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Kim Jong Il Looks Round Paekma-Cholsan Waterway

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

    Pyongyang, December 4 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, looked round the Paekma-Cholsan waterway. He was greeted on the spot by Pak Yong Sok, chairman of the Central Control Commission of the WPK, Kim Phyong Hae, chief secretary of the North Phyongan Provincial Committee of the WPK, Kang Kyong Uk, vice- minister of Agriculture, Choe Hu Yong, chairman of the North Phyongan Provincial Rural Economy Committee, Kim Pyong Sik, chief secretary of the Phihyon County Committee of the WPK and other leading officials of Pyongyang and the province.
    The more than 270 km-long waterway is a large-scale modern gravity-fed irrigation set-up for irrigating vast fields of six cities and counties including Ryongchon County, Yomju County, Cholsan County and Sinuiju by use of hundreds of millions of cubic meters of water flowing from the lake Paekma. The completion of the waterway has put the irrigation system in the western region of the country on a new higher level as required by the new century and provided a sure guarantee for increasing the grain production without using a lot of electricity and hundreds of pumping machines. Feasting his eyes on the lake extending like a sea between mountains and the water flowing along the waterway, he highly praised the feats performed by the builders, expressing his great satisfaction over the fact that they completed in a matter of a little over two years the gigantic nature-transforming project which will shine long in the annals of the country.
    The waterway is a great edifice designed well and constructed in good quality, he said, adding that this shining creation in the era of Songun is the precious fruition of the inexhaustible strength displayed by the Korean people out of their patriotic enthusiasm.
    Noting that the completion of the waterway has brought about tremendous changes in the vast western region, he said that this astonishing change clearly proves the great vitality of the Juche idea which has guided the training of people as most powerful and dignified ones. He set forth tasks to be fulfilled to use and operate the waterway, saying that the waterway is of weighty importance in radically boosting the agricultural production in the province.
    Pointing out that the satisfactory solution of the problem of water in the wake of the completion of the land realignment in North Phyongan Province has created favorable conditions for doing farming well, he called for focusing efforts on the farming to steadily increase the grain production. The water in the lake Paekma should be widely used not only for the purpose of irrigation but as industrial and drinking water as it is good in quality and huge in quantity. He taught ways to do so.
    The builders could construct the modern structure which will win even the admiration of posterity by applying splendid ideas and unique methods to the designing and construction, he said, underscoring the need to fully display the creative ingenuity in all construction projects on the basis of this precious experience.
    Noting that irrigation by the gravity-fed waterway is the irrigation method of Korean style which ensures the greatest profitability and effect, he underlined the need to wind up the waterway projects in all areas including the Miru Plain in North Hwanghae Province in a short span of time so as to perfect the nation's irrigation system as required by the new century.
    He was accompanied by Kim Kuk Thae and Kim Ki Nam, secretaries of the C.C., WPK, and Ri Jae Il, first vice department director of the C.C., WPK.