Decoding North Korea's fish and mushroom slogans

  • Published
Boletus mushroomImage source, Thinkstock

North Korea has published 310 new patriotic slogans (see full list below) - so what do they say, what do they mean and what do they tell us about the leadership in Pyongyang, asks Alison Gee?

"Let this socialist country resound with Song of Big Fish Haul and be permeated with the fragrant smell of fish and other seafoods!

"Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialised!

"Make fruits cascade down and their sweet aroma fill the air on the sea of apple trees at the foot of Chol Pass!"

Is there a theme emerging here?

"A lot of this has to do with very practical things to do with the economy, especially food," says James Grayson, emeritus professor of modern Korean studies at Sheffield University.

"It's an indication of the absolutely dire state of the North Korean economy. You have this huge disparity between the select few living in the best parts of Pyongyang, who live very well - there are now examples of international businesses there, coffee shops and designer labels... - whereas other parts of the country are allowed to go to hell in a cart."

North Korea has suffered famine and malnutrition in the recent past and Grayson thinks these food-related slogans are a way of both recognising those problems and offering a solution.

Image source, ALAMY
Image caption,

Kim Jong-un looking at catfish

Propaganda in the form of slogans, posters, stamps and books has played an important role in the country since the state was founded in 1948 so the appearance of a new batch of exhortations is not surprising.

"It's typical of most totalitarian states," says Grayson. "Some of this sort of thing you could have seen certainly in China during the Cultural Revolution and after the establishment of the Communist regime - and if you think of the Nazis and Italian fascism it's not an unusual thing... It's the strength and the quantity of the North Korean ones that is unusual."

Rousing slogans are also common when countries reach a defining point in their development - in the 1960s and 1970s when South Korea was beginning to modernise it too came up with catchy phrases.

Grayson remembers one that encouraged people there to "Destroy communism!" He was amused to find a calendar produced in the North with a very similar logo: "Destroy capitalism!"

Apart from increasing food production, the slogans urge North Koreans to defend their way of life and not bow to the influence of foreign enemies, such as Washington and Seoul.

"Should the enemy dare to invade our country, annihilate them to the last man so that none of them will survive to sign the instrument of surrender!

"Let us build our country into the most powerful one in the world, into a people's fairyland, as wished by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

"Let us raise a strong wind of studying the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!"

So who comes up with these slogans? Probably a committee, says Grayson, "But you can assume that anything that is stressed like this has to have ultimate final approval from the man at the centre. It's quite possible that he said in some passing remark, 'We've got to do something about the food situation,' so somebody dreamed these up."

For the full list of slogans, read on:

Let us all turn out in the general offensive to hasten final victory in the revolutionary spirit of Paektu!

Let us greet the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and Party founding with high political enthusiasm and brilliant labour feats!

Let us glorify the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and Party founding as revolutionary, auspicious events noteworthy in the history of Kim Il Sung's nation and Kim Jong Il's Korea!

The great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are the eternal leaders of our revolution, the sun of Juche and the incarnation of the dignified powerful Paektusan nation.

Let us uphold the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il as the eternal leaders of our Party and people and as the sun of Juche!

The great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il will always be with us!

Let us glorify the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun eternally as the supreme sanctuary of Juche, as a grand monument to the immortality of the leaders!

Let us arm ourselves firmly with the revolutionary ideas of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

Long live the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

Let us model the whole Party and all society on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

Let us advance vigorously united firmly with one mind and one will as befit the descendants of Comrade Kim Il Sung and the soldiers and followers of Comrade Kim Jong Il!

Let us cherish the ties of kinship with Comrade Kim Jong Il as our lifeline!

Let us glorify the noble revolutionary careers and undying exploits of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il for all generations to come!

Let us glorify the achievement of national liberation by Generalissimo Kim Il Sung, hero of national resurrection and legendary hero of the anti-Japanese war, for all eternity!

Long live the great victory in the war against Japan!

Let us glorify the great Generalissimo Kim Jong Il's ideas of and achievements in the Songun revolution down through the generations!

