Article by a Pyongyang Traffic Girl: Traffic Controller’s Pride

From Korea Today http://175.45.176.14/en/periodic/todaykorea/index.php?contents+5139+2010-01+135+23
Traffic Controller’s Pride

People have their own pride in their respective jobs and work hard for the good of society and the collective in our country.

But those who work with unusual pride like us girl traffic controllers will be few and far between, I think.

The other day the Chinese ambassador to our country visited one of our posts and said to us in admiration: What comes in sight first and what looks most attractive when setting foot in Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, are the traffic controllers. The girl traffic controllers are most charming.

British Reuters, Russian ITAR-TASS and Chinese Sinhua news agencies’ dispatches introduced us on control duty and our appearance changing at each season time and again.

I am buried in deep thought whenever I learn the news through newspapers and TV.

In August last year ITAR-TASS carried an article as follows:

“The DPRK leader Kim Jong Il prepared a surprise gift for the traffic controllers in Pyongyang, who can be fairly said to be the ‘urban face’. Large umbrellas on round platforms were installed one after another at the major crossings.

…

“According to Rodong Sinmun, a national newspaper of this country, Kim Jong Il paid attention to the inconvenience of the girls on duty who have to withstand the boiling heat of summer and the blazing sunlight inside a white circle at intersections. He saw to it that the round platforms and umbrellas were installed at the major crossings. This is how the ‘queens of the road’ came to mount on something like a dais of honour.”



Like this, we have various charming nicknames—“the urban face”, “queens of the road”, “beauties of Pyongyang”, etc. These names have come into being, not because we are real beauties.

We can hardly expect a beautiful flower without the sun that gives warm light and heat. Likewise, the beautiful and attractive appearance of us girl traffic controllers is not a natural endowment.

We are ordinary, plain-looking girls like others, but the State pays a special concern to us in recognition of our service at crossings throughout the year. Padded clothes we have on are also associated with a gripping story.

On a winter day more than ten years ago, Kim Jong Il saw a traffic controller on duty wearing a skirt in cold weather. He was so worried about us that he told officials concerned to supply all the girl traffic controllers with cotton-padded trousers. Taking the trouble to examine the designs of our uniform, he recommended the one with high boots, saying that the trousers should be tighter to go well with boots and the cap should have a peak to keep off snow and rain.

That is why we were provided with the stylish padded uniforms. Later, we received raincoats, boots, sunglasses, gloves and shoes of the best quality as well. We are continuously supplied with even luxury cosmetics to prevent chaps on our faces. Under such scrupulous care we are spending worthwhile days of duty service without the slightest inconvenience in our work.

Nevertheless, the State provided our every post with a large umbrella on a round platform that gives us cool shade, protects us from rain in summer and even emits heat in winter.

In fact, we took the scorching summer sun and biting winter cold natural for us as we were attending to our duties at the street intersections. But the State supplied our every post with the aforesaid platform and large umbrella we never imagined, noting that the supply of sunglasses alone to enable us to attend to our duties in summer with these glasses on would not be of much help to us in mitigating our inconvenience.

These blue umbrellas now present a conspicuous spectacle at the crossroads of the capital. Our hearts are now full of one and the same desire to repay the love and trust of the State that made us widely known to the world public as “beauties of Pyongyang.”

Traffic Controller Ro Yong Mi,Pyongyang City
People’s Security Bureau Traffic Control Corps

What is it with NK traffic chicks and government supplied cosmetics? Do they supply male cops with cologne and shaving cream?

It wouldn't surprise me.