Daily NK recently acquired a copy of “study reference materials” North Korean authorities distributed in December for “ideological training” among party members and laborers.
The materials aimed to promote awareness of the existing party platform and bolster party members’ understanding of new strategic goals presented ahead of the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee (Dec. 27–Dec. 31).
Published by the Workers’ Party of Korea Publishing House, the 16 page document contains the party ideology as described by Kim Jong Un during the Eighth Party Congress, the key tasks and strategies of the newest five year plan, and strategies to “build socialism.”
The materials also encourage idolization of the top leadership and loyalty, including Kim’s revolutionary history and a collection of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s revolutionary anecdotes called, “The Songun Sun: General Kim Jong Il.”
The Central Committee’s Propaganda and Agitation Department wrote the materials, which were distributed mainly by the Organization and Guidance Department.
Considering how the words “party members and workers” appears in parentheses under the title, “Study Reference Materials,” the materials were apparently studied by party cells, elementary party bodies, and extra-governmental institutions, such as the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea, and Socialist Patriotic Youth League.
In the materials, North Korean authorities underscored that the core tasks of the newest five-year plan are intensive investments in the metals and petrochemical industries, the normalization of production in all sectors, the strengthening of the material and technological base of agriculture, and increasing production of consumer goods by ensuring the smooth supply of raw materials and supplies to light industries.
Nevertheless, the document also said the basic ideas and themes of the new five-year plan remain “self-reliance and self-sufficiency.”
Despite calling for expanded investment to “normalize” production and ensuring smooth provision of supplies, the materials focus on enterprises and regions supplying themselves rather than on relaxing the border closure or restarting trade.
The materials also call on all officials and party members and workers to have a proper understanding of agriculture.
For example, they say that anyone who eats must understand that proper farming is a vital issue related to the fate of individuals and the survival of the nation, and that North Korea can overcome its food shortages “only if everyone is mobilized for farming in a responsible way.”
Additionally, the materials say that if the entire party, nation, and people “smartly come together and fill up rice jars by farming well, there would be nothing to fear regardless of how protracted the border closures are.”
This suggests the authorities want to encourage and even force through the proactive mobilization of party members and workers for agricultural work.
North Korean authorities also appear to have adopted a strategy of bolstering agricultural yields as a remedy to sooth public discontent and concern with the prolonged border closure.
In particular, the document calls for “bold” changes in agriculture by moving away from corn as much as possible and towards rice, wheat, and barley.
In fact, during the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee, Kim Jong Un called for a shift in general staples from potatoes and corn to rice and wheat.
The distribution of the document prior to that meeting may have been aimed at underscoring the consistency and continuity between the existing party platform and the new party strategies to be announced during the meeting.
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