Pyongyang, October 17 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, visited the Tongbong Co-op Farm, Hamju County.

He dropped in at a room devoted to the farm's history where he was briefed on the shining path covered by the farm under the wise guidance of President Kim Il Sung and the WPK.

Learning that the primary committee of the farm youth league was the first to receive Kim Il Sung Youth Honor Prize in the county, he urged the young people to take the lead in consolidating the socialist rural position. He praised them for proving successful at the 2010 People's Art Festival through their brisk mass cultural and sports activities.

He read letters written by soldiers during their break while undergoing training in reflection of their pledge to defend the socialist homeland with arms upon receiving glutinous rice sent by Kim Jong Il. The glutinous rice was originally presented to

Kim Jong Il by the farm but he sent it with his loving care to the soldiers in the nearby area. He said he was pleased to hear that they were happy to receive it.

He was told about Han Jong Chil, who invented and manufactured a rice-seedling plucking machine in May 1978, delighting Kim Il Sung, is still working for mechanization in the socialist countryside at his advanced age, and about women of merit who have worked as tractor drivers for more than 10 years and innovators, Kim Jong Il said there are lots of admirable people.

Looking at pictures of the successive management officials of the farm, he gave a pep-talk to Ri Yong Ae, who has been working as chairwoman of the management board for 33 years, encouraging her to work better in good health as befitting an old official who learned farming from the President.

Kim Jong Il learned in detail about this year's farming.

He praised the farm for honoring its plan at more than 100 percent despite shorter hours of sunshine than before and serious cold weather.

Learning about the structure and number of rooms of dozens of houses built on the farm recently, Kim Jong Il said that he was very pleased to see the farmers leading a happy life in modern dwelling houses where cooking is done by methane.

The party has paid deep attention to the farm, projecting it as a model farm on the eastern coast in order to generalize an advanced farming method and management experience gained by it to other co-op farms which suffer from unfavorable natural conditions, he said, setting forth tasks facing the farm.

To harvest another rich crop next year, it is important to intensify the struggle to boost the soil fertility with a main emphasis put on overcoming cold weather and, at the same time, sow high-yielding seeds in the right soil, whose validity had been proven in the cultivation, he urged.

He also called for meticulously organizing the work for double cropping and actively introducing advanced farming technology.

Accompanying him were Kim Kyong Hui, member of the Political Bureau and department director of the Central Committee of the WPK, Jang Song Thaek, alternate member of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and vice-chairman of the NDC, Pak To Chun, alternate member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the WPK Central Committee, Kwak Pom Gi, chief secretary of the South Hamgyong Provincial Committee of the WPK, and Ri Jae Il, Pak Pong Ju and Han Kwang Sang, first vice-department directors of the WPK Central Committee.