Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un's Speech at Conference in Celebration of 80th Anniversary of Founding of Socialist Patriotic Youth League

DPRK: Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un’s Speech at Conference in Celebration of 80th Anniversary of Founding of Socialist Patriotic Youth League! (19.1.2026)

In the 1950s, the members of the democratic youth league defended their country in the flames of the war, and the Chollima movement pioneers rehabilitated this land on the debris of the war; in the grim period when the destiny of socialism was at stake, your parents’ generation defended their country, their social system. In this way, all the generations of our Republic have left behind legendary tales and structures, signs of their exploits, which are symbolic of their youth and which are named after their generations.

Shining on all these achievements are the feats performed by the youth league in implanting in the young people the sense of duty and obligation as befits the successors to the revolution and in firmly maintaining the tradition of purity, patriotism and loyalty of the youth movement of Korea.

Stairway to Heaven!

Northants: Kirby Hall – [1570] Elizabethan Home of Nobility! (1.8.2025)

This building reminded us in structure of Hampton Court (not far from where we live in London) – and Berry Pomeroy in Totnes, South Devon (not far from where my parents live). This is not surprising, as I believe from reading the available “English Heritage” literature that the same architects and engineers were used by the Court of Queen Elizabeth I and the nobility that served her. The front of the Hall faces North – with the back of house facing South (built on a North-South orientation). Local serfs (landless or homeless peasants) and peasants (land-occupying peasants) were employed by the nobility when large-scale building projects were initiated. Indeed, with the development of Guilds (primitive unions) – certain groups of peasants became highly skilled in specific construction and maintenance skills. Whether any such labour was employed from nearly Kirby Village, (situated to the South-West of what became the ornate rear garden of the complex), is open to debate.