Pyongyang, June 24 (KCNA) -- The appearance of Jagang Province situated in the northwestern region of Korea, is changing with each passing day. The province that had set an example in self-reliance for the rest of the country has advanced to build a paradise since last year.
The province is an inland mountainous area more than 200 km away from sea. With 98 percent of its total area being mountainous, the province was hard hit by shortage of electricity and food. In recent years, the province has built 332 minor hydro-power stations, breaking through all difficulties on its own efforts. As a result, an additional generating capacity of tens of thousands of kilowatt of electricity has been created.
This electricity operates more than 300 local industrial factories, 537 pumping stations and maintenance shops and provides lighting to 280,000 flats and heating service to several thousand flats. The province has built many power stations by damming rivers, thus turning them into artificial reservoirs. They are used as fish farms, wading pools and skating grounds which add beauty to the landscape of the surrounding areas.
Production is kept going at a high level at many factories and enterprises, including the Amnokgang Tire Factory. They are steadily boosting production by tapping all production potentials. Hundreds of hectares of mulberry fields have been created on mountainous areas of the province. Sericultural breeding farms and cocoon-producing centers are found in various parts of the province and there is a well-organized silkworm egg supply system. The province has a very good prospect of settling the food problem through sericultural development since its cultivated area is limited.
General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited the province again to provide on-site guidance to various economic domains in mid-June this year, when he said the province had undergone a noticeable change each time he came and he had nothing to be afraid of or to be worried about if he was in the same boat with the provincial people. He spoke highly of the provincial people's distinguished quality and style of work and their spirit of devotedly carrying out the party's policies.
Deeply moved by the trust repeatedly shown by him, the people in the province are all out as one to build the province into a better place to live. According to the chief secretary of the provincial committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, Yon Hyong Muk, the province will build 112 more minor hydro-power stations before the end of this year and the provincial seat and all cities and counties will be placed under a new computerized system of a unified command over the overall production performance in a near future. Jagang Province has a rosy prospect in its march towards prosperity.