In recent years the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has achieved amazing things in the spirit of self-reliance and selfdevelopment which is the driving force of its advance even in the unprecedented military pressure and economic sanctions of the US and its vassal nations.

Last year, the Korean people wrought one miracle after another in the revolutionary spirit of selfreliance and fortitude while crushing the challenges of the hostile forces resolutely.

On January 1, 2016 the multi-functional Sci-Tech Complex went online after it had been completed in a little over a year. With a total floor space of over 106 600 square metres, it largely comprises indoor and outdoor exhibition divisions and a scientists’ lodging house. In the complex, there are bulky scitech data, video materials, models and laboratories for simulation. The inauguration on the first day of the year clearly showed the determination of the country to step up the building of a socialist power by giving priority to science and technology. Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un attended the inauguration ceremony of the complex and cut the tape, reiterating the will of Korea.

Now it is usually visited by as many as 50 000 people per day. In particular, a great network has been formed across the country centring on the complex and new sci-tech data are distributed everywhere through the network, so the comprehensive sci-tech potentiality of the nation is improving rapidly.

On January 6, 2016 Korea succeeded in its first H-bomb test. After succeeding in several nuclear tests, it successfully carried out the H-bomb test, earning a clear profile as a nuclear power. Regarding this issue, the nuclear powers of the world said that the Korean nuclear and hydrogen bombs are advanced models developed in the Korean style, instead of US or Russian ones, that Korea is one of the six H-bomb-armed states and that its first successful H-bomb test is demonstration of its powerful military capabilities dealing a telling blow to the US that is pursuing the policy of aggression and war in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world.

At 9 o’clock, February 7, 2016 the earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong 4 was launched successfully in Korea. The press and specialists in south Korea spoke of north Korea as the tenth self-reliant satellite launching nation, and the space powers of the world voiced that Korea had launched the earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong 4 successfully and that Korea rose up to the position of a space power.

In the difficult situation where obstructive moves of the hostile forces were prevailing, Korea launched a number of artificial earth satellites successfully after it put its first satellite Kwangmyongsong 1 into space successfully in August 1998 with its own efforts and technology. As it placed another satellite named Kwangmyongsong 4 in orbit correctly, Korea showed well that it is making rapid progress in space development against continuing challenges from the hostile forces.

In March last year Korea was in a supertension of touch-and-go situation. The US and its allied imperialist forces, frightened at Korea’s nuclear test for self-defence and satellite launching, ran amuck as never before to suffocate the DPRK.

At this juncture, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un proclaimed the construction project of Ryomyong Street. In recent earlier years, Korea had built a new street a year, including Changjon Street and Mirae Scientists Street. The Ryomyong was the largest project with latest facilities in terms of scale and standard, compared with earlier street projects.

The south Korean press reported that the DPRK answered the severe sanctions of the international community with its construction of large-scale Ryomyong Street ridiculing the UN resolution by breaking through the sanctions head-on. Foreign media reported that the project meant a political opportunity to show the spirit of Korea that is determined to advance steadfastly in any extreme pressure and sanctions, and that the reality of the country in which great changes were happening in the effort to improve the living standards was just a miracle.

In April last Ryomyong Street was completed as an energy-saving and green street in the 21st century demonstrating Korea’s unfathomable power of selfreliance and self-development. It showed clearly that no pressure or sanctions could check the advance of Korea.

In April last year, Power Plant No. 3 of the Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station went into operation in the northern highland of the country. The young workers, who had built Power Plants Nos. 1 and 2 in the biting cold in which even the birch freezes up to break, finished the Power Plant No. 3 project in less than half a year, demonstrating the indomitable spirit and mettle of the Korean youth.

Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un said that he was very glad that the electricity problem was solved in Samjiyon County, and that what made him happier was that the Korean youth had prepared themselves as heroes of the time and giants of creation as Chairman Kim Jong Il had wished.

In May last year, the Seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea was held in a meaningful and splendid way as a grand political festival. The congress proudly reviewed the WPK’s glorious history of leading the Korean people wisely to victory crushing all the challenges of history in the previous years, and unfolded an ambitious blueprint for building a socialist power. The historic congress and its celebration events were the icon of the image of the WPK that is leading all the service personnel and people to the final victory under the wise leadership of the supreme leader and the spirit of single-hearted unity of the country.

In June and August 2016 Korea succeeded in the test-fire of ground-to-ground intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong 10 and the test of sub-launched ballistic missile Pukguksong.

The south Korean press reported it as success of successes, victory of victories, arguing the north has got the best nuclear weapon in the hand, and featuring the re-rise of the theory on needlessness of THAAD. From the US came such voices as that north Korea’s nuclear weapon was an immediately serious threat, that north Korea was posing an unusual and special threat to the US’s security and economy, and that no anti-missile system could check north Korea’s nuclear and missile strikes.

The US had no other choice but to acknowledge the reality in which its mainland and its bases of aggression including the Pacific operating area fell in the striking sphere of the DPRK, and that the strategic structure of the US-DPRK confrontation had changed completely.

In September 2016 Korea succeeded in a nuclear warhead blasting test.

Unable to cope with the extremely tough, hardline countermeasures of Korea the US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman lamented that at present the war with north Korea would develop into a complicated form different from what it would be when the US had mapped out a contingency plan 15 years ago, and that it would assume the super-regional, multiterritorial and multi-functional aspect. And the puppet south Korean authorities screamed describing the warhead blasting test as an immediate threat, and north’s nuclear threat on the loose. The major world media widely reported it as the countermeasure against the US’s hostile policy and final verification of the power of the standardized nuclear warhead, saying the DPRK is now able to manufacture as many different kinds of powerful nuclear warheads as it wants.

A fierce gale and heavy rain ever seen since the country was liberated in August 1945 flailed the northern areas of the DPRK from August 29 to September 2 last year, bringing uncontrollable disasters. The hostile forces, availing themselves of the situation, gleefully spoke of the DPRK’s “crisis,” ratcheting up their political and military pressure on and economic sanctions against the country.

At this juncture, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un saw to it that the main thrust of the 200-day campaign was changed to the efforts for recovery from the flood damage and unfolded a grand plan for restoration, saying that there is no emergency greater than the people’s pain and no more important revolutionary work than the work of alleviating their sufferings. Thanks to his guidance houses for as many as 11 900 families, dozens of new streets and villages went up in a matter of a little over two months. The restoration effort fully demonstrated the WPK’s climate of making selfless, devoted efforts for the good of the people and the image of Korea whose Party and masses are merged into a harmonious whole.

In December 2016 the 200-day campaign came to a successful end and the First Conference of Chairpersons of WPK Primary Committees was held splendidly. During the 200-day campaign, the industrial sector hit the target of industrial output value at 119%, and thousands of factories and enterprises across the country carried out or overfulfilled their assignments envisaged in the national economic plan ahead of schedule, thus laying a solid foundation for implementing the five-year strategy for national economic development.

The first conference of primary Party committees marked a new turn in strengthening the WPK into a party with an indomitable spirit and an optimistic and militant quality and in inspiring all the service personnel and people to an all-out campaign to carry out a grand plan of building a socialist power.

Working miracles one after another in 2016, the Korean people built up their own capacities radically with their own efforts, technology and resources – this is promising sure victory of a bright future.

Ri Jong Nam