"I am happy to say that I am a lucky woman," said O Myong Chun, a spinner at the Sariwon Textile Mill, when she was re-elected as deputy to the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK last year.
A woman of small build, O was orphaned as a child when the country was tightening its belt during the Arduous March.
"But I never felt myself an orphan," said the 32-year-old. "During my school days, teachers looked after me like parents and, since I started working, the organization and collective have taken care of me like blood relatives."
She worked diligently as a spinner at the Sariwon Textile Mill out of a desire to repay their kindness and parental affections.
It was her workshop leader who guided her to make a good start in social life. The workshop leader who became a Labour Hero as an ordinary worker was a great inspiration to her, O said.
With her help, O prepared herself as a skilled spinner.
Thus, she fulfilled her yearly production quota the following year and carried out production plans for two years in the year after that.
She was not content with that and so she set herself the goal of attaining three or four years’ quotas and strived to this end.
"O Myong Chun has untiring perseverance and a quick eye for learning," said her colleague Kim Sun Hyang. "She took charge of four or five looms to achieve her goal."
After four years of painstaking work, she received high state commendations every year and was elected deputy to the 13th SPA in 2014.
The SPA deputy continues to run her looms.
She has also trained many labour innovators and skilled spinners.
(Pyongyang Times - November 24, 2020)