After being briefed on the scientific farming before an agro-technical diagram, he walked along the lane across the fields to learn in detail about the farming this year.

Watching the paddy fields where rice seedlings are growing healthy after taking roots and the non-paddy fields where potatoes are doing well, he expressed great satisfaction over a fine crop of potatoes the farm expects to harvest.

The cosy modern houses of the farmers standing in rows at the sunny foot of a mountain and the fertile co-op farm land where the hum of farm machines at work is heard look like a picture, he said, adding that this is the spectacular appearance of socialist countryside in the DPRK.

Noting that the rapid progress of the three revolutions--ideological, technical and cultural--in rural areas, the increased aid to them and the strengthened state guidance to the co-op farms have resulted in speedily realizing the assimilation of farmers to the working class and industrializing agriculture and changing the appearance of the rural areas as the days go by, remarkably narrowing down the disparity between town and country, he stressed that this dramatic change clearly testifies to the validity and great vitality of the socialist rural theses authored by President Kim Il Sung and the advantageous socialist rural economy system in the DPRK.

He set out important tasks to be fulfilled by the farm.

He said that if the Tongbong Co-op Farm situated on the east coast is to reap a high and secure yield of crops, it is necessary to intensify the scientific researches into overcoming the unfavorable weather conditions there where damage by cold weather is severe and the rate of hours of sunshine is low to establish a cultivation system suited to those conditions.

The basic way of decisively increasing the grain production is to sharply raise the per-hectare crop yield, he stressed, adding that it is necessary to steadily improve the fertility of soil and, at the same time, put farming on a scientific and technological basis as required by the Juche methods of farming.

In order to free the farmers from hard work and satisfactorily solve the acute shortage of manpower to keep pace with the rising level of intensive farming and agricultural scientization it is essential to realize the comprehensive mechanization, he noted, emphasizing that to this end it is necessary to boost the utility rate of farm machines and, at the same time, produce and supply more efficient machines to the farms.

Pointing out that the agricultural front is one of the major fronts for building a great prosperous and powerful nation, he called on the whole country and all the people to continue directing all efforts to farming to bring about a signal turn in the agricultural production.

He expressed great expectation and belief that the officials and members of the farm would successfully play a vanguard role in implementing the Party's agriculture-first policy and thus set an example in farming on the east coast.

He was accompanied by Secretary Kim Ki Nam and Department Directors Jang Song Thaek and Pak Nam Gi of the WPK Central Committee.