On July 9, 2008 Kim Jong Il gave field guidance at the Unhung Cooperative Farm in Thaechon County.
Inquiring about the crop yields on the Handure Plain that had been realigned, he was told about a farmer, called Om Jong Sil, who hailed from Pyongyang: Eight years before, she learned that the General had visited the plain that was being realigned in the dead of winter. She decided to leave her home in the capital city and work as a farmer on the plain. Her father’s support was a great encouragement to the girl.
Seeing her face tanned and hands calloused from hard work under the sun, the General praised her for having volunteered to work at the farm, far away from Pyongyang, after his former on-site guidance in the Handure Plain.
An official said that she was a model farmer who was playing a big role in motivating her sub-workteam to perform feats of labour in the Songun era.
With a satisfied look the General said to the officials in his company: Whereas young people in foreign countries are trying to obtain the citizenship of the capital city, those in our country willingly leave their beloved capital and volunteer to work at farms and coal mines and for the reclamation projects. This is a true feature of our young people who are boundlessly loyal to the Party and the revolution.
He continued, “In the 1960s Ri Sin Ja was known country-wide as a model motivational worker, and Om Jong Sil should follow in her footsteps.”
That day, before leaving the farm, he summoned her again and said: You say that your parents supported your decision to volunteer to work as a farmer at the Unhung Cooperative Farm, stressing that you must work hard to increase the production of cereals with unshakeable loyalty to the Party. They are laudable. You should write a letter to tell them what I have said to you today.
Soon the farmer wrote to her parents in Pyongyang and she became widely known as a model motivational worker in the Songun era.
