Chinese Embassy donates rice to Kim Jong Suk Creche
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- The Chinese Embassy here donated 7 tons of rice to the Kim Jong Suk Creche.
Economic and Commercial Counsellor Chen Yufa and other officials of the Embassy conveyed the rice to the creche on Thursday.
Kim Mun Song, Vice-Chairman of the State External Economic Affairs Commission, and officials of the creche were present at the ceremony.
Chen Yufa said the Embassy was donating the rice to the creche, a few months before the 80th birth anniversary of comrade Kim Jong Suk, and voiced the belief that Sino-Korean friendship would grow stronger with each passing day.
Commandoes' drill in s. Korea
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- The Kim Young Sam "civilian" fascist regime of south Korea staged a military drill for infiltration into the north's coasts in the sea off North Jolla Province on July 30 with the mobilization of commandoes belonging to the special warfare command of the puppet army, according to a radio report from Seoul.
Included in the drill were commandoes' infiltration by boat and underwater individual infiltration into the north's coasts and dropping of commandoes and combat equipment from 1,500-metre-high sky on the north's coasts.
After infiltrating the simulated coasts of the north, the commandoes drilled in ambush, explosion of targets and disengagement.
Benin's Independence Day marked
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- A meeting marking the 37th anniversary of the Independence of Benin was held here on Thursday under the sponsorship of the Korea-Benin Friendship Association.
A Vice-Chairman of the association attended the meeting together with working people in the city.
A speech was made and a message of greetings to the Beninese President adopted at the meeting.
Party for marking 70th anniversary of Chinese People's Liberation Army
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Military attache of the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang Liu Jianhua gave a party at the Embassy on July 31 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (CPLA).
Liu Jianhua said in his speech that since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the CPLA has contributed to defending the security of the country and socialism and to preserving peace in Asia and the world as the People's Army under the leadership of the Communist Party.
Noting that the peoples and armies of the two countries established close friendly relations in the long-drawn-out joint struggle, he stressed the blood-sealed Sino-Korean friendship established by the concern of the leaders and the joint efforts of the peoples and armies of the two countries would be everlasting like the flow of the River Amnok.
Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok, Director of the General Political Department of the Korean People's Army, noted in his speech that the CPLA has advanced along the road of victory and glory in the sacred cause of the fatherland and people during the past 70 years.
The Korea-China friendship is precious friendship which was provided and developed by President Kim Il Sung and the leaders of the old generation of China and also traditional blood-sealed friendship which has overcome all historical trials, he said, and went on:
"The peoples and armies of the two countries will remain intimate brothers and comrades-in-arms who help and support each other in the common struggle against imperialism and for socialism."
Rodong Sinmun on war exercises in s. Korea
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Some time ago, the first field army command of the south Korean puppet army staged a large-scale "defensive training against chemical warfare" on the plea of "protecting commanding facilities and ensuring all functions".
Commenting on this fact, a news analyst of Rodong Sinmun today says:
The Kim Young Sam group claimed that the training was aimed at providing against "chemical attack from the north".
It is their trite method to hurl mud at the north whenever they apply themselves to foul things.
"combined firing exercises", "comprehensive tactical training of commandoes" and "joint landing rehearsal" staged recently by the south Korean puppets are all provocative ones against the north. What they seek in this is to justify their war provocation moves against the north, incite north-south confrontation among the south Korean people and unleash a fratricidal war at any cost.
Some time ago, they signed a contract on purchasing weapons of 340 million dollars with the United States under the pretext of "coping with north's surprise attack by heavy weapons".
The Kim Young Sam group are now isolated and rejected at home and abroad for the retrogressive revision of fascist laws, the Hanbo scandal, the "Presidential Election Funds" and other incidents of irregularities and corruption. So, they are foolishly trying to escape from the crisis by intensifying the moves of confrontation and war against the north.
They would be well advised not to run amuck, looking squarely at our will.
Cuban Embassy officials visit museum
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Cuban Ambassador to Korea Jose Ramon Rodriguez Varona and Embassy officials visited the Revolutionary Museum of the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces on July 31 during the month of solidarity with the Cuban people.
They looked round with deep concern the relics, being briefed on the great exploits performed by Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il in army leadership.
And they saw gifts to Secretary Kim Jong Il from soldiers of the Korean People's Army.
That day, they appreciated a circus show at the KPA Circus Theater.
Seminar held on Secy. Kim Jong Il's work
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Historians of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea met here on July 30 to make a deep-going study of the idea and theories set forth by Secretary Kim Jong Il in his celebrated work "On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction."
Referring to the historic course of the formation of the national character of the Korean people, the speakers said:
Koreans began living in and around Pyongyang in a very early period in world history and have lived as a homogeneous nation in the same territory for 5,000 years.
