Rodong Sinmun Wednesday says this in a by-lined article.

It goes on:

National self-esteem serves as a powerful weapon for every country and nation to protect themselves and achieve prosperity.

There is nothing impossible if one is confident that one's nation is not inferior to other nation and one has the determination to defend and demonstrate the dignity of the nation to the last and the faith and will to dedicate oneself to one's nation.

In the new century some countries allowed themselves to be reduced to a scene of genocide after being derived of their sovereignty, exposed to military strikes of imperialists, mainly because they lacked national self-esteem.

The Korean people have covered the most arduous and thorny path which no country has ever done.

On this path they stood in fierce military and political confrontation with the imperialists, experienced bitter adversities and underwent economic difficulties and hardships in living caused by repeated natural disasters.

Possessed of strong national self-esteem, the Korean people could foil the high-handed policy of the imperialists to stifle the DPRK with the toughest measures.

All the miraculous successes achieved by the Korean people this year are the brilliant fruition of the strong national self-esteem peculiar to them.

The stirring reality in which great leaping advances and changes are taking place everywhere clearly testifies to the fact that the national self-esteem of the Korean people serves, indeed, as strong mental power to create everything from scratch and a powerful weapon for frustrating any pressure and sanctions of the imperialists.