To Establish a Pencil Production Base

After liberation allowing all the children to study was an important matter for paving the way for the children of the working people to learn and training talented people of a prosperous new Korea.

One of the problems in educating them was the pencil problem.

With a keener insight into the importance and urgency of the pencil problem than anyone else, the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung wisely organized and led the struggle to build a pencil production base.

President Kim Il Sung said:

"We should take positive steps as soon as possible to mass-produce pencils."

Saying that solving the pencil problem was not a mere practical matter but a very important political one, he stressed the need for the central authorities to take measures as it was difficult to be solved in the local areas.

In the past, the Japanese imperialists did not build pencil factories in Korea. They plundered graphite and wood from Korea and shipped them to Japan to make pencils and sell them in Korea at a high price. So the Koreans could not write on a proper notebook with a proper pencil, and students had to carry sand boards and write on them with sticks.

This was why the pencil problem was serious after the defeat of the Japanese imperialists and the liberation of the country.

On February 20, Juche 35 (1946), President Kim Il Sung saw to it that the issue of pencil was discussed as the first agenda.

First of all, he saw to it that private entrepreneurs were mobilized to meet the demand for pencil as a big factory could not be built at the time.

One day in early February Juche 35 (1946), he visited a small factory on the Pothong River.

The factory, owned by a private entrepreneur, was manually producing pencils by employing 18 workers.

It was a factory in name only; in fact, it was a workshop of craftsmen.

But President Kim Il Sung visited it as he valued even the bud.

It was so unexpected that Presidient Kim Il Sung, held in high esteem as the sun of the nation by the Korean people, visited his factory that the businessman failed to properly greet him, and hurried to lead him to his office.

President Kim Il Sung patted him lightly on the shoulder, and asked him to show him how pencils were made.

Shaking the dirty hands of the workers without ceremony, he spoke highly of them for making something wonderful, and looked round the production lines before stopping in front of the pencil-lead-making machine.

After looking at the lead-drying furnace filled with coal and graphite dust for a while, he said in a worried voice that the state would supply equipment and materials so that the factory build an electric furnace.

After reaching the completion process, he looked with a bright smile at the pencils piled up there and, taking one of them, said that the guerrillas, when they were fighting in the mountains, had learned by writing on sand board because they had no such pencils, and that the pencils were precious.

He continued:

We have to teach millions of our precious children on our own responsibility, but the great bottleneck is the pencil. The state will have a large building set up, solve the transport problem and allocate a tree-felling area.

Some days later, several technicians were dispatched to the factory, and the factory was provided with a large building, a large amount of funds, automobiles and tree-felling area in Mt Oga.

Next, President Kim Il Sung saw to it that small-scale pencil factories were built.

True to the instructions of President Kim Il Sung to mobilize craftsmen and small and medium-sized private entrepreneur in Pyongyang, Hamhung, Sinuiju, Wonsan and Chongjin to meet the national demand for pencils to some extent, the Industrial Bureau launched a struggle to install necessary equipment there.

Each province built two or three pencil factories, and took measures for the production of sample pencils and supply technicians, equipment and raw materials there.

Thus, a vigorous struggle was waged to build pencil factories in Hamhung in South Hamgyong Province, Chongjin in North Hamgyong Province, Pyongyang (then) in South Phyongan Province, Kanggye (then) and Sinuiju in North Phyongan Province and Wonsan in Kangwon Province.

President Kim Il Sung saw to it that the Hamhung Pencil Factory was built by increasing its production area by more than 800 square metres and ten machines were sent there, including a pencil-lead puller, a raw materials mixer and a raw materials mill.

The Hamhung Manufactory produced the machines necessary for the Hamhung Pencil Factory, and the Industry Bureau gathered technicians scattered across the country and dispatched them to pencil factories.

Infinitely encouraged by the measures, the Hamhung Pencil Factory built production lines and obtained raw and other materials while intensifying skill transfer for its employees to further raise its technical level.

The Hamhung Pencil Factory started its operation in June Juche 35 (1946), and produced sample pencils in a short period of time.

Thanks to the vigorous struggle of the workers who turned out in hearty response to the President Kim Il Sung's appeal, 13 pencil factories were built across the country, creating a production capacity of 6 million pencils a year.

President Kim Il Sung saw to it that another large-scale pencil factory was built in Kanggye.

The Kanggye area is a place for the supply of raw and other materials for pencil production. It has natural and geographical conditions for the growth of yew and linden, and their resources are abundant.

At that time a private pencil workshop was merged with the Kanggye General Timber Mill as a workteam.

On May 1, Juche 38 (1949), President Kim Il Sung took a measure of set up the Kanggye Pencil Factory, and ensured that the factory was reinforced with the pencil workteam of the Kanggye General Timber Mill and some technical forces of the Kanggye Manufactory and its buildings were renovated and expanded to create a production capacity of five million pencils a year.

The Kanggye Pencil Factory, a large-scale state-run factory, was inaugurated on June 11, Juche 38 (1949).

Next, President Kim Il Sung saw to it that the work of merging private pencil factories with state-run ones was conducted.

At that time, production at the state-run pencil factories in Hamhung and Kanggye rose to a high level, while the private-run factories failed to normalize their production.

It was related to their low level of technical equipment and the unfavourable conditions for obtaining funds, equipment and materials as compared to the state-run pencil factories.

And the state-run pencil factories reduced the cost of pencil production by two-thirds or lower compared to the private-run pencil factories.

With a deep insight into the situation, he saw to it private pencil factories were merged with the state-run factories or they formed production cooperatives to rationally improve their business activities.

Thus, the private pencil factories in the Hamhung area were merged with the state-run Hamhung Pencil Factory, and the Pyongyang Pencil Factory with the state-run Kanggye Pencil Factory.

And the private pencil factories in Sinuiju, Wonsan and Chongjin were reorganized into production cooperatives.

Under the wise guidance of President Kim Il Sung, pencil production bases were built for the first time in our country in the days of building of a new country, and a firm guarantee was provided for satisfying the lifelong desire of our people for learning.