With the development of science and technology and the improvement of the people’s material and cultural level, the sphere of the use of paper widens and, accordingly, the demand for paper with various functions, also known as functional paper, is growing with each passing day along with papers for cultural and industrial use and daily life.

According to statistics, there are over 15 000 kinds of paper and 61 percent of the annual paper output is industrial and functional paper in the world.

There is a talented scientist who has devoted himself to solving the paper problem.

He is People’s Scientist Ri Yong Il, candidate academician, Prof, PhD and director of the Paper Technology Institute of the State Academy of Sciences.

After graduating from a middle school in the city of Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province, Ri had worked at the institute as a laboratory assistant and researcher for nearly 25 years. And then he was appointed to several offices and promoted to head of the institute in May 2010.

He first buckled down to building a Korean-style paper production process with which he could develop and produce high-tech products.

He made up his mind to establish a production process in which various kinds of papers are produced by a machine and which would not only produce high-tech products but also become a model entity to be copied for activating the regional paper mills unlike the previous ones.

At that time some people did not trust him, saying that no country has ever made such equipment and they could not find it even in dictionary, he said.

Ri, however, led the scientists at the forefront of the development projects and finally succeeded in making various kinds of paper including writing, packing and toilet papers and cardboard in one production process to suit the regional conditions and the situation of the supply of raw materials and in developing a multi-purpose paper machine which can produce various kinds of paper with a single or multi-layer structure at the same time.

They also developed a recycling technology to minimize the water consumption in the paper production process which requires a large quantity of water and make effective use of waste fibre, an environment-friendly underwater groundwood pulp production method and a screw thermomechanical pulp production method.

The new Korean-style paper production process thus completed has been introduced into the paper production units across the country.

Ri Yong Il also blazed the trail in the field of functional paper production for the first time in the country and developed more than 30 kinds of advanced functional paper, which were imported in the past, in a Korean style.

He paid attention to the development of functional paper which started developing rapidly in the world when he began to work as the director and learned in detail about the reality of the country regarding it.

He came to know that the main units in various sectors alone almost depended on dozens of kinds of imported functional paper.

The demand was not so big, but it was absolutely indispensable. So the related units were spending a large sum of money on it.

Ri jumped into research into the unknown world again.

He and other scientists in the institute launched their research project on the principle of not implementing it in a copy-based way, but first formulating the concept strictly in a Korean way and then designing and creating everything in a fresh manner.

As a result, they developed and produced many kinds of functional paper including high-performance air filtration paper, filter paper for various kinds of engines, precision filter, disposable protective clothes for medical use and other advanced special functional paper materials used in the medical field, which proved to be longer in life and higher in filtration efficiency than the imported.

For the education of the younger generations, the number one state affair of the country, he made a great contribution to the domestic production of paper for notebooks and the mass-production of paper for textbooks with reed.

Ri, who worked for the development of the country as a scientist and patriotic citizen with clear conscience, high ability and infinite devotion, carrying a heavy burden for the country by himself, was honoured to have photo sessions with the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un as a labour innovator and a man of meritorious service at the office building of the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and on Mansu Hill.

Ri Yong Il is a Meritorious Person of Socialist Patriotism, People’s Scientist, candidate academician, professor and PhD. He was selected as one of the top scientists and technicians of the country in 2017.