DPRK Launches New Movement

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, November 27, 2001

DPRK Launches New Movement

DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il has launched a new revolutionary movement, named 'Ranam'. The DPRK's state media said Monday the new movement was prompted by "miracles" performed by workers at the Ranam Coal Mining Machine Complex in the northeastern port of Chongjin. Ranam workers were praised for advancing the production of equipment dramatically through technical innovation and the utilization of waste material.

Touched by their "revolutionary militant spirit," Kim has ordered a drive to build "a people's paradise on this land at an early date," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in one dispatch released at the weekend. Kim has held up Ranam as a model to be followed by all DPRK workers and officials, it said. "The torchlight Kim Jong-Il lit in Ranam is calling on the whole party and country and all the people to effect fresh leap and innovation in the general advance to build a powerful nation in the new century."

Rallies were held across North Korea last week to spread Kim's new drive, KCNA said.

"Ranam is one of the North's regular movements for economic development which have been launched over past decades," said Oh Seung-Yul, a DPRK expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

The drive also reflects their concern over the US campaign against terrorism, Oh said. "They now worry the US campaign may increase tension on the Korean peninsula. The DPRK feels impelled to maintain tight control on its economy," he added.

Rodong Sinmun has described Ranam as a follow-up of the DPRK's previous campaigns which "brought about victory" in the 1990s.