North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

Kim Jong Un Visits Mindulle Notebook Factory

Kim Jong Un inspects a notebook and other products of the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

Kim Jong Un inspects a notebook and other products of the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

Kim Jong Un’s last observed appearance was his visit to Ku’msusan on the 104th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung

DPRK state media reported on April 19 (Tuesday) that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) visited the recently constructed Mindulle Notebook Factory.  Also in attendance were Jo Yong Won (deputy director of the Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] Organization Guidance Department), Kim Yo Jong (deputy director of the WPK Propaganda and Agitation Department and Jong Un’s sister), and National Defense Commission senior cadres Ma Won Chun and Kim Ung Chol.

Kim Jong Un tours the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap).

Kim Jong Un tours the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap).

Kim Jong Un is briefed about production at the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photos: Rodong Sinmun-KCNA).

Kim Jong Un is briefed about production at the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photos: Rodong Sinmun-KCNA).

He toured the factory, which he ordered to be constructed, and said that he was “pleased to see the factory producing notebooks of dozens of kinds for kindergarteners and students of primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools and universities…the quality of paper is good and the bind of books is flawless and their designs are suited to the psychology of children and students of various ages and features of subjects.  To provide the children and students with locally produced quality school things is of weighty significance in instilling into them the spirit of valuing and loving our things.”

Kim Yo Jong (annotated), Jong Un's younger sister and a member of the core leadership, attends his visit to the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

Kim Yo Jong (annotated), Jong Un’s younger sister and a member of the core leadership, attends his visit to the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

Kim Jong Un tours the recently constructed Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photos: KCNA-Rodong Sinmun).

Kim Jong Un tours the recently constructed Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photos: KCNA-Rodong Sinmun).

Jong Un stressed that “the factory has an important duty to perform in thoroughly carrying out the party’s policy of attaching importance to education” and he issued “tasks to be fulfilled by the factory such as the issue of producing 100 million notebooks in the future, though its annual production capacity at present is 50 million, the issues of increasing the level of IT basis of the business management and the proportion of locally available raw and other materials, the issue of newly building the process of producing packing materials at the  factory and the issue of laying railway branches to it.”

Kim Jong Un reviews products of the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photos: KCNA-Rodong Sinmun).

Kim Jong Un reviews products of the Mindulle Notebook Factory (Photos: KCNA-Rodong Sinmun).

He noted that the “factory is one to which the party is attaching primary attention” and “called on it to produce more quality notebooks and supply them to the children and students so that they may keenly feel the party’s loving care for the younger generation and the future.”  Jong Un underscored the “need for the factory not to stop the production even a moment and showed deep loving care for it…the party would settle all problems arising in the operation of the factory.”

An affiliate of 38 North