Kim Jong-un greets soldiers returning from deployment to Russia in December last year. [Yonhap]
Kim Jong-un greets soldiers returning from deployment to Russia in December last year. [Yonhap]

North Korea marked the 81st anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers' Party on Saturday by trumpeting its achievements and calling on citizens to rally behind Kim Jong-un and the party.

According to KCNA and Yonhap, the party's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun ran a front-page editorial titled "The Great Mother, the Korean Workers' Party."

The paper credited the party with rebuilding the country from the ashes of the war and achieving industrialization within 14 years, boasting that "the dignity and might of our motherland have reached their highest point on Oct. 10 (Saturday)."

Among recent achievements, the paper cited the commissioning last month of the new 5,000-ton destroyer Ganggeon and the construction of housing in Pyongyang's Hwaseong district. It declared that the future of a socialist power is "not prophecy or hypothesis, but science and truth."

KCNA also ran a piece titled "The Korean Workers' Party, Realizing the People's Ideals," promoting the party as one that "devotes itself selflessly to the people."

Commemorative events were held throughout the day. Senior party officials, including members of the Political Bureau's Presidium of the Central Committee, visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on Friday to pay their respects. The mausoleum houses the preserved remains of President Kim Il-sung and National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il. Flower baskets were placed before statues of the two leaders on behalf of the party Central Committee, the State Affairs Commission, the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and the Cabinet.

Korean Central Broadcasting Station announced that an evening outdoor dance party and fireworks display would be held at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang at 8 p.m. Saturday. On Friday, a women's ice hockey match was played between the Daesongsan team and the Pyongyang Railway Bureau team, with Cabinet Premier Pak Thae-song, party and government officials, and citizens in attendance.

Congratulations also poured in from abroad. Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith sent a congratulatory message to Kim, who replied with an expression of gratitude. In his reply, Kim said he was confident the two countries' relations would "further consolidate and develop in keeping with the spirit of the agreements reached at our meeting in Pyongyang last October." Nicaraguan co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, Russia's Communist Party and the ruling United Russia party also sent flower baskets.


shee@heraldcorp.com