From olden times they are resourceful and courageous, and love justice and truth, value morality, have a strong love for the country, high national pride, love for a harmonious and cultured life and an ardent desire for learning.
As the national character embodies the spirit of national independence and cultural traditions of the nation, it is a source of the love for the nation. To value the national character is the psychology of all the members of a nation and a basis for the unity of the whole nation, they said.
They called for rejecting the nihilistic and restorationist tenderncies towards the legacies of the nation, abandoning the legacies of the nation which are unfit for socialism, putting forward and developing those which are progressive and popular and steadily creating new advantageous traits of the nation.
Press review
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Papers here today frontpage a report that Secretary Kim Jong Il, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, sent thanks to officials and working people who have displayed the traditional traits of army-people unity.
Rodong Sinmun prints messages to Secretary Kim Jong Il from participants in a joint seminar on the cause of independence for humankind and ideological and theoretical feats of President Kim Il Sung organised by the Asian Regional Institute of the Juche Idea and from foreign Party and state leaders on the occasion of the third anniversary of the President's death.
Papers give an account of a symposium on Secretary Kim Jong Il's famous work "On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction" held by the DPRK Philosophical Society.
Rodong Sinmun dedicates a by-lined article to the 6th anniversary of President Kim Il Sung's famous work "Let Us Achieve the Great Unity of Our Nation".
The press reports that a memorial meeting was held here to mark the 65th death anniversary of Kang Pan Sok, an indomitable revolutionary fighter and an outstanding leader of the Korean communist women's movement, and gives much space to a memorial address made at the meeting.
Carried in the press is news that senior officials of the Party and Government, working people and soldiers of the Korean People's Army laid wreaths before the statue and tomb of Kang Pan Sok.
Given in the press is an account of the efforts to ease drought damage on cooperative farms across the country.
The Chinese Embassy here donated rice to Kim Jong Suk creche, says the press.
Rodong Sinmun in a commentary denounces the Kim Young Sam group for staging a large-scale "defensive training against chemical warfare."
Carried in the daily is a statement published by the spokesman for the north headquarters of the National Alliance of Youth and Students for the Country's Reunification on the decision of dissident organisations in south Korea to exclude the South Korean Federation of University Student Councils (Hanchongryon) and the south headquarters of the National Alliance for the Country's Reunification from the pro-reunification events slated for August 15 this year.
The paper prints information issued by the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland denoucing the Kim Young Sam group for intensifying the crackdown on "Hanchongryon" with August 15 approaching.
Carried in the paper is an article entitled "illusion and fear about imperialism ruins the country and nation".
Papers inform the readers of some 150 flights made by U.S. imperialists for espionage on the north of Korea in July.
Stop to hostility toward peace and security on Korean Peninsula called for
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Otete Gaston Mboyo, National Chairman of the National Movement of the Genuine Lumumbist Combatants of the Democratic Congo, recently called at the DPRK Embassy in the Democratic Congo in the month of international solidarity with the Korean people and supported their just cause.
He said that his party loving justice and peace against war expressed indignation at the recent reckless military provocation of the United States and the south Korean authorities and strongly called for an immediate stop to all the hostile acts threatening peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.
He expressed full support and solidarity for the Workers' Party and people of Korea in their struggle to realize the independent and peaceful reunification of the country in accordance with the three pillars, three charters of national reunification.
Closing ceremony of month of international solidarity with Korean people held in Russia
Moscow, July 30 (KCNA) -- A closing ceremony of the month of international solidarity with the Korean people was held in Russia on July 28.
Present there were Yuri Vanin, Vice-Chairman of the Russian Public Circles Committee for liaison with the DPRK, and other political and public figures, war veterans and Moscow citizens.
Korean Ambassador to Russia Son Song Phil was invited.
Speeches were made by Yuri Vanin, Dr. A. Vorontsov of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vice Admiral Vitaly Popkov and others.
The speakers said that as led by Secretary Kim Jong Il, the socialist cause of Korea and the cause of national reunification will be certainly achieved. They stressed the need to more vigorously conduct the movement of international solidarity with the Korean people.
A letter to Secretary Kim Jong Il was adopted at the ceremony.
U.S. and Japanese moves to bring into shape "TMD" system
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- The July 28 issue of the Japanese Asahi Shimbun reportedly said that the United States and Japan are discussing the joint development and introduction of the "Theatre Missile Defence" (TMD) system, pushing ahead with the review of the "Japan-U.S. defence cooperation guidelines".
