Kim Jong Il inspects KPA naval unit No. 597
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il inspected unit No. 597 of the KPA navy on June 15.
He was accompanied by KPA generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.
He began his inspection by seeing a monument to the on-the-spot guidance of President Kim Il Sung and the room for the education in the revolutionary history.
He stressed that as the historic relics and materials associated with the revolutionary activities of the president are the valuable revolutionary heritage which will be handed down forever with the history of the navy, they should be well preserved and managed and effective education through them should be carried on.
He looked round warships to learn in detail about the performance of the unit's duty.
He noted with great satisfaction that sailors of the unit have grown up to be fighters of an invincible fleet and put forth important tasks which would serve as a guideline in strengthening the naval force of the country.
He then inspected entertainment, educational and logistic facilities to show a warm care of their living with paternal affection.
Special attention should be paid to the food and sleep of sailors, he said, stressing the need to improve supply service for them to suit their features.
He appreciated a performance of choruses given by thousands of sailors and their families.
He was greatly satisfied to see all the sailors of the unit fully prepared as men strong in ideology and faith.
He gave them an automatic rifle as a gift and had a photo taken with them.
Joint documents adopted at grand seminar on national reunification
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- A grand seminar on national reunification held on Mt. Kumgang yesterday to mark the 1st anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration adopted a joint communique on the seminar and a joint statement denouncing the Japanese authorities for working hard to distort history in textbooks.
The joint communique said that the seminar was attended by representatives of various political parties and organizations of the north and the south, over 200 from each side, 20 representatives of overseas compatriots from various regions, and more than 250 personages as observers.
The communique said:
The participants in the seminar that took place on the theme "June 15 Joint Declaration and Nation's Task" were unanimous in saying that the declaration is one for independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity and a joint programme and a joint landmark for the country's reunification which the Korean nation should hold fast to in the new century.
They said that in order to implement the June 15 Joint Declaration to the letter all the fellow countrymen should closely unite transcending the differences in ideology, idea and system from a firm stand to independently solve the reunification issue by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation and all the organizations and personages in the north and the south and abroad should work hard to achieve solidarity.
They underscored the need to activate the multi-faceted cooperation and exchanges and settle humanitarian issues in conformity with the desire of the nation between the north and the south to consolidate national reconciliation and confidence among compatriots. They also called for holding multifarious campaigns and events one after another in the "period of June 15-August 15 movement for the promotion of national reunification" to make a positive contribution to glorifying this year as a year of opening the door of reunification by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation.
The joint statement strongly condemned the Japanese right-wing conservatives' moves to tamper with history as an unpardonable criminal move to justify the past crimes committed against the Korean nation and revive militarism and thus realize their ambition for reinvasion.
Noting that with nothing can Japan justify its aggression and plunder, it said that the only way out for it is to make honest apology and due compensation for them.
Greetings to Queen of UK
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, today sent a message of greetings to Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on the occasion of her official birthday .
The message extended warm congratulations to her on the occasion of her official birthday.
In the belief that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would develop in conformity with the desire and interests of the two peoples in the new century, the message wished the Queen good health and happiness.
U.S. to blame for delay in lwr project, says KCNA
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- The executive of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) is taking an improper attitude toward the compensation for the loss of electricity caused by the delay in the lwr project.
Executive director of the KEDO Kartman said at a recent press conference in Seoul that the Pyongyang side is also responsible for the delay in the lwr project and that compensation for the loss of electricity caused by the delayed project is unacceptable because there is no provision calling for compensation in the DPRK-U.S. agreed framework.
His remark is very short-sighted and irresponsible given KEDO's mission to handle technical matters related to the construction of two LWRs, each 1,000 mw (e), by the year 2003.
His shameless assertion is intended to evade the U.S. responsibility for the delay in the LWR project and force the DPRK to observe the agreed framework unilaterally.
The DPRK nuclear freeze and the U.S. LWR provision are stipulated as simultaneous actions in the agreed framework.
If the DPRK had developed its nuclear power industry independently, not bound to the agreed framework, it would not have suffered any power shortage but have created an atomic energy generating capacity of 2,000 mw(e) by the year 2003.
Respecting the agreement with the U.S. and taking into consideration a letter from the u.s. president assuring the DPRK that lwr power plants with a capacity of 2,000 mw (e) would be completed by the year 2003, the DPRK sacrificed its nuclear power industry, sustaining a huge economic loss.
It is not secret that the U.S. deliberately delayed the project from its outset putting up a number of unreasonable conditions and laid one artificial obstacle after another, instituting even a regulation at the congress calling for putting the brake on the LWR project.
It is due to the U.S. insincere attitude and obstructive moves that it is hard to guess when the lwr project will be completed though it is nearly seven years since the agreed framework was signed.
Then who should compensate for the huge economic loss caused by the delayed project?
It is the universally recognized norm in the international relations that the loss caused by the non-compliance with an agreement should be compensated by the side which failed to observe it. The same is true of the sensitive politico-economic issue of the u.s. provision of LWRs to the DPRK in return for its freeze of nuclear facilities.
