FM meets new Congolese ambassador
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun met Pierre Mpassi, newly-appointed ambassador of the Republic of the Congo to the DPRK, who paid a courtesy call on him today.
Gift to Kim Jong Il from Chinese delegation
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) - General Secretary Kim Jong Il received a gift from the visiting delegation of the international liaison department of the c.c., the Communist Party of China.
The gift was handed to Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, by its deputy head Ma Wenbao, who is leading the delegation.
Choe Thae Bok meets Chinese delegation
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- Choe Thae Bok, alternate member of the political bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, today met and had a talk with the visiting delegation of the international liaison department of the c.c., the Communist Party of China led by its deputy head Ma Wenbao.
Present there were Choe Jin Su, vice-department director of the WPK Central Committee, and Wan Yongxiang, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK.
The head of the delegation said it witnessed achievements made by the WPK under the leadership of the great leader of the Korean people Kim Il Sung and the great Kim Jong Il. And he added that it was deeply impressed by the Korean people's resolution, heroic struggle, organization and discipline to accomplish the socialist cause.
Noting that the delegation came to know well about achievements made by the Korean people in the struggle to dynamically accelerate the second grand Chollima march and socialist construction under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, he wished them greater success in the efforts to make the DPRK prosperous.
Foreign crewmen meet
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- Foreign crewmen met at Nampho port of the DPRK on Monday to mark the 8th anniversary of the election of the great leader Kim Jong Il as Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army.
Present at the meeting were crewmen of the Chinese ships "Zhong Shan Men" and "Hong Hu-1", the Liberian-flag ship "Sevastaki" and the St. Vincent-flag ship "Sona."
Captains and crewmen at the meeting said the DPRK, led by Marshal Kim Jong Il with outstanding wisdom and stratagem, has turned into a powerful country upon which no one dares to pounce.
They highly praised his revolutionary exploits, noting that he is the most outstanding commander possessed of all characters, strategies and courage that a famous commander should have and the leader who has performed great feats in socialist construction.
They sincerely hoped that under his wise leadership the Korean people would achieve great success in their struggle to build a powerful socialist nation and reunify the country peacefully.
A congratulatory letter to Kim Jong Il was adopted at the meeting.
Seminar on Juche idea held in Italy
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- A seminar on the Juche idea was held in Catania, Italy, on December 6 on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the great leader Kim Jong Il's election as Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army and the 82nd birth anniversary of the great communist revolutionary fighter Kim Jong Suk. It was cosponsored by the Catania branch of the Italian Committee for the Study of the Juche Idea, the Catania city committee of the Communist Re-establishment Party of Italy and the magazine Red Arrow.
The reporter and speakers said that the future of the DPRK has firmly been guaranteed as it is building the powerful socialist nation by the united efforts and the inexhaustible creative power of the popular masses guided by the Juche idea.
The Juche idea is the great and viable idea that most correctly shows the road ahead of humankind in the world of today when a fierce struggle is going on between the people aspiring after independence and equality and the imperialists pursuing domination and interference, they insisted.
Korean books presented in Nepal
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- A ceremony of presenting Korean books was held in the building of the international forum of Nepal on December 7 on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the great leader Kim Jong Il's election as Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army and the 82nd birth anniversary of the great communist revolutionary fighter Kim Jong Suk.
Volumes 5 and 6 of the anti-Japanese revolution part 1 of the President Kim Il Sung's reminiscences "With the Century," the brief biography of the leader Kim Jong Il and other Korean books were handed at the ceremony.
Chairman of the International Forum of Nepal Naba Raz Adhikari said that President Kim Il Sung's reminiscences and the brief biography of the leader Kim Jong Il serve as a valuable textbook for the youth and students of Nepal.
The 21st century will be a century for Kim Jong Il and the world will follow Korea, he added.
National meeting
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- A national meeting took place at the People's Palace of Culture today to mark the 40th anniversary of the repatriation of Korean nationals in Japan.
Attending the meeting were premier Hong Song Nam and other senior party and state officials.
