N. Korean leader visits fertilizer, textile factories

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has visited a
fertilizer factory and a synthetic fabric factory in a northern province and
ordered speedy modernization of their facilities, state media said Friday.
Kim's trip to the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex highlighted his special care for the
country's fertilizer production, as South Korea's aid of the material, essential
for rice and corn farming, remains suspended for the second year. Kim visited the
same factory in February.
"The gasification process of the complex is of weighty importance in boosting the
fertilizer production," Kim was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency as
saying.
North Korea has developed its own fertilizer production process called "coal
gasification." The process converts coal from a solid to a gaseous state that is
similar to natural gas, and can be converted to ammonia that is used to make
fertilizer. North Korea has rich deposits of coal and would otherwise have to
import natural gas for fertilizer production.
He praised the complex for "entirely depending on locally available raw
resources" and emphasized completion of the gasification process "in a brief span
of time," the report said
"He showed such great care as unraveling knotty problems on the spot," it added.
North Korea's own fertilizer output is estimated at less than 500,000 tons a
year, about a third of the 1.5 million tons the country needs for its grain
farming, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.
Since 1999, the South Korean government has provided an average 300,000 tons of
fertilizer to the North every year to help ease the country's chronic food
shortages. But the aid was suspended after conservative President Lee Myung-bak
took office last year, linking inter-Korean aid and exchanges to progress in
North Korea's denuclearization.
South Korean aid workers who visited the North have reported signs of poor
harvests this year, such as yellowish rice paddies partly caused by the lack of
fertilizer.
Kim also visited the February 8 Vinalon Complex in the same province of South
Hamhung, the report said. Vilanon, an artificial textile like nylon, is North
Korea's own invention.
A separate dispatch by the news agency reported that Kim watched performances by
art squads from the two complexes. He was accompanied by Workers' Party Secretary
Kim Ki-nam and other senior party officials, it added.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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