[조선어] [English] [Русский] [中国语] [日本語]

Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- The 4th Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) took place at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Jan. 17.

Present there were the deputies to the SPA.

Attending it as observers were officials of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the SPA Presidium, the Cabinet, the armed forces organs, ministries and national institutions, and chief secretaries of the city and county committees of the WPK, chairpersons of the people's committees, chairpersons of the cooperative farm management committees and officials of major industrial establishments.

The platform was taken by Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, first vice-chairman of the State Affairs Commission (SAC) of the DPRK and president of the Presidium of the SPA, Ri Pyong Chol, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and secretary of the WPK Central Committee, and Kim Tok Hun, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK and premier of the DPRK Cabinet.

Among those on the platform were Pak Thae Song, Ri Il Hwan, Kim Tu Il, Choe Sang Gon, Kim Yong Chol, O Su Yong, Kwon Yong Jin, Kim Jong Gwan, Jong Kyong Thaek, Ri Yong Gil, Pak Thae Dok, Ho Chol Man, Kim Hyong Sik, Pak Myong Sun, Ri Chol Man, Thae Hyong Chol, Kim Yong Hwan, Pak Jong Gun, Yang Sung Ho, Jon Hyon Chol and Ri Son Gwon, and members of the SAC of the DPRK, vice-presidents, secretary general and members of the SPA Presidium and vice-chairpersons of the SPA.

Choe Ryong Hae, president of the SPA Presidium, made an opening address.

The session decided on its agenda items; an organizational matter, on thorough implementation of the five-year plan for national economic development set forth at the 8th WPK Congress and on review of fulfillment of the state budget for Juche 109 (2020) and the state budget for Juche 110 (2021) of the DPRK.

The session discussed the first agenda item.

Cabinet members suggested by Deputy Kim Tok Hun, premier of the Cabinet, upon authorization by the WPK Central Committee, were appointed with the unanimous approval.

The director of the Central Public Prosecutors Office was dismissed and appointed.

Deputy Kim Tok Hun, premier of the Cabinet, took an oath on behalf of the members of the Cabinet.

Deputy Kim Tok Hun made a report on the second agenda item and Deputy Ko Jong Bom, minister of Finance, on the third agenda item.

Speeches were made on the basis of a study of the reports.

Saying that the execution of the state budget for last year was correctly reviewed and the state budget for this year was properly drawn up, the speakers voiced full support and approval.

They seriously analyzed and reviewed shortcomings, causes and experience in the efforts for making remarkable progress in the development of the country's economy and improvement of the people's standard of living in the past. They also suggested realistic and dynamic measures for implementing the new 5-year plan.

Adopted at the session with the unanimous approval were the ordinance of the SPA of the DPRK "On thoroughly implementing the five-year plan for national economic development set forth at the Eighth Congress of the WPK", the decision of the SPA of the DPRK "On approving the execution of the state budget of the DPRK for Juche 109 (2020) " and the ordinance of the SPA of the DPRK "On state budget of the DPRK for Juche 110 (2021)".

President of the SPA Presidium Choe Ryong Hae made a closing address.

Comrade Kim Tok Hun Calls for Implementing Five-year Plan for National Economic Development Set forth at Eighth Congress of WPK

Deputy Kim Tok Hun, premier of the Cabinet of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), made a report at the 4th Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK held on Sunday in which he called for thoroughly carrying out the five-year plan for national economic development set forth at the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

According to the report, all the people and service personnel of the People's Army who turned out in carrying out the five-year strategy for national economic development true to the decision of the Seventh Congress of the WPK had waged devoted struggle to provide precious assets for continuing the economic development by their own efforts in the past five years, he said, and went on:

The building of power stations was positively propelled for creating new generating capacity, the Juche-based system of producing iron established and other new construction and remodeling projects in different sectors were dynamically pushed forward. So the independence and Juche character of the national economy were further augmented.

Samjiyon City was radically transformed into a model mountain cultural town, monumental edifices were successfully built everywhere as epitomes of modern civilization including Ryomyong Street, the Yangdok Hot Spring Resort and the Central Zoo and a drive for recovering from consecutive natural disasters and providing the people in the afflicted areas with cradle of happiness was dynamically conducted. This helped the people feel grateful for the socialist system of our country in reality.

