DPRK-U.S. ministerial contact to be held

    Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- The Foreign Minister of the DPRK and the U.S. State Secretary will meet to discuss issues related to the bilateral relations on July 26, prior to the Bangkok ASEAN regional forum to be held on July 27.


Aid materials donated to Korean farms

    Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- Aid materials were donated to the Sinchon farm in Jongju city and the Chojang co-op farm in Kwaksan county, North Phyongan Province, by diplomatic envoys of Palestine, Cambodia, Russia, China, Mongolia, Indonesia, India, Iran, Nigeria, Laos, Libya, Cuba, Egypt, Yemen, Pakistan and Ethiopia and the resident coordinator of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in the DPRK.
    On behalf of them, the diplomatic envoys of Palestine, Mongolia, Indonesia and Nigeria handed aid materials to the Sinchon farm on July 21.
    And they looked round fields of the farm which have been changed beyond recognition under the wise guidance of the great leader Kim Jong Il.
    Shaher Mohammed Abdlah, Palestinian ambassador to Korea, said that they regard it as a great joy to hand aid materials over to the farms to which Kim Jong Il gave on- site guidance and wished the farmers good farming and good fruition this year true to his high intention.


Spokesman for DPRK FM on establishment of African Union

    Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- The establishment of the African Union is a historic event that makes it possible to further raise the position of Africa and firmly defend its dignity and interests in the international arena and increase the might of developing countries as a whole.
    The spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea said this in an answer to a question put by KCNA on July 23 as regards the recent signing of a treaty of establishing the African Union.
    He expressed belief that the African Union will ensure regional peace and stability, tap its own great potentials and rich natural resources, build a powerful economy and, on this basis, face up to the challenge of "globalization."


Japan urged to settle past

   Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- The world public strongly demands that Japan honestly apologize and compensate for its past crimes against the Korean people.
    The Left Democratic Front of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Solidarity Committee for Supporting Korea's Reunification in a letter to the Japanese Prime Minister said that the 100-year-long Korea policy of Japan was based on the hostile policy of stamping out, dividing, alienating and rejecting the Korean nation.
    The central committee of the Communist Party of Malta in a statement said that it is the due political and moral responsibility of Japan and the demand of the international law to settle its crime-woven past.
    The ex-general secretary of the c.c., the Revolutionary Socialist Party of Peru pointed out that it shows Japan's shameless unethical and immoral inferiority and barbarity that the Japanese imperialists drafted nearly 200,000 Korean women as sex slaves for the army.
    Saying that the present and future of Japan without settlement of the past can never be bright, Boris Petkov, President of the executive council of the c.c., the Bulgarian Communist Party (Marxist), noted that the Japanese authorities should make a political decision to settle the past within the present century, mindful that the longer they delay the settlement of past, the heavier their responsibility and burden.
    Abdul Rahman Matar, information chief of the permanent secretariat of the Organization of Socialists in the Mediterranean, in a statement said that Japan should stop its moves to threaten, blackmail and reinvade the DPRK, discontinue its hostile policy toward the DPRK and enforce a new Korea policy based on peaceful dialogue and cooperation.


U.S. anti-DPRK diatribe assailed

    Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- U.S. undersecretary of defense at recent talks with the vice-Minister of the Japan Defence Agency claimed that "there is no change in the military threat of North Korea", vociferating about the "missile threat" as regards the situation on the Korean peninsula.
    At the end of the talks he underscored the need for the U.S. to "react" to the "missile threat" from North Korea and others.
    It is not hard to guess what the U.S. seeks under the pretext of the DPRK's "missile threat", Rodong Sinmun today says in a signed commentary, and goes on:
    The U.S. is very fretful to see the aspiration for national reconciliation and reunification growing between the north and south of Korea and anti-U.S. sentiment for independence mounting higher than ever before in South Korea. That is why it is floating the fiction of "threat" from the DPRK in a bid to calm down the anti-U.S. sentiment in South Korea and justify its occupation and war moves.
    It is the U.S. strategic aim to build the ambitious "missile defense" system to contain big powers and establish its military domination. Its loudmouthed "missile threat" from the DPRK is designed to justify its "missile defense" program and escape international criticism. The U.S. intends to realize its vicious ambition at any cost by getting "support" from Japan, its junior ally.
    The U.S. must discard its wild ambition to build the "missile defense" system under the pretext of the "threat" from the DPRK and establish its military domination over Asia.


Imperialists urged to drop its anachronistic ambition

    Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA)-- The imperialists are working hard to browbeat and blackmail other countries by force and bring pressure upon them or interfere in their internal affairs and realize their strategy for world supremacy with a military edge. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed commentary, urging them to drop their anachronistic ambition.
    The commentary continues:
    The United States keeps increasing its military spending the bulk of which goes to the development of "missile defense" system. This is aimed at containing other big powers advocating a multipolar world and implementing its strategy to build a unipolar world and establish world supremacy.
    In other words, the U.S. seeks to enfeeble Russia, China and European countries through a fresh arms race and have a military edge over them.
    What a great hope the imperialists pin on the military edge can be explained by the fact that the U.S. is desperately seeking to retain and expand the NATO and other military blocs and overseas military bases.
    It also finds a vivid expression in that the U.S. is working out such new strategic documents as "joint vision 2020" to invade other countries.
    It is quite foolhardy for the imperialists to count on their military edge as it runs counter to the people's desire for independence and the trend of the times, it is a factor of impeding the building of a new equitable international order and they are finding themselves in a pretty fix.
    The imperialists' shameless design to have a military edge can never come true, concludes the commentary.


Handouts praying for eternal life of Kim Il Sung distributed

    Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- A large number of handouts praying for the eternal life of the President Kim Il Sung were distributed to dwelling houses in Kwanak and Socho districts, Seoul, South Korea, on July 8, Seoul-based radio Voice of National Salvation quoted the Seoul city committee of the National Democratic Front of South Korea as saying.
    Written on the front of the handout printed in the name of the Thaeyang Society were letters praying for the eternal life of the President against the background of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace where he lies in state.
    On the back were the immortal revolutionary paean "Song of General Kim Il Sung" with music against the background of Mt. Paektu.


People's Solidarity for Abolition of "Security Law" formed

    Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- The National Catholic Alliance for Justice and 231 other citizens' organizations of South Korea held a meeting at the Myongdong Catholic Hall on July 21 and formed the People's Solidarity for the Abolition of the "Security Law," according to the Christian Broadcasting System from Seoul.
    The organization in its inaugural declaration said abolition of the "Security Law" is urgent and the law is a moribund law to all intents and purposes.
    It announced that it will hold a people's rally for the abolition of the law in front of the "National Assembly" building and meet representatives of the ruling and opposition parties to request them to abolish the law. And it decided to conduct a movement for the release of all prisoners of conscience.



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