Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, went round the venue of a garment and footwear exhibition in light industry on October 19.

He was accompanied by leading officials of the Party and the government.

He was greeted on the spot by senior officials of the Light Industry Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

On display at the National Garment and Footwear Exhibition-2026 on the theme of "Enthusiasm for developing new products and improving their quality" are more than 70 700 garments of over 30 kinds and some 170 000 pairs of shoes of over 60 kinds, which were manufactured by more than 270 garment, footwear and bag production units, including major light industry factories and the newly-built city and county garment factories, to suit the tastes of the Korean people and the world trend of development.

Comrade Kim Jong Un looked round with satisfaction the venue of the exhibition encapsulating the blossoming and developing light industry sector which is promoting the improvement of the material and cultural welfare of the people and making rapid progress.

Saying that the national light industry goods exhibition which has been held every October is intimately settled in the cultural and emotional life of our people, he appreciated that the current exhibition has made another stride forward in scale, content and form in preparation, as compared to last year.

He said that all aspects including the brand and display, as well as the form, shape, colour and quality of the exhibits, clearly show the rapid and substantial development of the light industry sector which is stoking the zeal for emulation while concentrating efforts on improving the quality and developing new products, and that the current exhibition eloquently speaks of the daily-rising cultural level of our people and showcases the track of development of our light industry.

He said that dozens of kinds of smart and quality garments and footwear presented by the city and county garment factories and other regional light industry factories newly built according to the Party's regional development policy are squarely competing with the products of the centrally-run factories, adding that this is a clear demonstration of the validity and vitality of the Party's policy aimed at eliminating the gap between the capital and the regions and between urban and rural areas and achieving simultaneous and balanced development of the whole country.

He pointed to the need to ensure that progress in light industry leads the noble and beautiful trend of our society and the development of civilization by further accelerating the vigorous development trend of light industry so that the foundations of light industry, which have been established in the capital and the provinces and are being expanded every year, can meet the people's growing cultural and emotional requirements and their needs for a variety of activities.

Saying that it is most important for the light industry sector to give precedence to the designing of the products and develop it, he stressed the need to organize design festivals and exhibitions in various forms and methods, learn about the cultural tastes of the working people through the events and introduce them into production, thereby increasing the economic effectiveness and scientific accuracy of the production of goods.