Toward the end of 1993 the U.S. proposed to develop the TMD system with Japan, clamouring about "missile threat" from Korea, and since the end of last year Japan has called for joint development and deployment of "light anti-missile system in the air" to use "aegis" and other marine bases.
The "light anti-missile system", a high-altitude TMD system, is to detect and destroy ballistic missiles in the outer space.
With a view to developing missiles, Japan is approaching the joint development of the TMD system, and the United States is trying to convince Japan of the "importance" of the joint development of the TMD system, claiming that in the event of contingency on the Korean Peninsula north Korea may attack Japan to keep the U.S. from using the bases.
Important work for great national unity
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- President Kim Il Sung elaborated on the necessity to achieve the great unity of the whole nation and tasks and ways for it in the cause of national reunification in his historic work "Let Us Achieve the Great Unity of Our Nation", says an article of Rodong Sinmun today.
The article goes on:
The President said in his work that great national unity is a fundamental precondition for the achievement of the independent and peaceful reunification of our country, as well as its essential aspect.
The question of the reunification of our country is a question to link the divided blood vessel of the nation, achieve national harmony and realize national sovereignty in the whole country.
The president noted that the driving force for national reunification is the entire Korean nation and unity is the strength of the driving force. And he stressed that all the Korean people must unite closely under the banner of great national unity, in the spirit of patriotism and national independence.
In order to achieve great national unity all people in the north, south and abroad that are struggling for the reunification of the country must ally themselves with one another organizationally.
The idea and policy on great national unity are a patriotic banner and great programme for national unity and reunification which could be put forward only by President Kim Il Sung, who devoted his whole life to the reunification and prosperity of the country.
Destiny of nation and 1,096 days
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Jo Yong Jin, a researcher of the history of the independence movement of south Korea, published an article headlined "Destiny of Nation and 1,096 Days", the Seoul-based radio Voice of National Salvation said.
The author in the article said that Secretary Kim Jong Il gave courage and will of rebirth to the fellow countrymen in despair during the 1,096 days of mourning.
He continued:
Particularly, the institution of the Juche era and the Day of Sun , the first of its kind in the nation's history, by Secretary Kim Jong Il, was an important event encouraging the fellow countrymen in the south to valiantly turn out in the sacred cause of reunification, deeply cherishing the conviction that President Kim Il Sung, the sun of the nation, is immortal with the eternal Korean nation.
Secretary Kim Jong Il reliably defended the security and prosperity of the nation from the manoeuvres of the western allied forces led by the U.S. imperialists and their threat of war during the 1,096 days of mourning, and devoted himself to the work for achieving the reunification of the country and eternal prosperity of the nation.
The 1,096 days of mourning were a moment in history but they were great ones when Secretary Kim Jong Il, another sun of the nation, who is the successor to President Kim Il Sung, the sun of the nation, stirred up the nation, defended the destiny of the fellow countrymen and opened wide the road of independent reunification to achieve the eternal prosperity of the nation. Secretary Kim Jong Il performed great feats which can not be achieved in one generation and one century, the unprecedentedly tremendous exploits which will shine forever for all ages of the nation.
Our fellow countrymen confirmed once again that the eternal prosperity of Kim Il Sung's nation is promised as it is led by Secretary Kim Jong Il, a peerlessly great man of the century produced by heaven.
Rare blackfaced spoonbill
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Flocks of blackfaced spoonbills are seen on Tok Islet on the West Sea of Korea and other islands nowadays.
Pak U Il, Chief of the Nature Conservation Office of the Biological branch of the National Academy of Sciences, said that their appearance is due to the strict steps of the DPRK for protection and multiplication of the birds.
Blackfaced spoonbill propagates in an extremely limited area of the Korean West Coast and spends winter time in China, Vietnam and Japan.
The Korean ornithologists have made a deeper study of the bird.
Some 10 birds of this kind that had been let fly with rings round their toes from Korea were found in the south of Japan and Vietnam in recent years.
5 couples of this kind which bred on Tok Islet appeared again in early may this year.
The Korean ornithologists published the result of their study at the international seminar on protection of blackfaced spoonbills held in Beijing in May, 1996.
The bird propagates on some islets on the West Sea of Korea in late April and early may. Its makes it nest with dry twigs on rock-chins of desert islands and lays two to four eggs, or six at maximum.
The egg is hatched in 26 days and the bird leaves the nest in 40 days. The bird joins in a family flock and flies south to spend winter time in late September.
The Korean scientists are making a study to breed the bird in a zoo.
U.S. interference in internal affairs of sovereign state
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. State Department in a recent "report on U.S. politics for religious freedom" submitted to congress seriously slandered the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, alleging that there is no "genuine religious freedom" in north Korea and it has churches for Government's sake.
