On January 21, 2011, Chairman Kim Jong Il visited the Jongbang Foodstuff Production Cooperative in Sariwon and acquainted himself with its producing of sliced vegetables preserved in soy sauce.
Kim Jong Il said that the sliced vegetables preserved in soy sauce are a popular food which the Korean people have enjoyed eating since olden times and, at the same time, they are easy to make with local farm products from their local areas. He said that the cooperative should properly perform its management to produce tasty, nutritious and quality subsidiary foods for the people by keeping the excellent tradition of the Korean nation. He said that production units should not increase only their varieties but set foods favoured by the people as a monopoly and increase their production. Listening to him, officials of the cooperative, who had thought that theirs were too simple and insignificant, resolved to produce quality foods, well-known in the country, with raw materials abundant in their province and have a monopoly on them.
