North Korean Leader Gives “Guidance” to Nursery Shop

Text of report by state-run North Korean radio on 8 August

[Unattributed report carried as the first of 16 items in newscast; Kim Jong Il's last reported public appearance was his visit to Hamju pig and goat farms]

The great leader [ryo'ngdoja] Comrade Kim Jong Il [Kim Cho'ng- il] gave on-the-spot guidance at the Nursery Shop of the Yiwo’n [Riwon] County Forest Management Station in South Hamgyo’ng Province.

The great leader of our party and our people Comrade Kim Jong Il – who is general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea [WPK] and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission [NDC] – gave on- the-spot guidance at the Nursery Shop of the Yiwo’n County Forest Management Station in South Hamgyo’ng Province.

Comrade Kim Ki-nam [Kim Ki Nam], secretary of WPK Central Committee, accompanied him.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il was met on the spot by Comrade Kim P’ung-ki [Kim Phung Gi], chairman of the People’s Committee of South Hamgyo’ng Province; Comrade Kim Yo’ng-kyu [Kim Yong Gyu], secretary of the WPK Committee of South Hamgyo’ng Province; Comrade Ri Wo’n-ho, chief secretary of the WPK Committee of Yiwo’n County, and senior functionaries of the Nursery Shop.

The functionaries and workers of the Yiwo’n County Forest Management Station are bringing about an epochal turnabout in the afforestation work by persistently struggling with an ardent, single heart to put into implementation at an early date the great general’s plan on turning the entire country into thick woodlands and greeneries.

The Yiwo’n County Forest Management Station has greatly contributed to making the mountains in the county greener by growing and supplying 35 new species of saplings from the nursery shop of 15 cho’ngbo [ 1 cho'ngbo = 2.45 acres].

With the stable help provided by the nursery shop that has been solidly organized, the county has exceeded its annual afforestation plan every year, and in this year, too, it has planted various trees such as pine-nut trees, tetradium daniellii, paulownia trees, and Ch’angso’ng larch trees in the areas of approximately 650 cho’ngbo.

Thanks to the devoted struggle of the party members and working people of the Nursery Shop and the Forest Management Station, all the mountains in the county are completely changing their look as socialist mountains.

After being briefed on the station, Comrade Kim Jong Il looked around the scientific and technological knowledge dissemination room and the plots of the saplings of various species and acquainted himself in detail with the status of the production of saplings.

About all sorts of saplings flourishingly growing along the tiers of the ridges in the wide nursery, Comrade Kim Jong Il expressed his great satisfaction over the fact that the station has created an excellent nursery reminiscent of a big botanical garden and has put the production of saplings on a scientific basis.

Saying that it is a remarkable success that the employees of the nursery shop have contributed to turning mountains into thick woodlands by annually attaining the sapling production plan more than planned every year, by creating a pine-nut tree forest of 70 cho’ngbo, and by producing more than one-tonne of tree species of nine sorts and supplying them to many other nursery shops over the past 10 years, Comrade Kim Jong Il highly assessed the feat of them who have devoted all their wisdom and passion to making the country wealthy, powerful, and prosperous.

Then, Comrade Kim Jong Il climbed the mountain clad in thick verdure and commanded a view of the forest of grafted pine-nut trees created by the Forest Management Station of the county.

Upholding the teaching of the great leader [suryo'ngnim] on grafting pine-nut trees onto pine trees and thereby growing many economically profitable pine-nut trees, the Forest Management Station has persistently pushed ahead with the project for many decades and has created a pine-nut tree woodland of several tens of cho’ngbo today.

Seeing the thick forest of grafted pine-nut trees covering the mountain range and pine-nut clusters on each twig of trees, Comrade Kim Jong Il said that this is, indeed, spectacular scenery and heard a story about the struggle waged by those who have tended the forest of pine-nut trees.

Saying that no one but only the true patriots – who completely devote themselves to the fatherland’s prosperity and the future descendants’ happiness – can accomplish this sort of project, the benefit of which can be reaped one decade or several decades later, Comrade Kim Jong Il highly assessed the noble spirit of patriotism displayed by Comrade Ch’oe Ki-chong, former head of the Forest Management Station, and the functionaries and workers of the Forest Management Station who have glorified their lives for a long period of time through the creation of the forest.

Saying that, if pine-nut trees are grafted onto pine trees, this is good in many aspects – the pine tree woodlands of no great value can be turned into pine-nut trees woodlands, the nut-growing period can be sharply reduced, and trees can grow two to three times faster than the trees grown from saplings – Comrade Kim Jong Il stressed that the method should be actively propagated.

