Tete-a-tete talks held between Kim Jong Il and Kim Dae Jung
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- Tete-a-tete talks between General Secretary Kim Jong Il and President Kim Dae Jung were held here on June 14.
The Pyongyang meeting, the first of its kind in more than half a century of territorial partition, marked an important occasion of opening a bright prospect of removing distrust and confrontation between the north and the south, promoting trust and reconciliation between them and bringing earlier the great unity of the fellow countrymen and reunification on the principle of national independence.
North-south joint declaration signed
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il together with President Kim Dae Jung, signed a north-south joint declaration on June 14.
Present on the occasion were secretary Kim Yong Sun and first vice department director Rim Tong Ok of the WPK Central Committee.
Also on hand were Minister of Unification Pak Jae Gyu, Minister of Finance and Economy Ri Hon Jae, Minister of Culture and Tourism Pak Ji Won, special aide to the president Rim Tong Won and other members of the south side's delegation.
Kim Jong Il and Kim Dae Jung singed the texts of the declaration and exchanged them.
They drank toasts to the signing and had a souvenir picture taken.
The north-south joint declaration is a good fruition of the historic Pyongyang meeting reflecting the desire and will of all the fellow countrymen to achieve the sacred cause of reunification and build a prosperous and powerful country by the united efforts of the nation.
North-south joint declaration published
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il and President Kim Dae Jung signed the north-south joint declaration, which reads in full:
North-South Joint Declaration
True to the noble will of all the fellow countrymen for the peaceful reunification of the country, Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and President Kim Dae Jung of the Republic of Korea had a historic meeting and summit in Pyongyang from June 13 to 15, 2000.
The heads of the north and the south, considering that the recent meeting and summit, the first of their kind in history of division, are events of weighty importance in promoting mutual understanding, developing inter-Korean relations and achieving peaceful reunification, declare as follows:
1. The north and the south agreed to solve the question of the country's reunification independently by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation responsible for it.
2. The north and the south, recognizing that a proposal for federation of lower stage advanced by the north side and a proposal for confederation put forth by the south side for the reunification of the country have elements in common, agreed to work for the reunification in this direction in the future.
3. The north and the south agreed to settle humanitarian issues, including exchange of visiting groups of separated families and relatives and the issue of unconverted long-term prisoners, as early as possible on the occasion of August 15 this year.
4. The north and the south agreed to promote the balanced development of the national economy through economic cooperation and build mutual confidence by activating cooperation and exchanges in all fields, social, cultural, sports, public health, environmental and so on.
5. The north and the south agreed to hold dialogues between the authorities as soon as possible to implement the above-mentioned agreed points in the near future.
President Kim Dae Jung cordially invited Chairman Kim Jong Il of the DPRK National Defence Commission to visit Seoul and Chairman Kim Jong Il agreed to visit Seoul at an appropriate time in the future.
June 15, 2000
Kim Jong Il Kim Dae Jung
Chairman President
National Defence Commission Republic Of Korea
DPRK
President Kim Dae Jung gives banquet
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- President Kim Dae Jung on a visit to Pyongyang gave a banquet at the Mokran House on June 14 upon the conclusion of his itinerary.
Present on invitation was the great leader Kim Jong Il, General Secretary of the Worker's Party of Korea and Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Among those present at the banquet were Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Jo Myong Rok, first vice-chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and director of the General Political Department of the Korean People's Army, Kim Kuk Thae and Kim Yong Sun, secretaries of the WPK Central Committee, Choe Thae Bok, chairman of the DPRK SPA, Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president, and Kim Yun Hyok, secretary, of the DPRK SPA presidium, Kim Yong Dae, chairman of the central committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party, Ryu Mi Yong, chairwoman of the central committee of the Chondoist Chongu Party, leading officials of the party and power organs, public organizations, ministries and national institutions and officials in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and media.
Also present were Pak Jae Gyu, Unification Minister, Ri Hon Jae, Minister of Finance and Economy, Pak Ji Won, Minister of Culture and Tourism, and Rim Tong Won, special aide to the president, and other suite members and journalists.
When Kim Jong Il, conducted by Kim Dae Jung, entered the banquet hall, all the participants warmly welcomed him with stormy applausus.
Kim Dae Jung spoke at the banquet.
