International movement for solidarity with Korean people

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- Functions marking the Month of International Solidarity with the Korean People (June 25-July 27) are now being held worldwide. June 25, 1950, was the day when the U.S. imperialists unleashed a war of aggression on Korea and July 27, 1953, was the day when the Korean people won the war.
The international movement for solidarity with the Korean people being conducted on this occasion was decided at the 4th conference of Afro-Asian People's Solidarity held in 1965.
The movement is an annual worldwide event.
The movement is gaining momentum this year, too.
The International Liaison Committee for Reunification and Peace in Korea on June 16 called upon all the anti-imperialist peace-loving forces of the world to strengthen the solidarity movement supporting the Korean people's struggle for independent and peaceful reunification of the country.
In response to it heads of state, party leaders, political parties, organizations and international organizations of many countries all over the world are sending solidarity messages or letters to the Korean people.
And different kinds of functions including rallies, seminars, DPRK book and photo exhibitions and film shows are being held as part of the movement to express solidarity with the Korean people.
At solidarity meetings held in Cuba, Russia, France, Italy, Guyana and many other countries speakers strongly condemned the U.S. and South Korean authorities, who mapped out "operation plan 5027-98", a new scenario for aggressive war against the DPRK, and intentionally caused the West Sea incident, to render the situation of the Korean peninsula strained.
The world federation of trade unions, the congress for the independence of Madagascar, the Socialist Unionist Party of Syria and other international organizations, political parties, public organizations and individual figures made public statements voicing active support to the Korean people's cause of the reunification of the country.
The voice of the world's public circles supporting the cause of the country's reunification of the Korean people will ring out more loudly in the future.

Dissolution of S. Korean "Intelligence Service" urged

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- The secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued information bulletin no. 790 on July 21 denouncing the moves of the South Korean "Intelligence Service" to destroy the student movement, the truth behind which has been revealed recently. A few days ago, Kang Song Sok, a fourth-year student of the college of education of Seoul National University in South Korea revealed that he was forced by Ri Yang Su, an agent of the "Intelligence Service," on May 10 to regularly inform him of activities of the members of the student council of the college, the source of documents related to student movement and details of how they were worked out.
This case is part of the premeditated fascist campaign of the South Korean ruling quarters to block the movement of students for independence, democracy and reunification and totally destroy and obliterate the patriotic student organization, the information bulletin said, and went on to say:
The South Korean rulers renamed the "Agency for National Security Planning" the "Intelligence Service" and are asserting that its main function is to gather "industrial intelligence." but they are still using the "Intelligence Service" as a tool for fascist repression and maintenance of power just as they did at the time of the "ANSP".
The South Korean authorities must oust Chon Yong Thaek, a wicked fascist, dissolve the "Intelligence Service" without delay and promptly discontinue the suppression of Hanchongryon (South Korean Federation of University Student Councils) and patriotic students.

Kim Pyong Sik passes away

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- Kim Pyong Sik, advisor to the central committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party, who devoted himself to the patriotic work of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and the struggle for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country, died of incurable disease at the age of eighty on July 21. He was former vice-president of the DPRK and chairman of the central committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party.
He was born in Muan county, South Jolla Province of South Korea, on February 10, 1919. He crossed over to Japan before the liberation of the country and worked for the union of Korean students in Japan and the Korean News Service after the liberation of the country in 1945.
After the formation of Chongryon, he held important posts, including the director, vice-chairman and first vice-chairman of the central standing committee of Chongryon, before returning to the socialist homeland.
An obituary was issued Wednesday in the joint name of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, the central committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party, and the central committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland.
A state funeral committee has been formed with 18 persons including Hong Song Nam.
The coffin of the deceased will leave for funeral on July 23.

Challenge to aspiration for reunification

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- The separatist policy of the South Korean and Taiwanese authorities is a challenge to the desire for reunification, writes Rodong Sinmun today. Referring to the South Korean authorities' frivolous "sunshine and engagement policy," the paper in a commentary says:
It is, in essence, intended to impose upon the north the colonial and anti-social system and mode of the south which has no Juche and national character, in a foolish attempt to overpower the north.
Their argument about such "policy" is the height of sarcasm and a mockery and deception to the entire Korean nation desirous of reunification.
The present chief executive of Taiwan, too, has advocated "two Chinas theory" undisguisedly. describing Taiwan as an "independent state," he asserted that Taiwan and China are in "relationship between states" or "special state-to-state relationship."
This divisionist position of his cuts right across the Chinese people's desire for reunification and the reunification principles.
The steadfast will and stand of the Chinese people is to reunify the whole country including Taiwan, an inalienable territory of China.
But, turning back on them, the Taiwanese authorities are seeking independence and going toward permanent division.
Their divisionist "theory" has been refuted by China as a very dangerous "step" in denying the principle of "one China" and dividing the country.
The ruling quarters of South Korea and Taiwan have been committing indelible crimes against their nations. the separatists against their countries and nations will face a stern judgement.