Saying that the experience of the Yiwo’n County Forest Management Station has proved in practice the truth and enormous vitality of the great chuch’e idea that calls for reforming the people, transforming the society, and harnessing nature in line with the demands of chuch’e, Comrade Kim Jong Il added that there is nothing impossible in this world when man’s creative ingenuity is brought into the fullest play.

Saying that we can turn all the mountains of the country into thick woodlands in a brief span of time if we make a tenacious and constant effort to change the appearance of the mountains and rivers of the country just as the Yiwo’n County Forest Management Station did, Comrade Kim Jong Il stressed the need for all the units to actively follow the example set by the Yiwo’n County Forest Management Station.

Saying that Yiwo’n County is a model of the national land management work, including the afforestation work and the road management, Comrade Kim Jong Il offered warm greetings to the people of the county.

On the spot, Comrade Kim Jong Il set forth the tasks to be fulfilled in carrying out the afforestation work.

Comrade Kim Jong Il said that the afforestation work is a noble, patriotic project for the happiness of the people and for a wealthy, powerful, and prosperous fatherland, and it is a nature-harnessing project of eternal value.

Comrade Kim Jong Il said that only by planting lots of trees in mountains and by creating thick forests is it possible to increase the natural resources of the country, to completely change the look of the national land, and to create even better living conditions and environments for the people.

Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out that the tapestry-like three thousand-ri land of our beautiful country in which our people have lived generation after generation should be even more properly preserved and maintained during our generation and should be turned into a socialist utopia with beautiful scenic spots where all sorts of fruits are growing and into a beautiful land of the era of the Workers Party.

Saying that what is most important in implementing our party’s policy on turning the entire country into woodlands and greeneries is to plant lots of the trees of good species, Comrade Kim Jong Il stressed that to this end trees should be adapted according to the reality of our era, and more of the trees of good species should be planted based on the right-soil, right-tree principle.

Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out that many trees should be planted along roadsides by choosing the trees of good species in a way of befitting the sorts of roads and their surroundings and by properly determining spaces between trees.

Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out that the issue of saplings and seeds should be appropriately resolved, if the country is to be turned into woodlands and greeneries at an early date.

Noting that the growing of saplings is the first process for creating woodlands and greeneries, Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out that all the units, including the provinces, municipalities, and counties, should grow robust saplings in large quantities by properly building nurseries and by carrying out the fertilization and cultivation work well, just as Yiwo’n County has done.

Saying that in order to turn the entire country into woodlands and greeneries it is necessary to plant many trees and pay deep attention to protecting and managing the trees, Comrade Kim Jong Il stressed the need to prevent the deeds of recklessly felling trees and to work out thorough measures for the prevention of wildfire.

Saying that the development of forestry science is important in carrying out the afforestation work as well, as it is the era of science, Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out that scientific research institutes should obtain saplings of good species which are of economic value and which suit the climatic and soil conditions of our country and should actively push forward the research work to widely disseminate them.

Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out that the organizations of the party and the working organizations should intensify the ideological education work and should equip all of the party members and working people with socialist patriotism and should make them step forward in unison with the spirit of the ardent love for their socialist fatherland in the work of making their country and fatherland even wealthier, more powerful, and more beautiful.

Comrade Kim Jong Il called on the entire party, the entire army, and all the people to step forward as one and to even more vigorously carry out the afforestation work and thereby to pass the land of the fatherland – which is covered with thick forests and which has turned into the mountains of wealth and treasures – on to our descendants.

Extending the warmest greetings of gratitude towards the respected and beloved general who had kindly inspired and encouraged them and imbued them with the noble spirit of patriotism through the visit to their far, faraway worksite, all of the party members and working people of Yiwo’n County, including those of the Forest Management Station, renewed the pledge of loyalty to brilliantly accomplish the honourable tasks assigned by the general and thereby to actively contribute to the completion of the cause of the construction of a powerful state.

The words that the great leader of our party and our people Comrade Kim Jong Il gave during the on-the-spot guidance at the Nursery Shop of the Yiwo’n County Forest Management Station are the great, encouraging banner that vigorously rouses our army and people to the construction of a wealthy and powerful fatherland, as the programmatic guidelines that should be firmly maintained in turning the entire country into woodlands and greeneries.

Originally published by Central Broadcasting Station, Pyongyang, in Korean 2100 8 Aug 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.