Russian presidential orchestra leaves
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- The Russian presidential orchestra led by lieut. Gen. Sergei Streigin, commander of the garrison of the Kremlin in Moscow, left here for home yesterday.
The guests were seen off at the airport by general of the Korean People's Army Pak Jae Gyong, vice department director of the C.C., The Workers' Party of Korea Ji Jae Ryong and other officials concerned, Russian ambassador to the DPRK Andrei Karlov and embassy officials.
The crowd sent off the members of the orchestra.
Day of Sun to be observed in Cambodia
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- A Cambodian preparatory committee was inaugurated in Phnom Penh on March 26 to commemorate the Day of the Sun, the birthday of President Kim Il Sung.
Kong Sam Ol, deputy prime minister in charge of royal palace, was elected chairman of the preparatory committee under the instruction of king Norodom Sihanouk.
The committee decided to organize colorful functions, including film show, photo exhibition and an evening of friendship and culture, and widely introduce through media the immortal exploits of Kim Il Sung.
NDFSK calls for following and applying Juche idea
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) issued a statement on March 30 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the publication of leader Kim Jong Il's famous work "On The Juche Idea", according to Seoul-based radio Voice of National Salvation.
The statement said:
His work is an immortal library of the Juche idea which systematized the Juche idea founded by President Kim Il Sung and developed in depth its profound principles and ideas and theories.
At least 1,100 organizations for the study of the Juche idea were inaugurated in over 100 countries and seminars on the Juche idea are held on a world-wide scale.
The work serves as the maxim of life and guideline of struggle for vanguard fighters and patriotic people in the south.
The vanguard fighters of the NDFSK will fully prepare themselves as absolute followers and practitioners of Kim Jong Il's revolutionary idea, the Juche idea, and join all the people in the vigorous struggle for the implementation of the June 15 joint declaration under the uplifted banner of Juche to bring earlier the dawn of independent national reunification.
Kim Jong Il sends educational facilities to computer training centres
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il sent modern educational equipment and school buses to the computer best brains training centres at Mangyongdae and Pyongyang Schoolchildren's Palaces and Kum Song senior middle schools no. 1 and 2.
Those facilities carry the deep love for the country and the nation of Kim Jong Il and his will to develop science and technology of the country in conformity with the requirements of the it era as soon as possible by training reliable computer best brains and thus build a powerful socialist nation in this land without fail.
A meeting of conveying them was held at the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace yesterday.
Present there were Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the central committee of The Workers' Party of Korea, Kim Kyong Ho, first secretary of the central committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, officials concerned, teaching staff and students.
Kim Il Sung's reminiscences popular in many countries
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- Ten years have passed since President Kim Il Sung's reminiscences "With The Century" was published.
During the time the reminiscences was disseminated on a world-wide scale.
More than 150 publications of over 70 countries introduced the full texts and detailed content of the reminiscences six months after the publication of its part 1 the anti-Japanese revolution vols 1 and 2.
The reminiscences was published by well-known publishing houses and organizations in India, Cambodia, Bulgaria, Poland, Ethiopia, the United States and other countries.
Hundreds of thousands of copies of the reminiscences were published in 14 languages in different countries.
Over 91,200 copies of its part 1 the anti-Japanese revolution 8 vols were published in China and Russia.
Its 7 volumes were published in Nepal and the work for publishing its vol. 8 is being pushed ahead.
The International Institute of the Juche Idea published its 3 vols as a library and serialized their full texts in its journal "study of the Juche idea" and distributed them in over 130 countries.
The book was spread through foreign bookshops, libraries and social organizations, deeply moving public figures and people.
Thus it was rapidly disseminated in more than 160 countries.
Seminars, expressions of impressions, lectures and reading sessions on the reminiscences were held in over 100 countries including Mongolia, Democratic Congo, Portugal and Peru every year and joint national seminars in Pakistan, Tanzania, Nigeria and Venezuela.
A national question-and-answer contest of schoolchildren was held in Nepal and a month of reading the reminiscences from April 15 to July 8 was set in Mali.
The reminiscences was read by the President of Burkina Faso, the former President of Portugal, the former premier of Equatorial Guinea and political figures of many countries.
Anti-reunification elements' moves dismissed
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- The central committee of the Korean Chondoist Chongu Party (KCCP) in a statement issued by its spokesman on March 31 bitterly denounces the moves of the "Grand National Party" of South Korea for confrontation with the North as an anti-national criminal act to chill the fellow countrymen's growing desire for reunification, fan up antipathy and confrontation between them and ignite a war.
The "basic line towards the North" worked out by the GNP is an extremely vicious declaration on division and war as it calls for denying the dignified political system in the North, calling off cooperation and exchange between the north and the south and fomenting dissension and confrontation between compatriots, the statement noted, and continued:
All members of the KCCP and believers in Chondogyo will not remain a passive onlooker to the rash acts of the GNP gang, a group of lunatics keen on confrontation with the DPRK.
