Forestry and Environmental Officials Meet

DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju reads from his notes during a meeting of forestry, land management and environmental protection officials at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on February 21, 2018 (Photo: KCNA).

A meeting of environmental protection and forestry officials was held at People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on February 21 (Wednesday).  Among those attending the meeting were DPRK Premier and State Affairs Commission Vice Chairman Pak Pong Ju [Pak Pong-chu], Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] Vice Chairman for Economic Affairs O Su Yong [O Su-yo’ng], Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Gen. Pak Yong Sik [Pak Yo’ng-sik], State Planning Commission Chairman and DPRK Vice Premier Ro Tu Chol [Ro Tu-ch’o’l], Pyongyang WPK City Committee Chairman Kim Su Gil [Kim Su-kil], Minister of Land and Environmental Protection Kim Kyong Jun [Kim Kyo’ng-chun], North P’yo’ngan WPK Provincial Committee Chairman Kim Nung O [Kim Nu’ng-o].  Also in attendance were various DPRK Cabinet Ministry and Commission officials, senior WPK and DPRK Government officials, officials of the KPA and Korean People’s Internal Security Forces, representatives of provincial, city and county WPK committees and people’s committees and central and provincial officials of the Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Forestry.

WPK Vice Chairman O Su Yong reads a report during a meeting on reforestation in Pyongyang on February 21, 2018 (Photo: KCNA).

The meeting “analyzed and reviewed the results in carrying out the first-phase tasks for the forest restoration campaign and the successes and lessons gained in last year’s general mobilization for land management.”  Discussed at the meeting were “measured for achieving greater success in the work for this year” and participants watched a multimedia presentation “dealing with the performance of the first-phase tasks for the forest restoration campaign and last year’s general mobilization for land management” and which introduced “the achievements made in sprucing up streets and villages as required by a highly civilized socialist country and protecting the marine resources and cultural heritages of the nation.”

Public safety officers under the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces and People’s Security Departments attend a February 21, 2018 meeting of forestry and environmental officials (Photo: KCNA).

Part of the reforestation effort includes a “national command system…to prevent forest fires from breaking out; many observatories and mobile monitoring posts have been established and fire companies organized in the provinces, cities and counties (districts)” and that

According to one report, the “first phase tasks” were carried out including “mother tree nurseries that were built or remodeled in different parts of the country to produce billions of saplings.”  According to DPRK state media “17 mother tree nurseries were reconstructed in Kangwo’n Province and one hundred and dozens of mother tree nurseries built or rebuilt in Kanggye and Kimch’aek cities, T’aech’o’n, Mundo’k, Riwo’n and other counties” and that “Pyongyang and Raso’n cities and Chagang and North and South P’yo’ngan provinces fulfilled their plans for afforestation on an annual basis, while North Hwanghae and South Hamgyo’ng provinces and Namp’o City ensured the rooting rate of trees at over 90 percent by using various biological activators.”