Overseas Koreans welcome Kim Jong Il's election

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- Overseas Koreans met to welcome General Kim Jong Il's election as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. A reporter and speakers at a meeting of Koreans in China on October 11 said that with his election the people of the fatherland and overseas compatriots could more vigorously fight to consummate the revolutionary cause of Juche under his wise leadership and that he is a peerless great man and benevolent father. They hardened their determination to devote everything to making the country, the fatherland, ever more prosperous, true to his leadership with the national pride of upholding him at the head of the revolution of Korea. At the meeting a congratulatory letter to General Secretary Kim Jong Il was adopted. Speakers at a meeting of the International United Confederation of Koreans (International Kothongryon) said that his election marks a point in the history of the Korean nation, and renewed their determination to turn out in the struggle for the prosperity of the socialist fatherland and national reunification under his leadership. The organizations under the International Kothongryon distributed books on the brief biography of General Secretary Kim Jong IL and held meetings, Korean film shows and other events between Oct. 9 and 11.

Party given in Cambodia

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- A Party was given in Cambodia, on October 10 on the instructions of the Cambodian King and Queen to congratulate the great leader general Kim Jong Il on his election as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and the 52nd anniversary of the WPK. Speaking at the party, Kong Sam Ol, deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Royal Palace, said that the election of the respected marshal Kim Jong Il, who is the great successor to Generalissimo Kim Il Sung, the eternal leader of the Korean people, as General Secretary of the WPK is a joy not only of the Korean people but also of the entire Cambodian people. He believed that the special relations of friendship and cooperation between the Korean and Cambodian peoples will be further consolidated and developed in the future, and sincerely hoped that the WPK would be strengthened and developed.

Kim Jong Il's election hailed in s. Korea

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- All the organizations of the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) and other patriotic organizations held colorful propaganda activities to hail the respected general Kim Jong Il's election as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), according to the radio Voice of National Salvation from Seoul. All provincial and city committees of the NDFSK and other patriotic organizations are disseminating among broad segments of the people the video cassettes, which record the special communique of the WPK Central Committee and Central Military Commission on his election as WPK General Secretary as well as the events held in the north in celebration of his election. A lecture has been given since Oct. 12. The NDFSK organizations and patriotic organizations including the Feb. 16 Fellowship Society, the Paektu Society and the Sun Society put up posters, wall-papers, hanging screens and placards of "congratulation, welcome", "high glory, great event worthy of note in 5,000-year national history" in towns and villages, industrial zones, the countryside and fishermen's villages as well as university quarters to create a festive atmosphere and print leaflets, literature and cards in large numbers to deliver them to the residents. Special programme has been broadcast by the radio Voice of National Salvation since Oct. 8 evening and the newspaper Kuguk Jonson issued a special edition with a portrait of the general to propagandize the privilege and great luck of the Korean nation. The NDFSK organizations and other patriotic organizations sponsored exhibitions of the general's works and pictures on his brilliant ideological and theoretical activities and wise leadership in Seoul and Kwangju on Oct. 10. The workers in the Kuro and Changwon industrial zones formed committees for welcoming his election as WPK General Secretary and held colorful events including meeting, lecture, film show and photo exhibition. Professors and students are having seminars and other meetings to extend congratulations to the general and adopt loyal letters to him. Members of Meari, Hansori and other art groups are singing in praise of the general and in celebration of his election in different parts of south Korea.

Jo Myong Rok meets CPLA visiting group

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- KPA Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok, who is Director of the General Political Department of the Korean People's Army, met and had a friendly talk with the friendship visiting group of the Chinese People's Liberation Army led by Lieutenant General Zhou Kunren, Political Commissar of the General Logistics Department of the CPLA, who paid a courtesy call on him on Oct. 17. Present there were KPA lt. General Ri Pyong Sam, Chinese Ambassador to Korea Wan Yongxiang, Military Attache of the Chinese Embassy Yan Jiangfeng.

