The Sinuiju Cosmetics Factory, the Taedonggang Beer Factory and the Taehongdan Potato Processing Factory were built and went operational in the new century in the wake of the construction on an expansion basis of the Hwangju Textile Mill, the Sakju Foodstuff Factory and the Kangso Ceramic Factory in the 1990s.

The Pujon Potato Starch Factory, the Huichon Ceramic Factory, the Rakrangdaesong Garment Factory, the Rajin Garment Factory, the Samjiyon Soy and Bean Paste Factory, the Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory, the Kangso Mineral Water Processing Factory and others have been newly built or constructed on an expansion basis.

There have sprung up in different provinces general foodstuff factories with the Samilpho Special Products Factory as a model.

New shops have gone operational or existing ones have been renovated at silk and knitwear factories to boost the production of quality silk, knitwear, blanket and products of various other varieties.

The Wonsan Shoes Factory has finished the updating of equipment for the shoes production and stepped up the process of putting the sewing equipment on a CNC basis. Production processes of sole mold and plastic sole and others have been successfully updated at such factories as Ryuwon, Pothonggang, Sinuiju and Sariwon footwear factories and Pyongyang and Sunchon shoes factories.

The material and technical foundations of essential foodstuff producers in different parts of the country have been consolidated and the reconstruction projects are progressing at a final phase at the Pyongyang Cornstarch Factory and the Pyongyang Flour-Processing Factory.

There have appeared high-level processes for the production of "cosmos" hairpins and "spring fragrance" cosmetics to reenergize their production.

Such machine-building plants as the Pyongyang Textile Machine Plant and the Pyongyang Shoes Machine Plant have succeeded in making technological updating of the production processes to ensure the production of effective elastic staff looms and shoemaking streamline and others.

Scientists and technicians in the field of light industry are successfully putting equipment and production processes on a CNC basis while satisfactorily solving the existing scientific and technological problems.