Kim Jong Il visits Memorial Palace
Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) - General Secretary Kim Jong Il, in company with leading members of the supreme command, visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace to pay respects to late President Kim Il Sung at 00:00 July 8, the bitterest memorial day of the nation.
He was accompanied by KPA Marshal Ri Ul Sol, vice marshals Jo Myong Rok, Kim Yong Chun and Kim Il Chol, General Hyon Chol Hae and col. General Ri Myong Su.
A floral basket was laid before the statue in the joint name of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee and Central Military Commission and the DPRK National Defence Commission.
Written on the ribbon of the floral basket were letters "The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung is immortal."
Kim Jong Il, together with leading members of the Supreme Command, paid high tribute to the statue.
He then entered the hall where the President lies in state.
Kim Jong Il and leading members of the Supreme Command made deepest respects to the President.
Inter-governmental protocol signed between DPRK and Russia
Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) - A protocol of the second meeting of the permanent transport subcommittee of the inter-governmental committee of trade, economic and scientific and technological cooperation between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation was signed here Tuesday.
Present at the singed ceremony were chief Kim Yong Sam of the staff of the Ministry of railways and officials concerned, and members of a delegation of the Ministry of Communications of Russia led by vice-Minister Aleksandr Kondratenko.
Kim Il Sung's revolutionary history will continue forever
Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) -- Papers here today dedicate editorials to the fourth death anniversary of late President Kim Il Sung.
The last four years were years of revolutionary obligation during which a new history of the immortality of the leader began under the guidance of the Workers' Party of Korea, years of singlehearted loyalty and filial piety during which all the people, rallied close around General Kim Jong Il with one mind and purpose, devotedly worked to put into effect the will of the President.
Rodong Sinmun in an editorial captioned "The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung's revolutionary history will continue forever" says his revolutionary history is a history of the sun which will shine for all ages.
The daily continues:
The history of his revolutionary struggle is a history of a great revolutionary who devoted his all to the country and the revolution, holding the red flag aloft all his life, a history of an outstanding leader who provided the tradition of Juche and made sure that it is the eternal asset of the Korean revolution.
His revolutionary history is a history of a great leader of the people, who led the revolution, always finding himself among them.
Indeed, his revolutionary history is an imperishable history of distinguished services to shaping the destinies of the Korean people and progressive mankind, a glorious history which has been and will be highly praised for all ages.
His glorious history has continued along with the prosperity and development of the country under the leadership of General Kim Jong Il.
Kim Jong Il is the great heir to the Korean revolution, unfailingly loyal to the cause of the leader. Kim Jong Il's history is precisely the revolutionary history of the President and vice versa.
Kim Jong Il and the President led the revolution together for as many years as over 30 years.
All affairs of the revolution and construction should be done as the President planned, intended and did in practice. Herein lies a way of exalting his revolutionary history on this land. All the party members and other working people should uphold the ideas and guidance of Kim Jong Il with a single heart of loyalty and filial piety to complete the Juche revolution.
Minju Joson calls for holding the President in high esteem and accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche, under Kim Jong Il.
Education in Korea
Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) -- The socialist education of Korea has made rapid progress under the banner of the DPRK over the past 50 years.
The national education, which started with a campaign against illiteracy after the liberation of Korea from the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule in August Juche 34 (1945), now sets the general goal of intellectualizing all members of society to raise their cultural and technical level to that of university graduate.
This is what late President Kim Il Sung intended in his lifetime.
Before the liberation Korea had no university but one or two middle schools in each province.
Nearly a half of the school-age children had no opportunity of receiving education and adult illiterates were over 2,300,000. Young people had no way of going on to a college or a professional school.
Considerate of the actual condition, President Kim Il Sung put forward a policy of giving priority to the education and wisely led the efforts for its implementation.
The three-year war soon after the liberation destroyed everything in Korea. However, the state laid foundations for free education in a short period after the war and introduced the universal compulsory primary education system in 1956, the universal compulsory secondry education in 1958 and the compulsory 9-year technical education in 1967.
The universal compulsory 11-year education system has been enforced from 1975 and the introduction of compulsory higher education is now in preparation.
a quarter of the population are studying at over 11,000 schools at all levels and hundreds of universities and colleges in different parts of the country.
The educational work has been ensured by the universal free education system. Social education of different forms, to say nothing of school education, is given free of charge. And stipends are paid to college and university students.
Thanks to the Juche-based educational and popular policies, the number of intellectuals has reached more than 1,800,000 in the country.
Lay-off step rejected in S. Korea
Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) -- The Ulsan alliance for democracy and reunification and other civil and public organisations in Ulsan, South Korea, more than 30 in all, held a press conference on July 4 and rejected the step for massive lay-off taken by the Hyun Dai Motor Company, according to a report.
The organisations pointed to the serious consequences to be brought by the unjust layoff decision of the company to the whole area of Ulsan, and called for immediate withdrawal of the layoff step.
And they urged a stop to the company's persecution of the workers raising the just demand and to the prosecution's roundup of them.
Floral baskets laid before statues of President Kim Il Sung
Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) -- Working people, servicemen and school youths and children across the country laid floral baskets, bouquets and flowers before the statues of late President Kim Il Sung in their residential areas today, four years after he passed away.
Those in Pyongyang visited the Statue of late President Kim Il Sung standing on Mansu Hill.
Seen there was a basket of flowers sent by General Kim Jong Il.
Floral baskets, bouquets and flowers were laid before the Statue amid the playing of the floral basket-laying music.
The baskets were presented in the name of party and government bodies, administrative and economic organs, national institutions and KPA units, institutions at different levels, organizations, industrial establishments, co-op farms, schools and families in the capital city.
Floral baskets and bouquets were also laid before the statues at Kim Il Sung University, Kim Il S1ng Political University, the Ministry of Public Security, the Korean Film Studio, the Pyongyang School Children's Palace and other places of the city.
Meanwhile, the statue of the late President on Mansu Hill was visited by the diplomatic corps in Korea, representatives and officials of the Cuban, Chinese, Palestinian and Nigerian embassies carrying floral baskets and by the Syrian charge d'affaires and embassy officials with bouquets.
Compatriots from overseas, too, laid floral baskets before the statue.