One day in July Juche 65 (1976) President Kim Il Sung told officials that these days the people were experiencing inconveniences due to shortage of sundry goods both at shops in the urban and rural areas. Then, he asked them to make preparations for discussing the issue at the enlarged meeting of the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea due to be held the next day.
At the meeting he learned in detail, through documents made by the officials, about the kinds of sundry goods on sale at the shops in the urban and rural areas and the workers’ district and the people’s demands for them. Noting that officials should know first of all how many goods are required for each person and household a year to meet the growing demands of the people, he asked them to make the order lists of goods as soon as possible.
Next day, examining the lists for 193 kinds of sundry goods, he saw to it that the numbers of spoons and chopsticks increased according to the numbers of family members and personally added 13 kinds more to the lists, with the result that the kinds of goods increased to 206.
The national exhibition of 206 kinds of goods is held every year in the DPRK.
