He went round the Second Steel Shop, the Hot Rolled Shop and the Hot Rolled Products Finishing Shop and various other production processes for hours to acquaint himself in detail with the technological updating and production there.

Feasting his eyes for a long while on the structural steel being churned out from the modern curved type strand-casting machine and large blooming mills at work, he warmly encouraged the workers there in their labor drive.

It is a great success that the Party members and other workers of the complex have made energetic endeavors to thoroughly establish the Juche iron production system based on the Korean style furnace while steadily increasing the production of iron and steel, thereby laying a solid material and technical foundation for the production of iron and steel, he said, highly praising them for bringing about uninterrupted advances and innovations without a moment's stagnation and marking time.

Noting that the nonuse of coke and coal gasification, a process strictly relying on raw materials and resources found in abundance in the country are the invariable principle which does not allow even the slightest concession in the nation's economic development, he underscored the need to hold fast to this line as an invariable lifeline in the economic construction as its truth and vitality have been proved in the arduous struggle.

The most important task facing the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex is to keep the production of pig iron and steel going at a high rate in reliance upon the solid Juche iron production base and decisively boost the production of rolled steel, in particular, he pointed out.

It is of particular importance to put in a bold and big way overall production processes on a modern and CNC basis in order to keep the production of iron and steel going at a high rate at the complex, he noted, setting forth new militant tasks to be fulfilled by the complex to do so.

Underlining the need to enlist the efforts of powerful technical groups of the country including the State Academy of Sciences and Kim Chaek University of Technology for the purpose of putting the complex on a modern and CNC basis on the highest level in a short span of time, he indicated an orientation and ways to do so and showed such deep care as unraveling knotty problems on the spot.

He called on the Party organizations and officials to pay deep attention to the supply service for the workers to provide them with better living conditions.

He stressed the need for the Party members and other working people of the complex to continue dashing ahead in the van of the drive for a great surge by giving full play to their indomitable mental power.

Kim Jong Il also visited the July 7 Complex and the Chongjin Chemical Fiber Mill to learn in detail about the technical updating and production there and indicate tasks and ways for drastically increasing the production of chemical fiber and varieties of chemical products.

He highly praised the officials and other workers and technicians of the July 7 Complex and the Chongjin Chemical Fiber Mill for having laid a foundation for boosting the production of chemical products to a high level through a dynamic mass technical innovation movement.

North Hamgyong Province should naturally lead the drive for a new and great revolutionary surge as it has a large contingent of workers, he noted, stressing the need for the Party and working people's organizations, administrative and economic bodies and leading officials in the province to scrupulously conduct the organizational and political work in keeping with a high degree of enthusiasm of the masses and thus bring about fresh great leaps forward and signal innovations in the metal, chemical and machine-building industries and all other fronts of economic construction.

He was accompanied by Hong Sok Hyong, chief secretary of the North Hamgyong Provincial Committee of the WPK, Kim Kyong Hui and Jang Song Thaek, department directors of the Central Committee of the WPK, and Ju Kyu Chang, Ri Je Gang and Ri Jae Il, first vice department directors of the C. C., the WPK.