Jo Feb 14, 2022
Kang Po (late 13th century – early 14th century) was a famous astronomer and a mathematician in Koryo.
He found a solution to a biquadratic equation which was not found until the 19th century in Europe. Thus, he made the most advanced and correct calendar in the world of those days “Susiryok” (a primitive calendar) and even a numeration table for easy correction of them.
Those days when farming held an overwhelming proportion in the economy, it was of vital importance to make a calendar that showed correct subdivisions of the seasons.
At that time people used a lunar calendar where there were 354.370 5 days in a year, so after 33 years there was a gap of about 1 year between solar and lunar calendars. Therefore, it was impossible to figure out which season a particular month belonged to.
In order to overcome this shortcoming, lunar calendars had to undergo a huge mathematical calculation for the correction of seasons
Nevertheless, limited mathematical knowledge of those times made it difficult to upgrade calendars every year.
Kang Po, who passed the state examination in 1294, volunteered to shoulder the heavy burden of making a calendar.
He made a correct calculation of the orbit of the sun according to the 24 divisions of the year, on the basis of which he succeeded in making a new correct calendar called “Susiryok”
Not satisfied with this, he decided to find a system of calculation for easy and constant correction of existing calendars.
With painstaking studies and efforts, he discovered his own original formula which is now known as x4＋ax2＋bx＋c＝0, and formed a numeration table “Susiryokripsong” necessary for calendar correction.
People in the neighbouring countries expressed their admiration and envy, saying that this was the very world-shaking miracle and that Koryo was a great power of culture.
The Yuan Dynasty not only introduced his new Susiryok as it was but also published his numeration table in the book “Taedongthonggwe”.
Having devoted all his life to improving a calendar, he wrote a book “Susiryokchopbopripsong”, where he made known the secrets of his calendar in 1343.
This is the oldest one of all the astronomy books known to the world so far.
It was not until the 19th century that Hono, a British mathematician, obtained a biquadratic equation. Kang Po was indeed a world-famous astronomer and a great mathematician.
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Jo Feb 10, 2022
Sin Sa Im Dang is a famous female painter and the mother of a great scholar Ri Ryul Gok.
Sin is her last name and Sa Im Dang is her pen name. She was born into a ryangban (aristocratic) family in Kangrung, Kangwon Province.
Her father, Sin Myong Hwa, despite his excellence in learning and virtue, kept himself from the service in the government.
Instead he remained jinsa (a person who has passed the primary state examination only) all his life devoting himself to the education of the rising generation. Her mother Mrs. Ri was simple and honest, yet strict and generous in the education of her children.
Sin Myong Hwa had no sons but five daughters, the second of whom was Sa Im Dang.
Having started studying when she was a very small child, she was good at everything like composition, penmanship, painting, embroidery, etc.
Especially, she was brilliant at painting. At the age of 7, she caught people’s admiration by painting a landscape and grapes with An Kyon, a famous painter in the 15th century as her model.
This was such a progressive style of painting as a number of contemporary artists were immersed in painting exotic scenery and 4 noble characters (Japanese apricot blossom, orchid, chrysanthemum, bamboo)
Her masterpieces still found include “Eggplant”, “Grapes”, “Mallard”, “Mandarin Fish”, “Heron in a Pond”, etc.
Her paintings were so lifelike that when she put out a painting in the yard, cocks and hens flocked together to peck at the insects in it. When a woman was worried about her borrowed skirt soiled in a wedding, Sa Im Dang painted a delicious-looking bunch of grapes on it. These stories show the distinct creative personality of a fine warm-hearted woman artist who loves her life and is rich in national emotion.
Her patriotism and profound humanity were also reflected in her poems and education of her children. At the age of 19, she got married to Ri Won Su, who was working as a kamchal, a position pretty low in official rank. Soon afterwards, her father died and she moved to Hansong for a married life with her widowed mother left alone. She never forgot her native village and her mother.
