S. Korean ruler's suppression of Hanchongryon flayed

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The North headquarters of the National Alliance of Youth and Students for the Country's Reunification (Pomchonghakryon) in its statement on April 20 demanded that the South Korean authorities unconditionally stop the suppression of the South Korean Federation of University Student Councils (Hanchongryon) and abolish the "National Security Law" at once.
    The statement called attention to the fact that the South Korean authorities are trying to nip a meeting of the 7th-term Hanchongryon deputies in its bud, kicking up search rackets throughout South Korea. It went on:   The meeting is an annual regular gathering of the deputies selected by students to form the central headquarters with the chairman and to decide on action program for a year. So, it should not be incriminated in any case, nor should it be put down.
    Hanchongryon called press conferences on April 2 and 8, calling upon the authorities to allow and give an active cooperation in peaceful holding of the meeting. However the authorities branded this meeting as "illegal" and created an awful atmosphere of suppression, trying to nip it in the bud. This fascist suppression is clear evidence of a frantic campaign of the South Korean authorities to stifle Hanchongryon, the umbrella organization of the students, upset by their patriotic activities.

Friendly gathering marks victory in Playa Giron Battle

Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The Foreign Ministry of the DPRK arranged a film show and friendly gathering in Pyongyang on April 20 to mark the 38th anniversary of the Cuban people's victory in the Playa Giron Battle. Invited there were Jose Manuel Inclan Embade, Cuban ambassador to the DPRK, and embassy officials. The participants first saw a documentary film on General Secretary Kim Jong Il's on-the-spot guidance over various fields.

Floral baskets laid to mark Sun's Day

Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- President of Democratic Congo Laurent Desire Kabila laid a floral basket before Portraits of the President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il while Guinean President Lansana Conte laid a floral basket before the Portrait of the President to mark Sun's Day. The floral baskets were placed before the portraits hung at Korean embassies in those countries. Madagascar President Didier Ratsiraka sent a floral　 basket to the Korean embassy in Antananarivo.

Key issue of four-way talks

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The South Korean authorities are resorting to ever more dastardly moves to keep the issue of withdrawal of U.S. forces from being taken up by the four-way talks aimed at ensuring peace on the Korean peninsula. It is well illustrated by the fact that the South Korean authorities are now spreading a strange rumour about the "status" of the U.S. forces present in South Korea, even inviting neighboring countries to join in their row.
    This row was belatedly followed by such measures to save the situation as admitting "misinformation," making an "official denial" and expressing "regret." Underlying this row are extreme uneasiness of the present authorities, who can not survive even a moment without the backing of the U.S. forces, and their treacherous and flunkeyist intention to keep foreign troops in South Korea by all means.
    No matter how hard they may try to give a new description of the "status" of the U.S. forces in South Korea, they are no more than illegal occupation forces and their nature can never change in the sense that they are the source of war constantly threatening the peace on the Korean peninsula. It is an undeniable obligation for the United States, a signatory to the Korean armistice agreement, to discuss the issue of withdrawal of its forces to ensure durable peace with the DPRK which is technically at war with it.
    The United States can not flee from this responsibility and the South Korean authority's interference in the issue is an imprudent behaviour, evidence that they were oblivious of their deplorable position. Since the proposal on holding the four-way talks to ensure peace on the Korean peninsula came from the United States it should accept the DPRK's principled assertion that the issue of withdrawal of U.S. forces should be discussed if it is truly interested in the objective and progress of the talks.
    The United States should pay a due attention to the fact that the row kicked up by the South Korean authorities, who have neither justification nor qualification to meddle in the issue to be settled between the DPRK and U.S., by spreading the false rumour is nothing but a sinister move to bar the four-way talks from making any progress.
    We once again clearly state that the issue of withdrawal of U.S. forces is a key one to be discussed at the four-way talks. The refusal of the U.S. to do it means, in a nutshell, that it is not genuinely interested in guaranteeing peace on the Korean peninsula and that it is unwilling to give up its policy of permanent occupation of South Korea.
    The United States and the South Korean authorities should approach the four-way talks, clearly mindful that such an attempt will never work on the DPRK.

