DPRK Premier Visits Construction of KPA Breeding Station

DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju (1) is briefed about the construction of KPA Breeding Station #621, a facility which will breed grass-fed livestock. Also in attendance is DPRK Vice Premier and State Planning Commission Chairman Ro Tu Chol (2) (Photo: KCNA).

DPRK state media reported on 23 May (Thursday) that DPRK Cabinet Premier Pak Pong Ju visited the construction of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] Breeding Station #621, which will breed grass-fed livestock such as goats.  Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) was reported on 20 May (Monday) to have visited the breeding station and initiated its construction.  After KJU’s visit, the construction project was described as “the soldier-builders are bringing about innovations in every construction site in order to build the station at the highest level.”  Pak, joined DPRK Vice Premier and State Planning Commission Chairman Ro Tu Chol, toured the buildings under construction by KPA service members and “encouraged them” before convening a meeting of KPA construction managers and personnel.  According to KCNA, Pak “underscored the need to step up the construction of breeding pens, folds, a goat institute, dwelling houses, etc., bearing in mind the intention of Kim Jong Un, who made a long and tiresome journey to provide good diet to the soldiers.”  The meeting also “underlined the need to finish the construction of the breeding station as early as possible and called on the Cabinet and other relevant units to ensure a timely supply of necessary raw and other materials and fuel to the construction sites.”

 

Gen. Kim Kyok Sik Lands at KPA General Staff

Gen. Kim Kyok Sik (annotated in a yellow box) was part of a group that saw off VMar Choe Ryong Hae (1) and a senior DPRK delegation on a trip to China at Pyongyang Airport on 22 May 2013. Also seen in attendance is PRC Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Hongcai (2) (Photo: KCNA)

Two weeks after being removed from office as the DPRK’s defense minister, Gen. Kim Kyok Sik has been appointed Chief of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] General Staff.  Gen. Kim had been appointed Minister of the People’s Armed Forces, the country’s equivalent to defense minister, in November 2012 and held that position until early May 2013.  On 13 May, DPRK state media identified Gen. Jang Jong Nam  as Minister of the PAF.  Gen. Kim’s removal from office, after only seven months in the position, caused a feverish amount of speculation among Pyongyang watchers some of whom interpreted his removal from office as a “purge.”  Gen. Kim replaces Gen. Hyon Yong Chol, who was appointed Chief of the KPA General Staff in July 2013 after the removal of VMar Ri Yong Ho.  There is no word as to whether Gen. Hyon was dismissed with prejudice or if he had been assigned another position in the KPA.  One of Gen. Hyon’s last observed appearances was in late April 2013 when he attended Kim Jong Un’s (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) visit to the Haedanghwa Health Complex in Pyongyang.

Gen. Kim Kyok Sik was identified as the new head of the KPA General Staff in a Korean Central Television report about VMar Choe Ryong Hae’s 22 May (Wednesday) departure from Pyongyang Airport to visit China as the “special envoy of Kim Jong Un.”  Gen. Kim previous served as Chief of the KPA General Staff from 2007 to 2009.  He is the second DPRK elite to be appointed to a senior position that he previously held; the other member of the central leadership to be reappointed to his old job was Pak Pong Ju, who was appointed DPRK Cabinet Premier on 1 April 2013, having served as DPRK Premier from 2003-2007.  2007 was the same year that Kim Jong Un become a viable candidate as the late leader Kim Jong Il’s hereditary successor.

Kim Kyok Sik’s replacing Hyon Yong Chol marks the third senior KPA personnel turnover in two weeks (with Jang Jong Nam replacing Kim at MPAF, and Col. Gen. Jon Chang Bok replacing VMar Hyon Chol Hae as 1st Vice Minister of the People’s Armed Forces), and the eighth observed personnel change to the KPA’s high command since Kim Jong Un formally assumed the supreme leadership in January 2012.  Pyongyang watchers might be forgiven if they find themselves reaching for the Dramamine with the latest change at the top of the KPA.  Finding an easy rationale behind these personnel changes would be, to paraphrase one of our most astute Kumsusanologists, “shallow and misleading.”

