Kim Jong-un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, visited construction sites for school supplies and teaching-aid factories in Pyongyang, stressing the need to expand education infrastructure and sharply rebuking delays in the project.
On the 5th, (North) Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim Jong-un inspected the construction sites of a school supplies factory and a teaching-aid factory the previous day and checked on the progress of the work.
Kim Jong-un said at the site, "Even though the issue of strengthening the material and technological foundation of the education institutional sector has been treated as a major matter at every plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee over the past few years, the project has not made progress up to the midpoint of this year, the fifth year by count."
He rebuked, "This should be seen as a problem in the perspective and attitude of the Cabinet and leading cadres in the education institutional sector toward Party policy and the country's future," adding, "At each of the 8th-term plenary meetings, the same resolution on establishing these factories was adopted as many as eight times, but it was not carried out, and the relevant institutional sector did not present a clear way to implement it."
He added, "At the plenary meeting in December, the reasons why important policy projects, each time given the grave meaning of being 'state affairs among state affairs,' have been delayed and neglected for years must be strictly reviewed." With North Korea having already announced a Workers' Party Central Committee plenary meeting for mid-December, it is expected that the implementation status of projects in the education field will be a key item for review at the meeting.
Kim Jong-un said, "The educational equipment factory is a key factory that ensures nationwide demand," and instructed, "Ensure standards, demand, and quality by type of school, age, body type, and breed."
He also presented a specific timeline to complete construction by the end of this year and begin operating the factory in the first half of next year.