The agrarian reform was the most stirring one of a number of democratic reforms witnessed after the national liberation from the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule (August 15, 1945).

At that time, the peasants made up the majority of the national population.

To cultivate their own land was a long-cherished desire of all Korean peasants. Such wish came true thanks to President Kim Il Sung.

Kim Il Sung liberated Korea from the Japanese imperialists' occupation through a revolutionary war against them. He put forward the agrarian reform as a primary task after Korea's liberation.

He acquainted himself with peasants' demands during his visits to different rural areas. Then he set it as the main principle to be adhered to in agrarian reform to help the peasants become the owners of land and advanced a policy of carrying out the agrarian reform on the principle of confiscating the land of landlords without compensation and distributing it free to the landless peasants so as to make land their personal property, not state property.

On the basis of it, he promulgated the historic "Law on Agrarian Reform in North Korea", which was a historic event that got rid of the feudal landownership that had exploited the peasants for thousands of years. This left the first page in the country's history of resolving the rural problems.

The agrarian reform was concluded successfully within 20-odd days. As a result, over one million hectares of land were confiscated without compensation from the Japanese imperialists, pro-Japanese lackeys, traitors and landlords and distributed free to 720 000 households of landless or land-poor peasants.

The successful agrarian reform liberated all peasants across the country from feudal relations of exploitation and subordination and let them become the owners of land for the first time in history.

Stories about the peasants, who were shedding tears of joy, overwhelmed by their deep gratitude toward the country, still touch the Korean people.