Rodong Sinmun on effecting great upswing in socialist construction under Party's leadership

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- The election of Kim Jong Il as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea is an occasion for great progress in accelerating socialist construction of Korea onto a new higher stage. Rodong Sinmun says this in an editorial on Saturday. The editorial notes: It is high time the Party, the army and the people effected a great upswing in socialist construction with the great pride of having a great leader. To effect a new upswing in socialist construction today is a sacred struggle to victoriously conclude the "Arduous March" and demonstrate the invincible might of Korean-style socialism. When the Party, the army and the people effect an upswing in socialist construction with extraordinary resolution, they can fly the flag of victory in the final campaign of the present-day "Arduous March". It is the steadfast will of Kim Jong Il to fundamentally change the appearance of Korea in the near future and make it a country strong in ideology and politics, military affairs and economy by effecting a new upswing in socialist economic construction. We should wage a vigorous struggle with extraordinary resolution to bring about a new great upsurge in socialist construction and successfully realize the ideology and politics of General Secretary Kim Jong Il. All domains and units of socialist construction should set the aim higher to thoroughly apply his leadership, work in a big way and make the whole country seethe with the general socialist onward movement. All the sectors and units of the national economy should more vigorously conduct the final campaign of the "Arduous March" to effect a revolutionary turn in the economic work and people's life. We should more strictly preserve the Juche character and national character of socialist construction and continue to firmly adhere to the socialist principle in all sectors and units. In order to effect a great upswing in socialist construction, all domains and units should give fuller play to the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and hard struggle. Self-reliance and hard struggle is the tradition of the Korean revolution and the ideological weapon to exalt the glorious Kim Jong Il era. We should decorate the present era with the feats of self-reliance and powerfully display the indomitable stamina of the Korean people, who do not know impossibility.

Congratulatory visits to DPRK embassies

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- Political and public figures of different countries paid visits to Korean embassies and missions in celebration of the great leader general Kim Jong Il's election as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. Baskets of flowers were sent to the embassies by Ali Abdullah Saleh, Chairman of the General People's Congress and President of the Republic of Yemen, the General Secretary of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for Liberation of Congo, the Foreign Affairs Department of the Vietnamese Communist Party central committee, and the Museum of the Ministry of National Defence and the Sports Federation of the Home Ministry of Egypt. Among the visitors were 20 odd political and public high-ranking officials of Nepal including President Man Mohan Adhikari and General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal of the C.C., the Nepal Communist Party (UML)= Razafindrabe Andre, Secretary General of the C.C., the Monima Socialist Organization of Madagascar Rakotovao Andriantiana, President of the Party of the Congress for the Independence of Madagascar= Thurmer Gyula, Chairman of the Hungarian Workers' Party= the deputy National Political Commissar of the Bureau of Popular Mobilization of the Presidency, the State Minister for the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Chairman of the Uganda-DPRK Friendship Association who is a special advisor to the President of the Republic of Uganda, members of the parliament and the chairman of the Uganda-Korea Milling Company branch of the association in Uganda= the leader of the Palang Dharma Party of Thailand= a delegation of the Cambodian People's Party led by Chea Soth, member of the Standing Commission and Chairman of the Accounts Commission of the Party Central Committee= Moussa Tiepolo Traore, President of the Democratic Renovation and Workers' Party of Mali= the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fishery of Togo= Paulo Jorge, Secretary for Foreign Relations of the C.C., the Popular Liberation Movement of Angola= the Director of the Beijing Diplomatic Service Bureau of China= Benhamla Abdelhamid, Chairman of the Algeria-Korea Friendship Club= a delegation of the Algerian Free Students' Union led by its deputy Secretary General= the Vice-Chairman of the Viet Nam-Korea Friendship Club= and D.S. Boateng, Government Minister of Ghana. Among them were also the director of the secretariat of the Presidency and the Director of the Information Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Togo= the Vice-Chairman of the C.C., the Communist Party of Germany and the Chairman of the Society for the Study and Dissemination of the Juche Idea in Berlin= the Chairman of the Copenhagen District Committee of the Danish Workers' Party, Common Cause= the Chairman of the Society for the Study of the Juche Idea in Ukraine, the Vice-Chairman of the Ukraine-DPRK Association and delegates of the Council of Veterans Organization of Ukraine= and the President of the MKP Company of Malaysia. Roberto Gabriele, General Secretary of the Movement for Peace and Socialism of Italy, paid a congratulatory call at the Korean mission in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Two south Koreans apprehended

