Foundation for Agricultural Development Provided by Chairman Kim Jong Il

 Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- The DPRK people are recollecting with deep emotion the devoted efforts made by Chairman Kim Jong Il for the country's agricultural development.

In the latter half of the 1990s, the food problem came up as an acute issue decisive of the destiny of socialism in the country.

To this end, the Chairman unfolded a large-scale operation with his firm resolve to tide over the food shortage and consolidate the foundation for the country's agricultural development by putting forward the Korean People's Army to the fore. It was an unimaginable great and courageous determination to put in servicepersons defending the frontline of the country to engage in the work for assisting the agricultural production even under the touch-and-go situation.

The headquarters for supporting the rural communities were formed from the then Ministry of the People's Armed Forces to units and from the then Agricultural Commission to provinces, cities and counties. And servicepersons and agricultural workers turned out as one to make achievements in the agricultural production in 1997 and 1998, braving the high temperature and prolonged drought.

The Chairman regarded the land realignment as an important way for increasing the productivity per cultivated area and gave a precious instruction on launching the land rezoning campaign on the road of his field inspection to a People's Army unit in May 1998.

For five years since then, he gave highly important teachings on land rezoning on more than 100 occasions and visited many land alignment project sites.

Servicepersons and shock brigade members from different parts of the country waged a vigorous struggle to turn hundreds of thousands of hectares of fields into ones of standardized shapes as befitting the land of socialist Korea, within five years.

Thanks to Kim Jong Il's patriotic devotion, a firm foundation was provided to boost the overall agricultural production. Various high-yielding crop species were bred, good experience gained in potato farming, double-cropping and soybean farming, and large-scale gravity-fed waterways like the Kaechon-Lake Thaesong Waterway came into being. -0