Notwithstanding the sweltering heat of July tens of years ago Chairman Kim Jong Il looked round many places of a mountain county and was informed by its senior official of its farm work the while.

While the official went on to tell him that the stony fields of his county were a headache to its inhabitants from olden times and what was worse, were annually visited by flood he remained silent but gradually looked very prudent.

He said that the rivers and forests of the county must be conserved well to prevent its farmland from flood damages and that President Kim Il Sung pointed out that it was important for our country with a small area of arable land to acquire new land but that its good river improvement and its good afforestation for erosion control excelled others in importance.

Presently he reached a place. For a while he looked at a river flowing in torrents and asked the official if it continued to flow when want of rain was suffered from.

He answered that because his county boasted many mountains and deep valleys the river always abounded in water and ran over its banks at a rainy season every year to seriously damage the crops grown along them.

Kim Jong Il told the official that a power station could be built across the river because it flew in rapids and had plenty of water.

Soon afterward he carefully looked at high and low adjacent mountains and valleys. He said that the numerous mountains of the county would be rich in wild fruits and herbs and that they must be gathered in large quantities, used in producing delicious foodstuffs at its local industry factories and supplied to its inhabitants to their great liking.

He got to another place and spoke highly of a terraced orchard and mulberry fields lying on broken mountain slopes. When he left he emphasized that the county had the natural and geographical advantages for the development of its diversified agriculture.

Having seen him off the official viewed his county from new angles regarding its disadvantages as new advantages instead.

Later on, in actual reality the county coated the banks of the river with stones of many sizes for far more than 40 kilometers to prevent its land from any flood, converted the riverside into hundreds of hectares of paddies full of ripe golden rice ears, built medium- and small-size power stations across the river to make its people happy and turned its mountains into producers of abundant wild fruits treasured by them. It operates its local industry factories at full capacity.

This has fully convinced the people of the county that their river improvement and application as well as the conservation of their mountains are the key to turning adversity into prosperity.

Rodong Sinmun