further speeding up the regional development, the rural construction during the period of new five-year plan to transform the regions and countryside in a fresh way every year and bring about greater improvement in the material and cultured life of the people across the country.

When the new five-year plan set forth by Kim Jong Un is realized, more epochal progress will be made in the economic development of the DPRK and the improvement of the people’s standard of living.

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