U.S. forces' pullout from S. Korea demanded
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- The Bush administration is insisting that the DPRK reduce its conventional forces under the absurd pretext of a number of threats from it and working hard to build up public opinion on the issue.
In this regard Minju Joson today in a signed commentary says:
Disarmament on the Korean peninsula calls for terminating the hostile relations between the DPRK and the United States, withdrawing the U.S. forces from South Korea, wiping out mistrust and misunderstanding between the north and the south and reducing their armed forces.
The main point is to put an end to the hostile relations between the DPRK and the United States and effect the U.S. forces pullback from South Korea. Armed forces in the north and the south cannot be cut down without finding a solution to the issue.
When the agreement on nonaggression was adopted early in the 1990s thanks to the initiative and positive efforts of the DPRK the United States staged a large-scale war exercise against the north under the pretext of the non-existent "suspected nuclear program" of the DPRK, barring the implementation of the agreement.
This taught a lesson that inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation is bound to strike a snag unless the U.S. forces' pullback from South Korea is preceded.
There may be different ways for effectuating it.
The best of them is for the united states to give up its wrong policy towards the DPRK and sign a peace agreement with it.
By nature the issue of disarmament surfaced on the Korean peninsula due to the U.S. troops' occupation of South Korea.
But for this occupation the Korean nation would not have been split and two parts of Korea would not have levelled arms at each other for scores of years.
The United States keeps tens of thousands of forces in South Korea and hundreds of thousands of South Korean troops under its command.
There is a very big gap not only in the strength of armed forces but in combat equipment. The DPRK does not have even a single nuclear weapon but the U.S. troops have a lot of nukes.
As seen above, the troop reduction on the peninsula would be meaningless and invalid without the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from South Korea in view of either the aim and content of the issue of disarmament there or imbalance in the strength of armed forces between the DPRK and the United States.
Troop cutback on the Korean peninsula should begin with the pullout of the U.S. troops. the withdrawal of the U.S. troops is prerequisite to disarmament on the peninsula.
Anniversary of KAASC marked
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- A meeting was held here on Thursday to mark the 45th anniversary of the Korean Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee.
Attending the meeting were its chairman Ryom Sun Gil, who is chairman of the c.c., the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, and members of the solidarity committee and working people in the city.
Ryom Sun Gil made a report there.
The participants saw a Korean documentary film at the end of the meeting.
S. Korean students stage anti-U.S. demonstration
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- Members of the anti-U.S. vanguard under the South Korean Federation of University Student Councils reportedly staged a surprise demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy in Seoul on May 25, protesting against the U.S. establishment of "Missile Defense" system.
The demonstrators contended that the South Korea-U.S.-Japan talks in Hawaii were motivated by the U.S. intention to revise the Geneva agreement in a bid to aggravate the situation on the Korean peninsula and seek a justification for the establishment of MD.
Such attempt at the revision of the Geneva agreement on the resumption of the DPRK-U.S. talks should be resolutely checked for the implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration and peace on the Korean peninsula, they said.
When the police were hurled to disperse the demonstrators, those students lay on the road to offer stiff resistance, chanting slogans.
Inter-Korean joint photo exhibition to be opened
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- A north-south joint photo exhibition "Paektu-Halla" will be opened here in mid-June to mark the first anniversary of the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration. It is to be cosponsored by the Korean Journalists Union and the Federation of Historians and Juridicial Persons' Associations and the Photographic Society of South Korea.
On show there will be over 100 excellent photographs introducing scenic spots and landscapes of mts. Paektu and Halla and other famous mountains in the north and the south of Korea extending 1,200 kms.
The exhibition will give the 70 million fellow countrymen a good opportunity of recalling the spirit of the joint declaration while encouraging them in the efforts for its implementation.
The north-south joint photo exhibition will also be held in Seoul around August 15.
Cuban embassy officials help Korean farmers
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- Ambassador Esteban Lobaina Romero and staff members of the Cuban embassy visited the Korea-Cuba Friendship Hwasong Cooperative Farm on the outskirts of Pyongyang on Thursday.
They looked round a friendship room arranged on the farm after being briefed on the history of the farm.
Then they helped the farmers in doing rice-transplanting while overcoming the damage caused by drought.
During a break they conversed and sang songs with the farmers, deepening the friendship.
Continued U.S. anti-DPRK moves
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialist bellicose elements conducted over 140 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK in May with strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes of various missions, according to military sources.
Over 30 espionage flights were made by U-2 and RC-135 strategic reconnaissance planes.
RC-12 and RC-7B tactical reconnaissance planes, EH-60 electronic warfare helicopters, P-3 patrol planes and EP-3 special operation planes were also involved in the espionage on frontline and coastal areas and major objects of the DPRK.
Meanwhile, the U.S. imperialists frantically staged anti-DPRK war exercises in the sky above South Korea.
On May 29 more than 80 fighter-bombers and assault planes of the U.S. air force in South Korea conducted ground strike, aerial attack and support-to-front exercises targeted on the DPRK.
On the 25th and the 26th of May, over 150 fighter planes of various missions belonging to the U.S. army, naval and air forces staged air targetting, close air support and strike-ground-target exercises aimed to make a suprise attack on the strategic objects in the northern half of Korea.
S. Korean air force exercise projected
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- The South Korean air force announced that it would stage a five day-long "2001 exercise for supporting air battles" from May 30 and "examine its results," according to Seoul-based Yonhap News.
The air force described it as a "drill for the best maintenance and the increase of the capacity to support arms" to be participated in by all its units. To be involved there are "F-4," "F-16" and other type fighters, "T-37" training planes, "C-130" and "CN-235" transport planes, "HH-60" and "HH-47" helicopters, etc.
And most elite ground crews and arms suppliers selected from each flying corps are set to undergo training under the simulated conditions of an actual war.
The exercise will involve an "evaluation of skills of maintaining planes, fitting them with arms and assembling bombs and guided missiles, etc."
New species of willow bred
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- A new species of willow of high economic value is now being widely bred in different parts of the DPRK.
This was bred by scientists of the botanical institute of the biological branch of the academy of sciences by means of cell engineering to meet the climatic and soil conditions of Korea.
This can grow in different parts of Korea including northern highlands where the temperature goes down tens of degrees below zero.
It is easy to cultivate the tree as it requires only a proper amount of water regardless of soil conditions. It is characterized by fast growing.
During a month since trunks of the tree began growing vigorously it shows an average daily growth of 3.5 cm.