We defended the security of the state and the life and safety of the people from the epidemic sweeping across the world, maintained stable anti-epidemic state, and the regular working system and foundation were established in the hygienic and anti-epidemic sector.

During the 80-day campaign of loyalty a surge in production was made in the leading sectors, and several major construction projects were successfully concluded. So the work of strongly consolidating the foundation of the self-supporting economy was positively propelled.

These precious successes are a valuable fruition brought about by the guidance of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un who made patriotic devotion making ceaseless high-intensity forced march for the country and great people.

The report referred to the serious mistakes observed in the work of the Cabinet during the period of carrying out the five-year strategy for national economic development, and also causes of those mistakes.

The report said that we face heavy tasks to unconditionally carry out the five-year plan for national economic development set forth at the Eighth Congress of the Party.

He stressed that the Cabinet will definitely put our economy on a normal track that makes sustained development, unaffected by any outside influence while maintaining a firm hold on the adjustment strategy and reinforcement strategy together with self-reliance and self-sufficiency which were set forth by the Party during the new five-year plan as economic strategy and as main seed and theme.

He stressed that they would put priority efforts into the development of key industries including metal industry and chemical industry, which constitute twin pillars of the national economy, and open up a breakthrough to carrying out the five-year plan in order to keep the overall economy afloat. He continued:

We will drastically increase the production of electricity, key power of independent economy, and reliably guarantee the stable development of the national economy and the material and cultural life of the people.

In the field of electric power industry, we will conduct the drive for increased production for meeting the immediate demand for power and adjust and reinforce its overall production foundation and expand it on a long-term basis.

We will increase investment in the coal industrial field, the outpost for developing self-supporting economy, and thus satisfactorily meet the demand for coal in the key industrial fields of the national economy.

We will wage in a bold way and powerfully promote the work for nationwide provision of equipment, materials, labor and funds to the field of coal industry and thus further consolidate the material and technical foundation and drastically increase the proportion of the mechanization in the mining pits.

We will turn the machine industry into the one with reliable foundation and into development-and-creation type industry and actively develop and produce modern and efficient machine products and thus make sure that the machine industry takes the lead and steer the overall economic fields.

In the field of extractive industry, the force for geological prospecting will be strengthened and the work for the unified and effective development and exploitation of the underground natural resources of the country will be propelled in a realistic way and thus reinforce and expand the production foundation of mines, refineries and factories and basically meet the demand for nonferrous metals and nonmetal minerals for national economy.

In the field of railway transport and land and marine transport, the modernization of railways will be actively pushed forward and the transport will be improved in a revolutionary way to satisfactorily meet the demand for railway transport. We will ensure that more large-tonnage cargo ships meeting the world trend for ship-building technical development and new shape underground trains, trolley-buses, tramcars and passenger buses are produced.

In the construction field, professional construction force will be built up and the level of mechanization for construction will be raised. Yearly plan for massively carrying out capital construction will be worked out including the construction of dwelling houses for 50 000 families in Pyongyang and dwelling houses for 25 000 families in Komdok area and construction operation and guidance will be meticulously organized for their implementation and provide people with higher civilized living conditions and give a face-lift to the appearance of the country.

The Cabinet will ensure the unified management of products and put the focus of the improvement of the economic management on lowering cost and improving quality on the principle of enhancing the organizational function of the national economy and making sure that the results of the economic work are directed to the promotion of the people's welfare.

He continued that they would surely attain the goal of crop production set forth by the Party in the agricultural field, the major thrust area of the socialist economic construction, and further consolidate the material and technical foundation for the sustained development of agriculture.

More efforts will be directed to the development of light industry to increase the production of consumer goods and their quality so that people would enjoy our own products.

We will systematically increase the production of seafood in the fisheries field.

We will make sure that the cities and counties would set up realistic development strategy and long-term goals suited to the local characteristics and put them into practice and thus turn all cities and counties into strategic strongholds of highly civilized and prosperous socialist state and the developed region with its peculiar characteristics.

We will actively solve scientific and technical problems urgent in carrying out the new five-year plan for national economic development and propel the development of core and advanced ultra-modern technology.

The Cabinet will bring about a definite turn in the overall economic work in the direction of promoting fresh innovation, bold creation and steady progress and press for measures for removing old work system and irrational and ineffective work methods that prevent our advance and thus make a stride forward in the economic construction and in the improvement of people's standard of living.