Let us brilliantly inherit and develop the glorious revolutionary traditions of our Party!

Let us accomplish the Korean revolution in the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu!

The lines and policies advanced by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and their instructions are textbooks for the revolution.

Let us carry out the lifetime instructions of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il whatever the conditions without an inch of deflection and without a step of compromise!

Let us advance straight along the road of independence, Songun and socialism opened by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

Let us build our country into the most powerful one in the world, into a people's fairyland, as wished by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

Do everything the way the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il did!

Let us step up the building of a prosperous country by applying Kim Jong Il's patriotism!

Let us exalt the brilliance of the great Kim Il Sung's country, General Kim Jong Il's country, following the leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Un!

Let us stoutly continue, following the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, the march that started on Paektu!

The single-hearted unity is the greatest foundation and the most powerful weapon of our revolution.

Let us defend with our very lives the Party Central Committee headed by the great Comrade Kim Jong Un!

Let us defend the single-hearted unity of the Party and revolutionary ranks around the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un in a thoroughgoing way and consolidate it rock-solid!

Let all the service personnel and people form rings and rings of fortress around the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un!

Long live the glorious Workers' Party of Korea, which organizes and guides all victories of our people!

Let us strengthen and develop the Workers' Party of Korea for all ages to come into a glorious party of Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

Let us set up a new milestone in improving the Party's leadership ability and fighting efficiency in this year, which marks its 70th founding anniversary!

Let us establish the Party's monolithic leadership system more thoroughly across the Party and society!

Let the whole Party share the ideas, breathe the same air and keep pace with the Party Central Committee!

Let us establish across the Party rigorous discipline by which it moves as one under the unified leadership of the Party Central Committee!

Let us defend the prestige of the Party Central Committee in every way possible through the struggle to implement the Party's ideas and champion its policies!

Turn your units and areas into places that adjoin the yard of the office of the Party Central Committee, places where the Party's call, breath and pulse run high!

Keep up with the implementation of the Party's lines and policies as the major line of Party work!

We serve the people!

Let us make the principle of holding the masses dearest run through Party work as a whole!

Let us make the climate of respecting, loving and relying on the people prevail across the Party!

Focus the major effort in Party work on improving the people's standard of living!

Let Party organizations and officials work devotedly for the people to live up to their highest expectations!

Let the whole Party direct its main effort to the work with the people!

Raise all people into ones strong in idea and faith with the affection and the feeling of kinship as befits a motherly party!

Even though one may have 99 per cent of demerits and only one per cent of merit or conscience, boldly trust him and lead him to start with a clean slate!

Regard giving play to the spiritual strength of the masses as the main thing, compulsory path, of Party work!

Let Party officials learn the Party's methods of work with the people and become skilful in remoulding them and giving play to their spiritual strength!

Thoroughly get rid of abuse of authority and bureaucratism!

Regard supply service work as an important link in the whole chain of Party work!

Let Party cells become death-defying corps and pioneers in implementing the Party's policies!

Let us hasten final victory through a revolutionary ideological offensive!

Hold fast to ideological work as the top priority!

Let us raise a strong wind of studying the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

Concentrate on education in the greatness of the leaders, Kim Jong Il's patriotism, faith, anti-imperialist and class consciousness, and morality!

Keep the revolutionary faith to the death!

Fight death-defyingly for our country and nation!

Let us bear deep in mind the lessons from the class struggle and its truth!

Let the Party's information officials work as the buglers of the anti-Japanese guerrilla army did!

Make all well-informed of the Party's policies as they are of their own family affairs!

Fire an opening salvo of an ideological campaign and make our fire concentrated, regular and accurate!

Step up the three-revolution red flag movement!

Frustrate the imperialist moves for ideological and cultural infiltration by dint of our revolutionary ideology and culture!

Let the whole Party become information and motivation workers!

Demonstrate the revolutionary mettle as befit members of the Workers' Party of Korea in the today's general offensive true to the pledge taken in front of its flag!

