In August Juche 88 (1999) Kim Jong Il visited Taehongdan County and took warm care of the newly-married life of Ri Ki Son as his real father would do. The leader said that the discharged soldiers who volunteered to the county are true revolutionaries and ardent patriots as they performed feats in defending the country in the past and are devotedly working on the agricultural front at present to carry into practice the Party's intention.

Greatly encouraged by his on-site guidance, Ri zealously learned how to do potato farming under the condition of cold weather in the northern area and energetically conducted a drive to make soil fertile. He had worked hard to become a pioneer in bringing a radical turn in potato farming in Paektusamcholli Plain, a sacred place in the county.

He, an ordinary discharged solider who displayed the revolutionary soldier spirit in the van of the drive to make great innovations in potato farming as the genuine master of Taehongdan, is now working as a party official in charge of a farm.