Place of origin clarified

  The delicious and nutritive soybeans are now widely known as one of the important crops of grain indispensable in our people’s diet.

  President Kim Il Sung, who loved the Korean nation best and always devoted himself to the work for finding the tradition peculiar to the nation, acquainted himself with historic data and relics and clarified that the Korean nation had planted and grown soybeans for the first time in the world and afterwards explained them on several occasions.

  In June Juche 73 (1984), the President visited a country in Eastern Europe.

  At the luncheon, the first deputy premier of the country said proudly that they planted soybeans on large scale and it brought great economic efficiency.

  After listening to him, the President explained that historically soybeans were first planted in Korea and Koreans have long been cultivating soybeans. He said that a French man took the soybean seeds from Korea 500 years ago to plant them in his country and that the soybeans began to spread in Europe since then. He said that it was also written in botany.

  His remarks on the history of soybean cultivation continued.

  The soybeans were first planted by Korean ancestors more than 6000 years ago. At first, they had grown wild beans. Subsequently, they selected big, round and high yielding beans to cultivate them widely. About 2700 years ago, Chinese people took beans from Korea and began to plant in their country and called it suk (a hieroglyph meaning bean) or hodu (bean from foreign country). The Japanese also took beans from Korea and began to plant them about 2000 years ago and called it taedu.

  The President’s explanation on the place of origin and history of plantation of the soybeans was so impressive that the foreign people who took part at the luncheon were filled with admiration towards him.

  Thanks to the President who had such noble love for the nation, our people could retrieve the historical fact that our nation was the first to plant the soybeans in the world and cherish their national pride and self-esteem.