Commemorative book published in S. Korea
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- The society of the vanguard for national reunification in Pusan published a commemorative book titled "Great Man's Leadership Over Movement For Reunification" on the occasion of the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il, according to Seoul-based radio Voice of National Salvation.
The first page of the book carries a photo of Kim Jong Il standing on top of Mt. Paektu.
The book contains his 30 famous works on national reunification including "Let us carry out the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung's instructions for national reunification" and "Let us reunify the country independently and peacefully through the great unity of the entire nation."
The book is avidly read by patriotic people from all walks of life in South Korea, arousing unbounded reverence for Kim Jong Il, lodestar of the country's reunification and destiny of the nation, the radio reported.
Protests against Bush's junket continued in S. Korea
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- Struggle against Bush's projected visit is going on in various forms in South Korea.
Rallies were held in central Seoul yesterday in protest against his junket to South Korea.
That afternoon four organizations including the people's action for the revision of the South Korea-U.S. "status of forces agreement" held a press conference in front of the main entrance to Songnam airport, urging the U.S. to discontinue the hard-line policy towards the north and put halt to posing a threat of war to the Korean Peninsula and forcing South Korea to purchase war weapons.
Meanwhile, religious organizations including the Christian churches council and the society for the practical Buddhist world separately held a "Meeting of Christians to Denounce Bush for His Hard-Line Policy Towards the North" and a "Meeting of Buddhists for Peace and No War on the Korean Peninsula."
Pn the same day a big placard carrying protest against Bush's visit was seen on the gate of Seoul National University.
Kwon Yong Gil, representative of the Democratic Workers' Party, in an open letter to Bush issued on Feb. 18 warned in the name of the peace-loving nation and justice Bush not to visit South Korea if it is intended to escalate the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and sell war equipment to save the U.S. ammunitions businesses from crisis.
The south headquarters of the national alliance of youth and students for the country's reunification in a "manifesto to all the people" on Feb. 19 called on all the people to turn out in an anti-Bush, anti-U.S. struggle, saying that they could not overlook the junket of Bush threatening the existence of the Korean nation.
This organization also issued an open questionnaire to bush on the same day.
Organizations in Kwangju and South Jolla Province held rallies and waged sit-in strikes and demonstrations against bush's South Korea visit all day long on Feb. 18.
Gift to Kim Jong Il from Raul Castro
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il received a gift from Raul Castro, second secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) and minister of the revolutionary armed forces, on the occasion of his birthday.
The gift was handed to the DPRK Ambassador to Cuba by the commander of the navy of the revolutionary armed forces who is a member of the central committee of the CPC, authorized by Raul Castro, on Feb. 15.
Bush's visit opposed in S. Korea
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- The struggle against Bush's South Korea visit is reportedly continued in South Korea.
A mass rally was held in Seoul on Feb. 16 to check Bush's South Korea visit under the co-sponsorship of the Seoul solidarity for reunification, the Seoul city branch of the Democratic Workers' Party and the people's action against the world trade organization.
Over 700 members of public organizations and students denounced his visit and marched the streets, carrying slogan boards and placards "Bush, a devil with horns" and "opposition to South Korea visit of Bush, a real 'axis of evil'" and conducted propagation activities among citizens.
Choe Sung Hwan, chairman of the 9th-term South Korean Federation of University Student Councils (Hanchongryon), in an appeal issued on the same day said Hanchongryon, together with the people, should give a teaching to Bush, who insults the Korean nation and tries to seize hold of the Korean Peninsula, and be a detonator of a nationwide anti-U.S struggle to drive the U.S. imperialists out of South Korea.
On the same day, 36 organizations and public figures of different strata in Inchon released an "Inchon regional peace declaration against Bush's South Korea visit and for peace on the Korean peninsula."
They in the declaration urged Bush to stop escalating war and discontinue the policy of war on the Korean Peninsula.
The student council of college of human studies of Kyonggi University, the General Student Council of Kwangju University, the General Student Council of Kyunghee University and other South Korean student organizations respectively issued statements against Bush's visit on Feb. 18.
And over 200 professors of Chonnam National University, Chosun University and other universities in Kwangju and South Jolla Province held a press conference and made public a declaration on the situation to oppose Bush's visit to South Korea.
U.S. threat condemned
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary denounces the U.S. military and diplomatic officials for repeating Bush's reckless remarks in his "state of the union address" that termed the DPRK a "country developing and possessing mass-destruction weapons."
Rumsfeld said that the U.S. may exercise its military power to check the DPRK "development of mass-destruction weapons" and Powell noted that he "would not rule out a preemptive military action."
Describing this as a bellicose remark of warmongers, the commentary goes on:
It is the height of impudence that the U.S. is clamoring about the non-existent "threat" from other country, while shelving its unilateral arms buildup and the danger of its "mass-destruction weapons." It is a far-fetched assertion to find a pretext for attacks on the independent states that do not yield to its demands and domination. It is typical of state-sponsored terrorism to unreasonably use armed forces against those countries which do not take its fancy. The U.S. is, indeed, a rogue state running amuck in the international community, taking no account of laws and morality.
The U.S. talking about the "use of armed forces" and "forestalling attack" against the DPRK for no reason is an intolerable challenge to the DPRK.
We neither want nor avoid war.
We will wipe out all the invaders on our sacred fatherland with thousand-fold retaliatory strikes.
The U.S. bellicose forces are well advised to cool down their war fever and discontinue the blackmail at once, facing up to the opponent.
