Kim Jong Il sends gifts
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il sent gifts to the members of the youth league and the children's union of senior middle schools in the excursion of the "250-mile journey for national liberation," by plane on Wednesday.
The excursion is going on to mark the 75th anniversary of the "250-mile journey for national liberation" made by the President Kim Il Sung.
A gift-conveying ceremony was held in Hwaphyong county on the same day.
Present there were Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, Ri Il Hwan, first secretary of the c.c., the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, and officials concerned.
The ceremony was addressed by Kim Jung Rin.
He said that the gifts carry the great trust and expectation of the respected Marshal Kim Jong Il for the excursionists and all school youth and children of the country to firmly take the road of the Juche cause, a long way of revolution, pioneered by the Generalissimo Kim Il Sung.
Saying that it is the just obligation and most honorable duty of school youth and children to repay with loyalty the great love and solicitude of the Marshal, he called upon them to bear deep in mind the love and trust and firmly prepare themselves as reliable young vanguard and children's lifeguards of the party infinitely loyal to the revolutionary cause of Juche.
Kim Yong Nam greets Sri Lankan President
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, today sent a message of greetings to Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumarathunga, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of its independence.
The message expressed belief that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would further expand and develop in the common interests of the two peoples and sincerely wished the President greater success in her work for progress and prosperity of the country.
Meanwhile, premier of the DPRK cabinet Hong Song Nam and Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun respectively sent messages of greetings to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo R. D. Bandaranaike and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
Jo Chang Dok interviewed on serious shortage of electricity
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- Vice-premier Jo Chang Dok of the DPRK cabinet answered a question put by KCNA as regards the recent serious shortage of electricity in the DPRK.
He said:
Today the Korean people are picking up the pace of the general advance for the building of a powerful nation under the wise guidance of the Worker's Party of Korea in the wake of the publication of the joint New Year editorial.
The powerful nation we are building means a thriving socialist nation with strong national power where the people live with nothing to envy.
As the world acknowledges, our politico-ideological and military potentials are strong enough to become a powerful nation. If we concentrate our efforts on economic construction, we will be able to build an economically powerful nation in a few years to come.
The serious shortage of electricity, however, hampers socialist economic construction in the DPRK.
Electricity is main power for the national economy and lifeline of economic growth.
Sufficient supply of electricity makes it possible to boost industry and agriculture and improve the people's standard of living.
The serious shortage of electricity keeps us from meeting the growing needs in all sectors of the national economy, greatly hampering production and construction.
There has never been such shortage of electricity as today in the DPRK.
We are not to blame for this difficulty in the way of our economic growth. It is entirely attributable to the moves of the U.S.-led imperialist allied forces to stifle the DPRK.
By nature, the DPRK is rich in resources to generate electricity. It has potentials enough to satisfy the demands for electricity by itself in various domains of the national economy.
It is well known to the world that the DPRK supplied electricity to South Korea out of the compatriotic stand right after the August 15 liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonial rule and repeatedly offered to supply electricity to South Korea after the war.
As the economy has gained in scope, the need for electricity has increased. With a view to satisfying the ever-growing need for electricity we put forward the policy of building a Juche-based nuclear power base long ago and went ahead with the policy.
If the building of an atomic power plant to be equipped with graphite-moderated reactors relying on locally available abundant fuel had been promoted as scheduled, the problem of electricity would have already been solved successfully and electricity would not have been in such short supply as today.
The DPRK's building of nuclear power base was for peaceful purposes such as economic construction and people's living, not for threatening any one. It had nothing to do with the development of nuclear arms.
The U.S., however, put pressure upon the DPRK, calling for "sanctions" and "punishment" over the non-existent "suspected development of nuclear arms." When the anti-DPRK campaign did not work, it made a compromise offer to build light water reactors if the DPRK stops building nuclear power base.
With a view to relieving concern about "suspected development of nuclear arms," a fiction spread by the U.S. and demonstrating the will and efforts for denuclearization and peace the DPRK took a step of freezing the building of nuclear power base, though it had already been under way.
The U.S. should have responded to such sincere efforts of the DPRK by pushing ahead as scheduled with the construction of a power plant with two light water reactors and lifting economic sanctions against the DPRK as it had promised under the DPRK-U.S. agreed framework.