Our Party's new line of simultaneously promoting the two fronts is a permanent strategic line that we must pursue as long as there exists the threat of aggression by the imperialists.

All out for a campaign to implement the Party's line of simultaneously promoting the two fronts!

The People's Army is the pillar and main force of the Songun revolution and a revolutionary armed force of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Let us model the entire army on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

Adorn the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and Party founding with proud successes in consolidating the country's military strength!

Let the People's Army remain the reliable vanguard and solid cornerstone of the Songun revolution holding aloft the red flag of the Workers' Party of Korea as the foremost colours of the revolution!

Become the props and iron shields that support and defend the lineage of Mt. Paektu alone to the death!

Establish the respected Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un's monolithic command system more firmly throughout the army!

Implement to the letter the four-point strategic line and three major tasks for increasing military strength!

Make the entire army the leading force of guards who advance straight ahead with their guns levelled only in the direction indicated by the Party!

Let the People's Army become an army strong in idea and faith, a pioneer in achieving unity and the first guardian of the unity, which is unfailingly loyal to the Party and the leader!

Let the entire army become a unit of genuine comrades-in-arms!

Consolidate in every way the political and military might of Kim Jong Un's powerful revolutionary army by vigorously conducting the movement of winning the titles of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment and Guards Unit!

Add brilliance to our revolutionary armed forces' proud tradition of winning all battles!

This year is a year of great significance, in which we will mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of the five-point policy for military training by the great Generalissimo Kim Il Sung and the 25th anniversary of the formulation of the four major principles for military training by the great Generalissimo Kim Jong Il.

Training is also a battle!

Let the entire army bubble with enthusiasm for intensifying training as anti-Japanese guerrillas did on Mt. Paektu!

Glorify this significant year as a milestone in improving the quality of combat and political training!

Let the entire army be prepared as crack shots by raising more fiercely the flames of the movement of becoming accurate riflemen and gunners!

Should the enemy dare to invade our country, annihilate them to the last man so that none of them will survive to sign the instrument of surrender!

Be constantly on the alert without a moment's relaxation!

Establish iron discipline to develop the People's Army into an elite revolutionary force to the hilt!

All officers, become field commanders who are capable of dealing with modern warfare!

Let us develop battalions and companies into ever-victorious, elite combat units and make them soldiers' dear villages and homes that adjoin the yard of the office of the Party Central Committee!

Enrich the life of service personnel by making sustained efforts to develop soy bean farming, fishing and animal husbandry as the main thrusts!

The supply service officers of the People's Army, work with devotion for their soldiers like those of the anti-Japanese guerrilla army!

Give full play to the match-for-a-hundred spirit and fighting efficiency of the People's Army on the major fronts of building a thriving nation!

Serve the country and people!

Aid the people!

Let the wives of officers become dependable assistants to their husbands!

Officers and men of the Korean People's Internal Security Forces, sharpen the sword for defending their leader, system and people!

Let us become iron shields and red warriors who defend our Party, system and people to the death!

Let us establish the climate of attaching importance to military affairs more firmly across society!

The Worker-Peasant Red Guards is a revolutionary armed force of our Party and a reliable wing of the People's Army.

The Worker-Peasant Red Guards and the Young Red Guards, be fully prepared for an all-people resistance by intensifying training in a real-war atmosphere!

Let us turn the whole country into a socialist fairyland by the joint operation of the army and people!

Let us achieve final victory on the strength of the great army-people unity and all-people resistance based on the revolutionary soldier spirit!

Always live the way you did as a soldier!

Let us look after the families of those who fell in action, honoured disabled soldiers, war veterans and soldiers' families with sincerity!

Defence industry is the reliable arsenal of the Songun revolution.

Effect a fresh turn in developing defence industry by giving full play to the spirit of Kunja-ri!

Proactively develop and perfect powerful cutting-edge military hardware of our own style!

Step up the efforts to make defence industry Juche-oriented and independent, modern and scientific!

