Greetings to Russian Prime Minister
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- Hong Song Nam, premier of the DPRK cabinet, sent a message of greetings to Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasiyanov on his appointment as Russian Prime Minister.
The message expressed belief that the traditional friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would further expand and develop in the interests of the two peoples, and sincerely wished him new success in his responsible work for the economic stability of the country and welfare of the people.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun sent a message of greetings to Igor Sergeyevich Ivanov on his reappointment as Russian Foreign Minister.
GIs' bombing exercises assailed
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- The U.S. aggressor forces dropped 6 500-pound bombs called "MK 82" over the firing range in the sea off Maehyang-ri, Ujong-myon, Hwasong county, Kyonggi Province of South Korea, on May 8, leaving eleven villagers seriously injured and destroying at least 200 dwelling houses.
The spokesman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland released a statement on May 20 condemning this bombing exercise as an unpardonable criminal act to disturb peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and an unbearable humiliation and insult to the South Korean people.
The statement goes on:
The U.S. aggressors built a firing range covering 7,190,000 Phyong (one Phyong equals six square feet) in the land and sea off Maehyang-ri in 1955, where they staged strafing and bombing exercises for 60 hours every week and used even depleted uranium shells.
Their recent drop of live bombs that did serious damage to inhabitants of Maehyang-ri once again proves that they are ferocious warmongers who are keen only on aggression and war, utterly indifferent to the destiny and interests of the South Korean people, and a gang of robbers without an equal in the world.
Noting that the U.S. is the thrice-cursed sworn enemy of the Korean people, the statement called for mercilessly punishing the aggressors.
Root cause of disasters
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary condemns the U.S. forces' bombing exercise that did serious damage to inhabitants in Maehyang-ri, Hwasong county, Kyonggi Province of South Korea.
It goes on:
Some days ago, a U.S. air force fighter "A-10" dropped 6 live bombs "MK 82" over an area 500 m west of the firing range, injuring several civilians and destroying hundreds of dwelling houses.
It is shameless of brass hats of the U.S. troops and South Korean authorities to assert that the bomb-dropping was an accident, the commentary notes, and goes on:
What should not be overlooked is that the U.S. troops staged in Maehyang-ri even an exercise of firing depleted uranium shells whose production and use are internationally banned.
The U.S. aggressor troops do not hesitate to inflict losses on the South Korean people's lives and properties in their bid to achieve their sinister aggressive aim. They are sworn enemy of the South Korean people.
They should thoroughly probe the truth behind all brutal acts committed by the U.S. to this day, including their mass killings during the Korean War and massacre in Kwangju, severely punish the criminals and force them to compensate for them.
The hateful aggressor troops should be forced to go back to their den at once. This is the only way for the South Korean people to escape disasters.
Exhibition held in Kwangju
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- The "National Press Cartoonist Association" held an "exhibition on May 18 Uprising" from May 16 in the area of the cemetery of May 18 uprisers in Kwangju on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the heroic Kwangju Popular Uprising, according to a paper of South Korea.
On display there were more than 30 cartoons on the May 18 movement for democracy in Kwangju including oeuvres calling for probe into the truth behind the Kwangju mass killings and the reinstatement of resistance fighters.
Among the works on display were cartoons ridiculing Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo, former military fascist dictators.
Meanwhile, the members of this association are planning to hold a Kwangju seminar to mark the 20th anniversary of the movement for democracy in Kwangju.
Moves for retrogressive revision of "law on assembly and demonstration"
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- The central committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League issued a statement yesterday denouncing the South Korean authorities' recent moves to render the "law on assembly and demonstration" more fascist.
Recalling that the South Korean authorities are going to make a retrogressive revision of the "law on assembly and demonstration" by adding to it provisions which call for ruling out the participation in rallies of the organization which has previous records of staging a "radical violent demonstration" and newly instituting "rules for punishment of violators," the statement dismissed this as a fascist step to stamp out the democratic freedom and rights of the South Korean people and suppress the activities of the progressive movement organizations.
The statement continued:
The nation should never overlook the South Korean fascist authorities' moves to trample down elementary democratic freedom and rights of the South Korean people by rendering the evil law unprecedented in the world more fascist.
The South Korean authorities should renounce such moves at once if they do not want to meet a stronger resistance of the youth and students and people of South Korea.
The statement expressed militant solidarity to all the patriotic fighting organizations and students and the people from all walks of life including the South Korean Federation of University Student Councils in their struggle to thoroughly frustrate the moves for the retrogressive revision of the fascist law and achieve independence and democratization of the South Korean society.
