Gift to Kim Jong Il from head of UNESCO
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il received a gift from the director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Matsuurs Koichiro, director general of UNESCO on a visit to Korea, conveyed the gift to an official concerned.
DPRK ambassador to Syria appointed
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- Kim Hyong Jun was appointed as the DPRK Ambassador E.P. to the Syrian Arab Republic, according to a decree of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK.
Kim Yong Nam meets director general of UNESCO and his party
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, met and conversed with Matsuura Koichiro, director general of the UNESCO, and his party on a visit to the DPRK at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today.
Choe Su Hon, vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and chairman of the DPRK national committee of the UNESCO, and other officials concerned were present.
The director general at the meeting said that he came to know well about the achievements made by the Korean people in different fields under the wise leadership of the great leader Kim Jong Il and, especially, achievements in educational and cultural sectors are a model of the developing countries.
Gift to Kim Jong Il
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il received a gift from the visiting delegation of the Finnish National Committee for the Study of the Juche Idea.
Its secretary general Pekka Rantala, head of the delegation, conveyed the gift to an official concerned.
Photo exhibition of Koguryo murals opens
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- An opening ceremony of photo exhibition of koguryo murals was held at the Korean Central History Museum yesterday.
Present at the ceremony were Kang Nung Su, Minister of Culture, and Choe Su Hon, vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and chairman of the DPRK national committee of UNESCO, officials concerned and working people in Pyongyang.
Matsuura Koichiro, director general of UNESCO, and his party were also present there.
Speeches were made at the ceremony.
Its participants looked round photos of Koguryo murals whose colors remain unfading even after the lapse of more than a thousand years and which are distinct and beautiful in drawing techniques and unique in their themes and well composed to match walls.
Korea's famous waterfalls
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- There is famous Pakyon falls in Korea visited by many people every day.
Situated in the gigantic granite ravine between Mt. Chonma and Mt. Songgo, Kaesong, it is widely known together with Kuryong falls on the world's famous Mt. Kumgang and Taesung falls on Mt. Solak.
It is 37 metres high.
At the foot of the waterfalls there is Komo pond 40 metres across. It has been coned out by the cascading water and over which protrudes a round rock called Ryong rock at the western shore of the pond. On a hill east of the Komo pond stands the Pomsa pavilion.
At the head of the waterfalls there is Pakyon pond 8 metres across. As a large rock stands high strangely in the middle of the pond shaped like a calabash, water rushes against the rock before falling down.
Sound of waterfalls is reminiscent of thunder.
The waterfalls presents a superb scenery in all seasons.
All species of flowers are in full bloom on rocky cliffs surrounding the waterfalls in spring, it is covered with green foliage in summer, maples turn red in autumn and frostwork is seen in winter.
There are over the falls famous historic remains including a 10-kilometre-long wall, the Kwanum Temple and the Taehung Temple dating back to the period of Koryo dynasty.
The President Kim Il Sung visited there in August Juche 46 (1957).
Touring the falls, Pukmun (north gate) and the Kwanum Temple, he said that the Pakyon falls is a famous site with splendid historic remains and instructed that it should be built well into a place for the cultural recreation of working people.
Pakyon falls and its surrounding area serve as a recreation ground for working people.
Light comedy "Let's Always Be Cheerful" staged
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- The light comedy "Let's Always Be Cheerful" produced by creators and artistes of the April 25 Film Studio of the Korean People's Army was staged at the Mansudae Art Theatre yesterday.
Kim Yong Nam, Hong Song Nam and other senior party and state officials and working people in the city appreciated the performance.
The light comedy represents the revolutionary spirit of servicemen and their families who cheerfully pull through all difficulties in their way, though it is thorny, firmly convinced that they are sure to win as long as they are under the leadership of the respected Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il.
It relates the story about how the wives of officers in a unit came to participate in an art contest among art circles of families of officers of the whole army, the first of its kind in its history.
KCNA on Sankei Shimbun's mud-slinging at DPRK
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- Recently the Japanese Sankei Shimbun malignantly slung a spate of mud at the DPRK.
It asserted that the DPRK has "repeated international outrages" and "began striding across the world without liquidating any of them on the occasion of the inter-Korean summit talks". It was ridiculous enough to express even "apprehensions," saying "indeed, situation in East Asia remains extremely threatening."
Sankei Shimbun's commentary does not deserve even a passing note as it is nothing but outbursts let loose by those who are much upset by the ever growing might of the DPRK and, at the same time, a foolish and despicable attempt to put a brake on the process for improving the DPRK-Japan relations.
It is disgusting to note that there exists in the civilized society at the turn of the 21st century such base newspaper as Sankei Shimbun which is neither progressive nor conservative but hell-bent on making groundless diatribes and playing tricks.
In the world press there are mediapersons who style themselves conservatives or media institutions which call themselves conservatives.
But there is no such newspaper as Sankei Shimbun which, misleading public opinion with a twisted view of value and logic intended to profoundly confuse right and wrong and speaking for the reactionary forces, has turned into a disgraceful political waiting maid.
Sankei Shimbun can neither be called a newspaper reflecting public opinion nor a conservative one.
It is the mission of the press to carry true reports and convey truth and this is vital to its activities. Any newspaper cannot escape objective censure as a reptile and deceptive paper, if it ignores truth and spreads false stories. This is true of Sankei Shimbun.
As everyone knows, whenever the DPRK faced an ordeal in recent years Sankei Shimbun persistently spread stories about "crisis" and "collapse," thus delighting ultra-right reactionary forces. Did the DPRK really collapse as this paper predicted?
On the contrary, the international dignity of the DPRK as a member of the international community is rapidly rising and "striding across the world" as admitted by the group of hack writers of Sankei Shimbun.
After all, they have become amaurotic persons who neither discern realities nor analyze developments as they have been engrossed only in base mud-slinging and plot-breeding.
No malicious slander and calumny can conceal truth.
U.S. plan for permanent presence of its forces rejected
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- Doug Bandow, an expert on Korean affairs at the U.S. Cato Institute in Washington, in a report titled "Defusing of tensions in South Korea? Threat to the anachronistic presence of U.S. troops in South Korea" published on August 17 asserted that it is a big mistake for the U.S. to seek the permanent presence of its forces in South Korea.
Now that the relations between the north and south are improving at a speed beyond one's expectation, "the U.S. seems to aim at keeping its troops in South Korea at any cost", he noted, adding that the U.S. logic calling for the permanent presence of its forces in South Korea is little convincing.
He stressed that the "north-south relations should be decided by the two sides."
Preparatory committees inaugurated in Ecuador
Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- A Guayaquil preparatory committee and a Cuenca preparatory committee of Ecuador were inaugurated separately on August 9 and 11 to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
At the inaugural meetings vice-chairman of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Committee to Support the Reunification of Korea and chairman of the Guayaquil branch of the Ecuadorian Committee for Supporting Korea's Independent and Peaceful Reunification Alva Chavez was elected chairman of the Guayaquil preparatory committee, and chairman of the Cuenca branch of the Ecuadorian Committee for Supporting Korea's Independent and Peaceful Reunification Osvaldo Larriva Alvarado chairman of the Cuenca preparatory committee.
The meetings decided to hold multifarious functions to mark the day.