Let the defence industry sector make a positive contribution to building an economic giant and improving the people's standard of living!

Our Party is steadfast in its determination to make our people, who are the best in the world, enjoy all socialist benefits as soon as possible.

Let us tend the precious seeds sown by the great Comrade Kim Jong Ilfor the building of an economic giant and the improvement of the people's living standards, in order to make them bear fruit in reality!

Science and technology is the engine of socialist construction.

Let the science front stand at the forefront to fire a salvo for the triumph of socialism!

Let us build a fairyland for the people by dint of science!

Scientific research is an area of acute confrontation with imperialism!

Go beyond the cutting edge!

Accelerate the industrial revolution in the new century by introducing CNC technology into the production lines and achieving their full automation!

Launch more cutting-edge sci-tech satellites and applications satellites of our style!

Raise the level of modernization and scientification in weather survey and forecast!

There is no border in science, but our scientists and technicians have the socialist motherland of Juche and the great Party.

Scientists and technicians, stand in the vanguard of the struggle to build a thriving country that is developing, civilizing and advancing at a fast pace!

Prove the validity and vitality of the Party's policies in reality by proactively developing cutting-edge science and technology!

Build "gold mountains" and "treasure mountains" with brilliant scientific and technological achievements!

To resolve the food problem of the people and improve their dietary life on a higher level with crop cultivation, animal husbandry and fishing as the main thrusts is the most important task facing our Party at present.

Agriculture is the trench on the first line of the forward echelon of the campaign to defend socialism and the main thrust area for the building of an economic giant!

Let us glorify through generations the new history of "gold plains" created by the great Comrade Kim Jong Il!

Let us make our country overflow with rice by boosting cereals production!

Actively introduce water-saving farming and other scientific farming methods!

Let us work hard to secure water resources as an all-people campaign!

Let us encourage organic farming on an extensive scale!

Establish the food production cycle of crop cultivation and livestock farming, and fruit growing and livestock farming!

Let us beat the world in fruit farming by making it scientific, modern and intensive!

Make fruits cascade down and their sweet aroma fill the air on the sea of apple trees at the foot of Chol Pass!

Grow vegetables extensively in greenhouses!

Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialized!

This year we will mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the sub-workteam management system by the great Comrade Kim Il Sung, which is the advantageous form and method of our style to organize and manage for production.

Demonstrate the advantages of the sub-workteam management system to the full!

Properly apply the field responsibility principle within the sub-workteam management system in order to make it pay off in agricultural production!

Press on with the South Hwanghae Province waterway project in the revolutionary spirit of death-defying implementation and self-reliance!

Let us carry through the great Generalissimos' instructions on "grass for meat"!

Let us expedite the construction of the large-scale livestock farming base in the Sepho area!

Produce larger quantities of meat, eggs and milk holding high the banner of science-based livestock farming!

Create a new history of "gold sea" by emulating the fishing sector of the People's Army!

Let this socialist country resound with Song of Big Fish Haul and be permeated with the fragrant smell of fish and other seafoods!

Modernize fishing vessels and implements and actively introduce advanced fishing methods!

Let the strong wind of fish farming blow across the country!

Conduct on a large scale fish and other seafood farming in rivers, lakes and seas!

Resolutely thwart the sanctions schemes of the imperialists by effecting a great upswing in light industry!

Produce larger quantities of high-quality consumer goods which are favoured by the people and have competitive edge on the world market!

Speed up the work to make foodstuff factories fully automated, germ- and dust-free!

Keep the laughter of the children ring by increasing the production of their foodstuffs!

More stylish school uniforms and quality school things for our dear children!

Give fullest play to the vitality of the movement of producing August 3 consumer goods!

Let the Tanchon area make an active contribution to improving the people's standard of living by boosting up production!

Let us turn all counties into the people's fairyland by applying the spirit of the historic Changsong Joint Conference!

Electricity is the lifeline of the national economy.

Let the whole Party, the entire army and all the people be enlisted to increase the electric-power generation radically!

