It was in August Juche 48 (1959) that President Kim Il Sung assigned the railway workers to a task for making the electric locomotive. The reality of the country at that time badly required the electrification of railways.

The railway workers got down to the production of electric locomotive, together with designers in their twenties, who learnt advanced science and technology on electric locomotive manufacture thanks to a step taken by the President during the war.

The designers completed more than 5,000 sheets of design in six months by devoting all their efforts. And, in order to overcome the shortage of technicians, they trained lots of technical forces and skilled workers in three months in the method of helping each other forward and through organization of daily technical study session.

The most difficult in producing the electric locomotive was to make a high speed circuit breaker, but the workers and technicians completed it by their own efforts after tens of failures.

　In August 1961, the President examined the first electric locomotive. He boarded the locomotive's cab and sat on an engineman's seat to examine dashboard, control device and other equipment and facilities in it. Then, he highly appreciated it and praised its makers, saying that they attained a high target in the country's technical revolution.

That day, he named the locomotive Pulgungi (red flag) and said it would be good to mark a fluttering red flag on the front of the locomotive.

The title of DPRK Labor Hero was conferred on the first electric locomotive Pulgungi No.1 in September 2001.