Chollima Movement - Origin

Origin

The term Chollima originates from the Chinese mythological flying horse. The world Chollima can be translated as “thousand li horse,” referring to its ability to travel 1,000 li (400 kilometers) in a single day. It also was said that it could not be ridden by any person. It is known for accomplishing the most difficult tasks and to have led heroes to victory. This idea of Chollima was used by Kim Il-Sung to energize the workers in North Korea to bring the country out of the rubble of the Korean War to obtain a better life and a more prosperous country in a short amount of time.

Kim Il Sung first introduced the term Chollima in December 1956, shortly before the start of the 1957-61 five-year plan. During this five-year period, North Korea strove to complete a socialist transformation of industry within the country. It worked to completely nationalize industry and agriculture and become largely self-sufficient in producing food, clothing, and housing for all of its citizens. Kim Il Sung started the Chollima movement to motivate hard work for the sake of the nation to achieve the desired outcomes of the five-year plan. At a meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea held in December 1956, Kim Il Sung called on the nation to be more motivated in economic production. He said, “Let us produce more, practice economy, and overfulfil the five-year plan ahead of schedule!” Within four years the aims of the five-year plan were met.

The successes of the Chollima movement were first seen in 1957 as Kim Il Sung called on workers in a factory in the city of Kangsong (near Pyongyang) which only had the capacity of 60,000 tons to produce an extra 10,000 tons of steel. The factory, however, was able to produce 120,000 tons, 60,000 tons more than its capacity. This achievement was credited as lighting the torch of the Chollima movement. The term ‘Chollima rider’ was given to workers who surpassed their targeted goals of production. This title encouraged people to work harder. The DPRK even started a slogan of ‘drink no soup’ to make it so workers did not need to use the restrooms as often.

The slogan of ‘Let us dash forward in the spirit of Chollima’ was adopted to help motivate workers, with the result that miracles were recorded in all areas of economic activity. DPRK experienced an annual industrial growth of 36.6 percent during the five-year plan.

In 1959 the Chollima Work Team Movement was started. This was a system of socialist competition waged among teams of workers, upholding the Communist lifestyle and working under the lofty socialist ideal “One for all and all for one.” “A work team would receive the title of Chollima Work Team by setting a production target high enough to stand out among other work teams in the whole nation and actually attaining the target as assessed competitively under a national evaluation system.” If the title was awarded the team and its members would receive honorific items such as Chollima embossed banners, flags and notebooks.

The Chollima Work Team Movement was initiated by Chin Ung Won who organized fellow workers on his work team for the goal of achieving production far exceeding the quota assigned to them. With Chin’s success and the encouragement from the national government the movement gained rapid massive support and Chin Ung Won became the ideal Korean woker. The Chollima Work Team Movement gained 178,000 members less than a year and a half after its start.

Kim Il Sung led the North Korean economy. He often visited factories and asserted his advice in areas in which he had little to no knowledge. His advice, however, was followed which often led to unsuccessful results.