Graphic illustrating personnel changes in the senior command of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] from 2007 to 2013 (Photo: M. Madden/NK Leadership Watch)

Choe Ryong Hae Arrives in Beijing for 3 Day Visit

VMar Choe Ryong, Director of the KPA General Political Department and Member of the KWP Political Bureau Presidium, poses for a commemorative photograph at Pyongyang Airport on 22 May 2013, prior to his departure to Beijing as a “special envoy” of DPRK leader Kim Jong Un. Members of Choe’s delegation to China are: Kim Hyong Jun (2) of the DPRK Foreign Ministry, Col. Gen. Ri Yong Gil (3) of the KPA General Staff, Kim Song Nam (4) of the KWP International Affairs Department and Lt. Gen. Kim Su Gil of the KPA (Photo: KCNA).

DPRK state media reported that a senior delegation led by VMar Choe Ryong Hae, Director of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] General Political Department,  departed Pyongyang and arrived in Beijing on 22 May (Wednesday).  VMar Choe, acting as a “special envoy for Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n),” was joined on the trip by Col. Gen. Ri Yong Gil (Chief of the KPA General Staff Operations Bureau), Kim Song Nam (Deputy Director of the Korean Workers’ Party [KWP] International Affairs Department with the portfolio for Chinese relations), Kim Hyong Jun (Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs) and  Lt. Gen. Kim Su Gil (KPA/Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces).  Citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Beijing, Yonhap News Agency reported that after arriving in Beijing at around 10:30 AM, Choe and the delegation were driven to Diaoyutai Guest House.  At the airport the DPRK delegation was received by DPRK Ambassador to the PRC Ji Jae Ryong and Deputy Director of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China [CPC] Central Committee.

VMar Choe Ryong Hae (1) shakes hands with Liu Jieyi (2), deputy director of the Communist Party of China Central Committee International Liaison Department, after arriving in Beijing on 22 May 2013. Also seen in attendance are Kim Song Nam (3) and Col. Gen. Ri Yong Gil (4) (Photo: KCNA).

Wang Jiarui (R), vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Choe Ryong Hae, special envoy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) top leader Kim Jong Un, and a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2013. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

Shortly after his arrival in Beijing, Choe Ryong Hae  met with Wang Jiarui, head of the CPC Central Committee International Liaison Department.  Details of the meeting were not disclosed in Chinese media.

During his visit, VMar Choe will most likely meet with senior Chinese officials including PRC President Xi Jinping.  This is the first reported visit by a senior DPRK official acting as a representative for Kim Jong Un, since KJU formally became supreme leader in January 2012.  Choe Ryong Hae and the members of the delegation are the most high level DPRK officials to publicly visit China since August 2012 when Jang Song Taek (Vice Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission and Director of the KWP Administration Department) led a large delegation on a weeklong visit in his capacity as the DPRK’s Chairman of the DPRK-China Joint Guidance Committee.  Choe’s arrival in Beijing was the first publicized visit by the head of the KPA General Political Department since November 2009, when then-Gen. Kim Jong Gak led a KPA delegation on a visit to Beijing and to Jilin Province.

The visit to China by Choe Ryong Hae and the senior delegation occurred after a close adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the DPRK.  Isao Ijima, an adviser to Abe with ties to the DPRK leadership, visited Pyongyang during 14 to 17 May.  Ijima was unofficially accompanied on his DPRK visit by members of Chosen Soren (Chongryon), the pro-DPRK association of Korean residents in Japan.  During his stay, Ijima met with KWP Secretary for International Affairs Kim Yong Il, Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium President Kim Yong Nam (the DPRK’s nominal head of state and #2 leading official) and DPRK Ambassador-at-Large (with the portfolio for DPRK-Japan interactions) Song Il Ho.  Ijima’s visit to Pyongyang was criticized as “unhelpful” by the South Korean government and viewed with some ambivalence by the United States, however Ijima’s trip was supported by China with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei saying, “We hope tensions on the Korean Peninsula will be eased, and regional peace and stability will be secured through the contact (between Iijima and North Korea)We hope (the latest visit) will be beneficial for resolving problems, including the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Choe and the delegation also arrived in Beijing one day after the DPRK released a Chinese fishing trawler and its 16 crew members.  The Dalian-based trawler “Liaoning Generic Fishing No. 2522″ and the crew members were captured in Chinese waters by an unknown group of DPRK pirates on 5 May 2013 and held until 21 May 2013.  The captured fisherman were held for a $75,000 ransom that was not paid   The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese border security forces informed the DPRK about the trawler’s capture and demanded that DPRK authorities investigate the ship’s seizure.  The incident was not publicized until the fishing boat’s owner wrote about it on his microblog.  After the incident was publicized, the Chinese government requested that the DPRK release the trawler and its crew.

