The Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) urgently convened an emergency enlarged meeting on Friday morning to prevent damage by Typhoon No. 13 which is expected to seriously influence the whole area of the DPRK and discussed the state emergency measures for preventing disaster.

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and supreme commander of the armed forces of the DPRK, guided the meeting.

The meeting heard a report on the analysis of the intensity, estimated course and character of Typhoon No. 13 rapidly moving towards the Korean peninsula, vulnerable areas and extent of the expected damage and discussed the issue of taking state urgent emergency measures to cope with the typhoon.

At the meeting, the Supreme Leader of the Party, state and armed forces of the DPRK informed in detail about the gravity of damage to be caused by Typhoon No. 13 and typical typhoon damages which the DPRK underwent in the past, and analyzed the situation of nationwide crisis management against the natural disaster.

He said that imminent are dangerous circumstances fraught with huge damage to be caused by Typhoon No. 13 which will develop into a strong medium one while going through the Korean peninsula, but those ranging from senior officials of the Party and the government to officials of Pyongyang and local areas remain unchanged in their attitude and helpless against the typhoon, unaware of its seriousness and seized with easygoing sentiment.


Noting that it is necessary to take urgent measures for thoroughly protecting the lives, property and safety of the people and safeguarding natural resources of the country and gains of the revolution by minimizing the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by natural disaster, he set forth tasks for every field, unit and region to organize and wage a campaign for preventing the damage by typhoon and heavy rain with the whole state, the entire Party and all the army involved, and ways to do so.

He stressed the need to arouse the whole Party, the entire army and all the people to the campaign for preventing the damage by Typhoon No. 13.

He said that the Party organizations and political organs at all levels should quickly explain the spirit of the emergency enlarged meeting of the Party Central Military Commission to all the Party members, working people and service personnel and conduct the frontline-style and determined ideological campaign for setting them in motion.

Saying that the People's Army should become the main force in the campaign for preventing the typhoon damage, he stressed the need to organize the damage-prevention measure headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and commanding teams of the service- and the corps-level units in tiers for a prompt direction of damage prevention and restoration.

Kim Jong Un stressed the urgent key issues arising in preventing damage by typhoon.


The Cabinet, ministries, national institutions, provinces, cities and counties should check in detail ahead of others the safety of objects, which might entail serious consequences if they are damaged by typhoon, and find out defects and take thorough measures, he said.

He called on provincial, city and county Party committees to take full measures in advance to protect the lives and property of the people.

He underscored the need for the state non-permanent measure committee against disaster and leading officials of the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces to keep the system of coordinating the combined operations to cope with typhoon damage.

He said that all the leading officials, including senior officials of the Party Central Committee and officials of power bodies, chairmen of the provincial Party committees, commanding officers of the armed forces organs, should be firmly determined to go to localities concerned, punctually hold their positions while keeping keyed-up attitude day and night and carry out operations and directions for preventing typhoon damage in a responsible manner till the danger of typhoon is completely removed, adding in case damage is caused by typhoon, they should take immediate measures to prevent the damage from being aggravated. And he set forth concrete missions and tasks.

Noting that the prevention of damage by Typhoon No. 13 is an enormous struggle, he expressed his firm belief that all the officials would carry out their tasks in a responsible way and thus achieve adequate successes in the struggle for preventing typhoon damage while always sharing the destiny with the people, solemnly aware of the expectation of the Party and the people and their responsibility.


The meeting also discussed organizational matter.

The WPK Central Military Commission newly appointed Army General Pak Jong Chon the chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, dismissed or transferred the commanding officers of the General Operational Bureau of the KPA General Staff and decided to appoint new commanding officers.

Concluding the emergency enlarged meeting of the WPK Central Military Commission, Kim Jong Un said that the People's Army should regard it as its liable duty and mission to defend the safety and property of the people against natural disaster and remain loyal to its sacred duty, and expressed the belief that it would play a great role as the strong pillar of the country which has no substitute.

Attending the meeting were members of the Party Central Military Commission, vice-chairmen of the Party Central Committee, officials of relevant departments of the Party Central Committee, chairmen of the provincial Party committees, commanding officers of services and corps-level units and officials of armed forces organs, ministries and national institutions.

(KCNA - September 6, 2019)