The statement ardently called upon all believers in Chondogyo and people from all walks of life in South Korea to intensify the struggle to completely eliminate traitor Ri Hoe Chang and his group now tight-cornered for their crimes committed against the nation.
Rodong Sinmun on army-based policy
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today devotes its whole frontpage to an article saying that the army-based policy serves as a powerful weapon in the anti-imperialist struggle in our times.
The army-based policy of the Workers' Party of Korea is a political mode prompted by the will to fight a life-and-death battle and an invincible policy demonstrating its might because of this will, the article notes, and goes on:
This policy calls for putting forward the army, the main force, in the confrontation with imperialism as a pillar of the revolution and giving definite priority to the military affairs so as to shatter any imperialist move for aggression.
The strong anti-imperialist spirit is reflected in the principle of the army-based policy that the army precisely means the party, state and people and the steadfast stand to hold aloft the banner of the anti-imperialist struggle to the last in the unique state political system centered on the national defence.
The policy for building socialism and diplomatic strategy advanced by leader Kim Jong Il in the period of the army-based policy are based on the viewpoint on the resolute anti-imperialist class struggle.
Our tough position and stand toward imperialism have grown stronger than ever before in the course of pursuing the army-based policy.
It is our faith that has been deepened in that course that defending the banner of independence against imperialism means victory and abandoning it leads to death.
The article calls for firmly adhering to the principle of giving priority to the military affairs in the revolution and construction under any circumstances and making utmost effort to strengthen the army.
It also calls for decisively smashing the imperialists' moves for aggression with a transparent viewpoint on the anti-imperialist class struggle.
The pursuance of the army-based policy under the leadership of Kim Jong Il leads to protecting the rosy future of the country and the nation and making it brighter, the article concludes.
U.S. hit for aggravating situation on Korean Peninsula
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- The Bush administration is working hard to establish the Missile Defense System (MD) in a bid to bring profits to munition monopolies of the U.S.
Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed commentary.
It goes on:
Some days ago the U.S. defense department claimed "success" in the interceptor missile test. This was aimed to sell anti-aircraft system aegis to South Korea in a bid to bring profits to munition monopolies of the U.S.
All the domestic and foreign policies of the United States are meant to meet the interests of these monopolies. The U.S. administration is, in fact, no more than a political puppet manipulated by them. The U.S. rulers can play a major role in politics only when they tickle the fancy of the munition monopolies and if not, they are forced to step down.
The present U.S. administration and munition monopolies stoop to any infamy to meet their bilateral interests.
The U.S. ruling quarters make no scruple of listing other countries as "rogue states", "sponsors of terrorism" and members of the "axis of evil", deliberately sparking regional crisis and aggravating the international situation.
The U.S. is now persistently floating the fiction about the "missile threat" from the DPRK.
It is aimed to egg the South Korean war hawks on to pursue confrontation with the north in a bid to escalate the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and justify its massive sale of such military hardware as anti-aircraft system aegis to South Korea.
The U.S. sale of ultra-modern arms and equipment to South Korea is nothing but a criminal act of unhesitatingly bringing a scourge of war to the Korean Peninsula to meet its interests.
It is quite natural that the DPRK is making sustained big efforts to increase the capacity for self-defence while tightening its belt.
The U.S. is to blame for this.
New school year begins
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- New school year begins in Korea today.
Preparations for the new school year have been completed across the country.
Making it its consistent state policy to place education above all other sections, the DPRK increases investment in educational work even under difficult conditions.
This year investment in education increased 6.3 per cent as against last year.
For the new school year schools have been replenished with new teaching aids, classroom furniture and apparatuses and equipment necessary for experiment and practice.
All students and pupils were provided with textbooks, notebooks and other school things.
Teachers were given short courses of lectures and model lectures for optional subjects suitable to regional characteristics.
Dance of "azalea of homeland"
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- Dance "azalea of homeland", one of the four famous dances of Korea, was created in Juche 60 (1971).
The dance deals with the love of the country and revolutionary optimism displayed by the female members of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army determined to remain intensely loyal to President Kim Il Sung, holding him in high esteem in the liberated homeland.
It vividly depicts the emotion of the women fighters who set foot on the soil of the homeland for which they longed in a dream, smelling earth and the flavor of azaleas in full blossom on the shore of Lake Samji from which Mt. Paektu is visible.
Elegant, soft, vibrant and dynamic rhythms, exquisite movements project the noble inner world of the women fighters.
The dance is performed with bunches of azaleas to the melody of the song "azalea of homeland" and the revolutionary song "song of women's liberation."
Crackdown on unionists in S. Korea
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- The South Korean prosecution authorities arrested Sol Nam Sun, vice-chairman of the national confederation of public office councils, and Kim Kyong Sin, representative of the Seoul area federation of public office councils, on March 26, Seoul-based Radio No.1 reported.
The Seoul district public prosecutor's office arrested them on charges of violation of the "civil servant law" for the mere reason that they participated in the recent inaugural ceremony of the "national civil servants union".
