Great efforts directed to overcoming natural damage

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- Great efforts are directed to overcoming natural damage in rural communities of Korea. In July and august agriculture has been subjected to big losses caused by downpours, strong winds, hail-storms and tidal waves. In particular, the rural villages in Kaesong, south Hamgyong, south Hwanghae, north Phyongan, north Hamgyong and Kangwon provinces suffered heavy flood damage. The people in all the rural villages are working hard to drain stagnant water from paddy and non-paddy fields and dig ditches. They are also making the most of pumping and other facilities needed for drainage. A work to rehabilitate the railways, roads and telecommunication networks destroyed by strong rainy winds and downpours is now underway. Workers in land and environment protection and city management domains strive to overcome natural damage. Relief work, as well as restoration, is brisk in the afflicted areas.

President Kim Il Sung praised in S. Korea

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- Members of the Paektu Society in South Korea recently had a lecture meeting on the subject of "August 15 National Liberation and President Kim Il Sung", according to Seoul-based radio Voice of National Salvation. Quoting the Inchon City Committee of the National Democratic Front of South Korea, the radio reported: In his lecture the chairman of the society said Korea's history of anti-Japanese movement knows no such great man as President Kim Il Sung who had fought bloody battles against the Japanese imperialists, camping out in the vast Mt. Paektu area for over 20 years to liberate the country. The President is the liberator of Korea, a peerless patriot and the sun of the nation, the lecturer stressed. It is the faith and will of all the people to celebrate the day of genuine liberation under the guidance of Kim Jong Il, he said, calling for vigorous struggle to reunify the country under his leadership.

U.S., South Korea warned against acting rashly

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- People of all walks of life in Korea are enraged at the Ulji Focus Lens joint military exercise, now being staged by the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean authorities to invade the DPRK. They strongly demand an immediate halt to this war gamble. Ri Jun Ha, dean of a faculty of Kim Il Sung University, said: The United States is hellbent on the adventurous military exercise against the DPRK, in league with the South Korean authorities, its war servants. This is an open challenge and betrayal to the DPRK which has made all its sincere efforts to implement the DPRK-U.S. framework agreement. However, it is a foolish dream for the aggressors and traitors to seek to threaten our people with a fireball of war. Ro Song Chan, management board chairman of the Sadong Cooperative Farm in Rakwon county, south Hamgyong P=ovince, had this to say: Before staging such military exercises the enemy should clearly know who their opponent is. If they dare to encroach upon an inch of our sacred territory, we will deal merciless blows at them. Han Yong Chol, a department director of the Ministry of Metal Industry, said: We will never allow the South Korean authorities to invade the DPRK in league with outsiders. A proverb says that curses come home to roost. If the authorities do not want to be burnt to death in a fire set by themselves, they should stop the reckless war game against the north at once and act with prudence.

Complete withdrawal of U.S. troops urged

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- The U.S. ambassador to Japan, Foley, said in a lecture in Washington some time ago that if the issue of security on the Korean peninsula is settled it is proper to examine its effect on the U.S. troops present in Asia. Commenting on his remarks, Minju Joson on Sunday said: His utterances reveal the United States' cunning trick to cover up the colors of its troops as a wrecker of peace and security on the Korean peninsula and keep them in South Korea and other Asian areas. As long as the U.S. troops remain in those areas, it is impossible to ease the tense situation on the Korean peninsula and its surroundings and expect peace and security. Nevertheless, the United States has argued that the makeup of its forces in South Korea and other Asian areas will be reexamined after the reunification and peace of the Korean peninsula are achieved. This shows that the U.S. truly does not want the reunification and peace of Korea, the paper pointed out.

Joint excursion team visits Mt. Paektu

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- A joint team of the national alliance of youth and students for the country's reunification visited Mt. Paektu over August 20-22. The visit came within the framework of excursion to historical sites in the north of Korea. The team is made up of delegates of youth and students from the north, south and overseas. The team members toured Lake Chon on Mt. Paektu and collected samples of queer rocks and plants. Hwang Son, delegate from the south, said she would certainly visit the mountain again together with a million students in the south when the country is reunified. She wrote in the visitor's book that the million students in the south would always fight to build a unified country. Ri Jong Su, head of the overseas side, said Mt. Paektu is an ancestral and revolutionary mountain symbolic of the strong spirit and soul of the Korean nation and a holy land of the 70 million Koreans. During their excursion, the team members spent a pleasant time playing sports and games and enjoying entertainment together with young people and students in Samjiyon county, Ryanggang Province. The team, which had held a starting ceremony at Kim Il Sung University on August 10, dissolved itself with due ceremony on August 22, winding up its program successfully.

Japanese teachers' meeting for Juche idea study

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- The 22nd national meeting of Japanese teachers for the study of the Juche idea was held on August 19. A report was made at the meeting by the secretary general of the liaison council of the societies of Japanese teachers for the study of the Juche idea. The reporter said: General Secretary Kim Jong Il published "Socialism is a Science", "On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction" and other works in recent years. In the works he indicated the way for a victory of socialism in Korea, for the revival of socialism in the world and for the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea, and gave a great encouragement to the Korean people and the world's anti-imperialist and independent forces. The reporter also referred to the tasks of the liaison council to accelerate study and dissemination of the Juche idea, conduct on a mass scale humanitarian aid to the DPRK and redouble the efforts of Japanese teachers for the improvement of history education. A letter to leader Kim Jong Il was adopted at the meeting. The letter said Kim Jong Il has inherited the exploits of President Kim Il Sung and developed in depth the Juche idea, the man-centred idea, and established its universality to promote global independence.

