Pyongyang, March 5 (KCNA) -- Today marks the 80th anniversary of the promulgation of the Agrarian Reform Law.

The promulgation of the law was a great event that marked the first brilliant step in the history of rural construction in the country and a solemn declaration heralding the start of the epoch-making change in the countryside.

President Kim Il Sung set the agrarian reform as the first task in the enforcement of overall democratic reforms after the liberation of Korea in order to dispel forever the sorrow of the Korean peasants who suffered all sorts of exploitation and oppression as they had not owned land for a long time.

On the basis of the practical experience gained during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, the President sat together with peasants to acquaint himself in detail with the actual conditions of the countryside and the demands of the peasants, confirming each of the provisions of the law.

On March 5, 1946, he promulgated the Agrarian Reform Law on the basis of preparations for enforcing the agrarian reform.

He dispatched to the countryside the groups supporting the agrarian reform, which were composed of advanced workers, together with excellent forces of the Party and power organs, for the successful agrarian reform.

As a result, the agrarian reform was carried out in a little over 20 days and more than one million hectares of land owned by the Japanese imperialists, pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the nation and landlords were confiscated free of charge and given to more than 720 000 households of peasants with no or little land for free.

The agrarian reform put an eternal end to the feudal landownership system which had lasted thousands of years, realized the centuries-old desire of the Korean peasants to do farming on their own land to their heart's content, and opened up a new chapter for accelerating the struggle for building a prosperous, independent and sovereign state.

Today, the undying feats performed by Kim Il Sung for rural construction in the period of building a new country are shining long along with the proud reality of the socialist countryside in the DPRK which is changing day by day, creating a new life and new civilization under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea. -0-