National committee for study of Juche idea formed in Benin
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- An inaugural meeting of the Beninese National Committee for the Study of the Juche Idea was held on April 8.
Present at the meeting were a professor at Benin University, parliamentarians and figures of the academic circle.
The meeting underscored the need to actively participate in the struggle for the global independence by intensifying the study and dissemination of the Juche idea.
A letter to leader Kim Jong Il was adopted at the meeting.
Foreign state leaders on friendly relations with DPRK
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- Presidents of different countries mentioned the development of friendly relations with the DPRK when they met with the DPRK ambassadors to their countries.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, President of Philippines, said on April 10 that his country and the DPRK established the official diplomatic ties on July 12, 2000, as an expression of promise to develop the bilateral friendly and cooperative relations, and expressed the conviction that it will significantly contribute to the work for the progress of the two countries in the new millennium, too.
She hailed the progress made in the relations between the north and the south of Korea, hoping for greater success in the future.
Guinean President Lansana Conte on April 12 hoped that the friendly and cooperative relations between guinea and the DPRK will further strengthen and develop. His own and the Guinean government's stand to support the Korean people's struggle for reunification will remain unchanged, he said.
Mathieu Kerekou, President of Benin, on April 6 said that he will make positive efforts to further develop the friendly and cooperative relations between Benin and the DPRK.
Friendly meeting with russian delegation held
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- A friendly meeting with members of the delegation of the Russian newspaper Nahodkinski Rabochi was held at DPRK-Russia Friendship Moranbong Senior Middle School no. 1 yesterday.
Invited there were members of the delegation led by its editor-in-chief Anatoli Tabachkov.
Present at the meeting were the vice-chairman of the DPRK-Russia Friendship Association, officials concerned and teachers and pupils of the school.
After looking round various experiment and practice rooms of the school, the guests saw an art performance given by schoolchildren.
The participants talked to each other about strengthening and developing the friendly and cooperative relations between the peoples of the two countries in a friendly atmosphere.
Anti-Japanese demonstration in S. Korea
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- More than 3,000 students, teachers, parents of students and inhabitants in South Korea staged an anti-Japanese demonstration in protest against the distortion of facts in history textbooks, according to a foreign report.
The demonstrators marched on the street with placards reading "revise the distorted textbooks," "Japan should apologize and compensate us," etc.
Meanwhile, the South Korean General Association of Teachers' Organizations sponsored a special lesson to help children correctly understand Japan's moves to tamper with history.
Projected S. Korea-U.S. joint military exercise under fire
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary terms the "reception, staging, onward movement and integration" (Rsoi) exercise to be staged by the U.S. imperialists in South Korea from April 20 an exercise aimed to provoke a war of aggression on the Korean peninsula.
The commentary says:
The hostile and hardline policy pursued by the present U.S. authorities to stifle the DPRK is pushing the situation to the confrontation between the U.S. and the DPRK and putting the belligerent relations between the two countries in the danger of explosion. the war exercise to be launched against this background is fraught with greater danger as it will be staged under the simulated conditions of an actual war.
Given the aggressive nature and danger of the exercise, the DPRK is compelled to serve a stern warning to the U.S. imperialists.
If a war breaks out in Korea, it will be the most merciless and destructive war in the world history of war and it will never end without life-and-death battles.
If the U.S. imperialists calculate that they can achieve "victory" in the second Korean war, it will be a daydream.
If the present U.S. ruling bellicose forces misjudge the revolutionary stand and strength of the DPRK in a short-sighted manner and mount a reckless attack upon it, the DPRK will take it as the best opportunity to root out the very source of war on the Korean peninsula.
Friendly gathering held
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- A friendly gathering of artistes in the city and the participants in the 19th April Spring Friendship Art Festival was held in Pyongyang yesterday.
Present there were Jang Chol, chairman of the organizing committee of the festival, Kang Nung Su, minister of culture, Jong Mun San, chief secretary of the cabinet, Ryang Man Gil, chairman of the Pyongyang city people's committee, and others.
Also present were foreign artistes and overseas Korean artistes who participated in the festival.
A speech was made at the gathering.
The participants talked to each other about days of the festival and deepened friendship, singing and dancing together.
U.S. Cold War way of thinking and action slammed
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- The Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday released a commentary entitled "Cold War way of thinking and action will bring U.S. to nowhere."
The commentary said:
The movement to revive the Cold War contrary to the requirements of the times and history is being intensified in the United States where an ill-omened outburst declaring the Cold War between the east and the west was officially made for the first time in the last century.
Such moves are motivated by the noteworthy set-up of the Bush administration that emerged after the advent of the new century, and its belligerent foreign policy plan.
Bush was reported to have referred to this plan at a swearing-in ceremony as the 43rd U.S. President as follows:
The enemy of freedom, the enemy of the U.S., should never be mistaken. We will continue to engage the world because this is required by history and that is our option.
This means that the U.S. will continue to pursue as in the past the policy of high-handedly interfering in internal affairs of all other countries and putting pressure upon them for its hegemony.
The first proposal made by the hawkish group of the Cold War-minded Bush administration to put into practice the plan calls for a hardline policy intended to isolate and stifle anti-imperialist independent countries, especially the DPRK which does not allow any U.S. highhanded practice and intervention but defends its sovereignty.