This report, totally distorting the realities of our republic, is part of unbearable interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.
The DPRK guarantees all the citizens the religious freedom by law according to the socialist constitution.
It ensures the freedom of religious belief= it does not interfere in the affairs of religious organisations= and it protects them so that they can freely engage themselves in religious activities.
Therefore, Christians, Chondoists, Buddhists and other religionists and churchmen in the DPRK are freely taking part in religious activities according to their faith.
The Jangchung Cathedral, the Chilgol Church, the Pongsu Church, the Kwangbop Temple in Pyongyang and Pohyon Temple on Mt. Myohyang are visited not only by Korean religionists but also by foreign believers who are accredited to Korea or are staying.
This notwithstanding, the U.S. State Department branded the religious organisations in the DPRK as "religious organisations under Government control". This cannot be construed otherwise than a deliberate move intended to mar the image of our republic among the international community.
This proves that the United States has not yet thrown away the deeply-rooted concept of hostility toward our republic.
The U.S. would be well advised to clearly know that their act of hurling mud at our republic over fictitious and unimportant matters will bring an adverse effect on developments in the future and to look straight at the realities.
The future of the DPRK-U.S. relations depends on the attitude of the United States.
Illusions about and fear of imperialism lead to collapse of country and nation
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- The illusions about and fear of imperialism should be dispelled, said Secretary Kim Jong Il in the celebrated work "On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction."
Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article in this regard says that the illusions about and fear of imperialism are based on unscientific view of the nature and strength of imperialism.
Aggression and plunder are the real nature of imperialism. The real nature of imperialism never changes. The method of realising it has changed.
Taking a upperhand in strength and resorting to power politics is a crafty technique employed by the imperialists to create fear of imperialism and realise its dominationist ambition.
If one becomes a victim to the crafty technique of the imperialists, one will habour illusions about and fear of imperialism and pin one's hopes on their "prescription".
This inevitably makes a mess of the revolution and construction.
This has been confirmed by the catastrophic realities of the countries and nations that had haboured illusions about and fear of imperialism. Those countries and nations failed to maintain the Juche character before anything else. They also opened the door wider to national nihilism and egoism.
The illusions about and fear of imperialism resulted in giving up the efforts to build the driving force of the revolution and construction.
Historical experience proves that the illusions about and fear of imperialism lead to failure to maintain the Juche character and national character and to subordination and collapse of the country.
Int'l mission officials tour drought-hit areas
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Agricultural experts of international missions in Pyongyang toured drought-hit areas including Jongphyong and Kumya counties in South Hamgyong Province and Thongchon county in Kangwon Province on July 31.
They heard about drought damage on co-operative farms from officials concerned and looked round afflicted fields and reservoirs.
Choe Thae Bok meets Chinese guests
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Choe Thae Bok, alternate politburo member and Secretary of the central committee of the workers' Party of Korea, today met and had a friendly conversation with the visiting delegation of Chinese People's Daily, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, headed by its deputy editor-in-chief Yuan Zhifa.
Present there were deputy editor-in-chief of Rodong Sinmun Choe Yang Ho and Minister-Councillor of the Chinese Embassy in Korea Li Bin.
The head of the delegation said that through the visit, they have come to know well that under the wise guidance of Secretary Kim Jong Il, the Korean people are making strenuous efforts to bring a beautiful future, surmounting temporary obstacles in singlehearted unity.
The friendship forged between the peoples of China and the DPRK will be handed down through generation, he stressed.
Drought damage becomes more serious in Korea
Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- Korea has been hit by a long spell of high temperature and drought.
The high temperature is unprecedented in 61 years of meteorological observations in Korea.
The 60-day drought and the temperature above 30 degrees have seriously affected the cultivation of crops.
It is hard to expect harvest from such granaries as south and North Phyongan, South and North Hwanghae provinces and Pyongyang.
According to data available, 470,000 hectares of paddy and nonpaddy fields were afflicted by drought as of July 30.
Dry field crops in Kangwon, Jagang, South and North Hamgyong provinces and other intermediary and mountaineous areas have withered. Roots of rice plants have also began to be rotten.
Representatives of international missions here have toured drought-hit areas of Pyongyang, North Hwanghae, South Hamgyong and Kangwon provinces and learnt that the damage was very serious and harvest of crops could not be expected even though there would be rains in the future.
Hundreds of reserviors and thousands of streams have dried up throughout the country.
The drought is likely to continue several more days.
Tube well is not effective because of lack of underground water.
Alternate crops have been planted on fields from which crops can hardly be gathered.
Now great efforts are being made in all domains in the spirit of "Arduous March" to cope with the long spell of drought, in hearty response to the call of the Workers' Party of Korea.