U.S. urged to make compensation
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- More than 17,000 ex-soldiers of South Korea who are suffering from aftereffects of defoliants after being dragged to the battlefield of the U.S.'s war of aggression in Vietnam filed a suit on Sept. 30 against the Seoul district court demanding the two U.S. enterprises producing defoliants make compensation to them, according to a radio report from Seoul.
The defoliant victims said that 80 per cent of the total amount of defoliants used by the U.S. forces in the Vietnamese war had been spread in the operation regions of the "ROK" army. Asserting that this afflicted tremendous damage upon a number of servicemen hurled into southern Vietnam, they demanded the enterprises make compensation to the tune of 5,160 billion won in total.
The victims filed a suit against the self-proclaimed "government for the people," demanding compensation last year.
They had also brought the U.S.'s crimes to the international criminal court asserting that the production of defoliants is a wanton violation of the international law.
DPRK delegation back home
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- The delegation of the DPRK led by Foreign Minister Peak Nam Sun yesterday returned home after attending the 54th session of the UN General Assembly.
It was greeted at the airport by first vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Sok Ju, Chinese ambassador to Korea Wan Yongxiang, David Morton, representative of the World Food Program who is also the deputy of the UN resident coordinator, and Kirsten Jogensen, acting representative of the United Nations Development Program.
South Korean authorities hit for blocking trip to north
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- Ryu Mi Yong, chairperson of the Central Guidance Committee of the Korean Chondoist Church, yesterday issued a statement denouncing the South Korean authorities for blocking the trip of Chondoist delegates to the DPRK to attend religious ceremonies to pay homage to king Tangun and cultural functions on the occasion of the foundation day of Korea.
The issue of the participation of the South Korean Chondoist delegates in events scheduled to be held on the foundation day of Korea at king Tangun's mausoleum was already agreed on by Chondoists in the north and south and its schedule was confirmed through exchanges of letters. It is not a matter that the South Korean authorities are entitled to poke their nose into, she said, and continued:
As to the ceremonies and cultural functions they are events of morality and etiquette that all the members of the Korean nation are obliged to concern about and participate in whether they live at home or abroad, as well as political and religious functions.
It is natural for the Chondoists to visit the mausoleum of the ancestral father of the nation and hold memorial services and make it an occasion of promoting trust and unity.
So, it cannot be the target of suppression in any case.
Bulgarian preparatory committee formed
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- A Bulgarian preparatory committee for celebrating the second anniversary of the election of the great leader Kim Jong Il as General Secretary of the Worker's Party of Korea and the 54th anniversary of the founding of the WPK was formed in Sofia on September 28.
Alexander Paunov, first secretary of the central committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, was elected chairman of the preparatory committee.
The committee decided to hold colorful functions.
Repeal of "NSL" urged
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- The Religious Believers' Council for Reconciliation and Reunification of the Nation held a rally of reunification-minded religious believers on Sept. 28 and 29 and adopted a resolution urging the repeal of the "National Security Law", according to a radio report from Seoul.
The participants in the rally vowed to make every possible effort to set up an emergency measure committee under the council and strengthen solidarity with the civic and social organizations for the repeal of the "NSL."
U.S. soldiers' mass killing in Yongdong exposed
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- The AP on Sept. 29 conveyed testimonies of witnesses of the U.S. aggression troops' mass killing in Yongdong, North Chungchong Province.
The AP said:
They are old now, some in failing health. But the former Korean refugees still offer vivid descriptions of what happened there in late July 1950, of being strafed by U.S. planes and then fired on by U.S. soldiers.
Chung Koo-Shik, then 16, told the associated press that the planes came, raining down bombs and big bullets and a lot of people died.
Old woman Ri Yu-Ja, then 26, said dead bodies and cows were everywhere, spewing blood.
Yang Hae-Sook, then 12, said that her mother wrapped her with a quilt and hugged her.
She said: It was shooting from both sides. When the bullets came, we could not even raise our heads, so we just dug under dead bodies.
Yang said she lost her grandmother, an elder brother and a baby brother and other relatives.
Park Sun-Yong, then 25, said her 2-year-old daughter had already been killed by shooting and her 5-year-old son was hit in his thighs. Both his thighs were torn with bullets.
American soldiers wrapped my son in a white bag and buried him, she added.
Minju Joson praises appeal of joint meeting
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson today appreciates the appeal of the joint meeting of the DPRK political parties and organizations held on Sept. 30 as an ardent patriotic one out of the lofty aspiration for the great national unity and reunification.
An appeal to the South Korean political parties and organizations was adopted at the joint meeting.
The appeal called upon the South Korean political parties, organizations and personages from all walks of life to actively join in the nation-wide struggle for the complete and total abrogation of the "National Security Law," strengthening solidarity with each other.
The daily in a signed commentary says all the Koreans in the north, south and overseas demand the repeal of the anti-national, anti-reunification fascist "NSL", but the South Korean rulers are persisting in maintaining the evil law.
