Korean people's struggle for national reunification supported
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- Martin Lotscher, chairman of the Swiss Committee for Supporting Korea's Reunification, on a visit to the DPRK, was interviewed here by KCNA on Aug. 17.
Referring to his impressions of Korea, he said that what impressed him most in Korea was the reunion of separated families and relatives in the north and the south amid the deep interests and attention of all Koreans.
It is an epochal event that the visiting groups of separated families and relatives were exchanged in the north and the south at the same time as specified in an article of the north-south joint declaration, he said, and went on:
The reunion was possible because the Korean people have the great leader.
The great leader Kim Jong Il put forward the idea that love for and trust in the people is the core of the benevolent politics and has always pursued genuine politics for people.
The future of the Korean people who absolutely worship and follow Kim Jong Il is bright and rosy.
The mightiest means of the Korean people is single-hearted unity. The Korean people are now upholding his leadership, firmly united around him.
The Swiss Committee for Supporting Korea's Reunification extends full support and firm solidarity to the Korean people in their dauntless struggle for socialist construction and national reunification even under the persistent threats of the imperialists.
U.S. condemned for crime of erasing evidences of mass killings
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the north headquarters of the Nationwide Special Committee for Probing the Truth Behind the GIs' Massacres released a statement on Saturday strongly denouncing the United States for removing evidences of mass killings.
In the early 1970s the U.S. forces in South Korea removed out with technical means empty cartridges, splinters and other evidences of mass killings in Rogun-ri committed by GIs during the last Korean War. This serious criminal deed was brought to light recently by testimonies of South Korean inhabitants and the technical survey of the scene and its surrounding areas conducted by the "investigation team for probing the truth behind massacres in Rogun-ri".
In this regard people at home and abroad strongly condemn it as a deed intended to bury into oblivion the case of mass killings forever, the statement said, and went on:
The United States has not yet uttered a word of apology to the families of the victims of the Rogun-ri case demanding apology and compensation, but attempted to wipe out the evidences of those massacres.
However, the monstrous crimes committed by the U.S. aggressors against the Korean nation during the Korean War can never be covered up.
The north headquarters of the nationwide special committee strongly demands that the U.S. not attempt to evade its responsibility for such crimes by erasing evidences but frankly admit them, punish their organizers and executors and make an apology and compensation to the Korean nation.
Abolition of S. Korean "SL" urged
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- The Amnesty International, an organization of human rights, in a statement on August 17 called for the release of all the prisoners of conscience in South Korea, according to Kyodo News.
The statement urged the South Korean authorities to revise or abolish the "Security Law".
Many political prisoners are still behind bars and the repressive "SL" invoked for their imprisonment has not yet been revised drastically, it said, demanding those facts and situation of those prisoners be disclosed.
Congratulatory message to Sri Lankan Prime Minister
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- Hong Song Nam, premier of the DPRK cabinet, sent a congratulatory message to Ratnasiri Wickremanayake on his appointment as Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
The message expressed the belief that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would grow stronger and develop in the interests of the two peoples and sincerely wished the Prime Minister success in his responsible work for stability and prosperity of the country.
Wreaths laid before grave of Kim Po Hyon
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- Senior party and state officials and working people yesterday laid wreaths before the grave of Kim Po Hyon, grandfather of the President Kim Il Sung and an ardent patriot, in Mangyongdae on the occasion of his 129th birth anniversary.
Seen at the grave was a wreath sent by General Secretary Kim Jong Il.
Present at the wreath-laying ceremony were Choe Yong Rim, Kim Jung Rin and others.
Laid before the grave were wreaths with bouquets in the name of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, ministries, national institutions, educational and press organs, party and power bodies and farms in the city of Pyongyang.
The participants paid a silent tribute to Kim Po Hyon, recalling his noble life.
Juche idea study center inaugurated abroad
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- A center for the study of the Juche idea was inaugurated at Chingiskhan College of Mongolia on August 14.
Its purpose is to study the basic principles and contents of the Juche idea and the success and experience the Korean people have achieved by applying the idea and propagandize them to central Asian countries and Mongolia.
Cancellation of war exercise against DPRK urged
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- The spokesman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland released a statement on August 19 as regards the projected U.S.-South Korea "Ulji-Focus Lens" war exercise. If the South Korean authorities truly want the improved north-south relations and peace on the Korean peninsula, they should take a step to cancel the large-scale joint military drill against the north as unanimously demanded by people at home and abroad, the statement said, and went on:
The planned military exercise is evidently betrayal to the north-south agreement and an open provocation against the north, partner of dialogue.
The CPRF strongly condemns such reckless military provocative moves of the U.S. and the South Korean authorities, in the name of the 70 million fellow countrymen and the peace-loving people of the world aspiring after peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula.
They should be clearly mindful that if they persistently stage the drill, disregarding the present north-south relations developing toward reconciliation, unity and reunification in conformity with the expectation of the whole nation it will turn back the present situation to that before the publication of the June 15 north-south joint declaration, bringing all contacts, dialogue, visits and cooperation between the north and the south to stagnation at a bound.
Who is resorting to nuclear threat
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- The United States is viciously scheming to make the fiction of the "DPRK's suspected development of nuclear weapons" a fait accompli in a bid to find a pretext for sanction and pressure upon the DPRK, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary.
The U.S. conservative hard-liners are peddling the fiction of "nuclear suspicion " and "depot of parts of nuclear warheads" to shift the responsibility for non-fulfillment of the DPRK-U.S. agreed framework on to the DPRK, the commentary says, and goes on:
Objects of "suspected development of nuclear weapons" loudmouthed by U.S. hard-liners are all military establishments and important economic facilities.
We have built many underground economic structures with a view to countering the U.S. continued military threat of aggression. We do not conceal this. It is a just measure for self-defence.
The United States has no qualification for talking about someone's "nuclear threat".
The United States has stockpiled and deployed many nuclear weapons in South Korea and around it.
We are always exposed to the U.S. nuclear threat. It is all the more because the United States has not implemented the DPRK-U.S. agreed framework. Worse still, the U.S. nuclear warmongers openly expressed their intention to use nuclear weapons under the pretext of the "threat" from the DPRK.
It is clearly specified in the DPRK-U.S. agreed framework that the United States shall not use nuclear weapons nor threaten the DPRK with them. The U.S. announcement about use of nuclear weapons is a frantic violation of this.
The nuclear threat is coming from the United States. The United States is the very one who is resorting to nuclear threat.