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- Soldiers of the Korean People's Army (KPA) on routine patrol duty apprehended two south Koreans in the area north of the Military Demarcation Line near Sonjokri, Phanmun county, Kaesong Municipality, around 10:30 on Friday. The competent organ is investigating the background of their crossing the MDL.

Korea-assisted mass gymnastic display in Nigeria

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- A DPRK-assisted mass gymnastic display "Nigeria, My Fatherland" was performed at Abuja Square on Oct. 1 to mark the 37th anniversary of the Independence of Nigeria. It was appreciated by some 50 thousand citizens as well as the chief of staff of defense, the police superintendent-general and other members of the Interim Management Council of Nigeria, authorized by the head of State of Nigeria. J. T. Useni, Minister of Federal Capital Territory, said in an opening address that the mass gymnastic display was wonderfully completed by the guidance of the excellent mass gymnastic display delegation of Korea under the great leader general Kim Jong Il's deep care. The mass gymnastic display won warm applause for its vivid reflection of the domestic and foreign policies of Nigeria. After the display, the participants sang the immortal revolutionary hymn "Song of General Kim Jong Il."

National Iimmunization Day

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- Korea set October 20 as a National Immunization Day to mark the anniversary of the Publication of President Kim Il Sung's famous work "Socialist Medical Science Is Preventive Medicine". Different events will take place in Korea to mark the day. An executive committee for the day has been organized. A training course of specialists will be held and a nationwide oral vaccination is given to all under-five children to prevent spinal paralysis. The vaccination will be given again in a month's time. To this end, vaccination teams will be organized throughout the country, including mountainous areas.

Korea-Russia second meeting

Moscow, October 16 (KCNA) -- The second meeting of the Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation Committee between the governments of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation was held in Moscow on October 13-15. Present at the meeting were a DPRK government economic delegation headed by Chairman RI Song Dae of the State External Economic Affairs Commission, who is also Chairman of the DPRK side to the Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee of the two countries, and a Russian government economic delegation headed by Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailov of National Affairs and Federal Relations, who is also Chairman of the Russian side. Ri Song Dae and First Vice-Minister Vladimir Sherbak of Africulture and Food of the Russian Federation signed agreements on cooperation in plant quarantine and protection and veterinary domains on October 14. An agreement on economic and technical cooperation between the two governments was signed on the same day by Ri Song Dae and Minister Mikhail Fradkov of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade. That day, an agreement on cooperation in agriculture between the State Agricultural Commission of the DPRK and the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and Food was signed as well. Korean Ambassador to Russia Son Song Phil and First Vice-Minister Vladimir Sherbak of Agriculture and Food of the Russian Federation put signatures to the agreement. On October 15, Ri Song Dae and Vyacheslav Mikhailov signed a protocol on the second meeting of the Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation Committee between the governments of the DPRK and the Russian Federation.

Foreigners arrive

Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- Miguel Mejia, Secretary General of the United Left Movement of Dominica, a delegation of the world health organization led by Z. Jadamba, Director of the Health Protection of the Regional Office for South-East Asia of the who, Kanji Inoki, President of the New Japan Professional Wrestling Co., LTD, and his Party, and a delegation of the Ministry of Home Affairs of Zimbabwe led by Minister Dumiso Dabengwa, arrived here today.