Japan's moves to become military power

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- The Secretary General of the Japan Liberal-Democratic Party recently justified Japan's moves to become a military power, on the pretext of the situation in the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun dated March 13 quoted the Secretary General as saying at a lecture in Tomakomai city, Hokkaido, that if tension is eased on the Korean Peninsula, Japan can reduce its military spendings. He also said that the issue of the U.S. marine corps in Okinawa is closely related to the issue of the Korean Peninsula, in a bid to divert public attention elsewhere from the issue of withdrawing the U.S. troops from Japan. His remark shows once again the Japanese reactionaries' wicked intention to accelerate the conversion of the country into a military power and boost its ties with the United States, putting "tension in the Korean Peninsula" as a new pretext for arms buildup after the end of the cold war.

Press review

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- Papers here today report that Secretary Kim Jong Il sent thanks to officials and people for setting an example in the public welfare work for visitors of revolutionary sites. According to the press, foreign news media report the revolutionary activities of Secretary Kim Jong Il. Papers convey news that members of the whistle band in south Korea held a seminar to disseminate songs praising him. Carried in the press are messages of greetings to Secretary Kim Jong Il from foreign state leaders on his birthday. Papers inform the readers that progressive people of the world celebrated his birthday as a common holiday of humankind. Rodong Sinmun in an editorial calls for pushing ahead with economic construction in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. Under the banner title "Let us bring about great upsurge in economic construction in high revolutionary spirits" the paper devotes two pages to achivements in economic construction. Minju Joson highlights achievements made in the implementation of the workers' party of Korea's revolutionary economic strategy of giving priorities to agriculture, light industry and foreign trade. Rodong Sinmun runs an article titled "revolutionary spirit of soldiers is source for revolutionary advance in socialist construction." Seen in the press are voices of South Korean public critical of the Kim Young Sam regime's revision of the "labor laws" as well as the gist of a statement issued by the spokesman for the National Democratic Front of South Korea. Rodong Sinmun carries a commentary and an article branding the revision as a fascist outrage and a product of the fusion between fascists and political mountebanks. The paper in a commentary warns the U.S. hardline conservatives to look straight at the situation and act with discretion rather than engage in a campaign against the DPRK. An article of the paper calls on Asian people to heighten vigilance over the move to reexamine the U.S.-Japan "defence cooperation guidelines." The predatory policy of imperialism will accelerate its own destruction, says the paper.

Rodong Sinmun on retrogressive reamendment to "labor law"in S. Korea

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today accuses Kim Young Sam of south Korea of reamending the "labor law" in a retrogressive way on march 12 in defiance of opposition by the South Korean workers and people. He, in a "message to the people", described the revised "law" as "future-oriented" and "helpful towards the establishment of new management-labor relations based on suffrage and cooperation". In a commentary the daily says his description was an open challenge to the south Korean workers and people calling for the abrogation of the fascist labor law and the enactment of a democratic labor law and is also another intolerable fascist outrage trampling down the workers' vital rights and democracy. The puppets' retrogressive reamentment of the "labor law" was aimed at prolonging his days in power and ensuring his safety after retirement by receiving more money from the comprador businessmen in return for allowing them to go unchecked in bleeding the workers white, the daily says.

Military exercises in S. Korea

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- The Kim Young Sam group staged a military exercise of combat preparedness at the first combat flying corps of the South Korean puppet air force from march 10 to 13, a Seoul-based radio report said. This drill, divided into "crisis stage", "war stage" and "extended war stage", was strikingly similar to a real war, the report noted. The headquarters of the puppet joint chiefs of staff announced that a military exercise would be held in five areas of Seoul including the railway station on friday evening to "examine the preparedness against enemy's intrusion". However, the Kim Young Sam group can not divert public attention elsewhere.

NDFSK declares revised "labor law" void

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) published a statement on March 12 denouncing the Kim Young Sam group for railroading a "revised bill of labor laws" through "parliament" on March 10, the Seoul-based radio voice of national salvation said. The statement said: The South Korean labor organisations and people regard the revised bill as a second unacceptable version of evil labor laws, which contains evil articles violating the workers' interests and basic labor rights. The NDFSK declares the revised laws null and void, strongly criticizing the new retrogressive revision as an unbearable criminal act which thrusts a sword into the workers from behind and another political coup which heralds the extreme fascistization of South Korean society. With the revised law, the "civilian"-veiled dictatorial group is seeking to stamp out the labor-led national pro- democracy movement, realise "government stability", rake in much more reward from big businesses, win in the upcoming "Presidential election" and line its pocket. This is a foolish dream, however. If workers and people are to win the right to existence and labor liberation, they should hold high a torchlight of the struggle against the united states and dictatorship. The NDFSK will vigorously fight to the end with workers and other people to overthrow the Kim Young Sam "Government" and surely bring about an independent, democratic new society.