The KEDO executive director with a long political career must know it very well. He, however, is falsifying the stark fact in a bid to help the U.S. evade its responsibility to compensate for the electricity loss. this is little short of an act of damaging the confidence in the U.S. in the inter-state relations.
Given the agreed framework and the U.S. President's letter of assurance, the U.S. is certain to fail to fulfil its commitment. Under this situation the U.S. should unconditionally compensate for the electricity loss.
In this regard, the DPRK clarified more than once its resolute position on this matter after releasing a detailed report on the too much delay in the lwr project.
The DPRK explicitly states once again that it can no longer suffer an enormous loss of electricity, unilaterally bound to the agreed framework.
The KEDO executive should clarify its position toward the issue of compensation resulting from the failure to fulfil the commitment.
Anniversary of June 15 Joint Declaration observed
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- A reception was held at Mt. Kumgang Kotel yesterday to commemorate the first anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration.
Present at the reception were representatives of political parties and organizations in the DPRK including the Workers' Party of Korea, the Korean Social Democratic Party, the Chondoist Chongu Party and the c.c., the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland.
Also present were representatives of political parties and organizations and figures from all walks of life of South Korea including the Democratic Party for New Millennium, the Grand National Party, the Democratic Workers' Party and the south headquarters of Pomminryon (National Alliance for the Country's Reunification).
On hand were a delegation of Koreans in Japan and delegations and delegates of overseas compatriots.
Speeches were made at the reception.
Kim Yong Dae, chairman of the National Reconciliation Council and chairman of the North Side Preparatory Committee for the June 15-August 15 Movement for the Promotion of National Reunification, said that the grand seminar on national reunification is a grand gathering of the nation in which views on national reunification were exchanged in an open-hearted way and a historic event that demonstrated that the country's reunification can be achieved by the efforts of the Korean nation itself.
Pak Yong Ryul, manager of the General Federation of Christians of South Korea, noted that all those present at the seminar shared the same view that implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration means opening up a new era of independence and peace and that in the 21st century, the fellow countrymen should get rid of colonial misfortune and division made in the 20th century.
KCNA on sinister plot concerning nuclear issue
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- A high-ranking official of the U.S. State Department recently said that as the nuclear program of Pakistan is free from strict control, its capacity may be proliferated to such countries as North Korea.
It is nonsense that the united states, the very one who proliferated nuclear weapons in our planet and the nuclear war criminal who used nuclear weapons against humankind, expressed "concern" over someone.
The foreign minister of Pakistan strongly rejected the U.S. allegation that his country was related to the export of nuclear technology.
The director of the pacific forum of the U.S. centre for strategic and international studies and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Bosworth said that North Korea was more faithful to the implementation of the Geneva agreed framework than the U.S. and there was not enough evidence proving Pyongyang's non-compliance with the agreed framework. Their remarks proved that the U.S. "concern" was groundless.
The U.S. pulled up the DPRK over "proliferation of nuclear capacity" in a bid to shift the responsibility for unilaterally delaying the implementation of the agreed framework onto the DPRK.
As already reported, the agreed framework is now facing such a serious crisis that should no longer be over looked with 2003 at hand and the U.S. is entirely to blame for this.
However, the U.S. has not taken any substantial urgent measure, failing to adopt a self-examining and responsible attitude and stand toward the destiny of the agreed framework, but has pursued a sinister aim to turn the world public in its favour at any cost under the pretext of "nuclear suspicion" in the DPRK and elevate its negotiating position.
The U.S. should act with discrection, pondering over what consequenses its sinister plot will bring to the DPRK-U.S. relations and international relations as a whole.
Letter to Kim Jong Il from former unconverted long-term prisoners
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il Friday received a letter from former unconverted long-term prisoners, patriotic pro-reunification fighters, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration.
The letter says:
You arranged the historic Pyongyang meeting, the first of its kind in 55 years of national division, and made public the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration to open up a bright vista for national reunification and saw to it that we were repatriated to the socialist fatherland.
It was you who instilled inexhaustible energy and courage into us, so that we might fight unyieldingly, remaining true to our faith and principle to the last.
We did only what we should do. however, you highly praised us and made tireless efforts for our repatriation to the homeland. No matter how bitter our sufferings in the south were they can not stand in comparison with your efforts exerted for our repatriation.
Thanks to your profound love and care, now we find ourselves happiest, feeling as if we are again in youth after our rebirth.
Equatorial Guinean parliamentary delegation here
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- A delegation of the House of Representatives of the people of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea led by its chairman Sabmon Nguma Owono arrived here today.
The delegation was greeted at the airport by choe thae bok, chairman of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, and officials concerned.
DPRK delegations leave
Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- A Korean film delegation led by Jo Chan Gu, vice-minister of culture, left here today to participate in the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival, a KCNA delegation led by its deputy director general Han Song Bok to participate in the world congress for information cooperation to be held in Russia and a delegation of the Korean Democratic Women's Union led by Pak Sun Hui, chairwoman of its central committee, to visit Thailand and Laos.