Choe Ryong Hae and the delegation’s visit to Beijing also occurs one month before Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to hold a meeting with US President Barack Obama and a possible summit in Beijing in June with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.  The Xi-Obama meeting has been scheduled for 7 June and 8 June at the former estate of Walter and Lee Annenberg, Sunnylands, in Rancho Mirage, California.  The South Korean government has yet to finalize a date and itinerary for Park Geun-hye’s visit to China in June.  Park initially wanted a visit to China to be her first trip as ROK President, but instead she traveled to the United States on a six-day working visit in early May.

Choe Ryong Hae’s arrival in Beijing incited a round of speculation by Pyongyang watchers.  Professor Lee Nam-joo told Yonhap “It may be the start of policies that can ease tensions and lead to dialogue.  The envoy should be able to help reduce tensions which have reached unprecedented levels recently”  and Professor Yang Moo-jin said that “Pyongyang may seek to highlight the close ‘blood alliance’ that existed between the two countries and seek an outlet for inter-Korea talks as well as dialogue with the United States.”  Professor Yang also said that  ”with Washington and Beijing expected to touch on North Korea at an upcoming summit meeting, the envoy can explain to China the North’s position, which may open new dialogue channels not only between Pyongyang and Washington but between South and North Korea.”

Talks between the DPRK delegation and senior Chinese officials will likely touch on strategic issues including the DPRK’s launch of a rocket/ballistic missile on 12 December 2013 and the 12 February 2013 test of a nuclear device.  If China was hoping that a senior-level interaction would cause the DPRK to return to the Six Party Talks on denuclearization they are likely to find that Choe Ryong Hae’s visit may not bear the fruit that they seek.  DPRK Ambassador to the Russian Federation Kim Yong Jae gave an interview with Russia’s Interfax news service, published on 21 May, in which he said, “The army and the people of North Korea, who are living in the conditions of permanent nuclear threats, sanctions and a blockade, will in every possible way reinforce nuclear deterrence forces that are destined to protect the sovereignty of the country and a right for the nation to exist, safeguard peace and promote stability in the region.”

Kim Yong Jae also said “The essence of the US strategy in Korea is to strangle North Korea. It is North Korea that is the first object in implementation of the [USA's] strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.  The US global strategy is a strategy of domination of the whole planet and to implement it, a strategy of reorienting [the USA] to the Asia-Pacific region has been launched. In accordance with it, pressure is also being built up on China and Russia in the Northeast Asia and a special geopolitical role is assigned to the Korean peninsula” and that ”the people of this region, like other world peaceloving forces, not only failed to exert pressure on the USA to disrupt its large-scale military exercises, but also succumbed to the influence of a sophisticated information war to dishonour North Korea on the part of the USA and South Korea.”

Avian Influenza Outbreak at Duck Farm in Pyongyang

The Pyongyang Tudan Duck Farm in east Pyongyang, where an outbreak of avian flu was discovered in mid-April 2013 (Photos: Google image and KCNA/FLPH file photo)

An outbreak of a new strain of avian influenza (H5N1) has been found in the DPRK.  On 19 April 2013, the outbreak was discovered in one cage of ducks at the Pyongyang Tudan Duck Farm who exhibited symptoms  of avian flu.  After the initial cage of infected ducks began to die, cages of ducks were tested by the Central Veterinary Station (a national laboratory subordinated to the State Academy of Sciences) on 2 May 2013 and revealed that 20 cages of ducks were infected with avian flu.  Approximately 164,000 ducks died from avian flu or were killed.  The outbreak of avian flue at the Tudan Duck Farm was later corroborated by a second round of tests conducted by the Veterinary Institute of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences (subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture).  On 13 May 2013 the DPRK Ministry of Agriculture’s Anti-Epizootic Department submitted a formal notification of the avian flu outbreak to the World Organization for Animal Health.  Since the initial outbreak, DPRK authorities moved to quarantine and cull infected animals, control the shipment of livestock inside the country and test other animals for the disease.  The outbreak of H5N1 has been speculatively linked to the ducks’ contact with wild birds or animals.  The summary of the DPRK’s report to the World Organization for Animal Health can be read here [PDF].