U.S. hawks urged to see the situation clearly

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today urges the U.S. hardline conservatives, who are trying to stifle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, to clearly see the situation and act with prudence. They are now claiming that with the situation of the Korean Peninsula remaining "unstable", the presence of the U.S. marine corps in Okinawa is still necessary and the some 100,000 U.S. troops should not be reduced in the Asia- Pacific region. They have also staged frantic war exercises with the South Korean puppets against the DPRK. In a commentary the daily says the U.S. policy of stifling the DPRK by strength remains unchanged. It further says: If the U.S. hawks continue trying to maintain the U.S. military presence in south Korea and the East Asian region and escalating war preparations against the DPRK, it will inevitably cause the outbreak of hostilities. Now that they continue seeking to stifle the DPRK militarily, not interested in the improvement of DPRK-U.S. Ties, we cannot remain an onlooker to what they are doing. We, of course, hope for improved relations between the two countries. But we have no intention to seek the improvement of the bilateral relations at the cost of the nation's sovereignty. It would be a very serious mistake if they think the outbreak of hostilities between the DPRK and the U.S. will profit the U.S. We want peace, but never beg for it. We remind the U.S. hawks again that the DPRK and the U.S. Have been technically at war.

Human rights film festival in S. Korea

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- A festival of movies on human rights abuses was held in South Korea recently, according to a news report. Included in those presented to the festival, cosponsored by So Jun Sik, representative of the council of the movement for human rights, and the student council of the Ehwa Women's University in Seoul, were movies from various countries. For the festival so had collected from 1989 movies on war and racial problems, particularly the problems of uncoverted long-term prisoners in South Korea, "Comfort Women for the Japanese Army" and U.S. servicemen's atrocities. Typical of them is the documentary "growing old, plants remain green together", which is based on the life of the unconverted long-term prisoners. It introduces the "assembling place" in Pongchon-dong, Seoul, where six unconverted long-term prisoners including Kim Sok Hyong, who suffered in prison for some 30 years, live together. It vividly shows that they have steadfastly maintained their principles after they were released, refusing to be converted, said the report.

KNA anniversary marked abroad

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- A lecture meeting was held in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, on March 1, a lecture meeting and film show in Helsinki, Finland, on March 4 and a commemorative meeting in Moscow on march 12 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Korean National Association (KNA). The chairman of the Tanzanian National Coordinating Committee of the Juche Idea study groups said in a lecture titled "the 80th anniversary of the formation of the Korean National Association: "The task of the KNA formed by Kim Hyong Jik, an outstanding leader of the Korean anti-Japanese National Liberation Movement, was to firmly unite the patriotic forces to achieve Korea's independence on the strength of the Korean people themselves. "The association was the anti-Japanese underground revolutionary organization strong in the anti-imperialist stand and largest in the scale of organisation and the sphere of activity. "kim Hyong jik was a great vanguard in changing the course of the movement from nationalism to communism." A commemorative meeting took place in Moscow. The Chief of the Korean Affairs Section of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Acadamy of Sciences said that Kim Hyong jik was an ardent patriot who indicated the road of Korea's independence and that his high intension was creditably carried out by President Kim Il Sung and the cause is being further carried forward and developed by Secretary Kim Jong Il.

WFP executive dorector here

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- Executive Director of the World Food Programme Catherine Bertini and her party arrived here today. They were greeted at the airport by Choe Su Hon, vice- Minister of Foreign Affairs, Christian Lemaire, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme here, and Birgitta Karlgren, representative of the World Food Programme.

Vice-Premier Kong Jin Thae meets WFP executive director

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- Vice-Premier Kong Jin Thae met and had a friendly talk with Executive Director of the World Food Programme Catherine Bertini and her party at the Mansudae Assembly hall today. Present there were Choe Su Hon, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Christian Lemaire, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme here, and Birgitta Karlgren, representative of the World Food Programme.

Northern officials call for inter-Korean contact

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- Senior officials of working people's organisations in the DPRK asked their South Korean counterparts for inter-Korean contact. Ju Song Il, Chairman of the Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, sent a letter to the Chairmen of the "Korean Confederation of Trade Unions" and the "Federation of Korean Trade Unions"= Choe Ryong Hae, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, to the Chairman of the "Korean Council of Democratic Youth Organisations"= Choe Song Suk, Chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Union of Agricultural Working People of Korea, to the Chairman of the "National Federation of Peasant Associations," the Chairman of the "National Council of Peasant Organisations" and the Secretary General of the "Headquarters of the All- People Movement for Defence of Our Agriculture"= and Kang kwan Son, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's Union, to the Co-chairpersons of the "Korean Federation of Women's Organisations" and the Chairperson of the "Korean National Council of Women." The letters called for a vigorous nationwide struggle for national independence and peace and proposed bilateral contact, as part of the struggle, to discuss matters arising in the convocation of a joint conference of representatives of political parties and public organisations in the north, south and overseas this year marking the 25th anniversary of the July 4 North-South Joint Statement. Besides the convocation of the joint conference, matters of mutual concern for national reconciliation, unity and peaceful reunification may be discussed at the contact, irrespective of the differences in religious belief, ideal and ideology, the letters said, adding that the time and venue of the contact may be fixed through a mutual agreement.