53rd anniversary of Independence of Syria

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- A rally was held in Sariwon city, North Hwanghae Province, on Tuesday to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of the Independence of Syria. At the rally chairman Kim Pyong Song of the north Hwanghae provincial people's committee made an address.
    He said that after independence the Syrian people have struggled vigorously to achieve the country's political stability and build the national economy under the leadership of the Arab Socialist Baath Party of Syria headed by respected President Hafez al-Assad and made strenuous efforts to realize comprehensive and lasting peace and stability in the occupied areas on the "land-for-peace principle."
    He said the DPRK-Syria friendly and cooperative relationship based on the intimate relations between the great leader Kim Il Sung and respected Hafez al-Assad is expanding and developing with each passing day and the Korean people would as ever make an active effort to upgrade the friendly relations between the peoples of the two countries under the leadership of the respected Marshal Kim Jong Il.
    Syrian charge d'affaires ad interim Bassam Alhaj Hussein spoke next. He said the Syrian people were well aware that Kim Jong Il, the leader of friendly Korea and faithful successor to the revolutionary cause of President Kim Il Sung who is immortal, is a great man who is well versed in everything and leads the Korean people, party, government and army and the friendly Korean people under his superb leadership would overcome difficulties and achieve great successes in the struggle for national reunification and the nation's prosperity and progress.
    A congratulatory letter to the Syrian President was adopted at the rally.

Suppression of Hanchongryon under fire

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF) on April 20 issued information bulletin no. 784 denouncing the South Korean authorities for recently trying to nip a meeting of deputies to the 7th-term South Korean Federation of University Student Councils (Hanchongryon) in its bud by force of arms.
    The information bulletin described the fascist violence as a premeditated move to keep the South Korean students from joining Hanchongryon and stifle their movement for independence, democracy and reunification. The document also described it as a despicable act to check in advance their movement for reunification which is expected to gain momentum with the approach of August 15. It noted:   Hanchongryon is not an "enemy-benefiting organization", but an umbrella organization of hot-blooded students who devotedly struggle for independence, democracy and reunification in reflection of the unanimous desire of the South Korean people.
    If the South Korean rulers truly want to become a "government for the people" different from the preceding fascist dictatorial "governments", they should stop paying lip-service to "democracy" and "freedom" and take a proper attitude and stand on Hanchongryon. The South Korean rulers should stop suppressing and stifling Hanchongryon, unconditionally guarantee their legal position and activities and release all the illegally-arrested patriotic students without delay.

S. Korea urged to stop development bio-chemical weapons

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The Korean National Peace Committee released a statement on Tuesday lambasting the South Korean authorities for their frantic moves to develop and stockpile biological and chemical weapons in collusion with outside forces.
    The statement said:   The present rulers of South Korea are channeling an exorbitant amount of money and huge manpower into developing and updating these weapons so as to "increase their own strong capabilities of bio-chemical warfare." in addition to it, they unhesitatingly begged their master U.S. to transfer the technology of producing new types of bacteriological and poisonous agents. In this way they seek to inflict upon the fellow countrymen dreadful disasters of bio-chemical warfare as well as calamities of thermonuclear war, banking on the U.S.'s anti-DPRK war moves. It is an anti-national crime indelible down through generations to come.
    Their anti-national moves to stockpile biological and chemical weapons have turned South Korea into the world's biggest arsenal of weapons of mass destruction where not only various kinds of nuclear shells and bombs including neutron bombs but also biological and chemical weapons are massively stockpiled. The South Korean authorities are these days hell-bent on the anti-north confrontation moves, raising a hue and cry over groundless "development of biological and chemical weapons" and "threats" by the north. This is intended to intensify the moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK, using such fiction as "second nuclear card", and cover up their actions to stockpile those weapons.
    They should stop such moves as development, production and introduction of the weapons at once, clearly mindful that their anti-north confrontation and war moves supported by those weapons will lead them to self-destruction.