Folk dance: Hansam dance

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- The diligent and optimistic Korean people are fond of music and dance since olden times. Today, folk dances are developing, loved by Koreans. Among them is the Hansam dance (sleeve dance). Koreans danced, wearing Hansam (a kind of wristlet long enough to cover the hands) in the past.
Movements of the Hansam dance include those of driving Hansam upward, making it rise and fall like waves and swinging.
Characteristic of this dance is that every movement ends with Hansam driving upward.
The swinging of long Hansam haning down from the edge of the sleeves makes dance movements full of suggestion and expands their width, thus bringing the figurative line into marked relief.
The Hansam dance is a folk dance peculiar to Korea.
Scenes of this dance are visible on mural paintings in tombs of Koguryo, a feudal state that existed between 277 BC and ad 688 and records on this dance can also be found in many documents.
Basic to the movements of typical Korean mask dances were those of the Hansam dance. The court dance movements were also mainly based on this dance.
The movements of the Hansam dance full of local flavour is currently being developed to suit the modern aesthetic sense.
The Korean dance "molten iron flows", which was awarded the first prize and the gold medal in the folk dance competition at the 7th and 8th world festivals of youth and students, introduced many of Hansam dance movements in a way suited to the modern sense of beauty.
Movements of this dance are also introduced into many other dance pieces including the folk dance suite "Song of Seasons", which receive favourable comments from the people.

Myth of U.S. imperialists' "mightiness" shattered to smithereens

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- The Korean people shattered to smithereens the myth of the "mightiness" of the U.S. imperialists who were boasting of the "strongest" in the world for the first time in history during the Fatherland liberation War (June 1950-July 1953). During the war the Korean people's army servicemen killed, wounded and took captive more than 1.567 million effectives of the enemy including over 405,000-strong U.S. Forces and captured and destroyed more than 12,200 planes, some 560 warships of different types, about 3,250 tanks and armoured cars, upwards of 13,000 trucks, 7,690 artillery pieces, more than 925,000 small arms and tremendous combat and technological materiel. This amounted to 2.3 times the loss the U.S. imperialists suffered during the four-year pacific war.
The Fatherland Liberation War was a life-and-death fight between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea which was just founded in September 1948 and the U.S.-led imperialist allied forces which attempted to stifle it in the cradle.
The U.S. imperialists hurled into the Korean War the greater part of the three services armed with uptodate equipment, armies of 15 U.S. satellites, the South Korean puppet army and Japanese militarists more than two million strong. They also channelled into the war more than 20 billion dollars as military spending and vast military materiel or over 11 times that in the pacific war. They employed every conceivable barbarious war method and means in the Korean War.
But they sustained an ignominious defeat before the Korean people who fought as one for the freedom and independence of the country.
They were brought to their knees by the Korean people and signed the armistice agreement on July 27, Juche 42 (1953).
The former U.S. State Secretary, Marshall, said that the myth of the United States was shattered to smithereens and that the U.S. was not such a powerful country as others thought.

DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman on peace agreement in Democratic Congo

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- The conclusion of a peace agreement in Democratic Congo clearly proves that ethnic and other disputes in Africa can surely be solved by the efforts of its people free from interference of the west, says the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK, answering the question put by KCNA today in connection with the conclusion of a peace agreement the end of the negotiations conducted by heads of state of the countries concerned and mediating countries to terminate the dispute in Democratic Congo. He says:
We have consistently maintained that all disputes should be settled through unity and negotiations in the interests of the countries concerned on the principle of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries involved. Humankind is on the threshold of a new millennium and the peace and stability have become a global trend and needs of the times.
But peace on the Korean peninsula is exposed to constant threat due to the U.S. Forces' presence in South Korea and their moves to start a new war.
If the United States sincerely wishes a durable peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, it should withdraw its armed forces, nuclear weapons and all other war means from South Korea at once and opt to conclude a peace agreement with the DPRK without delay in keeping with the trend of the times.

Reinstatement of Jo Pong Am in S. Korea supported

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- People from different walks of life in South Korea are now calling for the reassessment and reinstatement of Jo Pong Am, former leader of the progressive party. In this connection, a spokesman for the central committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland (DFRF) released a statement today.
The statement says:
Public figures of South Korea recently inaugurated a "Pan-National Preparatory Committee for the Promotion of Reinstatement of Juksan, Mr. Jo Pong Am" on the threshold of his 100th birthday and 40th death anniversary. And they are conducting the campaign for his reinstatement in various forms and ways including a large-scale seminar for commemorating his 100th birthday.
The DFRF central committee fully supports the campaign of the South Korean people and figures for the reassessment and reinstatement of Jo, a patriotic martyr, regarding it as a very righteous and just struggle to keep his soul alive and make the south Korean society independent and democratic and reunify the country at an early date.
The great leader President Kim Il Sung in his lifetime highly estimated the feats of Jo and his party several times while Marshal Kim Jong Il took with deep loving care every step for him, the statement notes, and goes on:
But, in South Korea pro-reunification patriots, respected by the entire fellow countrymen, are now mercilessly suppressed under the notorious "National Security Law" and those fallen patriots, who devoted their all to the fight for the country and the nation, are being incriminated and insulted on false charges.
Personages and people in South Korea should unite closely and surely push through the demand for the reassessment and reinstatement of Jo Pong Am.

Greetings to Colombian President

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, on July 20 sent a message of greetings to Colombian President Andres Pastrana, on the occasion of the day of Colombian Independence. Expressing the belief that the friendly relations between the two countries would continue to develop on good terms, the message wished the Colombian people welfare.

Kim Jong Il sends wreath to bier of the late Kim Pyong Sik

Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) - General Secretary Kim Jong Il today sent a wreath to the bier of the late Kim Pyong Sik, advisor to the central committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party, expressing his deep condolences over his death.