Complete with credit the construction of the multi-tier power stations on the Chongchon River until the 70th anniversary of Party founding!

Speed up the construction of the Paektusan Songun Youth Power Station, Orangchon Power Station, Ryesonggang Power Station and Wonsan Army-People Power Station!

Raise the efficiency of the generating equipment to the maximum and prevent the loss of power in transmission!

Let us definitely convert the electricity control system of the country into an electricity-saving one!

Develop and make effective use of wind, tidal, geothermal and solar energy!

Coal-miners!

The height of coal heaps means the increase in electricity generation and the tempo of the building of an economic giant.

Let us support the Party with increased coal production!

Concentrate efforts on the production of coal for electricity generation and supply high-quality coal in larger amounts to the thermal power stations!

Give top priority to the supply of equipment and materials required for coal production!

The metal and chemical industries are twin buttresses of an economic giant.

Kindle fierce flames of production upsurge in Songjin and Chollima steel complexes!

Bring the Juche iron production system to perfection and normalize its production on a high level!

Send larger quantities of high-grade iron ore to metallurgical factories!

Fertilizer means rice and socialism.

Let Hungnam and Namhung produce Juche fertilizer in a larger amount!

Let the large-scale chemical factories make an active contribution to ensuring domestic production of raw materials for light industry and building materials!

Railways are the arteries of the country.

Let the rail transport sector establish rigid discipline as the army does and fully satisfy the demands by the national economy for transport!

Accelerate the work to make the railways heavy-duty, high-speed and IT-based!

Bring to completion the rehabilitation of the northern railways as early as possible!

Let us improve the appearance of the railway stations and the areas adjacent to railways by the concerted efforts of the service personnel and people!

Develop air transport onto a new high!

Build the Wonsan Port into a world-class one!

Develop and manufacture the machines and equipment required for modernization!

Produce and supply major ordered equipment in time and in a qualitative way!

Explore and make rational use of valuable underground resources of the country!

Make foreign trade multilateral and diversified!

Accelerate the development projects of the Wonsan-Mt. Kumgang international tourist zone and economic development parks!

Builders!

Let us usher in a great golden age of construction by thoroughly applying the Party's Juche-oriented idea on architecture!

Set up in larger numbers monumental structures in which the Juche character, national identity, originality, convenience and formative and artistic beauty form perfect harmony!

Hold fast to the principle of prioritizing convenience, aesthetic beauty and the outlook on the future in designing and building work!

Develop zero-energy, zero-carbon and green architectural technologies and introduce geothermal cooling-and-heating system!

Ensure on the highest level the combination of designing, building work and building materials, the three elements of construction!

Sustain in construction the features unique to one's province and region!

Complete with credit the construction of Mirae Scientists Street and other major projects and thus splendidly adorn the venue of the grand October celebration!

Land administration is a patriotic undertaking of lasting significance for achieving the prosperity of the country and creating the well-being of the people.

Let the whole Party, the entire army and all the people turn out in the war to ameliorate nature, in the campaign to restore the forests of the country!

Vigorously conduct the movement of winning the titles of forest of socialist patriotism and model county in afforestation!

Let us cover the whole country with fruit and other trees and flowers!

Introduce scientific, industrial and intensive methods into the production of tree saplings!

Bring tideland under reclamation on a grand scale so as to widen the land of the country!

Turn all the rivers into those that give benefits to the country, are full of treasures and bring happiness to the people!

Work out scrupulous measures to prevent damages from flooding, severe drought, storm and heavy snowfall!

Hasten the work to build up roads for modern, heavy-duty and high-speed purposes!

Devote pure conscience to road maintenance like the members of the family workteam on Kubong Pass!

Let the cosmos flowers bloom all along the roads and railways!

Let us launch a vigorous society-wide campaign to conserve the environment and nature!

Let us protect and make use of underground, forest and marine resources in order to add glory to our legendary country full of treasures!

