The workers of Kangson built the UHP electric arc furnace of Korean style, which may be called the acme of the steel industry, in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance in a short span of time last year.

Self-reliance is the traditional fighting traits and the powerful mode of revolution for the Korean people who are forging ahead under the banner of the Juche idea.

It is a priceless truth proved through the protracted struggle of the Korean people for socialism that self-reliance is the only way to existence, victory and prosperity.

The indomitable spirit in which the revolutionary forerunners made Yongil bombs with bare hands to beat down the Japanese imperialists and the heroic fighting spirit in which the Korean people built a rich and strong country by their own efforts on the debris after the war have been carried forward invariably generation after generation.

The Korean people have won a victory in the "Arduous March" for firmly defending the red banner of socialism and ushering in a new era of building a great, prosperous and powerful nation in the worst adversity. It was a miracle of history that could be wrought only by them, who have firmly armed themselves with the confidence of independence, the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance.

The proud victory and changes made in the efforts for building a thriving nation under the Songun leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea are cementing still further the faith of the Korean people that self-reliance is the best.

While visiting the Chollima Steel Complex in December last year, General Secretary Kim Jong Il underscored the need to give full play to the might of self-reliance which was augmented in the days of the unprecedented "Arduous March", the forced march, to build a great, prosperous and powerful nation at an early date, saying that the Korean people opened the gate to industrialization, that took centuries in other countries, in a brief span of time with the spirit of self-reliance which rocked the world in the 1950s.

In the present era of up-to-date science and technology, the Korean people will create new advanced ones of Korean style on all fronts of the socialist construction one after another by effecting an upsurge of technical revolution and modernization and thus fling open the gate to the great, prosperous and powerful nation without fail in the year marking the centennial birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung.