N. Korean leader visits remote northern province

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has traveled to the country's northernmost province to give "field guidance" to workers in a sanatorium and other industrial facilities there, state media said.

In a dispatch dated Wednesday and published Thursday, the Korean Central News
Agency said Kim has toured North Hamgyong Province in his 100th public activity
so far this year, compared to 74 visits and 53 visits made during the same period
of last year and 2007, respectively. The date of the trip was not given,
customarily.
At the Kim Jong Suk Sanatorium, named after his mother, Kim, 67, underscored the
medical effect of hot springs and ordered better management "so as that the
Korean people may fully benefit from free medical care," the report said.
Kim also toured an insulator factory, a museum and several more industrial sites
in the province, it said.
The report said Kim was accompanied by Hong Sok-hyong, chief secretary of the
North Hamgyong Provincial Committee of the Workers' Party, and Kim Ki-nam, a top
party secretary who recently visited South Korea to pay condolences on the death
of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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