What further irritated the U.S. hardliners was the publication of the historic north-south joint declaration on the Korean peninsula and the subsequent positive developments there favorable for the independent reunification of the Korean nation.
They consider the Korean peninsula as a strategic vantage point in the Asia-Pacific region for which they have given eye-teeth in a bid to expand the sphere of the U.S. political and military influence because of its huge economic potentials and geopolitical importance.
If the U.S. truly wants peace and stability of the world, it should unconditionally pull its troops out of South Korea. This is a prerequisite to the reunification of the Korean peninsula, peace and stability and sustained economic development in the Asia-Pacific region.
There is no ground for the U.S. to refuse to do so now that the Cold War ended and the historic phase has been brought about for peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula.
However, the hawkish group of the Bush administration is trying to derail the peace process and aggravate the situation on the Korean peninsula in a bid to invent a new pretext for the permanent U.S. military occupation and domination over South Korea and trigger off a war on the peninsula at any cost.
This is the main purpose of the U.S. hardliners to resume the Cold War while spreading the rumour about "threat" from the DPRK.
Their another aim is to establish the "National Missile Defence" system at any cost and thus render other nations' nuclear and missile deterrent defunct, realize the U.S. strategy for world supremacy and bring huge profits to its munition monopolies.
The Bush administration's moves to establish "NMD" are aimed to restart the Cold War by sparking a new global arms race.
It is needless to say that given the present stockpiling of nuclear and strategic weapons in the world, such moves of the U.S. will upset the world military strategic balance and stability and push other nations vitally interested in it to a large-scale arms race worldwide.
The demise of the Cold War deprived the U.S. of any justification to designate nuclear weapons states as strategic enemies or objects posing "threat." So, it is citing the DPRK as a state posing "a threat" in a bid to sow seeds of distrust and dissension among nations and thus meet its strategic interests.
The U.S. is still vociferating about "tough counteraction" to stifle a sovereign state, pursuant to the "strong-arm policy," the outdated policy of the Cold War. This, however, will not work on anyone.
The DPRK is not indebted to the U.S. nor it is a country which will yield to the U.S. arrogant demand based on "strength" and give up its sovereignty.
We are ready for either war or dialogue.
The U.S. administration is well advised to realize, though belatedly, that it will be the only and right choice for the global peace and for the U.S. itself to renounce the Cold War way of thinking and action and make a switchover in its hostile policy towards the DPRK in keeping with the demand of the new century.
Unabated struggle against Japan's distorted history textbooks abroad
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- The struggle of overseas compatriots against the Japanese distortion of history textbooks is gaining in scope and strength, according to Seoul-based Yonhap News.
The General Association of South Koreans in Americas sent a document to the associations of South Koreans in eight regions and the societies of South Koreans in 174 regions, calling for escalating acts of denouncing the crimes of Japan into a pan-national movement.
The general association in the document appealed to Koreans in the U.S. to actively participate in the movement for preserving the self-respect of the nation and called for a signature campaign of all the compatriots aimed to let the Korean community know well about the imprudent, aggressive and brutal nature of the Japanese government, conduct a movement for boycotting Japanese goods and demand the Japanese authorities rectify their measure at once.
The general association decided to submit each regional society's document condemning Japan's moves to tamper with its history and demanding a halt to them to the Japanese embassy in Washington and the Japanese government.
Meanwhile, the compatriots in Canada have waged a protest movement since April 6, spearheaded by the society of South Koreans and organizations of South Koreans there.
Senior officials meet foreign guests
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a talk with Iraklis Tsavdaridis, president of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today.
The president thanked the Korean people for their kind and warm hospitality accorded to him and wished them greater success in socialist construction and in the struggle for national reunification.
Kim Jung Rrin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), met and had a talk with the delegation of Syrian University of Politics headed by its President Hussein Sayed Hussein.
The head of the delegation said that he was glad to participate in the functions held in the DPRK to commemorate Sun's Day and expressed conviction that Korea's reunification would surely be achieved thanks to the single-hearted unity of the WPK, the people's army and the people.
Friendship gathering with Italian Juche idea study delegation
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- A friendship gathering with the members of the Italian delegation for the study of the Juche idea took place at Moranbong Senior Middle School no. 1 yesterday.
Present on invitation were the members of the delegation led by Franco Forconi.
Members of the Korea-Italy Friendship Association and teachers and pupils of the school were present.
The guests looked round various experiment and practice rooms before appreciating an art performance given by pupils.
Then the participants in the gathering shared feelings of friendship, talking about deepening mutual understanding of the two peoples and upgrading friendly and cooperative relations.
Kim Yong Nam receives credentials from ambassador of Mali
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, received credentials from Modibo Tiemoko Traore, ambassador e.p. of the Republic of Mali to the DPRK, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today.
The president had a conversation with the ambassador after receiving the credentials.
New DPRK ambassador to Peru appointed
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- Yu Chang Un was appointed as new DPRK ambassador e.p. to Peru, according to a decree of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Greetings to 9th Congress of Communist Party of Vietnam
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea today sent a message of greetings to the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Greeting the congress, the message said that the Vietnamese people have made great advance in the efforts to bring about the prosperity and development of the country under the leadership of the party.
It expressed the belief that the congress would mark an important occasion in strengthening the party and achieving the prosperity of the country and wished it success in its work.