One day she was pleased to visit her mother after a long time. After some days of pleasure and happiness, she had to part from her mother. With tears in her eyes, she composed a poem on Taegwan Pass (a big pass across the road from Kangrung to Hansong) looking over her native village and yearning for her mother
As a fine mother, she paid a great deal of attention to the education of her children.
She had 4 sons, all of whom she exercised strict control over with fixed quantities of study every day so as to bring them up to be talents serving their country.
Her children, under the influence of their mother, studied hard to become famous. Among them, her third son Ri I (pen name – Ryul Kok) was distinguished.
From the age of 3, he learnt to read and at the age of 8 he composed a poem, thus startling people. Having passed the primary state examination at the age of 13, he consecutively served in various government posts for over 30 years. During this period he proposed a number of patriotic measures for developing the country and strengthening the national defense. Besides this, his fame as a great scholar reached far-away Ming and Japan. Her youngest son, Ri U, who inherited delicate penmanship from his mother, was also a noted calligrapher.
Sin Sa Im Dang, a famous woman artist and a mother who brought up their children to be able talents, passed away at the age of 48.
Although she failed to produce works of art based on reality, which showed her social and class limitations, she managed to paint beautiful lifelike coloured pictures contrary to the subjective black and white drawings that reflected the hobbies of feudal rulers of that time.
This served as a notable contribution to the development of realistic Korean painting.
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Jo Feb 7, 2022
Josonjol (Korean bow) is admirable greeting etiquette whereby people can fully express mutual respect and politeness with sincerity. It is one of the good manners and customs of our people, who have had observed noble and elegant proprieties from olden times.
Chairman
The term jol (bow), which means “bend one’s back” or “lean forward”, is a pure native word of our country that is indicative of greeting etiquette peculiar to our nation.
Josonjol, the traditional greeting of the Korean nation, is divided into sonjol (a bow in standing position) and anjunjol (a bow in kneeling position).
Sonjol, which is made outdoors, is subdivided into deep, common, and half bows according to greeting partners and the degree of bending.
For a deep bow you bend your body down by almost 90 degrees in standing position, for a common bow you bend your back by about 45 degrees, and for a half bow you just bow your head slightly.
Deep bows were made to the people to whom you had to pay your greatest respect such as the elderly and older ones higher in the degree of kin relationship, common bows were exchanged between people of the same age or those including relatives by marriage who had to treat each other with due courtesy although they were not very old, and half bows were made by older people in return for the bows by younger ones.
There were no differences in the way of making sonjol for men and women, and the deeper you bent your upper body, the more courteous it was regarded as. On the contrary, if it lasted too long for courtesy, it might be considered rude as it looked like a silent tribute for the dead.
When they met on the street, Korean people used to either bend their upper bodies or bow their heads in accord with their greeting partners to show respect before they exchanged words of greeting, which shows noble praiseworthy greeting manners of their style they have observed.
Anjunjol is also subdivided into deep, common and half bows according to greeting partners and the degree of bowing heads. It is for indoors and it differs from sonjol for men and women.
As deep bows were regarded as the most courteous one, they were usually made on ceremonial occasions and to people of high social status for the greatest courtesy.
Common bows were usual in everyday life and usually made on the New Year’s Day or to the elders, the relatives in the same degree of kin relationship and the people they first met. In the case of men, however, deep bows were made on the New Year’s Day while common bows, not deep ones, were often made on their wedding days or 60th birthdays. Similarly, deep bows as well as common bows were common for children on the New Year’s Day. That is why a common bow was regarded as similar to a deep bow in terms of courtesy in the past.
Half bows were made by seniors in acknowledgement of juniors’ bows, and also between people on intimate terms. They simply bowed their heads slightly in kneeling positions .
As mentioned above, you could see that although there are many greeting manners in the world, none of them is clearer than josonjol, which is varied in different places and on different occasions.
How our country could be widely known to the world as a country of courteous people in the East is also attributable, to some extent, to the fact that Korean people had created and constantly developed such admirable greeting etiquette.
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Jo Nov 11, 2021
Kim Haeng Son was born in Chongjin City, North Hamgyong Province on May 24, Juche 38(1949).