This is an unpardonable mockery and open challenge to the people at home and abroad, the paper says, adding:
Everyone who sincerely wants democracy and reunification should respond to our ardent patriotic appeal.
Rodong Sinmun on anti-DPRK remarks of S. Koreans
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today comments on the anti-DPRK remarks made by South Korea's warmongers -- "Defence Minister" Jo Song Thae and "Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister" Hong Sun Yong -- at a recent "parliamentary inspection of the administration."
Jo called for establishing "preparedness for all-out war" and "developing" a military "joint action system" and "preparedness for joint warfare" with the United States allegedly to cope with "military provocation" of North Korea. Hong argued that the "main position of the government" is to "develop missiles" that can reach all parts of the north.
The news analyst says:
In other words, jo song thae meant that they would ignite war against the north with the help of their U.S. master.
Hong Sun Yong's remarks also had the same meaning.
Then, why are the South Korean authorities who have no political powers and no military prerogative, resorting to the racket of confrontation and war with the north more viciously?
Their argument about "missile threat" from the north, their card against the north, has turned out to be utterly false. South Korean people's support for the DPRK's overtures for independent and peaceful reunification has been widened with the August 15 Grand Pan-National Reunification Festival as an occasion. This situation is shaking the rule of the authorities to the very foundation.
In an attempt to find a way out of their crisis, therefore, they try to unleash war against the north in concert with outside forces.
Wise leadership keeps WPK's revolutionary character
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- It is four years since General Secretary Kim Jong Il published the famous work "the Worker's Party of Korea is the Party of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung."
The work was published on October 2 Juche 84 (1995) on the threshold of the 50th anniversary of the Worker's Party of Korea.
In the work, Kim Jong Il called for conducting the party building and activity and all affairs of the revolution and construction the way Kim Il Sung did. Kim Jong Il defined this as a fundamental issue in strengthening the WPK as the party of Kim Il Sung forever and clarified theoretical and practical matters to that end comprehensively.
In a signed article dedicated to the anniversary of the publication of the work, Rodong Sinmun today says:
The work is a historic document that solemnly declared the respected Kim Jong Il's iron will to strengthen the WPK as the party of Kim Il Sung forever. The work is also highly important in that it indicates the path to keep the revolutionary character of the WPK as the party of Kim Il Sung.
The past four years have witnessed this revolutionary character being safeguarded without deviation.
Kim Jong Il's leadership to strengthen the WPK as the party of Kim Il Sung is wise in that he consistently pursues Kim Il Sung's idea and line of party building and leads the party to do all work of the revolution and construction as Kim Il Sung did.
In the history of the world's socialist movement, there has been no other party than the WPK that inherits and implements the founder-leader's ideology, line and leadership method one hundred percent in party building and activity and all spheres of the revolution and construction.
Kim Jong Il is the supreme incarnation of loyalty and filial piety and the great statesman who has set a model of the times in strengthening the working-class party as the leader's party forever.
Japan's dangerous arms buildup assailed
Pyongyang, October 3 (KCNA) -- The military policy of Japan, the country which is appearing as more dangerous aggression forces, has come under fire by a signed article of Rodong Sinmun today.
Japan has recently reinforced its aggression forces including naval forces, observes an analyst of the paper, and goes on:
What merits a serious attention is that Japan's military spending amounted to over 5,000 billion yen for the first time this year. This clearly shows that the Japanese reactionaries are whipping up a fever to increase military spending and their plan to become a military power has been pushed ahead at a fast pace.
Japan ignored a resolution made at the diet in 1969 and in November last year made a decision to develop and keep 4 information-gathering satellites till 2003.
The Japanese reactionaries are describing their measure to have the satellites as one to "defend" the country and "to cope with a regional crisis", but what they seek in practice is to consolidate their position of a military power and to conduct military reconnaissance for overseas invasion.
It is also noticeable that they are raising the commanding capabilities of the air force stepping up the moves for air refueling and long-distance flight.
They are planning to introduce more than 10 large transport planes and air refueling tankers and over 130 "F-2" attack fighters of latest type to be used for air operations in all regions of Asia and in any area of the world.
Particularly, they are escalating naval aggression forces on a full scale. They are scheming to prepare the maritime "self-defence force" as the largest combatant force and to wage an active maritime operations with the vast pacific ocean as the main theatre.
Through this they are planning to realise their ambition for "sea domination" by pushing forward the maritime forces equipped with up-to-dated, large and long-distance ships.
They are taking issue with our "missile" and other matters to make pretexts to justify their concentrated reinforcement of military strength and overseas aggression. It is becoming a clear fact with the elapse of time that they will launch an overseas aggression under the various pretexts sooner or later.
The aggressive nature of the Japanese militarists have not changed and can never change, either.
To check and foil the moves of the Japanese reactionaries for arms buildup and overseas aggression is one of the important conditions for ensuring peace and security in Asia and the rest of the world.