Kim Jong Il receives gift from Danish delegation
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il received a gift from a Danish friendship delegation on a visit to Korea.
The gift was conveyed to an official concerned by Anders Kristensen, chairman of the Denmark-DPRK Firendship Association, who is heading the delegation.
American religious leader arrives
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- Rev. Franklin Graham, American religious leader and son of Dr. Billy Graham, and his party arrived here today.
They were greeted at the airport by Kang Yong Sop, chairman of the central committee of the Korean Christian Federation.
Ri Ki Won welcomed by Pyongyangites
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- A meeting of Pyongyangites was held today to welcome Ri Ki Won, 54, who came over to the North Korea a few days ago via a third country. Before his defection he was in charge of equipment management at a joint tramcar stock company of South Korea.
He was awarded an order of the DPRK, prize money and a souvenir at the meeting.
Choe Yun Sik, vice-chairman of the Pyongyang city people's committee, in his welcome address stressed that Ri's defection is an expression of deserved resistance to the South Korean society and earnest yearning after the Korean style socialism centred on the popular masses.
He said Ri will enjoy an independent and creative life to his heart's content together with the people in the DPRK, a people's paradise which will demonstrate the might of a powerful socialist nation before long.
Ri Ki Won in his reply speech said the miserable situation of South Korea, which is now suffering a big turbulence owing to the economic depression and trusteeship is the inevitable result of the U.S. colonial enslavement policy and the South Korean rulers' flunkeyist traitorous moves and corrupt politics.
He noted that what impressed him most in the north was that all the state policies are for the sake of the working people. He said such social system of people's welfare is the fruition of General Secretary Kim Jong Il's noble politics of love and benevolence.
Under the leadership of Kim Jong Il the DPRK has become an unchallenged powerful country in ideology and politics in the international arena, he said.
He expressed his determination to devote himself to the struggle for national reunification and building of a powerful socialist nation.
Appearance of Pothong River-side changes beyond recognition
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- Pothong River side is visited by many working people, school youth and children every day.
There they relax, singing and dancing, boating and playing Korean chess, Yut game, etc.
The Pothong River flows through Pyongyang. Before the liberation of Korea, this river was known to be a cursed river as it brought only misfortune to inhabitants when it rose during rainy season.
A flood hit the city in Juche 31 (1942), leaving at least 2,000 hectares of farm land and over 1,500 houses submerged and claiming many human lives.
But after liberation the river turned into a picturesque river under the wise guidance of the President Kim Il Sung.
President Kim Il Sung initiated the Pothong River improvement project. He attended the ceremony to mark the start of the project on May 21, Juche 35 (1946), where he personally took up a shovel, breaking the ground.
Pyongyangites removed at least 420,000 cubic metres of earth and built a total of 5,000 metres of embankments. The project was completed in a matter of 55 days, though the Japanese imperialists could not finish it even in 10 years.
The completion of the project completely freed the inhabitants along the river from flood damage.
In the subsequent period Pothong river-side was put into more beautiful, neat and modern shape thanks to on-site guidance given by Kim Il Sung several times and devoted efforts of citizens.
About 10 kilometre-long canal was built to be linked with the Pothong river and there appeared along the canal pleasure parks covering an area of some 300 hectares.
There appeared on either side of the river Changgwang, Chollima, Rakwon and other modern streets with high-rise buildings standing in rows and the People's Palace of Culture, the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium, the ice rink and the Changgwang Health Complex and other monumental edifices.
The Korean people erected the monument to the Pothong river improvement project on Mt. Ponghwa on the bank of the river on May, Juche 60 (1971) to commemorate the historic day when Kim Il Sung took up a shovel at the head of the people who turned out to build a new country.
Japan's dream of overseas aggression flayed
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- The Japanese reactionaries say in public that they stand for peace, opposed to war, but behind the scene are whetting their swords for overseas aggression to hurt others, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary.
