U.S. urged to opt for signing peace agreement
Pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- The Korean peninsula is not yet free from the danger of war although nearly half a century has passed since the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement (KAA), says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary.
Explaining its main reason, the commentary says that it is due to the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its forces' presence in South Korea which militarily backs the policy.
The U.S. unilaterally derailed the Geneva conference called to seek the withdrawal of all the foreign forces from Korea after the signing of the KAA and has consistently pursued the policy of military confrontation with the DPRK, while systematically increasing the number of its troops present in South Korea for nearly half a century.
The root cause of a war on the Korean peninsula is the U.S. imperialist aggression forces present in South Korea.
It is already publicly recognized that U.S. combat forces are deployed in South Korea to launch an offensive against the north.
Bellicose forces of the Bush administration are deploying new task forces and sophisticated operational equipment in and around South Korea under the pretext of "threat" from the DPRK.
As seen above, the U.S. troops present in South Korea are the main forces which deteriorate the situation and pose a threat to peace and security on the Korean peninsula.
The adoption of a peace agreement between the DPRK and the U.S. and the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from South Korea are prerequisites for defusing the tensions, creating an atmosphere of lasting peace on the peninsula and improving the DPRK-U.S. relations.
The U.S. troops are left with no justification to stay in South Korea any longer and there is no reason to refuse to adopt a peace agreement, given that the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the U.S. came to an end long ago and the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration is at the phase of its implementation.
Everything depends on the U.S. attitude.
Gifts to Kim Jong Il from Russian personages
Pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- Personages of Russia presented gifts to leader Kim Jong Il in congratulation of his official visit to Russia.
Among them were I.A. Slujai, chairman of the Moscow war Veterans' Committee of Russia, I.I. Sannikov, member of the Russian War and Military Service Veterans' Committee, A. Danilov, editor-in-chief of the Russian paper Veteran, A.K. Nikonov, curator of the Russian National Military Museum, V.P. Zhukov, president of Partnor-1 Company of Russia, and the National Flight Technological Center of Russia.
Letter of protest to Bush
Pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- The International United Confederation of Koreans (International Kothongryon) sent a letter to Bush on August 2 in protest against the U.S. hindrance to the implementation of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration on the occasion of the June 15-August 15 period of the movement for promoting national reunification.
The U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Korea arouses concern over the fate of the Korean peninsula, the letter said, and went on:
The allegation that the DPRK "threatens" the U.S. is little different from the ambition of a wolf to devour a sheep. It is no more than an unrealizable dream.
We lodge strong protest with the U.S. against hindering the implementation of the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration under the pretext of "threat" from the DPRK.
Revolutionary martyrs cemetery on Mt. Taesong
Pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- There is a revolutionary martyrs cemetery on Mt. Taesong in the suburbs of Pyongyang, where the fallen anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters are entombed.
They belonged to the first generation of the Korean revolution who devoted their all to the struggle for the liberation of the country and the freedom and happiness of the people from the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle (October 1926-August 1945).
The cemetery is called the revolutionary martyrs cemetery on Mt. Taesong.
It was built in October Juche 64 (1975) and rebuilt and enlarged in October Juche 74 (1985) as a grand monumental edifice four times as big as the previous one.
Most of the area of the cemetery is decorated with granite and there are monuments showing the fighting exploits of the martyrs.
At the entrance to the cemetery there is the gate, and a little onward lie more than 400 large stairs along the slope before the memorial pillars.
If you climb up passing through the pillars, you will reach the ground of sculptural groups. Standing on each side are sculptural groups which concentrically show the history of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.
If you go up further, you will each the education ground and find a monument to President Kim Il Sung's handwriting, another monument inscribed with a paean, group sculptures and a wreath-laying stand with a medal of the DPRK hero carved in relief.
Standing in the busts district are busts of more than 120 anti-Japanese revolutionary martyrs against the background of a red flag which is depicted grandiosely.
If one climbs the cemetery, he can enjoy a bird's eye of view of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace where Kim Il Sung is preserved in state and a panoramic view of Pyongyang.
Greetings to President of Singapore
pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, today sent a message of greetings to President S. R. Nathan of Singapore on the occasion of its national day.