Vice-president Yang Hyong Sop of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly made a report.
He said:
The first repatriation ship carrying Koreans returning to the socialist homeland from Japan arrived at Chongjin port on December 16, Juche 48 (1959) four decades ago.
The return to the socialist homeland was the fruition of the noble compatriotic step and humanitarian policy of the Worker's Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK. It fully demonstrated the superiority and vitality of the socialist system in the North Korea where everything serves the people.
The President Kim Il Sung saw to it that the DPRK government reiterated its unshakable position to the effect that the homeland fully provides the returnees with all means needed for their repatriation and looks after all aspects of their living in a responsible manner after their repatriation. He aroused the Korean people as well as all the Korean nationals in Japan to a dynamic struggle for the repatriation.
It is thanks to the leadership of the great Kim Jong Il that the return and visits of overseas Koreans to the homeland continue without a let-up and the movement of overseas Koreans has grown in scope and strength along with triumphant advance of the Juche revolution.
All the people who returned to the socialist homeland enjoy a worthy life, glorifying their socio-political life.
The naturalized Japanese women share the destiny with the socialist homeland as well.
Hundreds of the returnees have gained great achievements with intense loyalty to the party and the country over the last four decades to receive Kim Il Sung Order, Kim Il Sung Prize, citations of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and their gifts. Dozens of the returnees have become labor heroes and heroines, tens of thousands state commentation winners and hundreds people's scientists, people's artistes, people's actors and actresses and people's sportsmen, academicians, professors, doctors, associate professors, and masters.
Koreans in Japan have kept flowers of loyalty and filial piety in full bloom with the honor of being members of a large socialist family in the past period.
The reporter attributed this to the deep political trust and great loving care of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who took warm care of the returnees and gave them social prominence.
The credit for this also went to the Worker's Party of Korea that has pursued benevolent, all-embracing policies, he said.
Vice-chairman Nam Sung U of the central standing committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan made an address at the meeting.
KPA praised as strongest elite forces
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- Member of the political bureau of the central committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and chairman of the organizational commission of the party central committee Thongsing Thammavong said after visiting Korea that Korea would shine forever as an invincible socialist bulwark flying high the red flag.
He went on:
Though small in its territory and population, the DPRK is emerging victorious as a dignified powerful socialist nation. This clearly proves the validity of the army-first revolutionary leadership of the great Kim Jong Il.
The Korean People's Army has grown up to be the strongest elite forces in terms of politico-ideological, strategical and tactical superiority and military technique under the wise leadership of Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il.
If imperialist aggressors ignite a new war against Korea, they will not escape from a strong retaliation of the Korean people and people's army.
Revolutionary sites associated with Kim Jong Suk's immortal exploits
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- Revolutionary sites associated with the fighting exploits of the great communist revolutionary fighter Kim Jong Suk are visited by an endless stream of working people and officers and men of the Korean People's Army every day.
She was an outstanding political figure and a genuine communist for the Korean revolution who made an immortal contribution to laying an eternal bedrock for the victory of the Juche revolutionary cause with intense fidelity to the idea and cause of the leader and outstanding leadership trait.
In order to hand her revolutionary achievements down through generations the Korean people built revolutionary sites and erected statues and monuments in the places associated with her revolutionary activities.
Hoeryong city of North Hamgyong Province is the historical place where Kim Jong Suk was born.
It has the Hoeryong Revolutionary Site.
A statue depicting her in the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle was erected at the foot of Osan Hill in September 1969. Her native home, revolutionary site and other historical relics are preserved there.
There is the Sinpha Revolutionary Site in Ryanggang Province on the northern tip of the country.
It is the historical place where she successfully carried out the underground political work assigned to her by the President Kim Il Sung in the middle of the 1930s.
A statue depicting her as an anti-Japanese heroine was erected in October 1974 and historical buildings and monuments to her exploits and activities stand there.
