North Korea is emphasizing a comprehensive national revitalization strategy by prioritizing talent, ideological mobilization, science and technology, and frugality across all sectors of socialist construction.
The Workers’ Party’s official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, published a front-page editorial on Tuesday, underscoring that talent is the primary strategic resource for making significant strides in socialist development. The editorial emphasized that prioritizing talent is a crucial national strategy. Quoting Kim Jong Un, the General Secretary of the Workers’ Party, who stated that cultivating talent is essential for ensuring long-term, global advancements in science, technology, and economic growth, the article presented talent discovery, development, and mobilization as the cornerstone of the nation’s overall progress.
The second page revisited the revolutionary narrative centered on President Kim Il Sung’s anti-Japanese struggle. The newspaper detailed a scene from Kim’s memoir With the Century, where he vowed not to return unless Korea achieved independence, emphasizing the legitimacy of the anti-Japanese struggle and the continuity of the revolution. It linked the concepts of homeland, revolution, and dedication to the historical narrative of the regime’s legitimacy.
On the third page, the newspaper highlighted the Bukchang Youth Coal Mine Union’s efforts to increase production, showcasing a mass mobilization approach centered on ideological work. It stated that the more we engage with reality, the more powerful the ideological work becomes, introducing examples of strengthening political engagement through party education, policy interpretation boards, and a record of production increase and thrift movement. The paper also promoted an organizational model that combines the spirit of ‘selfless service’ with efforts to improve living conditions.
The fourth page featured an opinion piece discussing the purpose of life and patriotism. The newspaper emphasized the importance of aligning individual lives with dedication to the state, collective, and homeland, asserting that a clear purpose in life prevents wavering, and that life is measured by the days remembered, not the days that have passed.
On the fifth page, the newspaper showcased the Gangseo Spraying Machine Factory as a model of a technology-intensive enterprise, highlighting a path of industrial development centered on science and technology. It reported that by integrating scientific research, production, quality control, and capital investment, the factory has made significant progress, increasing per-employee productivity and total industrial output annually while consistently achieving results in new product development and quality enhancement.
The sixth page framed the thrift movement as a national patriotic practice. The newspaper prominently featured General Secretary Kim’s directive to conserve every watt of electricity, gram of coal, and drop of water, presenting personal frugality as directly linked to national economic development. It cited the example of the household work team in the Pothonggang District to argue that from a homemaker’s perspective, nothing is truly disposable, proposing household thrift practices as a model of loyalty to the regime.