S. Korean student's struggle supported

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson today comes out with a signed commentary on the ever mounting anti-American, anti-"government" struggle of students under the South Korean Federation of University Student Councils (Hanchongryon).
    Their struggle demonstrates the dauntless fighting will of the organization which is burning with justice and patriotism and which does not compromise with injustice and treachery, the news analyst of the paper says, and continues:   Recent movements of students under Hanchongryon clearly show their stubborn will to fight against vicious repressive offensives by the authorities.
    The self-proclaimed "government for the people" is getting more frantic in their fascist moves to disorganize and destroy Hanchongryon. Though it has not yet been inaugurated, the fascist rulers branded its new leadership as "enemy-benefiting." Not content with this, they issued warrants of arrest to its leading members and threatened that they would take legal action against them.
    Nevertheless, Hanchongryon is unyieldingly fighting in spite of the frantic repressive offensives by the authorities. Justice is inviolable and it is sure to prevail. Hanchongryon will never lower the flag of struggle it has already raised until the cause of justice is realised and thus fully demonstrate the might of its strong unity.

Korea on springboard to make leap forward

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The DPRK has waged a tough drive for the last few years and laid a foundation and a springboard to make a leap forward to be a powerful nation. The Korean people have broken through manifold difficulties and trials: The imperialists' desperate moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and their blockade, a dramatic change in the climate for external economic relations following the collapse of the socialist market, repeated natural disasters, the worst in a hundred years and so on. In spite of all this they opened up a definite prospect of building a powerful nation by themselves in the last five years.
    The invincible ranks based on the single-hearted unity of the leader, the party and the people, the state political system which guarantees the building of a powerful nation, the indestructible military foundation and the self-supporting and Juche-oriented best economic system--these are the springboard from which to make a leap to build rich and powerful Korea. The DPRK, a powerful country in terms of politics, ideology and military, is going to become an economic power. There are already good signs showing that it is not an empty talk to build an economic power and this will come true in near future.
    Instances of this are over 100 successes of world significance made in scientific researches including the successful method of producing iron with locally available raw materials and fuel, the production of electron microscope of 300,000 magnifications, the completion of gigantic land rezoning projects, steady increase in electricity production at minor hydro-power stations in different parts of the country, signal achievements reported from the mining, metal and machine-building industries and the production kept going in different domains.
    The state has paid deep attention and concentrated investment in key branches of the economy and sent competent scientists and technicians there. And spectacular economic, scientific and technological successes are registered in various domains of the national economy such as oil exploration. General Secretary Kim Jong Il is steering the gigantic work to build an economic power. Korea will soon create a new history of a powerful nation from the springboard prepared through thrift.

We did not want to meet disgraceful death

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- Former South Korean Army soldiers are unanimous in saying they joined the People's Army, refusing to serve in the cursed "ROK" army.
    Ri Thae Su, 68, in Kaephung county, Kaesong city, said he was recruited into the army at the age of 20. He further said:   I served as an orderly of a platoon leader in the 7th division of the 2nd corps of the army. An orderly was no more than a poor servant of the platoon leader. It was not infrequent that the leader kicked me and slashed me across my face. Tired of my service as an orderly, I risked my life to cross the frontline in may 1951 and jumped into a trench of the People's Army.
    Min Kyong Jo, 67, in Ryongyon county, South Hwanghae Province, said South Korean troops that had been hurled into the front reminded one of a mob. The preoccupation of the soldiers was not to fight but to survive at all costs to go back to hometowns. I did not want to die a disgraceful death. I defected to the north in September 1951 and joined the People's Army, he noted, adding, "it was not until I served in the People's Army that I clearly knew that for what and against whom I should fight."
    Hong Song Rim, 68, in Wonsan city, Kangwon Province, said he was recruited into the army in early December 1950 and his unit moved to the demarcation line of Chunchon, Kangwon Province. During my 30-day service in the army, I could not properly fire even a shot. Struck with fear in the battle, I could not raise my head and fire my rifle in a right direction. In January 1951, I crossed the frontline, risking my life, and fought on the eastern front after joining the People's Army. In every battlefield, I clearly witnessed the bravery and courage of its soldiers.
    Those who once served in the army and defected to the north said they joined the People's Army in accordance with their faith, ashamed of their service in the army. They clearly stated they were not "POWs" but joined the People's Army of their own accord.