GIs' crimes denounced
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- Jitendra Sharma, chairman of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, denounced the U.S. for disturbing Korea's reunification, inflicting all sorts of misfortune and sufferings on the Korean people.
Recalling that the U.S. troops destroyed factories, educational institutions and farm lands and dropped germ and chemical bombs to massacre innocent civilians during the Korean War, he said:
The Korean War crime tribunal in New York in June last year proved the criminal character of all atrocities committed by the U.S. troops not only during the Korean War but also since their occupation of South Korea and convicted successive U.S. presidents from Truman to Bush, state and defense secretaries, chiefs of intelligence bodies of all levels and commanders of the U.S. forces in South Korea.
The U.S. troops' crimes committed in Korea should not be pardoned.
We will continue tribunal struggle till the U.S. sincerely acknowledges its crimes and apologizes and compensates for them.
If the U.S. truly wants peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula and improved DPRK-U.S. relations, it should, first of all, make an apology and compensation for all the crimes committed in Korea.
This is an unavoidable obligation of the U.S. from the judicial viewpoint of liquidating DPRK-U.S. belligerent relations and from the moral viewpoint of redeeming its crimes committed against the Korean people.
Open questionnaire to Ri Hoe Chang
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- The South Korean Federation of University Student Councils (Hanchongryon) recently issued an open questionnaire to Ri Hoe Chang, president of the "Grand National Party" of South Korea, according to a news report.
Noting that the political camp did not bother to slander the north, where compatriots live, reading the U.S. face, the organization urged him to answer the following questions:
What does Ri Hoe Chang think about the assertion that if the U.S. truly wants the world peace, it should stop seeking unilateral hegemony and that the pursuance of its hostile policy toward the north is a "breach of promise" and goes beyond diplomatic usage.
Does Ri Hoe Chang truly agree with the outbreak of a war on the Korean peninsula?
What does he think about the people's concern about the U.S. intention to escalate the tensions on the Korean peninsula in a bid to sell its weapons to South Korea?
Is there no change in his stand of defending the U.S. as regards the issue of GIs' mass killings of civilians?
Is he not willing to demand the U.S. troops make a reparation for damage and seek a total revision of the shackling South Korea-U.S. "status of forces agreement"?
The organization demanded he send open answers to the above-said questions to homepage of Hanchongryon before Bush's South Korea visit.
Pyongyang metro
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- The first stage line of Pyongyang Metro was opened to traffic in 1973.
Several stages of projects were completed later and the metro is now operated in two lines (north-south and east-west), which cross the centre of the city.
The lines pass through 7 central districts and all the stations were built at the convenient places.
The precincts of the stations decorated with nearly 100 mural paintings and over 100 sculptures and relievos bear a close resemblance to an art gallery.
Different chandeliers with hundreds of thousands of gems and peculiar lighting sets are conspicuous in the halls.
The stations are well ventilated.
The foreign visitors to the metro are unanimous in highly praising it as an "underground palace."
The metro lines will be lengthened in the future.
New miracle in DPRK
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) - Many people are deeply moved to hear the miraculous news that four most serious cases were revived by medical workers of the Sepho county people's hospital in Kangwon Province and people in the county.
It was on the night of December 14, last year, that a teacher and 3 students of Yaksu senior middle school put out a forest fire before being carried to the hospital, seriously burnt and unconscious.
The cases were too serious for the county hospital to treat.
Medical diagnosis was pronouncing them to be dead.
The hospital was getting short of medicines.
But the patients have been miraculously restored to life by the warm human love and sincerity of the medical workers and people in the county.
All the county people devoted their blood, flesh and bone to them. Four skin grafts involved more than 300 people.
The grafted skin reached 3,730 square centimeters.
And the amount of blood, medicines and nutritious food for the patients are innumerable.
This reality can be seen only in the DPRK, in which all the people live in a great harmonious family.
Bush's outbursts blasted abroad
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- Delegates of over 40 political parties from 25 countries sent a protest letter to the U.S. President when they participated in the seminar of political parties in the European region held in Brussels on Feb. 8 and 9.
Bush in his "state of the union address" listed some countries including the DPRK as "nations posing a threat to peace of the U.S. and the world" and as "members of an axis of evil". This is little short of declaring a war against the world people, the letter said.
If peace and prosperity are to be ensured in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world, the letter held, the U.S. forces should be withdrawn from South Korea at once and the U.S. administration should stop its moves for aggression, intervention and blackmail against other nations.
The political parties in the European region will as ever keep a watchful eye on the U.S. administration's Korea policy and fight against it, firmly standing by the side of the Korean people, it said.
Yang Hyong Sop meets Indian ambassador
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and conversed with Binanda Kumar Gogoi, Indian ambassador to the DPRK, who paid a farewell call on him at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today.
6th Kimjongilia show closes
Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) -- The 6th Kimjongilia show, which opened on Feb. 13, closed at the Grand People's Study House today with due ceremony.
More than 70 organizations and individuals participated in the show. 14,300 potted Kimjongilias were on display.
Senior party and state officials and over 600,000 people from all walks of life visited the show hall.
Also visiting the place were over 80 foreign delegations and a number of overseas compatriots.
At the closing ceremony, top, excellent, and meritorious prizes and labor prizes were awarded to the outstanding units and individuals.
Present at the ceremony were Hong Song Nam, premier of the cabinet, and other senior party and state officials.