It has been a little over two years since the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea set forth the task of building all rural villages in the country to preserve the characters of Korean-style socialism and highlight the uniqueness of the relevant areas.

In this period, provinces, cities and counties built many new villages peculiar to the countryside, making a great contribution to ushering in a new era of comprehensive development of socialism, in which not only the capital but also the provinces are transformed together and a great change is brought about in the people’s ideological and spiritual aspects.

A radical turn should also be taken in the production of building materials in local areas to rid the countryside of its historical backwardness and realize the centuries-old desire of farmers as soon as possible by building more modern farmhouses on the basis of the achievements so far made.

To this end, it is most important to build up the bases for the production of finishing building materials relying on locally available resources and produce quality finishing building materials in relevant regions.

This is not an easy job.

But they can do it if they share and exchange experience with each other.

A stone processing base using serpentine has recently been built in Myongchon County of North Hamgyong Province to produce various kinds of stone products. In Ryanggang Province exterior paints of various colours are produced as well as coloured roofing tiles by using industrial waste water to decorate the farmhouses in the province to meet the modern aesthetic taste.

Unsan County of North Phyongan Province also set an example in increasing the utilization rate of locally made building materials in the construction of farmhouses at the Tapsang Farm last year.

In the county a brick production base was built with locally available raw materials, quality bricks made here were used for building dividing walls, handrail and fences of houses and sidewalks around the houses were covered with stones abundant in the area. Light-burned magnesia plywood was also produced by itself to produce various kinds of fittings and furniture and quality coloured mortar developed to finish the external wall decoration of the houses in a distinctive way. As a result, it increased the speed and enhanced the quality of construction at the same time while saving a large quantity of building materials like cement and timber.

The reality shows that if the local people are full of patriotic spirit of valuing their own things, they can exploit raw material resources for the production of building materials.

Substantial results have also been produced in diversifying the kind, shape and colour of building materials.

It was evidenced by the national exhibition of building materials in each province-2023 held on the theme of "A new era of rural development with our building materials!" last year.

On display there were more than 280 kinds of building materials on 16 indices including tiles, plastic building materials, wallpaper and metal fittings produced in provinces. The event caused a sensation among the visitors.

Now, all regions direct efforts to strengthening their technical abilities and updating the production processes, making continued progress in improving the quality of finishing building materials, boosting their production and lowering their production costs.

Accordingly, our ministry organizes the work to standardize building materials and stimulate the competition between provinces, cities and counties.

The importance of regional building materials production is becoming more pronounced in the construction of farmhouses highlighting the specific features of each region.