Change in the Fishing Industry

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un put forward the fishing sector as a major field for improving the people’s standard of living, and led the efforts to decisively boost the fishing industry of the country and thus usher in a new history of “golden seas.”

In his works Let Us Boost the Fishing Sector and Bring About a Fresh Turn in the Development of Fishing Industry and The Fishing Sector Should Launch a Dynamic Drive to Create a New History of “Golden Seas”, he referred to the leadership exploits performed by President Kim Il Sung and Chairman      Kim Jong Il for the development of the country’s fishing industry and clarified the problems arising in bringing about a fresh turn in the fishing industry at present.

President Kim Il Sung, saying that the coastal areas should make the best possible use of the sea, had made strenuous efforts to develop the fishing industry so as to provide the people with plenty of fish.

Chairman Kim Jong Il visited several fishing bases till the last days of his life, and clarified the ways for revitalizing the fishing industry. He also took measures for banning fish export so as to supply the fish to the people.

Recollecting the exploits Kim Jong Il performed for the development of the fishing industry, Kim Jong Un once said: I feel my heart breaking to think of    Kim Jong Il, who concerned himself so much with supplying fish to the people; when I hurried to his train office on December 17, 2011 upon receiving the sad news that he had suddenly died on his way for field guidance, I found a document on the supply of fish to the Pyongyang citizens on his desk; that was the last document he went over.

Then he said that the WPK was now attaching importance to the fishing sector and directing great efforts to developing the fishing industry, so as to provide the people with more fish by carrying out the Chairman’s instructions.

Under Kim Jong Un’s leadership, fishery stations fitted themselves out with modern fishing vessels and equipment and introduced scientific fishing methods.

A fishery station on the east coast of the country still tells of his efforts to usher in the era of “golden seas”.

The station, true to the WPK’s policy of fishing, overfulfilled its production plan with the Tanphung-series fishing vessels supplied to it thanks to the measure he had taken, thereby leading others in a mass innovation drive for fishing and heralding the history of “golden seas”.

Now the station is remembered by Kim Jong Un as a unit that kindled the initial spark of the revolution in fisheries and the home base of Tanphung-series fishing vessels.

One day Kim Jong Un received a letter from the manager of the station.

In the letter, the official informed him of the happy news that his station had landed a huge haul.

Looking back, Kim Jong Un, after sending four fishing vessels to the station, visited the station in May 2013, and named the vessels Tanphung (autumnal tint), wishing it would land a huge haul as farmers reaped a bumper crop in autumn.

Then he said to the manager that he wanted the station to catch a lot of fish and supply them to the soldiers, and this was not the order of him as the Supreme Commander but a request, and that if the station landed a big haul, the manager should write a letter to him.

After receiving the letter, he visited the station in December 2013.

Saying that he was so impressed to see the frozen fish blocks piled in the freezing storehouses that he was reluctant to leave the place, he had a photograph taken with officials with the fish piles as the background. And he continued that as he stood in the station, he was so pleased to be reminded in spite of himself of a passage of a song which reads The steam whistle of big haul sounds in port and the hold is full of fish.

When he visited the station again in November 2018, he was much satisfied to see the storehouses filled to the capacity and expressed his expectation and conviction that the station would continue to take the lead of the endeavour to open up the history of “golden seas” as befitting a pioneer and model unit that kindled a new torch in fishing. Then he had a photo session with the employees of the station.

When he made a visit to it again in November 2019, he encouraged its officials and workers, saying that they should continue to stand in the vanguard of the revolution in fishing and invariably remain as the absolute advocates, staunch defenders and thorough implementers of the Party’s policy on fishing.

In the room dedicated to education in the revolutionary exploits associated with the station, he stressed the need to conduct effective education through the room among the fishermen and other employees so that they could continue to glorify the honour of the vanguard and shock brigade defending the Party by landing bigger hauls of fish as befitting the laudable ones, who had written the first chapter of the history of “golden seas”.