One day in May 1998, Chairman Kim Jong Il dropped in at a paddy field in Taebaek-ri, Changdo County, Kangwon Province on his tour of inspection to the front.

The officials accompanying him got out of the car and went to him with a thought that he would give instructions on military operations.

At that time, a touch-and-go situation prevailed in the forefront area by the enemy's moves to ignite a new war.

But the Chairman said that the lands of Kangwon Province should be realigned boldly, adding that he had this plan from long ago.

The officials were surprised at this as the whole country experienced difficulties.

Pointing to the patches of paddy fields, he said that soldiers of the Korean People's Army and people should be generally mobilized to realign the lands of Kangwon Province.

He said that if the lands of Kangwon Province are realigned, a lot of arable lands can be obtained and agricultural production can be radically increased, adding that the land realignment in Kangwon Province is a matter he has already thought and his firm determination, and that it is time to realign the lands.

Like this, the Chairman unfolded a grand conception for large-scale land realignment while inspecting the front, not in his office of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea or a large meeting hall. -0-