North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

DPRK Premier Visits Paektusan Youth Power Station

DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju (a) and State Planning Commission Chairman and Vice Premier Ro Tu Chol (b) tour the Paektusan Youth Hero Power Station #3 in Yangkang Province (Photo: KCNA).

DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju (a) and State Planning Commission Chairman and Vice Premier Ro Tu Chol (b) tour the Paektusan Youth Hero Power Station #3 in Yangkang Province (Photo: KCNA).

DPRK state media reported on February 6 that Premier Pak Pong Ju (Pak Pong-chu) visited Paektusan Hero Youth Power Stationand the Hyesan-Samjiyo’n Broad Gauge railway project in Yanggang Province.  Pak toured the construction sites and “encourages the builder who all out in a high-pitched drive to glorify the 7th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea as the congress of victors and glory.”  A meeting held at the construction sites “discussed the measure of pushing forward the construction to suit the winter conditions without interruption and sufficiently supplying the necessary materials.”

Photo: KCNA

Photo: KCNA

A separate news item in DPRK state media claimed that various government ministries and enterprises were contributing building materials to the power station’s construction including a dozen trucks “fully loaded with aid materials” from North Hwanghae Province as well as “aid materials” from Pyongyang and North Hamgyo’ng Province.  The construction site has also been visited, according to KCNA, by government ministry officials who personally delivered contributions to the project.

During his visit to Yanggang Province, Pak Pong Ju also toured various revolutionary historical sites in and around Samjiyo’n County.  At a meeting with county officials, Pak “called for meticulously conducting the management and operation of the objects successfully renovated under the loving care of the party” and the meeting “discusses the matters arising in stepping up the preparations for photo farming.”

An affiliate of 38 North