Let us develop Pyongyang more splendidly into a majestic and picturesque world-class city, as the centre of Songun culture!

Let us turn the whole country into a socialist fairyland by modelling it on Pyongyang, capital of the revolution!

Keep streets, villages, mountains and rivers as neat and tidy as one's own courtyard!

Plant a large number of flowering and cover plants so that no land is left bare!

Improving economic management is an urgent requirement for building an economic giant.

Let us establish an economic management method of our style as demanded by the developing reality!

Ensure that producers fully discharge their responsibility and role as masters of production in economic management!

Ensure maximum profit in economic activities while firmly adhering to socialist principles!

Conduct production and management in conformity to the objective economic laws and as required by modern science and technology!

Let us strengthen the Cabinet responsibility system, Cabinet-centred system in the economic work!

Work out a rational and effective strategy for business operation and enterprise management based on the national strategy for economic development!

Hold fast to the principles of scientific accuracy, viability and enlisting in planning work!

Radically improve the quality of products and enhance their competitive edge!

Self-reliance is the only way to survive!

Put production on a normal footing and speed up the advance of socialism, holding aloft the banner of self-reliance!

Let us realize modernization, relying on our own strength and technology!

Get rid of the proclivity to imports and ensure domestic production of raw and other materials and equipment!

Establish exacting order of regular operation, regular repair and regular maintenance at all units!

Be in charge of your workplaces and villages, split into square metres, and take good care of them with the attitude as befitting masters!

Economy means increased production and patriotism.

Economize on every watt of electricity, every drop of fuel oil and water, and every gramme of coal and cement to the maximum!

It is a firm will of our Party to create at the fastest speed the highest level of civilization, which would be envied by the world.

Let us bring about a revolution in education in the new century to develop ours into a country of education, a talented nation!

Decisively improve the quality of the universal 12-year compulsory education!

Develop the contents of education into practicable, comprehensive and modern ones!

Closely combine theoretical education with practical education for students to learn useful knowledge!

Let us vigorously push forward educational work, viewing it as one of the important national affairs involving the entire Party, the whole country and all the people!

Let us closely combine family education with social and school education and bring up the coming generations to be honest and sound!

Let teachers become roots and foundations for the future of the motherland!

Let us make all the people well versed in science and technology, and develop our country into a scientific and technological power, a talented nation!

Speed up making the working class well versed in science and technology with the rooms for disseminating sci-tech knowledge as bases!

Physical culture and sports are important in demonstrating the national strength and preparing all the people for labour and national defence.

Let us raise the status of our country to that of a sports power at an earliest date possible!

Let us fiercely raise the sports wind across the country!

The height of a medal-awarding podium represents the prestige of the motherland!

Glorify the honour of Songun Korea before the eyes of the world by winning more gold medals!

Play sports games in an offensive way, the way the anti-Japanese guerrillas did!

Let us make sports mass-based and part of our everyday life!

Encourage folk games and sports events participated by the masses and develop physical training for national defence!

Journalists and other media persons, and creators and artistes!

Bring about a fresh revolution in mass media!

Let mass media become a travelling companion dear to the masses and a pathfinder of the times!

Make larger numbers of ideological "missiles" capable of severely damaging the enemy and instilling firm confidence in victory among our service personnel and people!

Let us support the Songun-based leadership of the Party by creating large numbers of masterpieces!

Learn from the revolutionary and militant manner of creating works developed by the Moranbong Band to bring about innovations in creative activities!

Create excellent works of art and literature that portray the revolutionary careers and immortal exploits of the peerlessly great men of Mt. Paektu!

Kindle the flames of a fresh revolution in cinema, starting from the production of animations!

Make the advancing ranks brim over with enthusiasm and optimism by producing large numbers of songs that champion the Party's policies and enlivening folk songs!

Let us turn the whole country into a land of the arts and make the arts mass-based!

Make every workplace overflow with revolutionary and fighting morale by actively conducting mass-based cultural and artistic activities!

Devotion is the attribute and lifeblood of the socialist public health service.