The commentary goes on:
It is evidenced by their call for the revision of the constitution and "counter-measures to cope with possible crisis." They are going to rewrite the war-renouncing article of the present constitution and institute a wartime law which will provide for mobilizing all the human and material resources of the country in a war of aggression any time.
This is a dangerous move to scrap the war-renouncing article of the constitution which has been maintained for the form's sake since the end of the war and openly pave the way for overseas aggression.
The Japanese militarists have never dropped their ambition of overseas aggression since their defeat but steadily escalated arms buildup for reinvasion under the signboard of "peace."
Their attempt to evade an apology and compensation for the crimes of the Japanese imperialists in the past even today when more than half a century has passed since the end of the war is prompted by their dangerous design to repeat their past wrongs.
Their "counter-measures to cope with emergencies in areas surrounding Japan" are nothing but military steps to reinvade Korea. They are threatening even a "preemptive attack" on the DPRK.
The Japanese reactionaries should bear in mind that their double-dealing tactics and rhetoric without any sincere apology and compensation for their past crimes would bring them to nowhere.
KCTU protests against unreasonable measure
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- The South Korean authorities announced on May 12 that they do not allow the South Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) to commemorate the May 18 Kwangju Uprising and hold a rally to vow a general strike, according to a South Korean newspaper.
The South Korean rulers charged that a commemoration meeting of the 20th anniversary of the Kwangju Uprising in 1980 and a rally to vow a general strike from May 29 to June 5, which would be held by the KCTU, are fraught with a "danger of violent acts."
In particular, their move to crack down on the struggle of the KCTU is timing to coincide with their attempt to revise the "law on assembly and demonstration" for the worse.
In this regard, the KCTU made public a protest statement on the same day and denounced the move of the South Korean authorities as a "severe encroachment on the basic rights of people" and a "declaration of tough suppression on general strike" and declared that it would resolutely counter it.
The organisation said that it would call an emergency press conference on May 15 as regards the anti-social labour policy of the "government" and "clarify the policy of a powerful struggle against the government."
CSDS vows legislation movement
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- The Citizens' Solidarity for Democratic Society in South Korea decided to conduct a campaign for legislation to bring to light the irregularities of the authorities, according to a radio report from Seoul.
The organisation at a press conference on May 12 said that it would urge the 16th "National Assembly" to enact legislation related to bribery, and opened to the public its contents.
The legislation contains rules on punishing an illegal bribery.
Rodong Sinmun calls for boosting south-south cooperation
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- It fully accords with the present situation and the desire and call of the people for building a rich and strong new society to expand and develop south-south cooperation on the principle of collective self-reliance, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article dealing with matters related to south-south cooperation.
It goes on:
South-south cooperation represents new international economic relations based on the common aspiration and interests of the developing countries. Now is the time to develop south-south cooperation with all potentials and possibilities.
Collective self-reliance is one of the important ways of developing south-south cooperation. This can be explained by the specific conditions of the developing countries.
Given that the imperialists' moves for "globalization" and the old international economic order have brought catastrophic consequences and tremendous losses to the developing countries, collective self-reliance provides an important way of making the unfair old international economic order defunct and establishing new south-south economic relations.
The imperialists are now working hard to disunite the south countries and weaken the groundwork of south-south cooperation and spoil the climate for it. This situation calls on the south countries to reaffirm the political willpower and commitment to south-south cooperation and revitalize the driving force for this.
In order to make south-south cooperation more practical and effective it is imperative to lead this process to establishing south-south economic relations. Priority should be given to the process of systematizing and institutionalizing south-south cooperation first in sectors for social wellbeing, including education and public health, in particular, to establish economic relations peculiar to the south countries, quite different from those among the developed countries.
It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to strive to develop south-south cooperation on the principle of collective self-reliance.
The DPRK will in the future, too, fulfil its noble responsibility and commitment to boost south-south cooperation.