North Korea "Nuclear Deterrence" the Next Day... "The Most Powerful Weapon is Ideology"

Emphasis on the Importance of Ideological and Mental Warfare
Focus on Economic Construction Instead of Heightened Tensions

It was reported by the Korean Central News Agency on the 24th that the 4th Enlarged Meeting of the 7th Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party was held under the chairmanship of North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, held the 4th Enlarged Meeting of the 7th Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party and discussed measures to strengthen nuclear war deterrence. The next day, North Korea emphasized the importance of 'ideology' to its people and called for strengthening mental power. It refrained from inciting hostility toward external forces or provocative propaganda, instead focusing on mental armament aimed at economic development.

On the 25th, the Workers' Party organ, Rodong Sinmun, published an article titled "The Most Powerful Weapon, The Only Weapon," stating, "To achieve great results in today's frontal breakthrough battle, it is important to fully mobilize the ideological and spiritual power of workers, party members, and laborers," and argued, "Ideology becomes the most powerful weapon, the only weapon because ideology determines everything."

The economic sector was cited as the frontline of the ideological battle. The newspaper said, "In just the past year alone, under the Party's leadership, our people overcame the most vicious and despicable machinations of hostile forces and unfavorable weather conditions to break the record for the highest agricultural harvest year," and added, "We successfully completed the second phase of the Samjiyon City construction project and splendidly established the Jungpyeong vegetable greenhouse farm, nursery, and Yangdok hot spring cultural recreation area."

It continued, "When organizations firmly grasp our Party's revolutionary ideology as a powerful weapon and prioritize ideological work in all tasks, the pace of socialist advancement accelerates," citing the example of the construction of the Suncheon fertilizer factory.

The newspaper emphasized, "Reality confirms that ideology is indeed the most powerful weapon," and stressed, "Under difficult conditions and with many shortages, what the political section workers of the construction command trusted was only the ideological and spiritual power of the masses."

On the 24th, North Korea raised external tensions by mentioning 'nuclear war deterrence' at the 4th Enlarged Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Party, but internally urged focus on economic activities. This has led to assessments that the meeting's significance lies not in a shift to a hardline stance toward the U.S., but in internal organizational reorganization.

Professor Im Eul-chul of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University interpreted, "(At the meeting on the 24th) they mentioned strengthening nuclear deterrence, but these are things they have repeatedly asserted before," and added, "For now, the intention is to internally strengthen and reorganize the core of deterrence?nuclear, strategic weapons, and artillery firepower?while concentrating on economic construction."

On the same day, the newspaper's front-page editorial titled "Mobilize Internal Potential to Accelerate the Grand March of Economic Construction" also emphasized that now is the time to focus on economic construction. It particularly reiterated the necessity of recycling projects to overcome the economic difficulties.

The newspaper stated, "Great effort must be put into the recycling (reutilization) business," and said, "All institutions, enterprises, and organizations must vigorously carry out the work of collecting all waste and scrap materials generated during production processes without omission and sorting them by type to use them as new production resources."

It urged, "All workers should actively participate in the procurement business and contribute to converting various wastes such as scrap paper, scrap cloth, scrap rubber, and scrap glass generated in daily life into valuable national resources."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.