In fact, it was only the DPRK that suffered losses due to its unilateral freezing of the building of nuclear power base. The U.S., however, has not honestly fulfilled its commitments.
Due to the unreasonable U.S. delaying tactics the LWR construction is not likely to be completed even in 2010, to say nothing of 2003, the deadline.
The U.S. blatant violation of the agreement is a manifestation of a policy of new type to stifle the DPRK.
Now that the U.S. fails to honor its commitments in good faith, the DPRK can no longer pin any hope on that construction nor can it remain a passive onlooker to it.
The frozen building of nuclear power base has already caused a loss of tens of billions of KWH of electricity, bringing immeasurably adverse effects on the national economy and the people's living.
The Korean people and the people's army, greatly infuriated by this, are unanimously pushing for compensation for the loss and strongly asserting that the Juche-based nuclear power building be pressed ahead with as originally scheduled.
Even in view of the international regulations it is a common sense and usage for one to feel responsibility and make compensation for the damage done to the other in violation of the agreement.
The U.S. should own responsibility for having caused such acute shortage of electricity in the DPRK and brought enormous economic losses to it and make compensation for them in any form.
This is an irreversible principled demand and a legitimate sovereign right of the DPRK, the victim.
If the U.S. does not fulfil its commitments but persistently pursues the policy of stifling the DPRK, the DPRK will be left with no option but to go its own way.
Then, it will be too late for the U.S. to regret for its act.
Basketball stars of DPRK
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- Some time ago, DPRK basketball players Ri Myong Hun and Pak Chon Jong were awarded gold watches bearing the august name of President Kim Il Sung.
They are loved and respected by the people for their spectacular successes in many national and international games.
Ri Myong Hun of the DPRK men's basketball team Uroe is a top-notch player recognized by the world's basketball circles. He participated in more than a hundred international games and netted scores of points in each match. He earned fame as the best player in Asia at the Asian Basketball Championships held in Indonesia in 1993.
He, 2.35 metres in height, is the tallest among the world's basketball players. He is acclaimed by basketball fans and experts for his good skills at laying up of shot, rebound and dunk.
Pak Chon Jong who is a seeded player of the basketball team of the April 25 sports group of the Korean People's Army also distinguished himself in scores of international basketball games.
He cut a conspicuous figure in a match with the USA college quintet by continuously succeeding in gaining a three-point score with his skillful organizational ability and lightning play. He is known as a world basketball star for netting over 30 points in each match.
The great leader Kim Jong Il made sure that they were awarded gold watches in high recognition of the successes made by them in games as world basketball stars through which they exalted the honor of the country.
They are now intensifying the training to repay the deep trust and expectation of the country with their greater achievements.
Pyongyang metro
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- The Pyongyang metro is a big player in the city traffic.
It was opened to traffic in 1973.
The completion of multi-phase projects in the subsequent period brought its total length to at least scores of km.
Its railways lead to the main streets of the capital before branching off in four directions. Its network covers 7 districts of the city.
There are 17 underground stations.
The stations' names are very meaningful and rich in their contents.
The station, which was built in the place where the President Kim Il Sung made his first historic speech after his return to the liberated homeland in triumph, is named Kaeson station. Jonsung station is associated with the immortal exploit he performed by leading the three year-long fatherland liberation war to victory.
All the stations including Kwangbok, Puhung, Konguk, Thongil and Yonggwang stations stand in historic places in residential districts.
All stations boast their architectural beauty.
The interior of the stations decorated with over 100 large murals and 100-odd pieces of sculptures and embossed carvings are reminiscent of an art museum.
Large-sized mosaic murals and patchworks, including "country of Juche" and "paradisiacal Pothong River" depicting a dignified appearance and developing feature of the DPRK, are in perfect artistic harmony. Conspicuous are chandeliers colorfully decorated with hundreds of thousands of beads and peculiar lamps hanging from the ceilings of magnificent halls.
Both surface and underground stations are adequately air-conditioned.
More underground railways are expected to be laid in Pyongyang in near future.
DIU is historic root of WPK
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- October 10 this year marks the significant 55th anniversary of the foundation of the Worker's Party of Korea (WPK).
The WPK is the banner of all victories and glories of the Korean people.
