Pundits comment in unison that the decisions of the Second Plenary Meeting of the Ninth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea will offer fresh impetus to the comprehensive development of Korean-style socialism. 
The most conspicuous issue dealt with at the meeting is probably about the remarkable transformation of the coal mining areas across the country during the new long-term plan period (2026-2030). Back in March this year, Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the WPK, announced the project for transforming the coal mining areas when he visited the Chonsong Youth Coal Mine to cast a vote for the election of deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly (parliament) of the DPRK. Finally, the project was adopted as part of the Party’s decisions at the recent meeting. 
There is a reason why the WPK has set it as an important strategic undertaking to effect a technological and cultural improvement of the coal industry during the new five-year plan period. 
Today, the DPRK is vigorously pushing a simultaneous and balanced development of the whole country in the new era of comprehensive development. This bid is supported by such policies as those on capital city construction, rural housing construction and the Regional Development 20×10 Policy aimed at building new regional-industry factories as well as advanced healthcare facilities, leisure complexes and grain storage facilities. 
It is quite clear that all these projects intended for the substantial improvement of the material and cultural living standards of the entire population will add more to the patriotic enthusiasm of the people and their confidence in the future and encourage them to make strenuous efforts for the comprehensive development of socialism even in the face of a host of difficulties. It may be in this context that the DPRK leader clarified it as the task to which the Party should give special importance and direct efforts for the development of the coal industry to solve the housing problem of coal miners, the masters of coalfields and the producers, and transform the coal-mining villages across the country.
Such a gigantic undertaking as the transformation of coal-mining areas will provide the DPRK with another driving force for its ongoing campaign for achieving comprehensive development. 
There is another reason for the WPK’s bid to transform all of the country’s coal-mining areas. 
As is known, this country has built solid foundations for a self-supporting economy that relies on its abundant coal deposits as fuel and raw material. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that developing the coal industry quite means economic growth in the country. 
Consolidation of material and technological foundations of the coal industry and improvement of working conditions for miners through the implementation of the mechanization and informatization of the work done in the pits will lead to the successful settlement of the main problems arising in the efforts to carry out the new five-year plan. It will also guarantee a stable and sustainable development of the economy and help address the strategic problem of paramount importance in the implementation of the next medium- and long-term plans for the future development of the national economy, which will in turn put the Korean economy on a track of more rapid progress.