Pak Thae Song, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and premier of the DPRK Cabinet, made a field survey of different sectors.

At the Ragwon General Machine Enterprise, a leading machine manufacturer of the country, the Premier toured the hydraulic component and heavy-machine building workshops, Ragwon Oxygen Separator Factory and elsewhere to give a pep talk to officials, workers and technicians who are out in a campaign for increased production and economy campaign in hearty response to the decisions of the Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK.

He underscored the need for the officials to play the initiative, creative and positive role in implementing the Party's policies, mindful of the importance of their duty to develop the machine-building industry of the country, and more dynamically organize and direct the work to raise the productivity and quality of machine products.

He also called for steadily strengthening its own technical forces to improve the performance of equipment and enhance the accuracy in processing and assembling products and for raising the practicality and efficiency of the building of overall production lines and the system of their management and operation.

At the Sinuiju Chemical Fibre Mill, he learned about the installation of new equipment and called for generalizing the successes and experience in the modernization of the mill to complete the construction project at an early date.

He stressed the need to resolve technical problems arising in improving the quality of paper by regarding the enlisting of the workers' spiritual strength and science and technology as reserves for increased production and to improve the management of equipment and technology so as to carry out the paper production plan for this year.

The field consultative meetings discussed the issue for relevant units to provide materials necessary for increased production in a responsible manner, the issue of lowering production costs by further enhancing the role of the April 15 technical innovation shock brigade and actively introducing advanced science and technology and the issue of directing steady efforts to the improvement of employees' working and living conditions. And the meetings took necessary measures.

The Premier also visited the headquarters of construction project for 50 000 flats in Pyongyang, which launched into the grand construction campaign for the new year. There he stressed the need to step up in a far-sighted way the preparations for inauguration of 10 000 flats at the third stage in the Hwasong area, which has entered the final stage, while examining whether there is any shortcoming in the project.