Show people utmost devotion the way the medical workers in the Chollima era did!

Improve the hygiene and anti-epidemic work and preventive and curative medical care so as to give fullest play to the advantages of the socialist public health system!

Bring to perfection telemedicine and the medical information network!

Boost the production of highly-efficacious medicines conducive to promoting the people's health!

Let us make the whole society pulsate with national sentiments and noble and beautiful lifestyle!

Let us establish cultured ways in production and life on a high level!

Let us conserve the excellent cultural heritage of our nation and inherit and develop them!

The people's government is a powerful political weapon in building a thriving nation and is responsible for the people's livelihoods.

Let us further develop the most advantageous people-centred socialist system of our own style!

Let us consolidate our people's power to make it rock-solid!

Let us give full play to the advantages and might of socialism so as to make socialism as different in all respects from capitalism as heaven is from earth!

Let the people-oriented policies and favours of the Party and the state reach the people as they are!

Steadily improve the people's living standards so as to make the cheering for the Workers' Party and socialism resound!

Let us make the laudable traits of taking care of orphaned children, the elderly with no one to support them and people with disabilities a tradition of the country that has become one large family!

Let us create a thoroughgoing revolutionary atmosphere of law observance throughout society by strengthening obedience to the socialist law!

Let us all observe the country's law and order voluntarily with a noble sense of civic duty!

Let judicial and prosecutorial organs fulfil their sacred mission and duty of defending the leader, the policies, the system and the people!

Intensify education in law observance and law-based struggle to reliably guarantee the building of a thriving nation by law!

Let the officials in the law-enforcement organs become fierce tigers for the unsound and hostile elements and faithful and true servants for the people!

Build up the single-hearted unity of the revolutionary ranks by enforcing law properly as required by the Party's policies!

Wage the class struggle dynamically by relying on the masses!

Establish revolutionary discipline and order and keep the Party, state and military secrets strictly!

When young people are astir, the whole country becomes astir and a revolutionary upsurge is brought about on all fronts of building a thriving socialist country.

Let us become young heroes in the worthwhile struggle to glorify the great Kim Jong Un's era!

Young people, be vanguard fighters who are unfailingly faithful to the Party's revolutionary cause of Songun!

Always advance straight ahead, following the Party!

Give fullest scope to the heroic spirit and mettle as befit reliable point-men and wing of the Party in the struggle to carry out the revolutionary cause of Songun!

Towards the trench on the first line of the Songun revolution singing loudly the song Train Bound for the Front!

Become today's Ri Su Boks and Jo Kun Sils, who are ready to lay down their youth and lives for the sake of their only motherland!

Go through fire and water in response to the Party's call!

Add brilliance to your youth like your fathers and mothers did!

Build up the youth league into steely combat ranks strong in the sense of organization, unity and fighting efficiency!

Enhance the fighting efficiency of the working people's organizations and give fullest play to the patriotic zeal of their members!

Launch brisk mass-based movements and make the flames of socialist emulation drive sweep the whole country!

The general onward march of the new century of the Juche era demands revolutionary and militant fighting spirit and working style with which to make a leap forward while looking out over the world.

Let us create a new spirit of the times, the speed of Korea, by means of our Party's revolutionary mode, fighting style and creative way!

Korea does what it is determined to do!

All at once!

Carry out the tasks given by the Party within the time it has set and on the level it requires!

Let us learn from the fighting spirit, the spirit of carrying out the Party's lines and policies to the death, and the meticulous working style of the Korean People's Army Unit 267!

Let the units visited by the great leaders be exemplary and standard ones in implementing the Party's policies!

Let Pyongyang lead the country in all aspects by creating today's Pyongyang spirit, Pyongyang speed!

Let us create prototype units in all sectors and effect joint innovations!

Get rid of stereotypes and formulae and create new things constantly!

Cover hundreds of kilometres at a stretch when others are taking tenth or one hundredth step!

Keep your feet firmly planted on this land and look out over the world!