The report stressed that all the officials in charge of economic guidance would cherish deep in their minds the heavy responsibilities they have assumed before the Party, the revolution, the country and the people, and creditably fulfill their revolutionary duties in the struggle for implementing the decision made at the Eighth Congress of the WPK.

Report Made on Fulfillment of State Budget for Last Year and on State Budget for This Year

There was a report by Deputy Ko Jong Bom, minister of Finance, on the results of the fulfillment of the state budget of the DPRK for Juche 109(2020) and on state budget for Juche 110(2021) at the 4th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly held on Sunday.

According to the report, the state budget for Juche 109(2020) was successfully implemented.

Last year the state budgetary revenue was over-fulfilled 0.1 percent, a 4.3 percent growth from the previous year.

Local budgetary revenue was over-fulfilled 0.1 percent.

The state budgetary expenditure was implemented at 99.9 percent last year.

45.3 percent of the total expenditure was allocated for the development of the national economy.

The fund needed for stabilizing key fields of the national economy and the standard of people's living was expended at 105.7 percent as against the previous year and this contributed to further strengthening the independence and Juche character of metal and chemical industries, shoring up the fields of electricity, coal, machine, building materials industries and railway transport and developing agricultural and light industrial fields.

9.5 percent more investment was spent in the field of science and technology than the previous year.

19.1 percent of the total expenditure went to the construction field while 36.5 percent of the total expenditure to embodying the popular policies of the Party and the state including public health and education and bringing about the overall development of socialist culture.

15.9 percent of total expenditure was directed to the national defence building.

The report clarified mistakes observed in the implementation of the state budget last year and specified state budget for this year.

The state budgetary revenue is expected to grow 0.9 percent more than that of the previous year out of which the transaction tax and the revenue from the profits of state enterprises, which are main sources of the budgetary revenue, will hold 100.8 percent and 101.1 percent each to account for 83.4 percent of the total revenue.

The revenue from the profits of cooperative enterprises is expected to grow 0.4 percent, depreciation 0.1 percent, revenue from real estate rent 0.0 percent, that from social insurance 0.3 percent, that from sales of assets and price differences 0.1 percent, that from other sources 0.6 percent and that from the special economic zones 0.2 percent.

The central budgetary revenue is to hold 74.2 percent in the state budgetary revenue and as a result the revenue from central economy is to account overwhelming proportion, and provinces, towns and counties are to cover the expenditure with their own revenue and contribute lots of funds to the national budget.

The state budgetary expenditure is to increase 1.1 percent as against the previous year.

0.6 percent more investment has been planned to be made for economic construction as against the previous year.

There will be focused investment in the metal industry and chemical industry and 0.9 percent more funds are to be spent for propping up the production in key industrial fields, agriculture and light industrial fields of the national economy as compared with the previous year.

It is expected that 1.6 percent more investment will be spent in the field of science and technology and the funds necessary for pressing for key projects such as third-stage project of sprucing up Samjiyon City, the construction of oxygen heat blast furnaces in the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex and the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex, foundation of C-1 chemical industry, construction of the Tanchon Power Station, construction of dwelling houses for 50 000 families in Pyongyang and the construction of 25 000 dwelling houses in Komdok area are to be financed as planned.

15.9 percent of total expenditure is earmarked for the sustained development of the state defence capabilities.

33.9 percent of total expenditure is to be spent for enforcing the popular policies of the Party and the state so as to increase the one for educational field at 103.5 percent and that for public health at 102.5 percent. The fund for social and cultural work has also increased as against the previous year i.e. 102.7 percent for the field of literature and art and 101.6 percent for sports field.

This year, too, lots of educational aid fund and stipends are to be sent to children of Koreans in Japan so as to keep developing the democratic national education of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

The report said that the correct implementation of the state budget for this year is a responsible and important task facing the officials in providing the financial guarantee for the revolutionary advance of our people for opening up the breakthrough in carrying out the new five-year plan and for effecting a drastic turn in socialist construction.

The report stressed the need to successfully carry out the state budget for this year, true to the important tasks set forth in the 8th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea so as to provide financial support for the all-people struggle for surely opening up the broad avenue to prosperity in the spirit of self-reliance. 