Through her underground political activities there she made an outstanding contribution to implementing such strategic tasks as expanding and developing the association for the restoration of the fatherland. She energetically conducted activities to awaken the working masses, figures from all walks of life and well-reputed anti-Japanese fighters and invite them to join organizations with extraordinary organizing ability and a mature style of work.
Many revolutionary sites have been built in Chongjin, Kyongsong county and Puryong county of North Hamgyong Province and Kosong county of Kangwon Province and other parts of the country to hand down her revolutionary achievements to posterity.
These revolutionary sites are associated with the precious historical exploits performed by her for the development of the Korean revolution and the prosperity of the country true to the President's line of founding a party, a state and an army in the early period of building a new society after liberation in August 1945.
The immortal revolutionary exploits of Kim Jong Suk will always remain shining in history.
Heroes and heroines produced this year
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- This year the DPRK has produced a number of heroes and heroines of the era who devoted their all to the building of a powerful socialist nation.
In September, the Title of the DPRK Heroine was awarded to Jong Song Ok, marathoner of the Amnokgang Sports Group, who demonstrated to the world the dignity and stamina of the nation by placing first at the women's marathon race of the 7th World Track and Field Championships and the Title of the DPRK Hero went to Pak Myong Su, officer of the Korean People's Army (KPA), who distinguished himself in propaganda and agitation activities and carried out his revolutionary task till the moment he breathed his last in unexpected circumstances.
In march, the titles of the DPRK hero went to soldiers of a unit of the KPA and workers, 15 in all.
They were caught in a storm in the sea during their fishing operation in November last year. Before breathing their last they kept the portraits of the President Kim Il Sung and Marshal Kim Jong Il safe and wrote a letter carrying the slogans "Long live Marshal Kim Jong Il long live Juche Korea, powerful nation " with the approach of the meeting of frontrankers of the second grand Chollima march the Title of Labour Hero was awarded to Kim Yu Bong, coal miner at the February 8 Jikdong Youth Coal Mining Conglomerate, Ri Ung Chan, forester at the forestry management station in Kangdong county in Pyongyang, Ho Yong Gu, leader of the construction unit of minor power stations in Taehongdan county, Ryanggang Province, while the Title of Labour Heroine went to Hyon Yong Ra, researcher at the nonferrous metal research institute of the Academy of Sciences.
Working for years in the domains where difficult and toilsome work is done, they have overcome difficulties and obstacles by fully displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance with intense loyalty to the party and the leader and total dedication to the country and the people and thus performed spectacular labour feats in building a powerful nation.
Pak Ok Chun, manageress at the Tongdaewon Garment Factory, received the Title of Labour Heroine for the second time and Pak Ok Hui, chairwoman of the management board of the township co-operative farm of Janggang county, Jagang Province, and others became heroes or heroines of the era. They have been produced from among the ordinary people who have dedicated themselves to defend socialism. The credit for this goes to Kim Jong Il's great loving care and trust in the revolutionary comrades.
It is the true picture of the DPRK that the army and the people are single-heartedly united around the leader to perform heroic feats in their dynamic struggle to build a powerful nation.
Cuba's demand for repatriation of its boy supported
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry told the KCNA today that the DPRK has fully supported the principled stand of the Cuban government demanding the immediate repatriation of a Cuban boy detained in the United States.
He said:
On November 25 ten odd Cuban people met with a disaster at sea off Florida state of the U.S.
The point at issue is that the U.S. illegally detained a six-year-old boy who survived the disaster and has refused to send him back to his family.
In this regard Cuba criticized the U.S. behavior as abduction in violation not only of the mutual immigration agreement and the publicly recognized international law but also of elementary humanitarian norms, and has strongly demanded the immediate repatriation of the boy.
However, the U.S., ignoring Cuba's just demand, seeks to use the repatriation issue for its anti-Cuba campaign.
This gives the lie to "human rights" and "humanitarianism" it has advocated.
Such inhuman deeds as violation of elementary humanitarian norms must be checked.