Letter thrust to "Chongwadae" by people's movement
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- The people's movement for the revision of the shackling "ROK-U.S. status of forces agreement" thrust a letter to "Chongwadae" on May 17, a Seoul based radio reported.
The letter demanded the South Korean "government" authorities take the lead in the campaign to force the U.S. troops to apologize for their use of depleted uranium shells and dismantle a firing range in Maehyang-ri.
Accusing the U.S. forces of their refusal to make apology and plan to pay any compensation for their crimes of wounding villagers and destroying hundreds of dwelling houses by their reckless bombing exercises, the movement insisted that the "government" should come out to demand the U.S. forces side apologize and compensate for the damage.
Japan's support to "December 12 army purge coup" disclosed
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- Professor Pak Sun Won of the Center for the Study of World issues of Yonsei University in Seoul in his paper released on May 18 disclosed the fact that the Japanese government actively backed Chun Doo Hwan during the "December 12 army purge coup" in 1979, according to Yonhap News of South Korea.
At that time Japan informed Chun Doo Hwan of "possible sign of invasion of the south by the north" and this information was badly needed by him to justify the "coup" staged by him, the professor said.
The professor cited as evidence testimonies and recorded conversation of Ryozo Sunobe, the then Japanese ambassador to South Korea, and other Japanese officials.
The Ohira cabinet provided military information about "imminent north's invasion of south" in January 1980 to Chun five times as it did in early December 1979. Such information helped Chun Doo Hwan and his followers defuse political tensions with the U.S. to a certain extent, he added.
Withdrawal of U.S. forces from S. Korea urged
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- A co-representative of the International Action Center, a non-governmental organization for peace of the U.S. called for the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from South Korea when he was attending the 2000 international peace meeting for independence against imperialism held in Seoul on May 18 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Kwangju resistance and the half centenary of the Korean War under the co-sponsorship of the "National Alliance for Democracy and Reunification" and the National Alliance for the Country's Reunification, according to a South Korean press report.
Referring to his tour of a firing range of the U.S. air force in Maehyang-ri, Hwasong county, Kyonggi Province, he denounced the U.S. forces for such crimes as killing villagers and destroying dwelling houses.
Expressing deep sympathy with the bitter anger of the South Korean people at GIs' massacres, he assured the attendants that back to the U.S. He would tell Americans about GIs' atrocities in South Korea and urge the administration to bring criminals of the U.S. forces to a court and compensate and apologize for them.
Three-point charter for Korea's reunification supported
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- Political parties and organizations of different countries participated in the international signature campaign for supporting the three-point charter of Korea's reunification from May 1 to 15.
The signature paper was signed by the general secretary of the People's Progressive Party of Guyana, the secretary of the Pwani committee of the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania, the chairman of the Tanzanian National Coordinating Committee of the Juche Idea Study Groups and the chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago-DPRK Friendship and Solidarity Association on behalf of their party and organization members.
Investigation into radioactive contamination by U.S. troops starts
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- The Federation of the Environmental Movement started its investigation into radioactive contamination in a village near the U.S. air force's firing range in Maehyang-ri, Hwasong county, Kyonggi Province, from May 17, according to a radio report from Seoul.
Investigators are receiving reports on strafing exercises staged by the U.S. air force and the birth of deformed babies.
They decided on May 18 to pick samples of soil around the firing range, shells and bullets in the range to detect radioactive contamination.
Thorough probe into depleted uranium bullets called for
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- Wilson, member of the U.S. Anti-War Peace Movement, at a press conference held in the office of the "National Alliance for Democracy and Reunification" in Seoul on May 18 repeatedly testified to the possible use of depleted uranium shells in Maehyang-ri, and held that the existence of these shells which May be called "mini-a bombs" in South Korea should be called into question, according to South Korean Yonhap News.
At the conference held to refute the assertion of the U.S. forces command in South Korea denying the use of those shells in Maehyang-ri he recalled the pentagon in a statement of its spokesman on August 15, 1997 admitted its deployment of those shells in South Korea after its total removal from its Okinawa base between 1995 and 1996.
He added that he could not believe the U.S. forces' assertion that the shells marked with BDU discovered in Maehyang-ri were for training purpose.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Committee of Measures for the Compensation for Damage Done To Inhabitants In Maehyang-ri who was also present there, said that the structure of depleted uranium shells is quite identical to those found in Maehyang-ri, adding these shells structurally make double explosion and he used to hearing double explosion for more than ten years when a U.S. A-10 plane fired live shells. He strongly demanded a thorough probe into the truth behind their use.
