[imText1]Memory of the ‘March of Tribulation’ ten years ago is most abominable one for every North Korean people. Countless people, including intelligentsias, starved and fell ill to death. Nation’s best and brightest died from malnutrition. And among them, one of the most talented men in North Korea was lost, too.
Dr. Lee Kwan Chul was the director of Machinery Production Institute, a critical department in Ryongsung Machinery Combined Corporation. Dr. Lee was most one of the prominent engineer in machinery design in North Korea, and designed ten-thousand ton press machines produced in the factory.
He graduated from Kim Chaek University of Technology and received his Ph.D. in areas of industrial machinery, lathe and press machine design.
Ryongsung Machinery Combined Corporation is located in Ryongsung district in Hamheung, Southern Hamkyong Province. It is one of the largest factories in North Korea; it boasts about ten thousands workers and 686 thousand ㎡ large space. Power plant equipments, cement production machinery, cast-iron products are produced in the factory. The machinery corporation dates back to Japanese Colonial era and was destroyed completely during the Koran War. In 1957, Soviet Union supported restoring the factory and the reconstruction was completed in 1960, named as Ryongsung Machinery Factory. Taking advantage of industrialization drive in North Korea in the 60s, the Corporation led in machinery production.
The factory succeeded in production of 3000 ton press in 1961, 6000 press in 1968, and 3-mile-long drilling machine and 1,500㎥ large blast furnace in 1976. During the second seven-year plan in the 80s, more factories were built and the factory was elevated to a combined corporation.
Kim Jong Il visited the factory in 1984 and ordered to produce 10,000 ton press. Dr. Lee headed designing of the press and finished it in six months. For his contribution, Dr. Lee received the honorable Order of the Flag and named as the ‘People’s Engineer.’ Since then, he had contributed in design of large centrifugal compressor, large ventilator and other drilling machines.
However, Dr. Lee was not able survive the famine.
In Hamheung, rationing was stopped except for local party offices and security departments.
A typical intelligentsia, Dr. Lee was naïve. He believed in the party and state, even though there was no rationing, and waited.
He started to sell his belongings. When there was nothing left, Dr. Lee sold his most valued books to private markets. A-span-thick books could not provide enough money for a bowl of rice. Those precious books were sold and used as wastepaper.
Soon, Dr. Lee fell ill due to malnourishment, but nobody took care of him. One summer day in 1996, he died from malnutrition.
Dr. Lee had always been loyal to the party. He waited four years, believing the Korean Workers’ Party as a ‘mother party.’ It is as if Kim Jong Il starved Dr. Lee, and numerous other intelligentsias, to death.
