2nd working-level contact for communications and news coverage held
Panmunjom, May 17 (KCNA) -- The second working-level contact for communications and news coverage to implement the north-south agreement took place at the Thongil Pavilion in the north side's portion of Panmunjom today.
At the contact the north side put forward a reasonable working procedural draft related to communications and news coverage of the historical Pyongyang meeting and the north-south summit talks.
Both sides basically reached an agreement on working procedures related to communications and news coverage through an exhaustive consultation and decided to resolve a series of other pending working issues through further discussion with the advance team of the south side in Pyongyang.
Gift to Kim Jong Il from American religious leader
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il received a gift from Rev. Franklin Graham, American religious leader and son of Dr. Billy Graham, on a visit to the DPRK.
The gift was handed to DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun by Rev. Franklin Graham.
Talks between delegations of WPK and CPC
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- Talks between the delegation of the Worker's Party of Korea (WPK) and the delegation of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) were held here today.
The two sides informed each other of party activities and exchanged views on developing the friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties and on a series of matters of mutual concern.
The WPK side was represented by Kim Yang Gon, department director of the Central Committee of the WPK and officials concerned, on the other side were the delegation of the CPC led by Rolando Alfonso Borge, member of the central committee and director of the ideology department of the CPC and Jose Manuel Inclan Embade, Cuban ambassador to the DPRK.
Ishihara's reckless utterances
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- Japanese Tokyo metropolitan governor Ishihara, a typical ultra-right reactionary of Japan, in a recent lecture asserted that "it is the best security to produce efficient weapons and sell them to foreign countries," according to the Japanese Mainichi Shimbun.
A series of militarist and ultra-nationalist outbursts let loose by Ishihara recently created a public furore. This time he went the length of openly calling for the production and export of sophisticated weapons under the plea of "security," thus betraying the invariable design of the right-wing reactionaries of Japan to convert it into a military power and launch aggression overseas.
This agitation cannot but spark public anger.
The issue of Japan's "security" is incompatible with its export of weapons.
It does not stand to reason to export weapons on account of "security."
This is little short of Japan's intention to abandon its much publicized "three principles of arms export."
The "three principles of arms export," in fact, exist in name only.
Realities in Japan where the specter of militarism is haunting go to prove that the Japanese authorities' loudmouthed "contribution to peace" is nothing but hypocrisy and their hue and cry over the DPRK's "missile threat" is no more than a sheer ruse intended to draw water to their mill.
Through arms sale the Japanese reactionaries seek to make profits, secure their military clout and expand the sphere of their influence and thus build a springboard from which to launch aggression overseas.
What merits attention is the attitude of the United States which shuts its eyes to these militarist moves of Japan. The U.S. feigns ignorance of Japan's moves to become a military power, while getting extremely nervous about other countries' efforts to strengthen self-defence capabilities and blatantly interfering in them like an international gendarme.
This behaviour cannot be construed otherwise than support to them.
The Japanese reactionaries should stop frantically escalating their moves for Japan's conversion into a military power and aggression overseas and threat to peace under the patronage of the U.S.
S. Koreans claim damages
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- Residents in Maehyang-ri, Hwasong county, Kyonggi Province, claimed damages against the "Ministry of National Defense" of South Korea on May 14, a Seoul-based radio reported.
When ministry officials came to the village allegedly to make a fact-finding survey, villagers showed them damage by the bombing exercise of the U.S. air force and demanded removal of the firing range of the U.S. aggression troops and compensation.
The bombing exercise staged by the U.S. air force in the firing range in the sea off Maehyang-ri on May 8, caused great damage, leaving seven villagers injured and walls of hundreds of dwelling houses cracked.
U.S. attempt to hide truth about massacres
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- The Measure Committee for Probing the Truth Behind the GIs' Massacres of Innocent Civilians In Rogun-ri bitterly censured the U.S.'s attempt to hide the truth about their atrocities, according to a South Korean newspaper report.
The members of the committee who are victims of GIs' massacres stated that "the U.S. government should neither belittle nor cover up mass killings but announce results of investigation as quickly as possible," refuting the misinformation carried by the U.S. newspaper The Stars and Stripes that the testimonies made by eyewitnesses lacked credibility and there was no systematic order for firing.
The chairman of the committee urged the U.S. government to take understandable measures including an official apology and compensation.
Projected more retrogressive revision of fascist law flayed
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- Recently the South Korean authorities disclosed their plan to make a more retrogressive revision of the existing "law on assembly and demonstration," a fascist law, and use it for suppression of the people.
In this regard, Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary denounces this move as an unpardonable crime against democracy as it is intended to totally block legitimate activities of the patriotic organizations and stamp out the democratic freedom and rights of the South Korean people.
The commentary says:
This move reveals the sinister attempt of the South Korean ruling quarters to check the workers' strikes and solidarity struggle of the students which are likely to gain momentum in the future and bind patriotic militant organizations and people from all walks of life to a fascist repressive order.
It is foolish of the South Korean ruling quarters to try to prolong their remaining days through fascist actions at the point of bayonet. This will only touch off bitterer popular anger and resistance.
They are well advised to bear in mind their fascist tyranny will only precipitate their own self-destruction.
U.S. urged to renounce position of strength
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- The United States should renounce its anachronistic approach to the Korean issue on the basis of its outdated conception of the Cold War era, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article.
It is entirely due to the U.S. unreasonable policy of strength towards Korea that abnormal relations between the DPRK and the U.S. remain unsettled for half a century until now, the paper says, and goes on:
The U.S. National Security Council, in a worked-out draft of "U.S. new strategy for 21st century," declared that the U.S. would continue to follow the "win-win strategy" and "policy of interfering in other countries' disputes." This hints that the U.S. has designated the Korean peninsula as a region where the next war may break out in the world.
