A Mysterious Country

The yawning of gap between the rich and the poor is an acute social problem of worldwide concern. Given the situation, it would be an enigma that there is a country where the people are all equally comfortable. In fact, socialist Korea in the East is free from the so-called social problem---the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

In this country there is neither a man who has a villa or a de luxe house worth millions of dollars, nor a man who makes enormous profits with means of production at his disposal. All of its people live evenly, without a remarkable distinction in their life, for all means of production belong to public ownership and the state takes care of the people’s life, for instance, food supply, clothing and housing, on its full responsibility.

Employment is vital to people’s life. In Korea the state pays great attention to this issue. An article of its Socialist Constitution stipulates as follows: “Citizens have the right to work. All able-bodied citizens choose occupations in accordance with their wishes and skills and are provided with stable jobs and working conditions.”

The application of this article is actually manifested by the absence of even a single unemployed man in this country.

The state also takes responsibility for the provision of shelter, an indispensable factor in man’s existence and activity. It allocates colossal amounts of state fund to the building of dwelling houses, which are provided to not only white-and blue-collar workers but cooperative farmers free of charge.

Korea is the “country of education” where all people learn to their heart’s content. A dense and well-regulated network of educational institutions enables its people to get access to all levels of education, ranging from preschool education (at kindergarten) through primary and secondary education to tertiary education, at the expense of the state such a universal free education system has been enforced since 1959. The state takes full responsibility for the provision of all things necessary for education.

The Koreans get enormous benefits from the state in the matter of food. The state buys cereals from cooperative farmers at a high price and supplies them to all the people at a low price. Also noteworthy in Korea is its universal medical care system that has long been in force. People enjoy medical check-up, experimental test, medical treatment, operation, hospitalization and medication free of charge. Thanks to its orderly section doctor system, doctors call on their patients---a natural phenomenon in Korea.

Korea is the first country in the world that abolished taxation. It is commonplace in any country that the burden of tax, levied on the people grows heavier along the rising prices, whenever there occurs an economic crisis. But Koreans have been unfamiliar with the word “tax” since 35 years ago. All of them are enjoying benefit from such social policies as recuperation and relaxation systems, a paid leave system, and social insurance and security systems.

In socialist Korea the people are free from worries about food, clothing, housing, medical treatment, children’s education and tax, all living an equal life; they are masters of the state, and politics for people is administered. Such a dreamlike reality is attributable to the fact that the Juche idea, which regards man, the masses of the people, as the most valuable, is the guiding ideology of this country.

Guided by this ideology, socialist Korea is advancing vigorously, without the slightest vacillation in the face of any trials and hardships of history, making great strides in its endeavors to build a great, prosperous and powerful country by means of the single-hearted unity of all its people and with the backing of their full support and trust.