The message extended congratulations to the President, government and people of Singapore on the national day and wished the president success in his responsible work for the progress and prosperity of the country.
U.S. obstructions to tour of Mt. Kumgang assailed
pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- If the United States persistently hampers the tour of Mt. Kumgang, it will meet a protest not only from the Korean people but from the world peace-loving people and will be held wholly responsible for all the ensuing consequences.
A spokesman for the Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee said this in a statement issued today denouncing the U.S. administration for working hard to put the tour into stagnation and foil it.
He went on to say:
The tour of Mt. Kumgang was arranged thanks to the noble patriotic desire and great compatriotic decision of the DPRK to realize the wishes of the South Korean people to see Mt. Kumgang, a famous mountain of the nation, even once and achieve the great unity of the nation to make a short cut to national reunification. It has been promoted as a work for non-governmental cooperation between the Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee and the Hyundai Business Group of South Korea.
The Mt. Kumgang tour which began in November 1998 was warmly welcomed at home and abroad and has been turned into a nationwide work to pull down the barrier of division and give momentum to the desire for national reunification.
While the tour was making progress, the historic Pyongyang meeting of the heads of the north and south was held and the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration published.
Therefore, the Mt. Kumgang tour is not a mere tour but a foundation and a starting point for the development of the present inter-Korean relations and has been a work common to the whole nation.
But the U.S., which has stood in the way of the peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula after occupying South Korea by force of arms, was not pleased with the tour from its very start.
Since the emergence of the bush administration, the moves to obstruct the tour have reached their height for which all means and methods have been employed.
The U.S. has been engaged in a wholesale campaign to derail the tour. It spread a false rumor that the DPRK is "using the payment for the tour for a military purpose." To make this sound plausible, it asserted that the DPRK is using the payment for it for the "missile development" and the "threat from the DPRK has got more serious than last year."
Bosses of the U.S. department of state, intelligence service and military summoned the South Korean officials concerned to put pressure upon them, resorted to all sorts of obstructions to the tour and created a terror-ridden atmosphere to scuttle it.
In particular, the commander of the U.S. forces in South Korea and other brasshats undisguisedly brought pressure to bear upon Hyundai Business Group that has undertaken the project out of the ardent desire to contribute to national reconciliation, unity and reunification, while wantonly meddling in it.
Meanwhile, the U.S. instigated some right-wing conservatives and reactionary media of South Korea to slander and hamstring the tour of Mt. Kumgang.
Under its wirepulling, those right-wing conservatives are making every possible effort to foil the tourism, claiming that it is "profitless business" and "a drain on resources."
All the facts clearly show that the main obstacle to promoting the north-south reconciliation and unity and cooperation such as the Mt. Kumgang tour in line with the interests and desire of the Korean nation is none other than the united states which keeps South Korea under its military occupation.
We take a serious note of the U.S. hindrance to the nationwide work going on between the north and the south of Korea, and bitterly denounce it on behalf of all the Koreans.
Answers given by spokesman for DPRK Foreign Ministry
pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave answers to questions put by KCNA today in connection with the United States' recent clamour about the resumption of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue.
He said:
U.S. Secretary of State Powell, touring various Asian countries some time ago, said to the effect that the U.S. is waiting for an official response to its proposal for dialogue.
In the June 18 statement of the spokesman for the foreign ministry and at several New York contacts that took place in the subsequent period the DPRK clarified its principled stand toward the resumption of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue to the U.S. side and has already made an official response to the U.S. proposal for dialogue.
We can not tolerate the slanderous remarks made by the bush administration against the DPRK's supreme headquarters at the time of its emergence.
We can never accept the agenda items of the talks unilaterally raised by the U.S. out of its intention to disarm the DPRK and stifle it and will not respond to the talks with the U.S. before it withdraws the items.
The resumption of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue will be possible when the present U.S. administration drops its anachronistic mode of thinking that belonged to the Cold War era and its stand is, at least, identical to the stand taken by the Clinton administration in its last period.
We make it clear once again that the DPRK-U.S. dialogue has not yet been resumed entirely because the U.S. side has not cleared the DPRK, the dialogue partner, of its worries.