Ulji Focus Lens military exercise denounced

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- Chitta Biswas, General Secretary of the All-India Peace and Solidarity Organization, expressed support for the August 18 statement of the DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman, which denounced the Ulji Focus Lens joint military exercise being staged across South Korea. In a statement issued to the press on August 20, Biswas expressed deep apprehension over the situation of the Korean peninsula growing acute owing to the war exercise, and strongly urged the U.S. and South Korean warmaniacs to discontinue such provocative military actions at once. The key to the Korean question is to terminate the U.S. military occupation of South Korea, he said, demanding the United States renounce its anachronistic Korea policy and immediately take step for the withdrawal of its forces from South Korea. The South Korean authorities should affirmatively respond to the DPRK's patriotic call for achieving the independent and peaceful reunification of the country through great national unity, he said.

Resolute defender of sovereignty

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- Korea is now defending the dignity of the country and the sovereignty of the nation, undaunted by any pressure from outsiders. The Korean people are making a triumphant progress in the teeth of a smear campaign of the imperialists and all hues of enemies to isolate and stifle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The triumphant progress is unthinkable without the leader Kim Jong Il, a resolute defender of the sovereignty of the DPRK. Finding out the basic way of defending the sovereignty of the country and nation in military power, he mercilessly punishes the enemies with a strong politico-military strike, whenever they intensify their offensive to make a mockery of the Korean nation. A helicopter gunboat of the U.S. imperialists was shot down by a people's army soldier on guard, when it was intruding into the territorial air space of the DPRK on December 17, Juche 83 (1994). With a view to destroying socialism of Korea and reducing the people to their slaves with any means and methods the enemies committed that crime when the whole country was overwhelmed with the biggest grief at the death of Kim Il Sung, the father of the nation. That day, informed of this, Kim Jong Il, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, told commanding officers of the KPA that this showed the mettle of the Korean people to the U.S. aggressors. He went on to say this proved in practice that the declaration of the DPRK that the DPRK would never tolerate the aggressors, if they dare invade its territorial land, airspace and seas was not empty talk. This was a stern punishment to the U.S. aggressors who were stepping up new war preparations behind the curtain of the DPRK-U.S. talks, he added. The rackets kicked up by the U.S. imperialists in the wake of the armed spyship "Pueblo" incident (1968), the reconnaissance plane "EC-121" incident (1969) and "Panmunjom" incident (1976) and the clamour for "nuclear inspection" and the threat of "collective sanctions" became impotent, when they were confronted with merciless military strikes of the supreme commander. The Supreme Commander said it was his will to give a thousandfold retaliatory punishment to the enemies when they dare pounce upon the Korean people. With such a spirit and grit he leads the whole party and all the people to pull through difficulties. The triumphant progress in the "arduous march" and the on-going forced march of socialism caused by the continued campaign of the enemies to isolate and stifle the DPRK and years of big difficulties and natural disasters has been guaranteed by the spirit and grit of the Supreme Commander. All the Korean people, aware that that spirit of his is almighty in pulling through all the difficulties, are firmly defending the dignity and sovereignty of the nation, rallied close around him.

Complaint against S. Korean "government" brought to ILO

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- South Korea's confederation of trade unions on August 18 brought to the international labour organization a complaint against the "government for the people" which has suppressed trade unions, a radio report from Seoul said. The South Korean authorities accepted a list of workers to be fired under the lay-off system, submitted by the management of Hyun Dai Motor Company. Included in the list were over 400 leading unionists. The confederation said the "government's" acceptance is not only crackdown upon the workers' struggle for vital rights but also encroachment on their freedom of association and disruption of trade unions.

70th anniversary of anti-Japanese trade union marked

Pyongyang, August 24 (KCNA) -- A national meeting marking the 70th anniversary of the formation of the anti-Japanese trade union was held at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang today. Formed by President Kim Il Sung on August 25, Juche 17 (1928), it was the first new-type revolutionary organisation of the working class in Korea and a clandestine revolutionary union which led a large number of workers to implement the President's Juche-based lines and policies on the Korean revolution. The meeting was attended by vice-President Ri Jong Ok, other party and state cadres and officials concerned. Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, in his report said that, with the formation of the trade union, Korean workers came to be closely united around the President-led genuine revolutionary organisation and creditably perform their historic mission and obligation in the sacred struggle for national and class emancipation. These revolutionary mass organisations, which steadily expanded their ranks in the struggle, played a big role in founding anti-Japanese people's guerrillas with young people of working class origin as the core and rapidly expanding their ranks and aided guerrillas materially and mentally, the reporter said, and continued: After the country was liberated, the President formed the Korean Trade Union, a mass organisation of the working class. With its formation, broad masses of workers could be rallied as organised forces and make great contributions to the building of a new country. Today, the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea is developing under the outstanding and tested guidance of the respected Kim Jong Il.