According to Kim Yong Il, section chief of the C.C., Korean Association of Cooks, this year will see various cooking contests aimed to develop cookeries and improve the people's diet.

They include a national cooking competition and an April holiday food festival to be held on the occasion of the Day of the Shining Star, leader Kim Jong Il's birthday (February 16), and the Day of the Sun, President Kim Il Sung's birthday (April 15).

Contests of making ssukttok (rice cake seasoned with wormwood) and makkoli (crude liquor) and an edible herb dish show are expected in May and June and a seasonal kimchi-making contest and other cooking contests in July and August.

A national Korean food show is slated in October to mark the 70th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea, followed by a contest of cooking local specialty dishes, fish cooking competition and a contest of cooking adzuki-bean gruel.