Kim Dae Jung in his speech extended deep thanks to Kim Jong Il, Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, for the warm reception and hospitality accorded to him and his entourage and said that this meeting is a great auspicious event to be rejoiced over by the whole nation and the first historic inspiring action in 55 years of division.
He was deeply moved by the utmost filial piety with which Chairman Kim Jong Il of the DPRK National Defence Commission observed three years' mourning according to the traditional ethics of the Korean nation after the passing away of President Kim Il Sung, he said. He paid tribute to Kim Jong Il for the great efforts exerted for the preservation of political stability and the development of external relations and the economy.
He said the Korean nation has undergone many ordeals in history and it is high time the Korean nation stopped weeping.
He said he fully agreed with the statement made by Chairman Kim Jong Il during his recent Chinese visit that the issue of the Korean peninsula should be solved by the Korean people themselves. I am also sure that the destiny of our nation can be carved out by the Korean nation itself, he added.
He noted he was confident that the south-north summit talks were the starting-point for peace and reunification, the cherished desire of the 70 million Koreans.
President Kim Yong Nam spoke next.
He said the two days spent after the meeting, the first of its kind in 55 years, were meaningful days during which years of too long separation seemed to be forgotten during the too short meeting and talks because of compatriotic feelings.
President Kim Dae Jung had a historic meeting with leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang and held the north-south summit talks. The meeting and talks repeatedly confirmed that the people in the north and the south are of one and the same blood who should not live separated from each other and compatriots with whom no neighbors can stand comparison, he noted.
It is the first time that the supreme leaders of the north and the south met with each other and earnestly discussed ways of solving the national problem by the efforts of the compatriots and came to understand each other, Kim Yong Nam said, and went on:
This is something to be proud of as it showed a good sign of national unity to the fellow countrymen.
It is most rewarding for the politicians of Korea to devote themselves to the nation and our politicians should not consider national reunification as a job to be done in future but pool all their wisdom and energies to make reunification a work to be undertaken now.
He expressed the belief that the Pyongyang visit of Kim Dae Jung would help achieve the country's reunification, the cherished desire of the whole nation.
The banquet proceeded in a cordial atmosphere overflowing with compatriotic feelings.
Kim Jong Il sends wreath to bier of Hafez al Assad
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il sent a wreath to the bier of Syrian President Hafez al Assad, general secretary of the Arab Socialist Baath Party and commander-in-chief of the Army and Armed Forces of Syria.
Written on the black ribbon of the wreath are letters:
"We mourn over the death of your excellency Hafez al Assad."
The wreath was laid before the bier of the deceased.
Wreaths sent to Syrian embassy
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- Wreaths were sent to the Syrian embassy here on Wednesday and Thursday by the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commissions and ministries of the cabinet, national institutions and working people's organizations, including the Ministry of People's Security, the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Public Health, the Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission, the Korean Central News Agency, Kim Il Sung Higher Party School, the central committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, the central committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League and the central committee of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea, to the memory of President of the Syrian Arab Republic Hafez al Assad who is also general secretary of the Arab Socialist Baath Party and commander-in-chief of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces.
The wreaths were laid before his portrait framed with a black ribbon.
President Kim Yong Nam and vice-president Yang Hyong Sop of the presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, Paek Hak Rim, Minister of People's Security, and other senior officials visited the embassy, observed a moment's silence to honor the memory of the late Hafez al Assad and made an entry in the mourner's book.
Some suite members of Kim Dae Jung visit poultry farm and King Tongmyong's mausoleum
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- Some suite members of President Kim Dae Jung visited a poultry farm and King Tongmyong's mausoleum on the outskirts of Pyongyang today.
Unification Minister Pak Jae Gyu, Minister of Finance and Economy Ri Hon Jae, Minister of Culture and Tourism Pak Ji Won, special aide to the president Rim Tong Won and other suite members went to the farm.
Being briefed on the farm equipped with up-to-date facilities which was built in a short span of time, they looked round its production processes.
Some other suite members toured King Tongmyong's mausoleum on the same day.
Hearing explanation about the mausoleum of King Tongmyong, father of Koguryo, a great state in the east with a thousand-year long history, they looked round the monument to the reconstruction of the mausoleum, Jongrung temple and other historic relics there.