On 14 May 2013, KCNA interviewed two DPRK officials, Pak Myong Su from the Ministry of Public Health and Jon Song Hun from the Korea Pugang Pharmaceutical Company, on the development of a drug called Kumdang-2 which was touted an effective vaccination against human cases of avian flu.  According to the interview:

Question: Please tell me about danger of virus H7N9 and measures for prevention of infection.

Pak: The virus had been known to be low in toxicity with the cause and way of its infection uncertain, but later it was confirmed through gene analysis that it has a highly infectious toxicity.

With an increasing number of people infected or dead by this virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for taking strict measures against the spread of the virus.

What is most important for people is to enhance their immunity, while taking anti-epidemic measures.

Patients, infected with epidemics including the bird flu, are all weak in immunity. Therefore, it is advisable to take medicines helpful to enhancing immunity.

Q: I know that Kumdang-2 Injection, manufactured by the Korea Pugang Pharmaceutic Co., Ltd., has been considered worldwide to be one of highly effective adjuvants.

Jon: As early as in 2003, WHO warned that various strains of epidemic flu viruses would sweep throughout the world and inflict enormous damages on mankind, while calling for development of medicines to prevent infection of all strains of influenza viruses.

After many years of research and clinical trials, the Korea Pugang Pharmaceutic Co., Ltd. made Kumdang-2 Injection composed of the compounds of insam saccharides plus REE (rare earth elements) as main component and micro quantities of gold and platinum.

Kumdang-2 Injection, once injected into a living body, stimulates hypothalamus, the human body’s supreme nerve system, thereby optimizing its immune system as a whole, and boosts over 16 times the capacity of generating the interferon, the anti-virus effects whereof are so strong and wide that it can oppress the severe new flu virus, too.

Kumdang-2 Injection has enjoyed great popularity for its wonderful effects and many countries widely use it as not only immune activators but high-quality medicine, much more efficacious than antibiotics.

According to the clinical records, three rounds of its injection in every five minutes kill influenza virus H1N1.

On 18 May 2013, Rodong Sinmun published a fairly detailed account about what the central authorities were doing to deal with the outbreak of avian flu.  After the discovery of the outbreak in April, according to Rodong, Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) “gave precious instruction on establishing thorough measures to ensure that bird flu does not come into our country, emergency anti-epidemic committees that include senior functionaries in relevant sectors were organized in every province, city (district), and county.”  Rodong also reported that “functionaries of the National Emergency Anti-Epidemic Commission are highly upholding the noble intent of the respected and beloved marshal, who always gives great attention to promoting the people’s health, and meticulously planning and coordinating organization work to ensure that patients with the new type of bird flu do not occur.”  The regional and local anti-epidemic committees “go deep among the masses and inform them in a mobile manner of issues that arise in pro-actively conducting this work, they are putting great effort into actively utilizing a variety of means to ensure the normalization of hygiene propaganda and examination work.”

Late DPRK supreme leader Kim Jong Il visits the Tudan Duck Farm in October 2011 (Photos: KCTV screengrabs)

Authorities of the Ministry of Public Health “sent explanatory and dialogue lecture materials on preventing the new type of bird flu to various places nationwide in a short time, and they are actively establishing measures to conduct hygiene propaganda and examination work at a high level for people on site.”  During late April, according to Rodong, “Ministry of Public Health functionaries and approximately 1,000 medical functionaries from various treatment and prevention organs, beginning with the Pyongyang University of Medicine at Kim Il Sung University, performed hygiene propaganda activities for well over 40,000 households in the capital, and hundreds of medical functionaries did so for citizens at dozens of spots along major bus routes.” From late April to mid-May Rodong reported that “many youths, students, and medical functionaries went out to people’s houses, coal mines, and farm villages and carried out hygiene propaganda for approximately 300,000 workers, and thousands of medical functionaries conducted examinations and checkups for nearly 500,000 people” and that “hygiene propaganda activities by social hygiene propaganda forces and propaganda vehicles such as the Youth League Central Committee and Education Committee are being actively conducted through various formats and methods.”  The informational campaign “activities are being carried out nationwide for an average of millions of workers at every level each day, and employees working at farms everywhere are receiving examinations and checkups by medical functionaries running clinics.”

