DPRK delegation leaves for India
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- A delegation of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea led by Ryom Sun Gil, chairman of its central committee, left here today to participate in the 14th congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions to be held in India.
It was seen off at the Pyongyang railway station by Ri Jin Su, vice-chairman of the federation, and V. Raghunathan, charge d'affaires ad interim of the Indian embassy here.
WPK's emblem
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- The emblem of the Worker's Party of Korea is a hammer and a sickle standing crossed with a writing brush in between. A hammer symbolizes the working class, a sickle farmers and a writing brush working intellectuals.
The emblem is associated with the noble intention and immortal leadership feats of the President Kim Il Sung who regarded intellectuals as well as workers and farmers as the motive force of the revolution.
In those days of realizing the cause of building a mass political party after the liberation of the country in August Juche 34 (1945), the President initiated the work to make the party emblem and assigned the officials concerned to its design making.
Their initial design depicted a worker with a hammer in his hand and a farmer at plowing. A smelter holding a metal rod was also depicted.
The President examined the draft design of the party emblem and said it was necessary to depict a worker, a farmer and an intellectual. He instructed that it would be better to portray a hammer to represent a worker, a sickle to mean a farmer and a writing brush to represent an intellectual our own way.
A few days later the officials showed him a design in which a hammer was standing upright and a sickle and a writing brush were depicted on its right side.
After examining the design, he said that a hammer, a sickle and a writing brush should be depicted in such a way as to show the first two standing crossed from the middle of the stem of the writing brush in order to symbolize the unity and cohesion of the working masses of Korea including the workers, farmers and working intellectuals. He also said that the emblem would look nice if a writing brush was placed slightly higher than the other two while a hammer was put on the left side and a sickle on the right. He added that placing a writing brush a little higher would mean that every worker and farmer should acquire rich knowledge and culture in the future to greatly contribute to building a rich and strong, civilized, independent and sovereign state.
The WPK's emblem thus came into being under his meticulous guidance.
This party emblem is also inscribed on the flag of the WPK.
Family of film artistes
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- People's Artiste O Hyang Mun, 79, at the Korean Film Studio is a broad favorite of the public with a nearly 30-year-long career of dubbing-in recital. He is far better known by his voice than by his face.
Originally a drama actor, he earned a speedy appeal because of the distinctive charm of his voice and intonation. Later he was taken on by the Korean Film Studio and had since been preoccupied with dubbing imported foreign films.
His premiere cue was the dubbing-in for the leading character of the former Soviet feature film "King Lear".
Then followed similar roles for over 1,000 foreign films such as the soviet films "17 Moments In Spring" and "The Story of Office".
His idiosyncratic recital carries the audience away when it comes to his role for young actors.
His impressive dubbing-in for the soviet film "At the Mercy of Fate", the Chinese film "Zhou Enlai" and the Indian film "Lawyer and Son" came when the was well over 60.
He is granted special favors by the government.
His prowess of acting and recital passed on to his two sons and two daughters, all of whom are on the active list of the film world.
The eldest daughter O Mi Ran is one of film stars. She succeeded her father as a drama actress until Juche 67 (1978) when she made her film-starring debut in "Up Go the Fireworks". She took a fancy to literature from childhood and was endowed with artistic accomplishments derived from her father. She creditably played major and minor roles for widely divergent characters and occupations and soon established herself as People's Artiste.
Her younger brothers, O Song Chol and O Song Jun, and sister O Kum Ran are up-and-coming actors and actress.
O Hyang Mun is wont to say:
"You must take over not only our family's film tradition but also the lineage of Korean movie".
Anti-DPRK and anti-Chongryon campaign in Japan denounced
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- Japanese right-wing organizations drove three loudspeaker vans separately to the Korean hall of the General Association of the Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) on March 11 and kicked up a fuss slandering the DPRK and Chongryon over what they called "kidnapping issue" and "food aid."
Minju Joson today in a signed commentary dismisses this row as an intolerable insult to the dignity and authority of the DPRK and Chongryon.
This was a premeditated provocation which was committed with the support and connivance of the Japanese reactionary ruling quarters, the commentary says, and goes on:
The Japanese ultra right reactionaries, displeased with forthcoming inter-governmental full-dress talks between Japan and the DPRK, are dead-set against the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
They instigated right-wing gangsters to kick up the recent Rowdyism in a bid to foment the anti-DPRK and anti-Chongryon feelings and chill the talks.
There is no need to sit face to face with the one who carries a dagger in his belt.
If Japan truly wants the talks with the DPRK and the establishment of diplomatic relations, it should drop its wild ambition to reinvade Korea, immediately halt the anti-DPRK campaign and honestly repent of its past wrongs and fully compensate for them. Japan should apologize for the recent gangsterism and punish those responsible for it.
GFTUK denounces Ishihara's anti-DPRK diatribe
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the central committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK) in a statement issued yesterday bitterly denounced the anti-DPRK diatribe of Shintaro Ishihara and warned the Japanese reactionaries to ponder over what irrevocable consequences his reckless remarks will bring to Japan.
