Kim Myong Son, head of a furnace shop at the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex, told KCNA that all the employees of the complex are full of the same mettle and passion as those they felt in the past upon receiving the news about the successful launch of the first artificial satellite and success in underground nuclear test.

We will fully display the revolutionary spirit of the heroic Korean working class this year to greet the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea with increased production, he said, adding: On the basis of successes gained in completing the modernization of the UHP electric arc furnace, introducing high-temperature air-combustion technology, making a large oxygen separator and building a ferroalloy furnace and oxygen heat-based furnace, we will further increase the production of heavy rail and steel.

Ho Chun Gum, chairwoman of the management board of the Kumdae Cooperative Farm in Rangnang District, Pyongyang, said:

Now, the U.S. and other hostile forces become evermore desperate in their moves to check the DPRK people in building a thriving nation and improving the living standard and bring down the social system in the DPRK.

The reality clearly proves the truth that one's destiny should be defended by one's own efforts.

The successful H-bomb test was a measure for self-defence the DPRK took to protect its sovereignty and the vital rights of the Korean nation from the escalating nuclear threat and blackmail by the hostile forces, as part of its efforts to reliably defend the peace on the Korean Peninsula and regional security.

We, agricultural workers, will do our best to bring about a bumper crop this year with the national dignity and pride of being nationals of a nuclear weapons state.