The Ministry of Public Health and other central authorities were also taking practical measures to contain the avian flu outbreak.  Rodong Sinmun reported that “work to establish hygienic and cultural living environments and working conditions is being launched more vigorously than at any time before at various places nationwide, and medical functionaries at the Central Hygienic and Anti-Epidemic Station and provincial, city (district), and county hygiene and anti-epidemic stations are going down to their areas of responsibility and actively carrying out preventive work” and that “under the state’s unitary guidance, emergency anti-epidemic measures that can immediately eradicate bird flu if it appears in their particular area are thoroughly established now at every province, city (district), and county.”  Rodong also reported that “party members and workers everywhere are embracing a burning enthusiasm to display the superiority of our country’s socialist public health system that makes prevention its basis under the wise leadership of the respected and beloved marshal, and they are continuing to vigorously wage the struggle to prevent damage from bird flu in advance.”

Kim Jong Un Visits Mt. Myohyang Children’s Camp

Kim Jong Un (1) and his wife Ri Sol Ju (2) interact with children campers during a commemorative photo session after KJU toured the Mt. Myohyang Children’s Camp in North P’yo’ngan Province on 19 May 2013 (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)

DPRK state media reported that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) and his wife Ri Sol Ju (Ri So’l-chu) visited the Myohyangsan (Mount Myohyang) Children’s Camp in North P’yo’ngan Province on 19 May (Sunday).  KJU’s last reported public appearance was his visit to Ryongmun Liquor Factory.  Attending the visit to the children’s camp with KJU and RSJ were VMar Choe Ryong Hae (Director of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] General Political Department), Choe Hwi (Senior Deputy [1st Vice] Director of the Korean Workers’ Party [KWP] Propaganda and Agitation Department) and Pak Tae Song (Deputy KWP Department Director).  KJU began his visit to camp looking at a stone monument of a quotation by KJU’s paternal grandfather, late DPRK President and founder Kim Il Sung.  According to KCNA, Kim Jong Un noted that “Kim Jong Il proposed on number of occasions the task for successfully rebuilding the children’s camp and personally examined its design in the last period of his life” and he “underscored the need to newly build the camp to be proud of in the world as early as possible and thus carry out without fail the behest of Kim Jong Il who made so much effort to provide a better camp to children.”

Kim Jong Un (1) and his wife Ri Sol Ju (2) pose for a commemorative photograph with campers, employees and officials at Mt. Myohyang Children’s Camp on 19 May 2013 (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

Campers at the Mt. Myohyang Children’s Camp (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

Kim Jong Un and Ri Sol Ju toured the camp where they saw “bedrooms, the room for disseminating knowledge about camping, room for the Children’s Union, room for cultural information service, room for the preservation of gifts, music room, dinning room and hall to learn in detail about children’s camping.”  According to KCNA, Kim Jong Un said “to build the camp as required by the era of Military-First politics (So’ngun) is an important work for realizing the lifelong desire of the great Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who did everything for the children as their tender-hearted father all their lives. He called for newly building the camp instead of remodeling it.”  Referring to the songs “We Are the Happiest in the World” and “General to Front, While Children to Camps,” Kim Jong Un said “I remember the loving care shown by the Generalissimos for posterity whenever I listen to those songs. There is a mountain of work to be done for building a thriving nation, but we must not spare investment in the building of camps. It is the determination of the party to excellently remodel not only this camp but all other camps, children’s palaces and children’s houses across the country.”

According to KCNA, Kim Jong Un also remarked that “when remodeling camps across the country, it is necessary to spruce up camps at the foot of mountains to match their landscape and those camps on seaside to do its landscape, and to this end it is important to work out designs well.”  KJU also “noted that the main objective of the revolution being made despite manifold difficulties and trials is to bring happiness to the children and it is necessary to enable them to lead a happy life with no more desire in the world.” Kim Jong Un met with some of the campers and posed for commemorative photos with them.