He said:
We can never remain a passive onlooker to the fact that such a militarist as Ishihara, who let loose a bellicose blast insulting the DPRK again instead of liquidating the past wrongdoings against Korea, is swaggering as Tokyo metropolitan governor.
The GFTUK central committee expresses the expectation that progressive trade unions and working people of Japan will oust the militaristic warmongers such as Shintaro Ishihara from the political circles and wage a vigorous struggle to prevent Japan from reviving as a harasser of peace in Asia and the rest of the world and an aggressor.
Japanese military boss inspects MDL area
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- No sooner had Yuji Fujinawa, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of Japan, stepped in South Korea on March 14 than he "inspected" the area along the Military Demarcation Line, according to a foreign news report.
He will "inspect" units of the "navy" and "air force" of South Korea and hold talks with the "Minister of Defence" and the "chairman of the joint chiefs of staff" of South Korea during his stay till March 17, the report said.
This is a very ill-boding movement, which shows the Japanese militarists have placed South Korea in the zone of their operations within the framework of the aggressive U.S.-Japan-South Korea triangular military alliance.
KCNA on South Korean authorities' arms buildup
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- The "Ministry of Defence" of South Korea recently had a press briefing on the projected introduction of large attack helicopters.
According to it, "Apache" helicopters will be introduced in 2004 and more than 2,000 billion won be expected to be spent for this.
This is an indication that the South Korean warmongers continue putting spurs to arms buildup behind the curtain of "detente" and "engagement".
Recently they unrolled a plan to purchase unmanned attack planes, ship-to-ship missiles, large submarines and other latest attack means and war equipment.
South Korea has thus become the third biggest importer of arms in the world.
Not content with this, they plan to purchase again large attack helicopter "Apache" which is called "the army's core combat force for air strike" and a "flying tank". Needless to say, it is designed for an air strike at the north.
Whenever an opportunity presents itself, they talk about "detente" and "reconciliation." But this is a window-dressing to cover up their black-hearted intention. Their real intention is to have a military edge over the north in a bid to contain it.
They should cancel their madcap arms purchase plan at once, clearly mindful that their northward invasion will lead them to self-destruction.
S. Korean "people's government" blasted
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- It is two years since the present South Korean chief executive installed what he called "people's government".
These years are recorded with many indelible crimes against the country and the nation. It was the biggest crime committed by the present "government" that it sold off the independence of the nation.
The chief executive of South Korea claimed that "his victory in the Presidential Election was a victory for the United States" and asserted that the U.S. troops "should remain in South Korea even after the reunification."
When the issue of apology and compensation for GIs' brutal mass killings during the Korean War (June 1950-july 1953) was raised, he simply asked his U.S. master to make a "joint investigation", talking about "friendly relations with the U.S."
He set a "new record" in terms of pro-Japanese treacheries.
He repeatedly invited Akihito, a symbol of Japanese militarism, to visit South Korea, calling him "Emperor".
He displayed his skill as a pro-Japanese traitor when he flung the door open to Japanese pop culture which his predecessors dared not do and abolished the "system of diversified channel of import."
The "economic reform" intended to "handle foreign exchange crisis" turned out to be a "campaign to sell South Korea". As a result, businesses, banks and land fell into the hands of foreigners.
At least 53,000 enterprises went bankrupt owing to the "layoff" and "restructuring", products of the anti-social rule.
South Korean foreign indebtedness has hit the 170 billion dollar mark.
The gap between the rich and the poor is further widening despite the noisy advertisement about "combating corruption and irregularities." At least 13 million people are below the poverty rate. The number of jobless and homeless people is 12 times that before the present rulers' coming into power.
The two years of the "people's government" are characterized by its escalated moves for division and confrontation as it has thrown a wet blanket over the ardent desire of the nation for reunification and increased the danger of war.
As long as the "people's" ruling quarters are allowed to stay in power, it is impossible to regain the dignity and sovereignty of the nation trampled underfoot by outside forces or achieve the reunification of the country. Nor is it possible for the South Korean people to enjoy a worthy life and for the whole nation to avoid the disasters of war.
U.S. troop pullout called for
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- Brian Becker, member of the secretariat of the Workers World Party of the United States, at a press interview held in Pyongyang before his departure from the DPRK, denounced the U.S. for having committed crimes against the Korean people.
He said that his visit to the Sinchon Museum during his stay in the DPRK offered a good opportunity to know well about the thrice-cursed mass killings of peaceable people committed by the U.S. during the Korean War.
The United States which is chiefly responsible for the division of Korea keeps almost 40,000 troops in South Korea, staging various war maneuvers and mercilessly killing innocent people, he noted.
He demanded the U.S. troops be withdrawn from South Korea at once, taking their lethal weapons with them.
He stressed that the workers world party of the United States would in the future, too, conduct a more vigorous solidarity campaign condemning the U.S. administration's moves to perpetuate the division of Korea and calling for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from South Korea.
Preparatory committees formed to commemorate Sun's Day
Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- Preparatory committees of the Central Association of Korean Nationals in Russia and the United Confederation of Koreans in the Far East were formed on March 10 to commemorate Sun's Day, the birth anniversary of the President Kim Il Sung.
The committees set the period from March 10 to April 15 for commemoration and decided to hold multifarious events including a retrospective meeting.