Taean work system
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- The Worker's Party of Korea conducted the work to improve the guidance to the economic management to meet the intrinsic requirements of the socialist society after the establishment of the socialist system.
With the successful completion of the socialist transformation of the relations of production and the work of laying the foundations of industrialization, the advanced socialist economic sector held undivided sway in the DPRK.
The level of technical equipment of the economy rose and the ties between the economic sectors became closer. The new circumstances urgently called for solving anew the question of guidance and management of the national economy.
But the then system and methods of the economic management were under the system of one-man management by the director, which had many capitalist remnants. Under the system only director was responsible for the production and management of the enterprise and handled all the problems according to his own decision.
The President Kim Il Sung grasped the irrationality of the system of economic management and set forth the task to radically improve the guidance and management of the national economy at the second enlarged plenary meeting of the 4th Central Committee of the WPK in December Juche 50 (1961).
He gave on-site guidance to the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant for at least 10 days in December 1961 and acquainted himself in detail with the overall performance of the plant and the specific conditions of the workshops to tackle the matter.
On this basis, he took the step of establishing a new system of industrial management at the enlarged meeting of the political committee of the party central committee held in mid-December of the same year.
This was the Taean work system.
It is system of industrial management which consists of a system of managing and operating a factory under the collective leadership of its party committee, a system of intensified technical guidance and comprehensive guidance to production, a materials supply system by which the higher levels directly supply materials to the lower and a supply-service system responsible for the living of the workers.
The creation of the Taean work system paved the way for overcoming the capitalist remnants in economic management and steadily consolidating and developing the socialist economic system.
Through the management and operation of the socialist economy under the Taean work system the socialist industrialization was completed in the DPRK in a matter of 14 years and the economy steadily developed at a high rate.
Provocative outbursts on the eve of last Korean War flayed
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- Despite defeats in armed intrusions on the eve of the past Korean War, Syngman Rhee got more over-heated in his moves to invade the north with the backing of the U.S., his master.
He visited a U.S. warship when this pirate ship called at the Inchon port in October 1949 and said that "south-north division should be settled by battles" and "we have made preparations to occupy Pyongyang in three days and are now waiting for a signal of northward invasion from Washington." (Orient Press October 19, 1949)
At a press conference held on December 30, 1949, to greet the New Year 1950 he said that "we should bear in mind that we are constrained to reunify the south and north of Korea by ourselves next year as regards the change of international situation" and that "reunification should be achieved in the New Year even through bloodshed and a civil war."
He in an address at the "National Assembly" in early February that year said that "unless the south annexes the north with the help of the UN commission on Korea, the "ROK" Army has to march northward."
In July 1949, the then Minister of National Defence Sin Song Mo showed up at the demonstration exercise of the Inchon branch of the "Korean Youth Group" and said that "ROK" Army is sure and eligible to completely occupy Pyongyang and Wonsan within one day if it is ordered any time.
Kim Sok Won, first division commander of the "ROK" Army, blared that if they start northward expedition, they will have breakfast in Haeju, lunch in Pyongyang and dinner in Sinuiju.
Amidst such anti-DPRK provocative outbursts large armed forces of South Korea were redeployed in all areas along the 38th parallel from early 1950, ready to march northward and all divisions of first echelon were reinforced with artillery units and technical arms.
Therefore, it had been a matter of time to inflict war holocaust upon the Korean people.
Kim Jong Il praised
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- Voices highly praising the great leader Kim Jong Il as a veteran statesman of the world revolution are loudly ringing out from many countries on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the start of his work at the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea.
On this occasion, political and social figures of different countries including Razafindrabe Andre, secretary general of the Monima Socialist Organization of Madagascar, and the editor-in-chief of the Guinean newspaper Horoya issued statements and published articles.
They unanimously praised Kim Jong Il as a seasoned veteran statesman and an outstanding political leader who has led the socialist cause of the times to the ever-victorious way with his extraordinary wisdom and distinguished ability.
Meanwhile, meetings, seminars on his works, lectures and film shows and other colorful events took place in various countries including Russia, Poland, Guyana, Indonesia, Uganda and Madagascar to celebrate the day.
At the events the speakers referred to the greatness of his idea, leadership and personality and his immortal exploits he has performed by leading the Worker's Party of Korea and steering the socialist cause of Korea and human cause of independence to victory.