S. Korean unionist's struggle for right to existence

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The South Korean unionist's struggle for the vital rights is mounting, according to radio reports from Seoul.More than 7,800 unionists of the Daewoo Ship-Building in Kobe held a meeting on April 20 and staged a strike, declaring that the president of the company is not entitled to sell off the company built at the cost of their blood and by the sweat of their brow.
    Over 1,000 unionists of the national federation of broadcasting workers unions held a meeting on the same day to stop the retrogressive revision of "law on broadcasting" and called for enacting a democratic reform law on broadcasting. The organization visited the buildings of the "National Congress for New Politics" and the "Grand National Party" to lodge a protest against the ruling camp's policy to railroad the "bill on merger of broadcasting institutions" and handed an open letter calling for the enactment of a genuine reform law on broadcasting.
    In another development, solidarity actions of workers under the South Korean confederation of trade unions and students are gaining momentum.

Slogans calling for reunification

   Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The recent plenary meeting of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF) adopted slogans calling for great national unity and national reunification. The slogans lay down the tasks to be fulfilled to achieve the great unity of the entire nation by thoroughly carrying out the idea and policy of General Secretary Kim Jong Il on great national unity and national reunification and ways for their fulfillment.
    In this regard, Rodong Sinmun today carries a by-lined article underscoring the need to more vigorously struggle to achieve great national unity and national reunification by materializing the five-point policy of the great national unity to the letter.The article says:   Reflected in the slogans advanced by the CPRF is the spirit of firmly defending the President Kim Il Sung's idea on great national unity and the enduring exploits he performed for the unity and national reunification and exalting them for all ages.
    As is clarified in the slogans, the principle of national independence is the most essential basis on which the great national unity should be achieved and a key issue in settling the nation's problem. The slogans stress the need to thoroughly defend the Juche character and national character and reject flunkeyism and national nihilism so as to firmly arm oneself with the spirit of national independence.
    Patriotism represents the idea common to the members of the nation and national reunification is the nation's greatest task. The slogans appeal to the entire nation to get firmly united under the banner of patriotism and national reunification. Realization of travels, contacts, dialogues, solidarity and alliance among all the fellow countrymen is essential for the great unity of the nation.
    One of the slogans says: "Let us develop contacts and dialogues among people of broad segments, parties, groups and personages from all walks of life in the north, south and overseas aspiring after the independent and peaceful reunification of the country." The slogans strongly call upon the 70 million Koreans to open an epoch-making phase this year on all accounts through great national unity by thoroughly implementing President Kim Il Sung's behest on national reunification and thereby build a reunified confederal state, a pan-national reunified state in a few years of a new millennium.

Greetings to Djibouti president-elect

Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, sent a message of greetings to Djibouti president-elect Ismail Omar on April 19. The message expressed the belief that the friendly relations between the two countries would develop and wished him success in his responsible work for the progress and prosperity of the country.

Kim Yong Nam meets Choe Hong Hui

Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, met and had a talk with Choe Hong Hui, president of the International Taekwon-do Federation, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today.

Choe Thae Bok meets Vietnamese guests

Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, today met and had a talk with the visiting delegation of the external relations commission of the communist party of Vietnam led by vice-chairman Pham Van Chuong.Present there were Choe Jin Su, vice-department director of the WPK Central Committee, and Le Xuan Vinh, Vietnamese ambassador to Korea. The head of the delegation said that the Korean people would tide over difficulties and hardships and achieve greater success in the socialist construction under the wise leadership of General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

Honorary doctorate to Choe Hong Hui

Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- A DPRK honorary doctorate of sports science was awarded to Choe Hong Hui, president of the International Taekwon-do Federation. This was in recognition of Choe Hong Hui's great contribution to exalting the dignity and honor of Juche Korea by putting Taekwon-do associated with the resourcefulness and spirit of the Korean nation on a scientific basis and disseminating it throughout the world.
An awarding ceremony took place at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today. President Kim Yong Nam of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly was present at the ceremony. Choe Hong Hui expressed deep thanks for the degree and said he would greatly contribute to accelerating national reunification through Taekwon-do.