2nd round of inter-Korean military working-level talks held
Panmunjom, December 5 (KCNA) -- The second round of the inter-Korean military working-level talks was held in the south side's portion of Panmunjom today.
Present at the talks were the north side's military working delegation headed by senior colonel Yu Yong Chol and the south side's military working delegation led by brigadier general Kim Kyong Dok.
Yu Yong Chol clarified the view and stand of the north side on the technical issues of putting some portions of the demilitarized zone along the Military Demarcation Line, through which Sinuiju-Seoul railways and Kaesong-Munsan road will pass, under the control of the north and the south as well as the issue of militarily guaranteeing the project there. And he handed the south side draft agreement of the north side on this matter.
Then he said if the delegates of the two sides fail to should discharge their responsibilities for this work intended to make a breakthrough in the history of division spanning half a century and relink the blood ties of the nation, they will bring only disappointment to the people at home and abroad who follow the talks with great expectation.
Both sides should take a sincere and open-hearted attitude toward the talks to produce an agreement conducive to the implementation of the June 15 joint declaration, he said.
The two sides had discussion on the draft agreement set forth by the north side and agreed to continue the negotiations for preserving their common points and narrowing down their differences.
They agreed to hold the next round of the talks in the north side's portion of Panmunjom in the latter part of December.
Symposium on anniversary of Kim Jong Il's election as Supreme Commander
Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- The Juche Idea Study Society of India held a symposium titled "Kim Jong Il, statesman of general type" on Dec. 2 under the sponsorship of the Asian regional Institute of the Juche Idea on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the election of the great leader Kim Jong Il as Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA).
Referring to Kim Jong Il's military foresight, speakers at the symposium said that he is so far-sighted as to clarify with his profound knowledge of military affairs all the problems arising in the building of the revolutionary armed forces at present and is possessed of such unique intelligence as settling all the military problems creatively and handling all the situation according to circumstances.
Today the KPA is demonstrating its might as an army strong in ideology and faith. This is a precious fruition of foresight of Kim Jong Il who saw to it that political and ideological education has been intensified among soldiers.
A congratulatory message to Kim Jong Il was adopted at the symposium.
Japan urged to redress its past
Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- A Japanese magazine Sekaishuho recently published an article saying that such hideous crimes as kidnapping and drafting Koreans for slave labour committed by the Japanese imperialists in Korea in the past were openly sponsored by the Japanese government.
In this regard Minju Joson today in a signed commentary says that this is one more evidence proving that those crimes were something unprecedented orchestrated and put into practice by the Japanese government.
Noting that the Japanese government is shameless enough to deny this stark fact, the commentary goes on:
Japan has turned its face away from the issue of redressing its crime-woven past and employed every possible means and method to evade the responsibility for it.
It is a gross miscalculation for the Japanese government to try to settle this issue by paying a petty amount of money to victims.
The Japanese government should abandon its wrong attitude and opt for redressing Japan's past crimes, though belatedly.
Only by doing so, can Japan regain confidence from the international community, become its full-fledged member in the new century and normalize its relations with the DPRK.
The world will closely follow Japan's future attitude.
Lao President refers to friendly relations with DPRK
Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- Khamtay Siphandone, President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and chairman of the central committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, when receiving credentials from the new DPRK Ambassador E. P. to Laos on Nov. 30, stressed the need to boost the friendly relations between Laos and the DPRK.
The President said that the friendly and cooperative relations between the parties, governments and peoples of the two countries are strategic and comradely ones which were provided by Kaysone Phomvihane and President Kim Il Sung, the great leader of the Korean people, and these ties are now growing stronger.
He continued:
We will make every possible effort to boost the traditional cooperative relations between the two parties, states and peoples in all fields and bring them into bloom in the future, too. We rejoice at and highly appreciate the great successes the fraternal Korean people under the wise guidance of the great leader Kim Jong Il have made in socialist construction and in the struggle for the peaceful reunification of the country by frustrating the imperialists' moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and overcoming repeated natural disasters.
We are sure that the Korean people will register greater success in their efforts to build a powerful socialist nation and achieve the peaceful reunification of the country.
"Day of world solidarity with Palestinian people" observed
Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- A solidarity meeting was held here yesterday on the occasion of "the day of world solidarity with the Palestinian people."
Ryom Sun Gil, chairman of the central committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea who is concurrently chairman of the DPRK-Palestine Friendship and Solidarity Committee, in his speech said the Korean people, who regard the cause of the Palestinian people as their own, sincerely hope that they would completely regain their legitimate national rights at an early date, firmly united around the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Authority headed by Yasser Arafat. They will invariably stand by the side of the fighting Palestinian people until the national flag of Palestine flutters in the sky above Kuds, he added.
He, in the name of the participants in the meeting and the DPRK-Palestine Friendship and Solidarity Committee, strongly denounced the Israeli aggressors for their inhuman and brutal suppression.
The Korean people will as ever make positive efforts to further deepen the long-standing relations of friendship and strengthen the militant solidarity with the Palestinian people, he said.
Shaher Mohammed Abdlah, Palestinian ambassador here, said in his speech that the friendly Korean people have always extended comradely solidarity and full support to the Palestinian people in the struggle to take back their legitimate rights.
The Palestine-DPRK friendship was provided by the great President Kim Il Sung and President Yasser Arafat and is now being further strengthened and developed under the care of the great leader Kim Jong Il, he noted.
Saying that all the achievements made in Korea after the historic Pyongyang meeting are the fruition of Kim Jong Il's army-first politics, he expressed the belief that under his leadership the Korean people would certainly reunify the country.
Scientific and technological achievements in DPRK
Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- Korean scientists solved more than hundred significant scientific and technological problems this year.
More than 60 scientific and technological achievements including the technology of applying satellite-fed information, the technology of mass-producing human somatotropin from microorganism by a genetic engineering method, the development of software, the technology of manufacturing integrated circuit were praised as something of world standard.
New valuable research achievements were made in the fields of electronics, mechanical engineering, cell and genetic engineering including the manufacture of a sensor device capable of measuring the surface temperature of a revolving furnace, a kidney stone crusher. This opened a bright prospect of metal industry, public health and biological engineering.
A national scientific and technological festival held in May last introduced more than 500 valuable scientific and technological research achievements made in power, mining and metal industries, railway transport, telecommunications, agriculture, fish breeding and other fields.
Among them a remote-controlled device for alternating power supply, the development of a rectangular cylindrical head of chisel, a numerical control pentahedral processing lathe and an electronic optical instrument of a scanning electron microscope, etc, were highly appreciated for their great practical significance.
There are in the DPRK not only system to solve scientific and technological problems urgent in production but a system to find solutions to those under long-term comprehensive plans.
April 15 technical innovation shock brigades are active at factories and enterprises across the country.
They introduced over 85,900 technical innovation proposals and new technology into production this year.
Over 11,000 products of 3,500 varieties were presented to a recent national invention and new technology exhibition by shock brigades in cooperation with scientists and technicians.
The DPRK singled out science and technology as one of the three pillars for building a powerful nation and is channeling its efforts into their development though it is hard pressed for everything.