Great Trace Left in Kumsong area

President Kim Il Sung said:

"I have never considered my life to be extraordinary. I am content and proud to think that my life has been dedicated to my country and nation and spent in the company of the people."

The residents in Kumsong-ri, Onchon County have been enjoying happy life since President Kim Il Sung visited there. Before the liberation they had great difficulty in making both ends meet; they scarcely fed themselves because they didn't have even a patch of their own land, so they had to gather salt working their fingers to the bone and catch fish on a small boat in the sea.

On March 23rd, Juche 58(1969), President Kim Il Sung visited there, met the then vice-secretary of ri Party Committee and asked him about his past life, got firsthand information on the number of Party members and the number of families as well as shortage of houses.

In fact, the living standard of the farmers in the ri was still so low. As for houses, most houses were destroyed during the war and the houses built after the war were straw-thatched ones, and more than half the population were sharing others' houses or living in single-roomed houses since they hadn't built up any dwelling houses for more than 10 years.

Informed of such circumstances from the vice-secretary, the President said dwelling houses should be built within one or two years to stabilize the farmers' life, and then asked the senior official of the County Party Committee the number of houses to be built in Onchon County that year. Hearing that they would build houses for 1500 families, among which 100 would be for Kumsong-ri, he felt relieved and smiled.

Then, the President asked the vice-secretary about the last year's amount of income distribution allotted to each household. When he heard the answer, he said it was on a very low level and told the officials accompanied that there were still many farms on the low level and they should be improved together as well as Kumsong-ri and illuminated ways out for it in details. The President said that in order to improve the living standard of the farmers, they should increase cash income by making an efficient use of sea as well as farming well, taking the example of mountainous Changsong County which increased the cash income by using the mountains well.

Hearing from the senior official of the County Party Committee that the sea off the county was rich in shellfish, the President said that although South Phyongan Province had been previously famous for pickled shellfish and shrimps, now it was hard to see them and they should improve people's living standard by catching shellfish a lot.

After looking into the plan of catching shellfish per member of fishery work-team the President expressed great satisfaction at it, saying it would be a great amount if the proportion of shellfish to its meat was 10 to 1. And he emphasized that cash income should be increased by catching plenty of shellfish, and the workforce economized by mechanization of farming should be used for fishing. He repeatedly told them to catch fish and shellfish as much as possible, saying fishing was much better than growing fruit trees in a coastal region.

On that day, the President personally chosen the site of modern houses before leaving Kumsong-ri and instructed earnestly that houses should be built neatly and farming be mechanized and shellfish and fish be caught a lot in order to transform Kumsong-ri into a good place to live.

After his field guidance, all the officials and farmers of Kumsong-ri, who turned up as one, made adequate preparation for farming, thus finishing the spring sowing 10 days ahead of schedule. And then they gradually applied machines to farming and expanded the fishery work-team. Moreover, they made a moulding machine which produced thousands of blocks every day, which helped them build up 300 modern houses in 2 years splendidly and moved into new houses.

Thanks to the wise leadership of the President, Kumsong-ri could get rid of old appearance to be transformed into a socialist paradise and the farmers' living standard has been improved day by day.