After the defeat (August 1945) of the Japanese imperialists the US imperialists occupied south Korea and openly pursued a policy of colonial subjugation.
Meanwhile, it happened that the supply of water from the Kuam and Ryeui reservoirs, some two kilometres north of the 38th Parallel, into Yonbaek Plain in south Korea was suspended.
President Kim Il Sung, informed that the local peasants were suffering difficulties for lack of irrigating water although the farming season for 1946 set in, took measures to supply water to the area south of 38th Parallel and allot huge materials and manpower to the reconstruction and repair of the Kuam reservoir which was severely damaged in the rainy season that year.
But the project did not progress smoothly as the US imperialists and their stooges impeded it this way or that way. Moreover, they did not pay north Korea for the use of the water from the reservoirs for three years running although they used it for irrigation. In addition, they turned down the sincere proposals made by the North Korean People’s Committee for reasonably settling the issue of supply of irrigation water on several occasions, and frantically slandered north Korea and launched propaganda against communism.
Given the situation, in 1948 the NKPC had to temporarily withhold the supply of irrigation water to the area south of the 38th Parallel until the issue of the water supply was settled.
Aware that the water problem remained unsolved owing to the US moves, the representatives from the peasants of the Yonbaek Plain sent a letter to Kim Il Sung requesting him to send them water.
After taking the petition into consideration Kim Il Sung took a relevant step to satisfy their wish.
On June 26, 1948 the NKPC adopted its Resolution No. 155 on the supply of the irrigation water from the Kuam and Ryeui reservoirs to the area of Yonbaek in south Korea. The resolution denounced the crimes perpetrated by the US imperialists and its stooges against the supply of irrigation water and revealed that the US military government was reluctant to settle the issue of the payment for the use of the irrigation water and declared that north Korea would supply the irrigation water from the Kuam and Ryeui reservoirs to the area of Yonbaek south of the 38th Parallel from June 27, 1948 at the request of the south Korean people.
The resolution demonstrated the advantages of the democratic people’s system of north Korea and its compatriotic policy and delivered a telling blow to the US imperialists and their stooges who were hell bent on the exploitation of the south Korean people and slander of north Korea.