Oath Taken by Premier of Cabinet at 4th Session of 14th SPA

Deputy Kim Tok Hun, premier of the Cabinet of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), swore an oath at the 4th Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK on Sunday on behalf of the Cabinet members.

He said that he was entrusted with an important duty as premier of the Cabinet in token of the high political trust of Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, and would surely live up to the trust and expectation of the Party and the people.

He went on:

The Cabinet will hold fast to the lines and policies of the WPK as its lifeline to organize and command in a responsible manner the economic work for carrying out the decision of the 8th Congress of the Party and thus faithfully fulfill its mission and duty in the drive for developing the national economy and improving the people's standard of living.

The Cabinet will hold in high esteem the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, the great head of our Party, state and people and outstanding leader of the Juche revolution, with pure loyalty and conscience and thoroughly establish the Party's unified leadership system in the economic work.

The Cabinet will attach top priority to laying firm foundation for revitalizing the whole of national economy and improving the people's living standard by concentrating forces on key industries according to the general direction of economic construction indicated by the 8th Party Congress.

The Cabinet will further strengthen the Cabinet-responsibility system, Cabinet-centered system as required by the developing reality and enhance its executive ability and control for implementing economic tasks, so as to ensure the reliable state unified guidance and strategic management of the overall economic work.

The Cabinet will establish in all aspects our own-style economic management method embodying the Juche idea, thoroughly reject irrationalities and formulism latent in the field of economic work and achieve the maximum economic development on the basis of the existing economic foundation.

The Cabinet will improve the work of planning, drastically increase the reliability of the national economic plan, establish a strict discipline in the implementation of the plan and thus carry out without fail the five-year plan for national economic development set forth by the Party.

The Cabinet will promote the sci-tech development to certainly open up the broad avenue towards prosperity by dint of self-reliance, and bring about an era of all-round efflorescence in the fields of education, public health, art and literature and sports.

The Cabinet will make a positive contribution to beefing up the country's military muscle in every way by giving top priority to the supply of equipment, materials and fund necessary for developing the national defense industry and modernizing military equipment.

The Cabinet will make the people's committees at all levels uphold with loyalty the Party's idea of "The people are God" and its people-first policy, so that they have to make the spirit of making selfless, devoted efforts for the good of the people run through all their works and activities and fulfill their responsibility and duty as the master responsible for the people's living.

The Cabinet members and other economic guidance officials will display high sense of responsibility, initiative and creativity to plan the economic work in an innovative way and stoutly carry it out to the end. 

Members of DPRK Cabinet Appointed

The following members of the DPRK Cabinet and the director of the Central Public Prosecutors Office of the DPRK were appointed at the 4th Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly of DPRK:

The DPRK Cabinet

Vice-Premier and Chairman of the State Planning Commission Pak Jong Gun, Vice-Premier Jon Hyon Chol, Vice-Premier Kim Song Ryong, Vice-Premier Ri Song Hak, Vice-Premier Pak Hun, Vice-Premier and Minister of Agriculture Ju Chol Gyu, Secretary General of the Cabinet Kim Kum Chol, Minister of Electric Power Industry Kim Yu Il, Minister of Chemical Industry Ma Jong Son, Minister of Railways Jang Chun Song, Minister of Mining Industry Kim Chol Su, Minister of Natural Resources Development Kim Chung Song, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Ju Yong Il, Minister of Construction and Building-Materials Industry So Jong Jin, Minister of Light Industry Jang Kyong Il, Minister of Finance Ko Jong Bom, Minister of Labor Jin Kum Song, Minister of External Economic Relations Yun Jong Ho, Minister of Urban Management Im Kyong Jae, Minister of Commerce Pak Hyok Chol, Minister of State Construction Control Ri Hyok Gwon, President of Kim Il Sung University and Minister of Higher Education under the Education Commission Ri Kuk Chol, Minister of Public Health Choe Kyong Chol, Minister of Culture Sung Jong Gyu, President of the Central Bank Chae Song Hak, Director of the Central Bureau of Statistics Ri Chol San

Director of the Central Public Prosecutors Office of the DPRK U Sang Chol

Vice-Premiers of the DPRK Cabinet

Secretary General of the Cabinet and Ministers

Director of the Central Public Prosecutors Office of the DPRK