Ballistic missile development in S. Korea condemned
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- The central committee of the Korean Buddhist Federation and the Korean Chondoist Church Central Guidance Committee issued statements separately on Tuesday condemning the South Korean rulers for stepping up the development of new type long-range missiles, backed by the U.S.
After citing concrete data to disclose the fact that the South Korean rulers have long developed missiles at the United States' connivance and are now hell-bent on developing long-range ballistic missiles, the statements said: This is an unpardonable anti-national criminal act to escalate the military confrontation on the Korean peninsula before igniting a war.
The central committee of the Korean Buddhist Federation condemned the South Korean rulers for persisting in the development of ballistic missiles, turning a deaf ear to the demand of the times and the nation, though a new millennium is at hand. It termed this as a virulent challenge to the strong desire of the nation for peace and the reunification of the country.
Drawing attention to the fact that the U.S., who described the DPRK's launch of artificial satellite for peaceful purposes as a "missile threat," are feigning ignorance of the development of ballistic missiles pushed forward by the South Korean rulers, the Korean Chondoist Church Central Guidance Committee said in a statement this betrays their invariable ambition to start a war against the DPRK.
Noting that the idea of "rejecting the west and Japan" and "promoting national interests and welfare of the people" which was propounded by the Chondoists more than a hundred years ago has not been realized because of the U.S. aggressors and the present South Korean rulers who are subservient to them, the statement strongly demanded the South Korean rulers immediately stop the criminal moves to develop ballistic missiles which escalate the military confrontation between the north and south.
KCNA on ill-boding development in S. Korea
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- Something very serious is happening in South Korea in the run-up to the year-end, which may escalate the north-south confrontation.
The South Korean chief executive on Dec. 10 was busy inspecting the 2nd fleet command of the navy and the 20th combat air division of the airforce to incite anti-north confrontation, raising a hue and cry over "provocation and infiltration by the north." He was reported to have instructed the "Minister of National Defense" to "cope with them."
Later, the South Korean "Minister of National Defense" Jo Song Thae at an interview with the KBS-TV on Dec. 12 did not hide frantic preparations for a war against the north. Pulling up the north again, he asserted that all efforts are exerted to increase their combat preparedness and beef up the South Korea-U.S. combined deterrent force and that a "planning group for military innovation" has already been created to "make specific preparations."
This cannot but arouse vigilance of the north as it is a very serious development which may escalate again the military confrontation on the Korean peninsula.
This indicates that the South Korean chief executive and other belligerent forces in South Korea are now further stepping up preparations for a criminal war against the north than ever before under the deceptive signboard of the "engagement policy."
What merits more serious attention is that the war moves of the South Korean authorities are timed to coincide with the madcap anti-DPRK campaign of the U.S. conservative hard-liners.
This is a clear proof that the U.S. and the South Korean authorities are to blame for the failure to make any substantial progress in the dialogues aimed to ease the tensions and ensure peace on the Korean peninsula.
Although they are talking about "dialogue" and so on their ulterior purpose to militarily contain the north and lead it to "collapse" remains unchanged.
The DPRK has declared more than once that it is fully ready for both political dialogue and military showdown.
The South Korean warmongers had better stop acting rashly, clearly mindful what catastrophic consequences will be entailed by their persistent pursuance of the military confrontation with the north, depending on the U.S. and other outside forces.
"Three non-nuclear principles" dismissed as hypocritical
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- The "three non-nuclear principles" symbolic of Japan's "anti-nuke policy" is sham and hypocritical, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary.
The Associated Press disclosed a declassified U.S. government document to the effect that Japan allowed more American nuclear weapons on its territory during the 1950s and 60s. The commentary dismisses Japan as a servant pulling the U.S. nuclear chariot.
It goes on:
The Japanese authorities are vociferous about the "three non-nuclear principles" but since the 1950s they have allowed the U.S. to deploy nuclear weapons, thus turning Japan into a huge nuclear arsenal.
