This measure of the Party Central Committee reflects its noble intention to thoroughly provide for disastrous climate, effectively protect and use the natural resources of the country and forcefully propel the scientific development of the national economy.

The grand plan for space conquest unfolded by our Party greatly encourages all the people in their general onward advance for the comprehensive development of socialist construction.

A KCNA journalist met officials of the Ministry of Land and Environment Protection, the Ministry of IT Industry and the State Hydro-meteorological Administration on April 26.

They warmly congratulated space scientists and technicians making remarkable achievements in the development of working satellites based on leaping progress made in the core space science and technology researches for attaining the immediate and long-term objectives of the space conquest policy set forth by the Party. They stressed that the construction of space industry is a prerequisite to the state development and improvement of people's living.

Jon Chol Su, vice-minister of Land and Environment Protection, said:

I am deeply moved by the painstaking efforts of the respected General Secretary devoting his all to turning our country into a world-level space power.

The construction of space industry is a core element in making a shortcut to putting our country on a position of a world-level economic power and a scientific and technological power.

For example, the use of artificial earth satellite, complex of modern science and technology, is vital in the field of land and environment protection.

Widely introduced to the world are technologies of surveying land and forest resources, monitoring natural disasters like forest fire, automatically detecting disaster-hit areas and making quantitative confirmation of disasters with the use of satellite images.

Our country has laid a foundation for ensuring in a scientific and unified way such work as the creation of forests, their protection and management, management of land and environment and the protection of ecological environment, with the help of satellite data like forest resources survey and analysis system, Hwanggumsan creation decision support system, forest fire monitoring data service system, and water body environmental change notification system based on remote survey technology.

More working satellites from our country will provide real-time satellite data, which means a new turn in land management, ecological environment protection and disaster control and more beautiful landscape of the country.

Jang Yong Gil, vice-minister of IT Industry, said that the plan of the Party Central Committee to spur the independent space development and build full-fledged space industry capable of forcefully spearheading the economic development opens up a new prospect of development for the IT field.

Our IT industry has made huge progress for the past decades under the wise leadership of the great Party, he said, and continued:

Today when active work is underway to further modernize the country's communications system in keeping with the needs for building a powerful socialist country, the achievements being made in space and satellite development harbingering the rapid progress of the satellite communications field will offer a powerful impetus for sweeping innovation and advancement in the field of information and communications.

Keeping deep in mind the heavy mission of being responsible for the overall IT industry of the country including the tele-communications, bloodline of the country, I will try to steadily enhance the modernization of communications and thus make active contribution to ensuring the economic development of the country and providing a highly civilized life to the people.

Ri Song Min, deputy director of the State Hydro-meteorological Administration and concurrently chief of the National Meteorological Forecast Squad, said that the measure taken by the Party and the state to speed up the development of working satellites with various uses has injected vitality into the meteorological field.

It was emphasized at the historic 7th plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea for the hydro meteorological field to bring about a new improvement in the weather forecast, consistent with its duty as a scout party which shoulders upon itself the destiny of farming, a field made priority by the state, he said, adding:

The development of modern agriculture would be unthinkable apart from the development of weather forecast.

It is vitally important to develop weather observation and forecast with the help of satellite data in ensuring scientific accuracy and promptness in the weather forecast.

The data from observation tools mounted on working satellites are urgently needed for the hydro meteorological field, too, as this field studies and predicts the process of climate changes of earth atmosphere, oceans, seas and land.

The satellite information will help easy and prompt observation of meteorological elements with high degree of accuracy.

I am so pleased that the day when we will be able to use real-time meteorological data from our working satellites for weather forecast is not far away.

We will decisively raise the balance among short-term, mid-term and long-term forecasts, enhance the scientific accuracy of crop growth predictions and agricultural weather notification system and also put spurs to developing and introducing the region-specific rainstorm and flood early warning system.