Articles and special programs on his leadership exploits were given or reported by the Nepalese newspaper Gorkha Express, the Pakistani newspaper Duniya, the Lao newspaper Pasason, the Mexican newspaper Trabajadores, the Egyptian newspaper Al Siyassi and the Iranian newspaper Iran News and TVs of Guyana and Madagascar.
Confederacy formula for reunification of Korea supported abroad
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- The proposal for reunifying the country by the confederacy formula based on the three principles -- independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity -- advanced by the President Kim Il Sung is arousing great support and sympathy from political and social figures in various countries.
This proposal for founding the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo is the most fair and aboveboard proposal to reunify Korea independently and peacefully.
Noting that it is the supreme cherished desire of the Korean people to realise national reunification, Narayan Man Bijukchhe, chairman of the Nepal Worker-Peasant Party, said that the Korean people have undergone sufferings resulting from the national division for over half a century due to the U.S. imperialists' occupation of South Korea.
He said that Korea should be reunified independently and peacefully by the confederacy formula to put the earliest possible end to the tragic national division.
Anders Kristensen, chairman of the Denmark-the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Friendship Association, said that if the U.S. sincerely respects the desire of the Korean nation for reunification and wants peace on the Korean peninsula, it should drop the old conception of the cold war era and its anachronistic policy to stifle the DPRK and refrain from doing anything obstructive to reunification.
Candido Muatetema Ribas, deputy general secretary of the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, said he was convinced that the confederacy formula is the most realistic and reasonable one under the present conditions where the differing ideologies and systems exist in the north and the south of Korea. He expressed full support to the Korean people in their struggle to reunify the country independently and peacefully by the confederacy formula free from interference of outside forces.
U.S. ambassador's outburst under fire
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- The U.S. ambassador to South Korea in an interview with a U.S. broadcasting network on Tuesday said the Pyongyang meeting and the north-south summit talks are deeply touching the Korean people aspiring after reunification, but "the way before them is very thorny."
Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary dismisses this as a provocative and insulting remark intended to interfere in other's internal affairs to achieve a sinister purpose as it is little short of an act of chilling the ardent desire of the Korean nation for reunification.
The commentary goes on:
This outburst laying bare the U.S. black-hearted intention to perpetuate Korea's division is one more intolerable challenge to the Korean people.
Whenever there were positive moves to resolve the issue of Korean reunification by the Korean people themselves, the U.S. stood in their way to achieve its sinister design of aggression.
When the historic July 4 north-south joint statement was released, the U.S. urged the South Korean authorities to negotiate from the "stand of strength." When the north-south agreement on the reconciliation and non-aggression and the joint declaration on the denuclearization came to take effect in February 1992, the U.S. called for "holding the implementation of the agreements in suspense."
It is none other than the U.S. that is obstructing Korea's reunification.
The U.S. is well advised to stop its interference in the internal affairs of Korea for the sake of peace and reunification and immediately withdraw its aggressor troops from South Korea.
Month of anti-U.S. joint struggle opens in India
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- A month of anti-U.S. joint struggle (June 25-July 27) opened with due ceremony in India on June 3.
The speakers at the ceremony noted that the U.S. is increasing the threat of a new war, still keeping its forces in South Korea and ceaselessly shipping into it sophisticated lethal weapons including nuclear weapons.
A joint statement adopted at the ceremony demanded the U.S. immediately halt all the actions against the DPRK and withdraw its troops and nuclear weapons from South Korea.
The statement continued:
We hold that Korea should be reunified by the method of founding the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo and fully support the three-point charter of Korea's reunification formulated by the great leader Kim Jong Il.
We hope the historic Pyongyang meeting and inter-Korean summit talks aimed to reaffirm the three principles of national reunification clarified in the July 4 north-south joint statement and achieve national reconciliation and unity, exchange and cooperation and peace and reunification will be held successfully to open a new phase of bringing earlier Korea's reunification.
The statement called on the world peace-loving people to express full support and solidarity to the Korean people in the just struggle to achieve the independent and peaceful reunification of the country.
Korean books donated to Austria
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- Korean books were donated to a library of the Vienna city committee of the Communist Party of Austria.
Among them were the reminiscences of the President Kim Il Sung "With the Century" and celebrated works and brief biography of the General Secretary Kim Jong Il.