State Affairs Commission Vice Chairman and Party Vice Chairman Pak Pong Ju (Pak Pong-chu) toured storm recovery work in North Hamgyo’ng Province, his home province. He visited Ch’o’ngjin and Kim Ch’aek (So’ngjin) and Orang County and was briefed about steel production at the Ch’o’ngjin Steel Plant and Kim Ch’aek Iron and Steel Complex.
Consultative meetings were held.
Pak “gave pep talks to members of Division #2 of the Party members of the capital city, members of the 216** Division and soldier builders who have waged a drive of loyalty, a fierce 24-7 struggle and resolute campaign.” He “urged officials to set examples in the van of the masses, ensure the quality of structures at a high level by pushing ahead with the the building of dwelling houses on the principle of prioritizing the interests and conveniences of the people and holding them absolute and correctly calculate the necessary amount of materials, including cement and steel, and economize on them to the maximum.”
PPJ “stressed the need for officials of Party and power organs to take warm care of the people, true to the noble intention of the Party Central Committee, and constantly conduct effective forest and water conservation such as river improvement and anti-landslide projects.” Consultative meetings “discussed the measures to ensure scrupulous operation and command to successfully propel the reconstruction campaign, supply raw materials in time and maximize the natural disaster in the future on the basis of a scientific analysis of the cause of flood damage.”
**this appears to refer to one of the labor units of “core” Party members out of Pyongyang, but anything carrying “216” (the birthday of late leader Kim Jong Il) is quite significant