On this occasion, servicepersons and people are recollecting with deep emotion the patriotic life of leader Kim Jong Il who dedicated his all to turning the whole country into a paradise for people.

Kim Jong Il was a peerless great man and patriot who loved even a blade of grass and a tree of the homeland.

He, optimistic of the future of prosperous homeland, cultivated two young pine-nut trees even in the flames of the fierce Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953).

With the noble aim of eternizing the feats President Kim Il Sung performed in foresting the country by planting a tree on Moran Hill on March 2, Juche 35 (1946), only several months after the country's liberation from Japan's colonial rule, Kim Jong Il saw to it that March 2 was set as the Tree-Planting Day.

In the period of the Arduous March, the forced march, he paid deep attention to the afforestation of the country.

When he inspected a unit of the Korean People's Army, he personally examined the master plan for forestation worked out by the unit and highly praised its servicepersons for building an excellent nursery and carrying out well the forestation in and around its compound.

And he called for launching a vigorous tree planting movement involving all the masses so as to hand over to posterity the beautiful land and rich resources.

On the occasion of the Tree-Planting Day this year, the servicepersons and people across the country have turned out in a tree-planting campaign to materialize the noble intention of Kim Jong Il to turn all mountains into those of gold and treasures.