The respected Comrade
"Our Party, even in the worst situation when the country's destiny was in the balance, has prepared precious seeds and socialist assets for the happiness of the people through painstaking efforts and invariably pursued people-oriented policies; this is an expression of the politics of love for the people that can be administered only by our Party that has shouldered the responsibility for their destiny."
One of the socialist assets that have come as a result of the popular governance of the Workers' Party of Korea is the Taedonggang Eel Farm situated on the picturesque Taedong River.
The fish is well known for its good content of oil and nourishment plus its delicious taste. There are over 300 kinds of eels around the world, most of which live in the tropical sea. Only 19 kinds travel from the sea into rivers.
The eels found in Korea belong to the Pacific family; they live for 5-12 years in the fresh water until they grow up and return to the sea to lay eggs and die there.
The Taedonggang Eel Farm grows eels in an industrial way. It has dozens of indoor breeding ponds of different sizes and two outdoor breeding ponds. Each pond is equipped with all facilities sufficient enough to provide a condition for scientific farming, like a water tank and a water-heating boiler which supply water, heating and oxygen.
The farm obtains fries, weighing 0.1 gram each, and grows them until they are usually 200-300 grams each. They are packed alive and delivered to restaurants in Pyongyang, typically the Okryu and Chongnyu restaurants.
The general control office is equipped with a control system for management and operation of the farm, which includes the control of the water quality and the water mill observation. The system ensures scientific eel farming by helping to keep the water quality and the water mill operation under constant observation and deal with abnormal occurrences immediately.
The eel farming in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea started under the wise guidance of the great General who put his heart and soul into the effort to provide the people with a civilized and affluent life at the earliest possible date.
While giving instructions to some officials in November Juche 88 (1999) on how to do eel and catfish farming well, the great General said that it was necessary to grow eels and supply them to the Korean people first instead of catching eel fries and selling them to foreign countries.
As they contain a lot of oil and nourishment and are famous for their delicious taste—and they are in wide use for tonic for those contents—the eels are in great demand. The eel farming, however, is a very delicate job and the cost of production is quite high. That was why there had been few trials to do eel farming while there were many to catch eel fries and sell them to foreign countries.
In May Juche 89 (2000) the great General gave an instruction on opening a special eel restaurant in Pyongyang and expanding the eel farming largely enough to serve the citizens. Then, he made sure that the equipment, materials and labour force were provided for the project of expanding the eel breeding ground, and he took a measure to fund the collection of eel fries and the supply of assorted feed and necessary equipment.
Well aware of the warm care of the great General for the people, soldier builders of the Korean People's Army set up a modern eel farm in a matter of 20 months, which consisted of several blocks and dozens of indoor ponds. By striving hard to complete the eel farming method the farm produced a large amount of eels from the year it went into operation.
The great General took a measure for supplying the products to the Okryu Restaurant, Chongnyu Restaurant and other catering establishments so that they were served to Pyongyang citizens. He also solved all problems like those related to transport of fries and the supply of feed. Meanwhile, he sent technical data on eel farming and initiated a measure for sending officials concerned to those countries that were known to have a longer history of eel farming so that they could get a broader view.
On December 15, Juche 99 (2010) he inspected the farm. He said with pleasure that the farm was situated well enough to catch eel fries that come upstream from the sea and get sea and fresh water as much as it wanted for eel farming. Looking round the general control office and breeding ponds he was satisfied that it was now possible to serve eel dishes to the people with ease. Then, he asked about the price of eels. Hearing the answer from an official about the cost needed to produce 1 kg of eels and the selling price which was only nominal, he was very pleased, and said: It is worth boasting to the world that our country has an eel farm in operation and serves eel dishes to the people. It would be impossible to run an eel farm or serve eel dishes to the people if we were simply set on calculation of the cost of production and the amount of profit. This is what our Party alone can do which regards it as the basic principle in its activities to serve the people alone.
Eel farming is something that is difficult to manage even when the cost of production and profit are taken into strict consideration. To sell the product at the price which is too low to cover the cost of production, to say nothing of the profit, is a mode of management which is probably the last thing to understand in foreign countries.
One day in the past the great Leader said: Some foreigners who are on their first visit to our country are likely to think that we supply pupils and students with clothes and other school things at a cheap price because we are novices at commerce. This is far from true. We do it in a planned way in order to lessen the burden of the people with many children and clothe all children equally well and give them equally good schooling.
Now in different parts of the country are found fish producers like catfish and rainbow trout farms and salmon companies, and the people's catering establishments like the Okryu and Chongnyu restaurants serve rare dishes like those made of eel, sturgeon and terrapin to the people at low prices.
The popular pricing policy of the DPRK represents the warm and great care of the Workers' Party of Korea that spares nothing if it is for the sake of the people while regarding it as the basic principle in its activities to serve the people.