Let us hold dear and add brilliance to our own things!

Carry out the Party's policies as exactly in all aspects as the Chonji Lubricating Oil Factory did!

The more books we read, the earlier the country prospers; the less books we read, the later the country prospers.

Let us establish the guerrilla's way of studying throughout society!

Overcome thoroughly the manner of working like extinguishing fire after it has broken out, like a flash in the pan and like conducting a shock campaign!

As long as we are with the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, sorrow and hardship as well as joy are an honour for us!

Let us live not merely for today but for tomorrow!

Acquire a noble outlook on the revolution and the future that one year of our hard work means ten years of advance for our motherland!

Let us make the whole country resound louder with the song We Are the Happiest in the World.

Forward towards a bright future, filled with confidence in sure victory and optimism!

The destiny of the Party's policies rests on the officials' shoulders.

Be standard-bearers and vanguard fighters in today's general offensive!

Be ardent supporters of the Party's policies and thoroughgoing fighters who implement them in a do-or-die spirit!

Let us live and work like the officials in the 1970s, the period of laying the Party's foundation for carrying forward the cause of Juche!

Organize and guide undertakings dynamically like the commanding officers of the revolutionary army on the frontline!

Intensify on-site guidance and political work!

Planning, command and review, all in a three-dimensional way and at lightning speed!

Make tireless efforts with an extraordinary determination to resolve the problems of the people's living at any cost!

Do everything in an innovative and scientific way!

Read the minds of producers first before measuring the quantity of their products!

Supply service work is immediately the struggle to defend socialism!

Sweep away defeatism, self-preservation, expediency and self-centeredness!

It is a long-cherished desire of all the fellow countrymen and urgent task of the nation to put an end to the tragedy of national division that has lasted 70 years.

Let us build a dignified and prosperous reunified country on this land without fail true to the lifetime wishes of the great Comrades Kim Il Sungand Kim Jong Il.

Let us hold high the three charters for national reunification and the north-south declarations as charters and great programmes for national reunification common to the nation!

Let the whole nation join efforts to open up a broad avenue to independent reunification in this year which marks the 70th anniversary of national liberation!

Let us put an end to interference by outside forces and achieve national reunification independently under the unfurled banner of By Our Nation Itself!

Let us bring about a great turn in the inter-Korean relations in this year that marks the 15th anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration!

Let the whole nation turn out and write a new chapter in the history of inter-Korean relations in hearty response to the peerlessly great man's patriotic call!

Let us determinedly thwart the military provocations and schemes of war games by the US and south Korean warmongers!

Let us rise up in the nationwide struggle to drive the US imperialist aggressive forces, the root cause of national misfortune and war, out of south Korea!

Let us resolutely frustrate the anti-DPRK "human rights" schemes by the US and its vassal forces!

Let us hold fast to the principles of our foreign policy-independence, peace and friendship!

Let us maintain the revolutionary principles and independent stand with all consistency in foreign relations!

Let us develop foreign relations in a multilateral and proactive way, giving top priority to the dignity and interests of the country!

Let us develop friendly and cooperative relations with all countries that respect the sovereignty of our nation and are friendly to us!

All Party members, officers and men of the People's Army and people!

An opening salvo of the general offensive for the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and Party founding has been fired.

The revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu and the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners' call to keep the revolutionary faith even if one may die, stir up further the confidence in sure victory and fighting spirit of our service personnel and people, who are charging forward along the road of Juche against all odds, and inspire loyalty and passion in the advancing ranks.

No force can check this sweeping advance of the service personnel and people, who are marching in fine array arm-in-arm, shoulder-to-shoulder, following the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, a great man of Paektu.

The flags bearing the beaming images of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il will fly forever in the van of our revolutionary ranks that achieve only victory and glory, and always inspire us to fresh victories.

All forward towards the venue of victory celebration!

Long live the great victory in the anti-Japanese war and the 70th anniversary of national liberation!

Long live the 70th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea!

Click here, external to read them again in Korean.

Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.