Although it is 55 years old, the history of its building began 74 years ago when the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU) was formed.
The DIU was formed by the President Kim Il Sung on October 17, 1926.
It was the first revolutionary organization of young communists of Korea who turned out in the struggle for national and class liberation in the idea of anti-imperialism, independence and sovereignty.
Early in the 1920s the Korean communist movement was being engrossed only in sectarian strife for "hegemony" without having any unified action program.
The nationalist movement was little different from it.
The President who was searching for a new way of struggle under such circumstances founded the DIU with young people and set forth a new action program.
Its program was aimed at destroying the Japanese imperialists and achieving liberation and independence of Korea and building socialism and communism there in future.
It was also aimed at overthrowing all hues of imperialism and building communism worldwide.
It was an independent revolutionary program which reflected most correctly the urgent requirements and long-cherished desire of the Korean people and comprehensively laid down orientation and targets of the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle and the Korean communist movement and principles to be observed for achieving them.
The program set forth by the DIU became a kernel of the program of the WPK, its principle of independence a principle of the WPK in its building and activities and young communists whom the DIU began to train became a backbone for founding the WPK.
This indicates that the WPK sprang from the roots of the DIU.
NDFSK Pyongyang mission visit international friendship exhibition
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- Chief Pak Kwang Gi and members of the Pyongyang mission of the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) visited the international friendship exhibition on Feb. 1 to mark the 58th birthday of General Secretary Kim Jong Il.
Preserved at the exhibition located at the foot of Mt. Myohyang are hundreds of thousands of gifts presented to the President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il by heads of party, state and government, personages from every background and organizations of over 170 countries and compatriots in South Korea and abroad.
The members of the mission made a bow before the wax figure of the President in the wax figure hall.
After the inspection, Pak Kwang Gi wrote in the visitor's book that the vanguard fighters of the NDFSK would wage a vigorous struggle for independence against the U.S., for democratization against fascism and for national reunification, bearing in mind the pride of having the great Marshal Kim Jong Il praised by the world as the leader of the nation.
That day they enjoyed a bird's-eye view of the landscape of snow-covered Mt. Myohyang and looked round historical sites and relics.
KCNA on Japan-U.S. computer simulation exercises
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- Preparations for a contingency in areas surrounding Japan have been pushed forward in Japan.
The Japan defense agency announced that Japan's "Self-Defence Forces" (SDF) and the U.S. military in Japan will hold computer simulation exercises for a contingency in areas surrounding Japan for nine days from Feb. 16.
Never should it go unnoticed that the Japanese reactionaries make no secret of a contingency scenario on the Korean peninsula which will be adopted for the first time in the joint map exercises. So to speak, their main purpose of the exercises is to complete their plan for reinvasion of Korea in cooperation with the U.S. troops and make full preparations for an actual war.
This indicates that their moves for comeback to Korea are, in fact, at the stage of positive practice beyond the phase of debate.
Last year they enacted a set of laws for putting into force the updated "Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation Guidelines" under the pretext of a contingency on the Korean peninsula to restore "SDF" right of participation in a war and right of belligerency. In 2000 they are now reinforcing and modernizing the militarist forces under various pretexts.
It is clear to anyone why they are stepping up arms buildup including modernization of field guns, new type aegis ship building, founding of special armed forces and development of an independent intelligence satellite and the "Theatre Missile Defense" system.
If the Japanese reactionaries ignite a war for reinvasion with the dream of "Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere," it will result in their destruction.
Spokesman for NDFSK on S. Korean Warmongers' reckless war moves
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) on Jan. 29 released a statement condemning the South Korean warmongers for becoming more undisguised in their preparations for a war of aggression against the north from the outset of 2000, according to a Seoul-based radio Voice of National Salvation.
What can not go unnoticed is that the South Korean ruling quarters are secretly pushing ahead with the development of anthrax bacillus to be used in the production of biological weapons, he said, and continued:
This serious development clearly indicates that the war maniacs of the self-proclaimed "people's government" are, in fact, working hard to ignite a war of aggression against the DPRK on the Korean peninsula, backed by outsiders, though they pay lip-service to the "north-south reconciliation and cooperation."
The Korean nation standing at the crossroads of peace or war and its survival or extermination can never remain an onlooker to the preparations stepped up by the Kim Dae Jung warlike group for a war of aggression against the north.