Japan has pushed ahead with the development of nuclear weapons since its defeat in World War II. Now it is fully prepared to mass-produce whatever nuclear weapons it needs in no time.
Massive stockpiling of plutonium and the development of new type nuclear means in Japan are indicative of rapid progress in its nuclear weaponization.
With nothing can Japan ever conceal its true colors who poses a threat to the peace and stability in Asia and the rest of the world.
Demonstrations in S. Korea
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- The South Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) staged a demonstration with mobilization of over 200 vehicles in Seoul on Dec. 14, according to a radio report from Seoul.
In the demonstration the KCTU protested against the authorities refusing to pay wages to leading unionists on some pretexts and demanded payment and reduction of working hours.
On the same day, the Federation of South Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) held rallies in front of the "National Congress for New Politics" buildings in 16 cities and provinces and urged the authorities to pay wages to leading unionists and reduce working hours.
That day more than 700 unionists under the FKTU met in front of the "NCNP" building, and declared that they would continue anti-"government" struggle unless their demands were met.
Removal of concrete wall demanded
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- Political parties and organizations of Bangladesh, including the central committee of the Worker's Party and the central committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Center of Indian Trade Unions, issued statements from Dec. 7 to 9 and the general secretary of the Arab Art, Culture and Information Association of Egypt published a statement in support of the appeal the DPRK government, political parties and organizations sent to their counterparts all over the world, 20 years after the concrete wall was built in the area south of the Military Demarcation Line.
The statements said that it is a very urgent issue in ensuring peace and security in Korea and the rest of Asia and the world to pull down the wall dividing the Korean peninsula without delay.
They held that if Korean reunification is to be achieved and peace and progress are to be ensured on the Korean peninsula, the South Korean authorities should demand the pullout of all foreign troops from South Korea, pursue independent politics and immediately remove all the political and physical barriers in the way of reunification, including the concrete wall.
U.S. nuke deployment in S. Korea since 1950s disclosed
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- A recently publicized U.S. government document disclosed the fact that the U.S. has deployed nuclear weapons in South Korea since the 1950s, said the South Korean newspaper Chungang Ilbo on Monday.
The paper went on:
The U.S. deployed thousands of nuclear weapons and their parts in South Korea, Japan, Guam, the Philippines and so on in the 1950s according to the then U.S. strategy that called for deploying nuclear weapons in the Pacific and Europe to cope with a war against the former Soviet Union. A report of the U.S. far east command dated Nov. 1, 1956, indicates that separate locations in Japan including sites on the main islands had nuclear weapons or components or were earmarked to receive weapons in the event of impending war.
The facts prove that the U.S. has long deployed nuclear weapons in Asia including South Korea in a bid to fight a nuclear war.
U.S. Korea policy under fire
Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- The U.S. seeks to swallow up the whole of the Korean peninsula to increase its influence in the Asia-Pacific region and contain big powers, which is the basic aim of its Asia strategy and Korea policy.
Rodong Sinmun says this in a signed article today.
It goes on:
After the end of the cold war the U.S. turns to naked military actions of aggression in the Korean peninsula in a bid to provoke another war, while doing away with legacies of the Cold War in other areas. Because the U.S. design for world supremacy still remains unchanged.
The U.S. considers the peninsula to be a point of strategic importance in the execution of the strategy of giving priority to the Asia-Pacific region for the world supremacy.
It has long attached importance to the peninsula in a bid for the world supremacy. It has pursued a colonial policy in South Korea over the last more than five decades after its occupation, turning it into a vast military base and posing permanent military threat to the DPRK.
The U.S. has become all the more arrogant in the wake of the Persian Gulf War and air raids on Yugoslavia. They are now trying to "demonstrate" their military potentials in the peninsula. Their design is infeasible, though.
If the enemies move to provoke the second Korean war in an attempt to swallow up the whole of the Korean peninsula, the DPRK will return a merciless strike.
The U.S. must pull its forces out of South Korea and come out to the negotiating table for the conclusion of a peace accord with the DPRK.