U.S. ulterior intention slammed
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- Some time ago, the United States announced a plan to build a radar base in Alaska as part of its projected "National Missile Defense." Meanwhile, it plans to launch a missile-warning satellite.
It was against this backdrop that the U.S. state secretary recently argued that the establishment of "missile defense" system should be accelerated to cope with the "missile threat" by the DPRK.
Commenting on it, Rodong Sinmun today says:
It is not the United States but the DPRK which is exposed to actual threat. The U.S. has no justification to step up the establishment of the "missile defense" system.
Nevertheless, it calls for accelerated development and deployment of such system allegedly to cope with the "threat" from the DPRK. This call was prompted by its ulterior intention to hold monopoly over nuclear-tipped missiles and thus contain big powers calling for multipolarization of the world and put into practice its "unipolar world" strategy, the strategy for domination over the world.
Such moves of the United States are inviting a strong opposition not only from Russia and china but from European countries, the commentary notes, and goes on:
The U.S. has dreamed up the theory of "missile threat" from the DPRK in a bid to establish the "missile defense" system at any cost and contain big powers such as Russia and china and thus realize its strategy of world supremacy.
It should clearly know that the DPRK's "missile threat" can never be any pretext nor a bargaining chip.
Japan's fuss about "kidnapping" refuted
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- The Japanese reactionaries are persistently raising a hue and cry over "abduction of Japanese" by the DPRK.
Dismissing it, Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary says:
Such argument is intended to justify Japan's moves to do harm to and stifle the DPRK and, for the present, draw water to its mill in the forthcoming DPRK-Japan talks.
As far as the issue of "abduction" is concerned, it is nothing but an anti-DPRK diatribe that has no credibility.
Preoccupied with hostility toward the DPRK, the Japanese reactionaries have repeated this fiction fabricated by the South Korean rulers to drive a wedge between the DPRK and Japan.
Japan has no face to take issue with the DPRK over "abduction." On the contrary, the DPRK has ample reason to square accounts with Japan. In the past the Japanese imperialists abducted and forcibly drafted over six million Koreans and kidnapped or walked away nearly 200,000 Korean women to reduce them to sex slaves for the "imperial army," most of whom were killed or reduced to cripples.
Japan, arch kidnapper, is seriously mistaken if it seeks to gloss over such crimes and evade the settlement of its past by raising the issue of "abduction of Japanese."
Japan should behave itself, clearly judging which of the two options is beneficial to it, repenting of its past and improving relations with the DPRK or maintaining the present abnormal relations. It is well advised to concentrate efforts on preventing kidnapping which takes place so often at home, instead of repeating such fiction of "abduction of Japanese" by the DPRK.
Japan should make every possible effort to mend all its past crimes of abduction and take a right approach to the talks with the DPRK.
Traitors' ridiculous farce assailed
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson today in a signed commentary slammed the recent ridiculous farce of "erecting" the bust of the traitor Syngman Rhee in the main building of the "National Assembly" of South Korea.
It goes on:
This is an unbearable mockery of the April 19 uprisers who fought for new politics and a new society free from dictatorship and fascism, a challenge to the South Korean people and all other fellow countrymen and an unpardonable criminal act to turn back the wheel of history.
Syngman Rhee was a wicked traitor to the nation and ferocious dictator who was engrossed in treacherous acts as a U.S. stooge. That was why the South Korean people rose in a popular uprising in April 1960 and brought his statue down by using a rope.
40 years have passed since then. Yet, the South Korean authorities are trying to call back his ghost by "erecting" his bust. This is little short of the intention to commit the same anti-national, flunkeyist and treacherous crimes as he did.
If they follow in his footsteps, praising him, they will not escape stronger condemnation from the people and a shameful end, it warns.
Anniversary of Kim Jong Il's start of his work at WPK commemorated
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- Friendly meeting, film show and photo exhibition were held in the Czech Republic, Tanzania and Malaysia from May 13 to 16 on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the great leader Kim Jong Il's start of his work at the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea.
The participants enjoyed Korean films such as "The Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il Gives On-the-spot Guidance To Different Domains" and looked round pictures showing great achievements made under his leadership.
The chairman of the Mt. Paektu Czech-Korean Friendship Association said at the friendly meeting that the WPK, which regards the Juche idea founded by President Kim Il Sung as its guiding idea, has been further strengthened organizationally and ideologically and achieved great successes in the revolution and construction since Kim Jong Il started his work at the WPK Central Committee.
The chairman of the state permanent survey committee of Tanzania stressed that the Korean people will surely build a powerful socialist nation under the outstanding leadership of Kim Jong Il.