He has devoted his all to the education of the rising generation and scientific research for 46 years since Juche 64(1975), when he graduated from university.
He wrote 20 kinds of textbooks and reference books including Metal Welding, Welding Heat Procedure, Dissimilar Metal Welding, Materials for Pressurized Light Water Reactor and Welding and Six Language Vocabulary on Welding, and trained 7 Doctors and more than 20 Masters. By regenerating the large-scale bearing roll by means of deposition, he had the honour of receiving thanks from Chairman
He was awarded the title of academician in July, Juche 110(2021).
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Jo Aug 20, 2021
Choe Yong Myong, student in the 5th grade at Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Kim Chaek University of Technology, has been a member of the family of the special class disabled soldier couple for nearly 20 years since the day of his first visit with his parents on January 1, Juche 92(2003) when he was 3 years old.
What was imprinted on the pupils of the young boy’s eyes was his father and mother, who kept running about in sweat to help the disabled soldier who was always on the bed. Today the student is following this road.
In his childhood he spent more days with the cheerful passionate disabled soldier rather than with his grandmother, who took every possible care of him. Sometimes he had to get punished before the strict “uncle” when he failed to do his homework because of himself much absorbed in play. However he was always at his side.
When he went to university after the middle school, he paid more and more attention to the disabled soldier.
The ideological and moral world of the disabled soldier, who took treatment strenuously with strong will withstanding the unbearable pain for 24 years in bed and who was even more passionate than any of his colleagues was inscribed as the mirror which the student reflected himself in.
It seems to be the reason why his heart towards the soldier got warmer and warmer as the days went by.
He did devote himself to the soldier from the childhood when he put various kinds of healthy food prepared by his mother into the soldier’s mouth, and the middle school days when he read a book at the bedside, to the university days when he gave the soldier his favourite computer, taught him how to type on the keyboard and to use application software, and translated a number of foreign books and magazines needed for his treatment.
Choe Yong Myong and his parents found the word “one family” not in the lines from a book but on their own skin and flesh.
Therefore special class disabled soldier Hong Kum Chol and his wife Ju Kum Hwa expressed their feelings in the letter to KUT as follows:
“The Workers’ Party of Korea, our socialist country training a huge army of such reliable youths is the best in the world!”
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Jo Jul 30, 2021
July 30th is the day when the Law on Sex Equality was proclaimed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The women professors and the researchers of our university are also greeting the significant day with ecstasy and romance as the patriotic scientists, and turning one of the wheels of the revolutionary chariot just like all others in the country.
Among them are Dr. associate Prof. Kwon Hye Yong, the head of a laboratory in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, who has chosen untrodden and painstaking career of scientific research to contribute to the development of the electrical industry for almost 30 years, Dr. associate Prof. Jang Kyong Wol, a researcher of the Robotics Institute who has devoted to modernizing the mechanical industry some 30 years like a day since she graduated from the university, Mrs. Ri Hye Suk, a researcher of the Faculty of Electronics, who has become distinguished in her 40s by her great research in solar energy, and Mrs. Pak Yon Sil, an English teacher who has created new English teaching methods to improve students’ foreign language.
Candidate Acad. Prof. Dr. Choe Sun Yong, a teacher in the Faculty of Information Science and Technology says as follows, doing all her best to leave her beautiful trace on the history of the fatherland.
“The certificates of candidate academician, professor and doctor bring me back a lot of memories. Without the motherly Party, who discovered my exceptional talent for engineering and fostered it, how could I become an honorable woman as today?
Thanks to the Party, our women, who lamented over the miserable plight of colonial women, singing the song of Balsam in the past, have become the masters of the country, patriotic working people and the scientists who exercise their rights legitimately, singing the songs such as A Girl on a Steed, Push Back the Frontiers of Science”
This is an open-hearted description of not only Dr. Choe Sun Yong but also all the women professors and the researchers of our university.
It is needless to say that the warm care of the motherly Party leads the ordinary women to be the heroines of the country, doctors and innovators, and their patriotic lives will be ever glorious.
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