On November 1, 2009, General Kim Jong Il visited the Unhung Cooperative Farm in Thaechon County, North Phyongan Province.
He recalled that this was his third-time visit and he had been there on a very cold day in January 2000 to see the Handure Plain after the land realignment project was over. He said that in July the previous year he had visited the farm again, adding that new changes took place in the meantime.
He saw rice, corn, potato and other crops on a stall and praised the fact that the farm’s grain output was expected to increase by 60 per cent year-on-year.
The Migok Cooperative Farm in Sariwon and other rivals, which are engaged in the socialist emulation campaign, would feel uneasy if they knew this figure, he joked. He continued that the remarkable success for the year was attributable to the fact that in response to the Party’s policy on bringing about an upsurge in agriculture, the farmers strove to improve the fertility of paddy and dry fields and cultivate crops in a scientific way as required by the Juche farming methods.
He said to the farm officials, “Everyone will be surprised to see these amazing changes at the Unhung Cooperative Farm. I said, while touring the transformed Handure Plain, that it would be impossible for a former landlord to identify his old land if he came to the plain. Probably, he would fall into a dead faint if he were here.”
The metaphor brought a smile on everyone’s face.
An official of the farm said that the success was a result of the General’s wise leadership.
The latter shook his head and commented that it was a precious fruition of the patriotic devotion shown by the officials and farmers there who had endeavoured to implement the Party’s agricultural policy. He extended his thanks to all of them for having done good farming and spruced up the village that year.
