Dr. An Yong, Faculty of History, Kim Il Sung University
2023.9.27.
The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said:
"In improving the people's standard of living, fish farming is something we must never neglect nor stop halfway."
One day in July Juche 107 (2018) Kim Jong Un visited the Songmak Atlantic Salmon Pedigree Farm that hatches salmon fry and send them to the Raksan Offshore Salmon Farm.
On his way to the oxygen generation station after looking round the outdoor tanks teeming with salmons, he was crossing a small bridge over a waste water ditch when he stopped. He could see a school of rainbow trout swimming in the ditch. He asked why the rainbow trout were there.
An official of the farm answered that the farm was raising the fish in the ditches as the number of salmons had increased.
Exclaiming, Kim Jong Un said that it is spectacular he has never seen rainbow trout being raised in ditch; in the past rainbow trout were raised in tanks as the number of salmons was small, but it has now become different; yesterday's "master" is sharing "lodgings" with others today; the scene of rainbow trout sharing "lodgings" in ditches is a spectacular scene that can be enjoyed only in this fish farm.
Listening to his words that explicitly described the eye-opening change of the farm, the officials were reminded of the devotion of Chairman Kim Jong Il and the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, who directed great efforts so that the people could eat salmon.
Saying that salmon farming was an undertaking for the country, Kim Jong Il stressed that only when we succeed in farming salmon could we keep our country on a par with the countries advanced in fish farming, he chose the site of a salmon farming base in the waters most appropriate to this end and had the waters designated as a special salmon reserve.
One day in the last days of his great career, he received a report on the successful farming of Atlantic salmon in the East Sea of Korea, together with a salmon, which was as heavy as 10kg and raised at the remote Raksan. Seeing the fish over and over again, he said that he wanted to shout to the world: Look at Korea; its people have now become able to eat salmon.
Concerning himself with when he could make it possible for the people to eat salmon while he was allying hunger with a few rice balls on his field guidance trips, Kim Jong Il had taken all the necessary measures.
Cherishing the Chairman's wish, Kim Jong Un encouraged officials, saying that we should perfect salmon farming without fail and report the result to the Chairman who is lying in state in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
Thanks to the warm affection of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, ten years after breaking ground in Songmak, which had been called so because only stones covered the area and it was not fit for human habitation, a new history of salmon farming was opened with even rainbow trout, a high-quality fish, sharing "lodgings" with other fish in waste water ditches.