Worse still, the council in its recent report said that "some of the U.S. forces should be stationed in the Korean peninsula for security in East Asia even after the peninsula is reunified." It is an open threat to the DPRK and a concentric expression of the U.S. position of strength to handle the Korean issue.
Under the pretext of the DPRK's "nuclear and missile threat" the U.S. is massively shipping sophisticated weapons into South Korea and getting Japan involved in the moves to establish the "Theatre Missile Defense" system, while strengthening the U.S.-Japan-South Korea military alliance.
The moves only reveal the U.S. wild design to dominate Korea as a whole.
The Korean peninsula was divided owing to the U.S. military occupation of South Korea and acute political and military confrontation persists on the peninsula due to the U.S. military presence and policy of division. That is why the U.S. military occupation of South Korea should be terminated, reckless war games against the DPRK be discontinued and all lethal weapons be removed from South Korea.
More cases of wiretapping disclosed
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- It has been recently disclosed again that private telephone messages are wiretapped by repressive machines in South Korea such as "police" and "prosecution," a Seoul-based radio reported.
33 cases of wiretapping by those machines have been disclosed since last November.
The police purchased equipment worth 920 million won for surveillance and wiretapping of telephone messages to intensify crackdown on people.
These machines took over secret call numbers of at least 4,050 cellular phones and walkie-talkies from Tele-communication companies from January 1997 to June last year to observe the movements of those under watch.
U.S. air force's use of uranium bullets probable
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- Wilson, who was a pilot of a U.S. air force fighter and is now a member of the world peace movement organization, asserted it was probable that planes of the U.S. air force used uranium bullets during strafing exercises in areas around its firing range in Maehyang-ri, Hwasong county, Kyonggi Province, according to a radio report from Seoul.
He said this on May 15 when visiting the Committee of Measures for Compensation for Damage Done To Inhabitants By Bombing Exercises of the U.S. Air Force.
Disclosing that when strafing to destroy tanks, planes "A 10" of the U.S. air force use live bullets whose heads are charged with radioactive uranium, he noted everyone was warned not to touch live bullets littered about the coastal area near the firing range.
The measure committee is going to request a specialized institution to thoroughly detect radioactive substance on those live bullets.
Anti-U.S. march called for
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- The central committee of the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) on May 10 issued an "appeal to all the people," reflecting the people's grudge and resentment at the U.S.'s monstrous crimes, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the May 18 Kwangju Uprising.
The uprising was a heroic deed which demonstrated the indomitable spirit and matchless courage of the Korean nation in the fight against injustice and resistance which opened a new horizon for the struggle for independence against the U.S. in the history of revolutionary movement in South Korea, said the appeal.
The appeal called on all the people to learn from the heroic spirit and indomitable stamina of the May resistance fighters and courageously turn out in a struggle to fully probe the truth behind the U.S.'s massacre of May 18 uprisers and mass killings of innocent civilians committed by them during the Korean War.
It called for making a breakthrough in the grand anti-U.S. march to put an end to the crimes of the U.S. and their colonial rule over South Korea through the struggle on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the uprising.
A press conference was held at the Pyongyang mission of the NDFSK yesterday as regards the issue of the appeal.
Revision of "ROK-U.S. status of forces agreement" urged
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- The people's movement for revision of the shackling South Korea-U.S. "status of forces agreement" yesterday held a rally in front of the U.S. embassy in Seoul and demanded revision of the agreement, according to a radio report from Seoul. The movement involves 120 civil organizations including the Citizens Federation for Economic Justice and the Citizens' Solidarity for Democratic Society.
The rally was attended by victims of atrocities in Iksan, North Jolla Province, in 1950, who demanded a probe into the truth behind the massacres of civilians by the U.S. aggression troops during the Korean War and compensation.
The movement in a letter of protest addressed to the U.S. President charged it is an impudent delaying tactics to maintain the extra-territorial status of the U.S. troops in South Korea that the U.S. unilaterally postponed the negotiations for revision of the "status of forces agreement," which were scheduled to resume in April.
After the rally the movement pitched a tent in front of the U.S. embassy to go on a stay-in strike and a clash with police is expected.
Symposium on experience in building WPK held in Madagascar
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- A joint symposium of Madagascan progressive political parties on experience gained in building the Worker's Party of Korea was held in Antananarivo on May 6.
Among those present were leaders of the Party of the Congress for the Independence, the Monima Socialist Organization, the Socialist Progressive Party, the United Party of Struggle and the Workers and Peasants Struggle Party of Madagascar.
The national secretary of the party of the congress for the independence in his speech said that the WPK founded by the great leader Kim Il Sung is known as a veteran, militant and revolutionary party with a long history.
Experience of party building and work established by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the great leaders, is valuable wealth that progressive political parties of the world should learn from, he stressed.
The administrative secretary of the action for the renaissance noted that the experience in WPK building is a textbook for all political parties of the world that aspire after socialism.
A letter to Kim Jong Il was adopted at the symposium.
Korean people's struggle supported abroad
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- Laurent Desire Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, when he met with the Korean ambassador to his country on May 10, said that he would invariably support the DPRK government in its struggle to achieve the reunification of the country and this is his faith.
Reaffirming unconditional support to the three-point charter of Korea's reunification, he stressed that the U.S. troops should get out of South Korea and the reunification of Korea should be achieved by the Korean people themselves.
Hassan Ibrahim Habibi, first vice-president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, told a delegation of the DPRK Foreign Ministry on May 10 that the interference of foreign forces is the main factor of aggravating the situation of the Korean peninsula and that the DPRK government's position and measures for ensuring peace and stability in the region and achieving reunification are just.