DPRK Premier Visits Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex and Construction Projects in Pyongyang

DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju (1) examines production at the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)

DPRK state media reported on 20 May (Monday) that DPRK Cabinet Premier Pak Pong Ju visited the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex and three construction projects in and around Pyongyang.  Pak’s first visit was to Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex.  It followed up a recent visit Pak made to the Posan Iron Works at the Ch’o'llima Steel Works complex.  During the first expanded meeting of the DPRK Cabinet in mid-April 2013, the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex was instructed to “vigorously wage a struggle to technically round off the heavy rail track production process and to normalize production there and should epochally increase rolled steel production.”  Pak toured the iron and steel complex, described as engaged in “a high-pitched drive to increase iron and steel production true to the new line of the Workers’ Party of Korea on simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of nuclear force.”

Pak Pong Ju  held a meeting with the complex’s managers and employees which “underscored the importance of the complex in making a breakthrough in building an economic power” and “discussed the issues of increasing iron and steel production.”  According to KCNA, Pak “called upon officials and workers of the complex to step up the push to put the production processes on a modern and scientific basis and increase the production capabilities” and “pressed for measures for the Cabinet and relevant units to fully provide raw and other materials necessary for keeping production going at a high rate.”

DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju (1) is briefed about the renovation of the Sports Village on Chongchun Street in the Mangyo’ngdae section in Pyongyang (Photo: KCNA)

Pak also visited three construction projects in Pyongyang.  He visited the renovation work at the Mangyo’ngdae Sports Village on Cho’ngchun Street, the construction of the Munsu Wading Pool and the renovation and expansion of the Taedonggang Terrapin Farm Factory where “he reviewed the progress.”  According to KCNA, Pak “stressed the need to ensure the highest quality in the construction and discussed matters arising in the construction.”

Kim Jong Un Visits Liquor Factory

Kim Jong Un (1) tours the production line at Ryongmun Liquor Factory. (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)

DPRK state media reported on 18 May (Saturday) that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) visited the Ryongmun Liquor Factory.  KJU’s last observed public appearance was at a recently constructed machine plant.  At the liquor factory, KJU was joined by VMar Choe Ryong Hae (Director of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] General Political Department), Col. Gen. Jon Chang Bok (1st Vice Minister of the People’s Armed Forces), Lt. Gen. Pak Jong Chon (chief of the KPA Artillery Command) and Col. Gen. So Hong Chan.

Kim Jong Un (1) poses for a commemorative photograph with managers and employees of the Ryongmun Liquor Factory. Also in attendance are Lt. Gen. Pak Jong Chon (2), VMar Choe Ryong Hae (3), Col. Gen. Jon Chang Bok (4) and Col. Gen. So Hong Chang (5). (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)

After arriving at the factory, Kim Jong Un was briefed about its construction and he remarked that “a modern liquor factory was built as required by the new century and the production of liquor is kept going at a high rate, adding that one more instruction of leader Kim Jong Il has been implemented.”  KJU toured the water-filtration and “after being told by officials that it uses spring water gushing out between natural rocks hundreds of meters away from the production site and the volume of spring water and its physical and chemical nature remain unchanged in all seasons, he learned in detail about the technological features of water filtering process including chlorine filter, ferromanganese filter, quartz sand filter, soft water filter and activated charcoal filter.”  He also toured the distillery and packing facility.  According to KCNA, Kim Jong Un “underscored the need to design trademarks better” and said, “it is important to design trademarks well as they are widely used for guaranteeing the quality of products and making ads.”  He also “underscored the need to put the packing process on a higher level of automation in order to save the manpower and cut down production cost” and “called for establishing a modern general command system to more scrupulously organize business management and operation activities.”

Kim Jong Un also visited a shop that sell the alcoholic beverages and an exhibition of the factory’s products.  According to KCNA, KJU “underscored the need to seal them more tightly and take strict measures for ensuring proper temperature and humidity so that their good quality may be preserved” and “specified tasks to be fulfilled to produce, manage and operate the factory and ways for doing so.”  After his tour of the Ryongmun Liquor Factory, Kim Jong Un posed for a commemorative photograph with the factory’s managers and employees.