Film show and friendly meeting held
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- The Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries hosted a film show and a friendly meeting here yesterday on the occasion of the New Year Juche 90 (2001).
Invited there were foreign embassy officials here in charge of cultural and friendly relations.
Present were Ri Song Ho, vice-chairman of the committee, and officials concerned.
The participants enjoyed a Korean feature film "Oh, Youth " and conversed with each other in a friendly atmosphere.
Young KPA soldiers vow loyalty to Kim Jong Il
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- Young soldiers of the Korean People's Army held a rally at the plaza of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace yesterday to vow loyalty to supreme commander Kim Jong Il on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League.
Young soldiers of the KPA three services pledged themselves to be standard-bearers and shock brigaders who take the lead in upholding Kim Jong Il's army-first revolutionary politics with arms.
Present there were Jo Myong Rok, director of the general political department of the KPA, Kim Il Chol, Minister of the People's Armed Forces, and generals.
Proposals made by north hailed in S. Korea
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- Several South Korean organizations welcomed the proposals made at the 2001 meeting held in Pyongyang on Jan. 10, according to Seoul-based "Yonhap News" (internet).
The People's Council for National Reconciliation and Cooperation (Minhwahyop) in a statement on Jan. 12 warmly welcomed the "June 15-August 15 period of movement for promoting national reunification" set by the north, noting that "the south and north should seek specific ways of putting it into practice in future."
The Consultative Council for Democracy and Peaceful Reunification (Minjuphyongthong) in a news release issued on Jan. 12 called upon all the fellow countrymen at home and abroad to pool their will to launch a nationwide movement irrespective of their party affiliation "in order to positively cooperate with each other in the sincere implementation of the south-north joint declaration."
All Koreans urged to display patriotism
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- All Koreans in the north and the south and abroad who love and are concerned about the destiny of the country and nation should firmly unite irrespective of ideology, religious belief, political view, class and strata under the banner of national reunification, urges Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article.
It says:
Patriotism serves as an ideological basis of the great national unity for the reunification of the country.
This is mainly because patriotism is feelings common to all Koreans.
There are classes and strata with differing ideas, political views and isms in the north and the south. But all of them value their country and love their nation, not seeking their interests only.
Another reason is that patriotism serves as a most viable idea of achieving true great national unity under the present situation in Korea which remains divided into two.
The distinctions between the north and south are gaping as the days go by in all fields of social life such as politics, economy and culture as differing ideologies and systems have existed there for over a half century.
It is not what the Korean nation wants. It is its unanimous desire to live and develop as a homogeneous nation.
The Korean nation is a resourceful nation that turned its land into a fertile one, carving out its destiny by itself and rejecting foreign forces.
It was patriotism that inspired our ancestors hand down wisdom and talent to posterity.
Nothing is stronger and nobler than patriotism. Patriotism alone serves as an ideological and mental basis of uniting the north and south as one nation irrespective of political views and isms.
New posters created
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- An exhibition of posters calling for the implementation of the tasks laid down in the joint new year editorial is now under way in Pyongyang.
On display are some 60 posters.
They were created by the Mansudae Art Studio, the Central Fine Arts Studio and Pyongyang University of Fine Arts.
All the posters vigorously call upon the entire party and the army and all the people to speed up the socialist advance under the Red Flag.
Posters "open up the road of advance through the new century in the spirit of the victorious 'arduous march' " and "let's pave a broad avenue for the building of a powerful nation ," in particular, attract the attention of visitors as they represent the spirit of the times.
Some of them call for carrying the socialist cause of Juche to completion in hearty response to the politics of independence and unity of the Workers' Party of Korea.
The posters "let's increase our military strength to be invincible to meet the requirements of the era of army-first revolution " and "let's stick to the line of army-first revolution " underscore the need to build up the army as an invincible one carrying forward the tradition of the Korean revolution which was launched with arms and won victories with arms.
There are also posters dealing with the firm faith of the Korean people to accomplish the cause of the country's reunification by their concerted efforts.
