KEDO experts here

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Experts of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) arrived here today by air for high-level negotiations with experts of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Korean women's national costumes

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- National clothes peculiar to the Korean women are skirts and jackets. There are two kinds of skirts according to length and shape. The one is wide and long enough to wrap up body and the other is short and round in shape, both sides joined. The upper part of skirt is pleated around waist and the lower part drops free. The skirt for ceremony and for outgoing is comparatively long and the one for daily life is short. Length is different according to age. Skirts are various in fabrics and colour according to age and seasons and their patterns are graceful. The jacket is made short to cling to body. Neckband, strip and hem of the jacket look well. In Korea women have been encouraged to wear this national dress suitable for their noble disposition and figure

Rodong Sinmun on war hysteria of S. Korean authorities

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today comes out with a signed commentary denouncing the South Korean authorities for frantically staging war exercises against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the beginning of the year. The South Korean warmaniacs have staged a cold winter tactical training from January 11 with the mobilisation of a unit of the army. They decided to supply 1.93 million gas masks to ordinary inhabitants allegedly to provide for the "chemical, biological and radioactive warfare" and announced a plan to pass tanks through downtown Seoul for a "military training." Commenting on the war hysteria, a news analyst of the paper says: It cannot go unnoticed that the South Korean authorities have staged provocative military rackets at the time when the U.S. warmaniacs are making military moves to provoke a war on the Korean peninsula, reorganising the U.S. 8th Army Command into the Field Army Command. Underlying them is a dangerous criminal design of the authorities to unleash a war against the north at any cost according to the war scenario they had already worked out along with their U.S. masters. It is very clear that they are frantically trying to find a way out of their ruin in igniting a war against the north. We warn again that they must not act rashly, mindful of the serious consequences to be entailed by their war hysteria.

Perilous military tieup

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- The U.S.-Japan military tieup has gone beyond the dangerous line. With a view to working out a detailed plan on cooperation "in event of contingency" around Japan, the two countries recently decided to set up "a joint examination institution" of the members of the commands of the U.S. troops based in the Pacific and Japan and the joint chiefs of staff of the Japanese "Self-Defence Forces". The decision shows that the new "Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defence Cooperation" have already been carried into practice and that according to the guidelines the military machines of the U.S. Forces and the Japanese "SDF" whose first target is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have been set in motion. As already reported, in September last year the U.S. and Japan amended from a new angle the "Defence Cooperation Guidelines". The revised "guidelines" makes it possible to guarantee Japan's "aid to the U.S. Forces" in "the emergency" around Japan, not only in "the emergency" in Japan. In other words, the Japanese "SDF" has the "lawful rights" to joint operations with the U.S. Forces in the whole Asia-Pacific region and to reinvasion. "The emergency" around Japan advertised by the U.S. and Japanese warhawks means "the emergency on the Korean Peninsula". This has vividly been proved by the facts that most of the seaports and airports chosen by the U.S. for Their use in "the emergency" according to the new "guidelines" are near the Korean Peninsula and that the operations the examination of which is now under way to cope with "the emergency" are all to be carried out in case of war in Korea. The soon-to-be-inaugurated "joint examination institution" is aimed mainly at examining preemptive attack on the DPRK. Clear is the ulterior intention of the U.S. and Japanese warmaniacs. They are now tempted by the wild ambition to stifle the DPRK by force of arms and establish domination over the Asia-Pacific region. They should be mindful that their war gamble will bring nothing good to them. We have means to defend of the sovereignty and security of the country. We will make every possible effort to the end.

"KCTU" declares general strike

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- The "Korean Confederation of Trade Unions" (KCTU) in South Korea on Jan. 17 held meetings in Seoul, Pusan and other parts of South Korea and declared it would enter a general strike in case the system of allowing companies to lay off workers is introduced, according to radio reports from Seoul. The "KCTU" announced this in a resolution at a meeting of 1,000 workers in Jongmyo Park, Jongro district, Seoul. It exposed the move to pass a bill on the layoff system of financial institutions through an "extraordinary session of the national assembly". Some 3,000 unionists under the federation of trade unions of Hyundai Group held a meeting and called for business reform and 500 unionists in Pusan under the "KCTU" held a meeting and demanded an immediate stop to the illegal action against the workers. And the "KCTU" unionists in Taegu and Kwangju held meetings to protest against the scheme of the authorities to force the layoff system.

Efforts for reunification of Korea supported

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Dr. Friedebert Kollmann, Chairman of the Austrian Jurists' Union for the Defence of Democracy and Human Rights in South Korea, issued a statement on Jan. 12 in support of the Korean people's cause of national reunification. He said: His excellency Kim Jong Il, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, said that it is most important to implement the three charters of national reunification in realizing the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea. The three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and the great unity of the nation, the 10-point programme of the great unity of the whole nation for the reunification of the country and the proposal for founding the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo, clarified by his excellency President Kim Il Sung in his lifetime, constitute the basic principles, programme and way of Korea's reunification. For national reunification, the U.S. troops should be withdrawn from South Korea at once, the concrete wall pulled down and the fascist "National Security Law" abolished. The progressive lawyers of Austria will continuously strive to contribute to making this year a historical year in opening a decisive phase of Korea's reunification.

Rodong Sinmun calls for carrying through basic line of economic building

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun in a signed article today calls for carrying through the Workers' Party of Korea's basic line of economic construction to pull through difficulties and stand up to the imperialists' campaign to isolate and stifle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The basic line means to give priority to the growth of heavy industry while simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture, the article says, and goes on: President Kim Il Sung, basing himself on a scientific analysis of the lawful demand for economic growth and the actual conditions in Korea, laid down the most reasonable revolutionary line of that kind. The sustained adherence to the line is a most important matter in socialist economic construction for the present. The line is the most reasonable one because it helps invigorate the economy, keep production on a high level in all sectors and drastically raise the people's standards of living. In particular, it is necessary to upgrade heavy industry, a key factor of the economy, for foiling the imperialists in their vicious schemings to isolate and stifle Korean socialism. We should pull through the difficulties by ourselves, come what may. To this end, we should continue directing efforts to consolidation of heavy industry and the simultaneous development of light industry and agriculture. The forced march for socialism is just the only way of carrying out the difficult task.