The agrarian reform was the first democratic reform which the people's government accomplished in a short span of time under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung after the country's liberation from Japan's colonial rule.

Under the slogan "Land to the Tillers!" the President set forth it as the basic principle of the agrarian reform to liquidate the feudal relations of landownership and set up peasants as the owners of land.

He also indicated strategic and tactical tasks to enforce the agrarian reform on the principle of confiscation without compensation and free distribution and achieve the victory in its enforcement through an acute class struggle.

On the basis of detailed study and analysis of the situation in rural areas, he decided on the policies on agrarian reform, including the principle of landownership and method of enforcing the reform, before promulgating the "Law on Agrarian Reform in North Korea" on March 5, Juche 35 (1946).

The promulgation of the law was a great event of historic significance which put forward peasants as the permanent owners of land and rooted out the feudal relations of landownership, a source of exploitation and oppression.

Thanks to the successful agrarian reform, more than a million hectares of land were confiscated without compensation and distributed free to over 720,000 peasant families.