Also displayed at the exhibition are posters encouraging people in the high-pitched drive in various fields of the national economy such as power, coal and metal industries and such nature-harnessing projects including land levelling and rezoning project in South Hwanghae Province and Kaechon-Lake Thaesong Waterway project.
Proposal for independent reunification of Korea supported
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- Angel Castro Lavarello, chairman of the Peru-Korea Institute of Culture and Friendship, expressed support to the proposals set forth at the 2001 meeting for independent reunification of the Korean nation.
He in a press statement on January 11 said that neither one nor force can check a new history of Korea's reunification which started on the Korean peninsula.
The statement said that in order to pave the way for the independent reunification of the Korean nation the north-south joint declaration should be implemented to the letter.
And it expressed support to the 2001 meeting for independent reunification of the Korean nation which set a period of the movement for the promotion of national reunification from June 15 to august 15 liberation day this year and ardently called upon the whole nation to decorate the first liberation day of the 21st century as a nation-wide festival for reunification.
Computer education intensified in DPRK
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- Computer education has been intensified as an important subject in education in the DPRK today when information technology is making rapid progress, said director of the program education guidance department of the ministry of education O Min, when interviewed by KCNA recently as regards the computer education emphasized in the educational field in keeping with the need of the present times.
He said:
In recent years, the state set up a new program education guidance department at the ministry of education for the purpose of enforcing computer education in the fields of higher and common education under a uniform and long-term plan and organized a center for program education under it.
These mechanisms give a uniform help and guidance to research work to improve schedules and contents of program education and develop computer programs.
In the field of higher education, the computer science college was newly established at Kim Il Sung University and such specialized computer colleges as the computer technology college appeared in Pyongyang and Hamhung.
A faculty of computer engineering made its appearance at Kim Chaek University of Technology and a faculty of computer science at university of science. At the same time chairs and courses of information engineering were set up at several universities to train computer experts.
In the field of common education, program classes appeared at various provincial senior middle schools no. 1 and a considerable portion of mathematical lessons is devoted to computer education from the second year to the sixth year course at senior middle schools.
Computer education has thus been made a compulsory subject at all universities, colleges and middle schools throughout the country.
A national program contest and exhibition was held last year with teachers and schoolchildren of schools at all levels attending.
This program contest and exhibition is expected to be annual event.
Preparatory committee of Koreans residents in China inaugurated
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- A Preparatory Committee of the General Association of Koreans in China was inaugurated in Shenyang, China, on January 9 to celebrate the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il.
Yang Yong Dong, chairman of the general association, was elected its chairman.
The preparatory committee decided to hold colorful celebrations on the occasion of his birthday.
S. Korean figure on peaceful reunification
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- Yang Tong Ju, director of the Institute of North Pacific Studies in South Korea, published an article calling for sincerely implementing the June 15 joint declaration to open up a radical phase of national reunification, according to the South Korean newspaper Hangyore.
After the publication of the joint declaration an atmosphere of reconciliation and cooperation is growing in different fields, the article noted, and said: however, in South Korea "anti-communist ideology," which had prevailed in the past period of dictatorship and the era of Cold War, is still maintained by the hardline conservatives.
As peaceful reunification is supposed to be achieved under an agreement between both sides with differing systems, there can never be "reunification by force," it said, and went on:
Genuine peaceful reunification can be achieved when we preserve common denominators of the south-proposed "confederation" formula and the north-proposed "low-stage federation" formula and go through an intermediary stage (one nation, one state, two systems and two governments) to attain complete reunification.
All of us should drop narrow-minded, ideological and regional discord and open up a new era on the basic principle of democracy and reasonable way of thinking for the future of the nation.
Kye Ung Thae meets Cuban ambassador
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- Kye Ung Thae, secretary of the c.c., the Workers' Party of Korea, today met and conversed with Jose Manuel Inclan Embade, Cuban ambassador to the DPRK, who paid a farewell visit to him.