Calling on the people to resolutely check and frustrate these reckless war preparations, he warned the group not to act rashly, keenly aware that the preparations for a war against the fellow countrymen in the north will only hasten its self-destruction.
S. Korean Warmongers' saber-rattling denounced
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- From the outset of the year the South Korean ruling quarters are putting spurs on arms-buildup and frantically stepping up preparations for a war of aggression against the north together with the U.S. aggression troops, thus fanning north-south confrontation and war hysteria. Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary denounces this as unpardonable war moves.
The commentary goes on: The DPRK regards the dangerous military moves of the U.S. and the South Korean ruling quarters as a grave threat to peace and security on the Korean peninsula and a declaration of confrontation and war against it.
The South Korean authorities try to divert elsewhere the resentment of the people at them before the "National Assembly election" slated for April.
The confrontation and war racket can never be a way out for them. Only stern punishment by history and the people waits for the heinous warmongers running amok to impose a nuclear disaster upon the nation after leaving South Korea to the outside forces as a field for a war against the north.
The warlikers are well advised to be discreet if they want to remain alive.
U.S.-S. Korea air war exercise
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- The U.S. and the South Korean authorities staged one more air war exercise in the sky above South Korea on Feb. 1, a military source said.
Involved in the joint exercise were planes from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Stennis belonging to the U.S. pacific fleet and fighters of the U.S. air force in South Korea and of the South Korean air force.
Meanwhile, formations of fighter-bombers and assault planes of the South Korean air force conducted a drill of maneuverability and deployment in the air over Taegu, Chongju and other areas. Over 200 fighter-bombers of the U.S. and South Korean air forces staged an exercise of dogfight above Mt. Hwangbyong and Paeka islet. A drill of spotting and destroying targets was staged by more than 120 fighter-bombers and assault planes in the air above Yongdong and Wonju areas.
More than 700 fighters were involved in air exercises that day.
Cohen's anti-DPRK diatribe assailed
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary blasts U.S. Secretary of Defense Cohen for his remarks made at a recent press conference reiterating the establishment of the "National Missile Defense" system under the absurd pretext that there is real "threat of North Korean long-range missile" and it may grow. He added that he plans to submit to President Clinton this summer a recommendation on deploying the "NMD" and if approved, the U.S. will have it in place to be deployed for action till 2005.
The "threat of North Korean missile" touted by the U.S. conservative hard-liners quite often is a sheer lie and a fiction, the commentary notes, and goes on:
The U.S. design remains very wild and dangerous.
The intention of the U.S. is to turn the earth and the universe into missile bases by developing and deploying ultra-modern precision guided missiles capable of flying thousands of kilometers under the pretext of the "missile threat" from the DPRK. Through this it seeks to have a definite strategic edge over the rival forces and put any country and region in the range of its strike in a bid to enforce a self-opinionated tough policy and establish hegemony. Herein lie the aggressive nature and danger of its moves to establish the "NMD" under the pretext of the "missile threat from North Korea."
The U.S. moves to establish the "NMD" can neither be justified nor allowed.
Annual meeting of group for study of Juche idea held in Ethiopia
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- An annual meeting of the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Group for the Study of the Juche Idea was held on January 22.
The meeting stressed the need to make a deep-going study of the Juche idea to have better understanding of its greatness and vitality and make a study of the leadership exploits of the respected Marshal Kim Jong Il who wisely leads all the Korean people to the building of a powerful nation.
It laid stress on intensifying propaganda and dissemination of the Juche idea with a view to applying it to the specific conditions of Ethiopia.
Korean books presented to India
Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- A presentation ceremony of Korean books was held at the building of the central committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on January 28 with the approach of the 58th birthday of General Secretary Kim Jong Il.
At the ceremony works of the President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il and Korean books were conveyed.
S. Ramachandran Pillai, politburo member of the c.c., the CPI (Marxist) and member of the Lok Sabha, in his speech said that the presentation of Korean books on the 58th birthday of Kim Jong Il is one more honor of his party and all its members.
He noted that Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are the great leaders of the Korean revolution as well as the world revolution and that their works are valuable encyclopedia of party and state building and important guidelines for the revolutionary struggle.