In this regard, the joint measure committee made up of the (South) Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and 64 citizens organizations demanded their immediate release.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor's office asked for warrants of arrest for deputy heads of four branch offices of the power industry trade union and a student, whom it had taken away at Yonsei Uiversity, on charges of "infiltration into building" on March 26 and booked over 40 people without detention.
"Arirang" performance praised
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- Members of study groups of different countries expressed their admiration for the mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" after watching some scenes of it on March 29.
Brian Qian, head of the study group of "Arirang" performance which consists of travel agents and journalists of various countries, said seeing the mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" for itself the group realized that it is the world's masterpiece more fascinating and bigger in scale than what it had heard of.
The head added that the group would give wide publicity to it so that many people might come to see it.
Feng Wei, senior manager of the china international travel service head office, noted that the performance is, indeed, a fantastic one. Its every scene is so splendid and impressive that I will come to Pyongyang again to see the performance when it starts, Feng said.
Tjyying Liu, journalist of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, said that watching some scenes of the performance in rehearsal is enough to know well about its scale and artistry.
This is the world's chef-d'-oeurvre that can be seen in the DPRK only.
Tetsushi Wakita, chief of the NHK general bureau for China of the Japan broadcasting corporation, said: I was marvelled to see such large-scale of the performance while watching some of its scenes, adding it is the first time for him to see such performance.
Philippe Rochot, a journalist of France 2 Television, said that the mass gymnastic and artistic performance should be seen not only by reporters but by all the people of the world.
S. Korean students vow to struggle against hike of registration fee
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- A rally of students to vow to struggle for the expansion of educational finance against the increase in the registration fee and the commercialization of education was reportedly held in Seoul on March 29 with at least 5,000 students from across South Korea attending under the sponsorship of the students' solidarity for education which groups the South Korean Federation of University Student Councils (Hanchongryon), the "National Council of Students for Solidarity" and the "National Association of Students."
Ri Yong Gu, vice-chairman of the "National Professors Union," termed the ministry of education a hotbed of irregularities and corruption. "education can survive only when the ministry collapses," he added.
Kim Hyong Ju, acting chairman of Hanchongryon, asserted that "even universities are getting commercialized little by little."
"We should wage a vigorous struggle to stop the commercialization of education at any cost," he added.
Kim Kyong Jin who is heading a big group of students on an anti-government sit-in strike at Yonsei University said that now is the time to struggle not only against university management but also against the "government."
Ku Jong Mo, permanent representative of the students' solidarity for education, read out a resolution.
The resolution termed the policies of commercializing education, sharply increasing the registration fee, etc.
Meanwhile, the solidarity called a "press conference of a big group of sit-in strikers against the government" on March 26 demanding "a total withdrawal of the bid to increase the registration fee, an expansion of educational finance and the roll-back of the policy to commercialize education" before entering into an indefinite sit-in strike at Yonsei University.
Hanchongryon also called a press conference at the university on the same day to secure finance for education by seeking the cancellation of the plan to introduce F-15K fighters and taking back funds for the upkeep of the U.S. forces in South Korea.
People's artiste couple
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- Couples of film actors and actresses are sometimes seen in the Korean film industry, but it is quite rare for both to be people's artistes.
Choe Tae Hyon, 67, and Pak Jong Ok, 65, are one such couple.
Film actor Choe and Pak, an actress at the film translation studio, are a people's artiste couple well known to the general public in Korea.
Choe joined the Korean People's Army in his youth and once took part in a servicemen's art festival during his service.
Fortunately, he became a prizewinner at the festival and it proved to be the first step in a life as an actor for him.
He started his acting career at the Korean People's Army April 25 Film Studio in Juche 47 (1958).
Pak began to work as a narrative actress for translated foreign films after graduating from Pyongyang University of Dramatic and Cinematic Arts.
They met during those early years, promised to share their lives in the movie industry and got married.
Since then, they have followed the same path of film production as good and faithful companions to each other.
Since the 1980s he has acted in many films dealing with revolutionary traditions and real life in Korea.
To date he has appeared in more than 100 films.
Every Korean knows of Pak Jong Ok, but they usually do not know what she looks like.
Pak is familiar to them for the sound of her voice, not for her acting or appearance.
For decades she has taken part in the dubbing of foreign films, establishing herself as a famous actress thanks to her gifted conversational skill.
Despite their advanced age, Choe and Pak are still leading an active life, continuing to develop their acting careers.
Their son is following in their footsteps, having established himself as one of the most important people in the Korean film industry.
Paek Nam Sun meets new Bangladeshi ambassador
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- DPRK foreign minister Paek Nam Sun today met and conversed with new Bangladeshi ambassador to the DPRK Humayun A. Kamal who paid a courtesy call on him.
Credentials to Kim Yong Nam
Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, received credentials from newly appointed Bangladeshi ambassador to the DPRK Humayun A. Kamal at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today.
Present was vice foreign minister Kim Yong Il.
After receiving the credentials the president talked with the ambassador.