U.S. is chiefly to blame for worst situation in Korea

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun yesterday carried an article entitled "The U.S. is Chiefly to Blame for the Worst Situation on the Korean Peninsula." The article said:
    As already reported, the DPRK Government in a statement solemnly declared its complete ithdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
    In this regard, the U.S., the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Japan and other countries and dishonest forces expressed "concern," asserting that it should be "reconsidered" and it would "put the nuclear non-proliferation system in danger".
    The DPRK was compelled to withdraw from the NPT as a self-defence step taken after careful consideration to cope with the grave situation where its supreme interests are most seriously threatened by the U.S.
    A close scrutiny made into how this situation was created, the background against which the nuclear issue surfaced and its nature from a historical point of view and on the basis of facts clearly explains the U.S. is the author of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
    The nuclear issue surfaced on the Korean Peninsula as the U.S. has posed a nuclear threat to the DPRK for scores of years by massively deploying and stockpiling nukes in and around South Korea, pursuant to its hostile policy toward Pyongyang in line with its strategy to dominate the world.
    The U.S. imperialists tried several times to use an a-bomb against the DPRK already during the last Korean War and began introducing many nuclear weapons into South Korea after the war.
    The DPRK clarified its official stand to oppose the U.S. shipment of nuclear weapons into South Korea at the 12th session of its Supreme People's Assembly held in 1956.
    In April 1959, the DPRK Government warned the U.S. imperialists against turning South Korea into a nuclear base and put forward a proposal to create a nuclear-free peace zone in Asia.
    The U.S. imperialists have staged ceaseless war exercises of different forms such as "Team Spirit", "Ulji Focus Lens" and "Foal Eagle" by mobilizing nuclear forces in South Korea and in its vicinity to threaten the DPRK with nuclear weapons and increase the danger of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula.
    It was the united states that compelled the DPRK to withdraw from the NPT.
    Under the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework (AF) the U.S. was committed to provide light water reactors to the DPRK by 2003 in return for the DPRK's freezing of its graphite-moderated reactors and related facilities.
    Though it is already 9 years since the DPRK froze its nuclear facilities, only site preparation was made in the LWR project.
    Under the AF both sides were committed to work for fully normalizing the political and economic relations, but the U.S. has persistently enforced its hostile policy and economic sanctions against the DPRK.
    The AF also called on the U.S. to give formal assurances against its use or threat of nuclear weapons to the DPRK, but the U.S. has increased its nuclear threat to the DPRK.
    The U.S. stopped the supply of heavy oil to the DPRK from December last year, the only commitment that had been implemented under the AF.
    Under the situation where a vacuum is created in the power production due to the U.S. stop of its supply of heavy oil to the DPRK, the latter lifted the freeze on its nuclear facilities, a measure taken as part of the simultaneous actions on the part of the two sides on the premise that the U.S. would annually supply 500,000 tons of heavy oil to the DPRK under the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework, and resumed the operation and construction of facilities to generate electricity.
    The U.S. has increased its nuclear threat to the DPRK by staging nuclear war exercises one after another in and around South Korea after massively deploying nuclear weapons there in violation of the letter and spirit of the NPT.
    U.S. President Bush officially declared its policy of confrontation with North Korea in what he called a "statement on the North Korea policy". Early last year the Bush bellicose forces listed the DPRK as part of an "axis of evil" and later a target of its nuclear strikes.
    They stepped up the preparations to develop and deploy a new type of nuclear weapon to be used for destroying underground facilities of the DPRK in case of "emergency" on the Korean Peninsula and ordered the U.S. air force in South Korea to load large warheads which can go down deep into the ground and blow up targets.
    After flying into Pyongyang, a special envoy of the U.S. President demanded the DPRK clear the U.S. of its "security concern," absurdly clamoring about the DPRK's "enriched uranium program". He also threatened and blackmailed the DPRK, saying that if the DPRK does not accept the U.S. unilateral demand first, there will be no progress in the DPRK-Japan and inter-Korean relations, to say nothing of the dialogue between the DPRK and the U.S.
    The DPRK told the special envoy who was taking such an extremely menacing and high-handed attitude that it is entitled to have something more powerful than a nuclear weapon to cope with the U.S. escalated offensive to stifle it with nukes. this was an entirely legitimate exercise of its sovereignty.
    Nevertheless, no sooner had the special envoy gone back to the U.S. than it escalated the moves to internationally pressurize and isolate the DPRK while spreading the rumor that the DPRK "admitted its nuclear program."
    The U.S. raised the unreasonable and brigandish demand that the DPRK scrap its nuclear program before dialogue, far from honestly responding to the DPRK's constructive proposal for concluding a non-aggression treaty with the U.S.
    When the DPRK reacted to this with a tougher stand, the U.S. bellicose circles called for a "military retaliation," clamouring about a "nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula" and "victory in wars against Iraq and North Korea".
    Moreover, the U.S. instigated the IAEA to adopt an unreasonable resolution against the DPRK. At the beck and call of the U.S., the IAEA issued an ultimatum threatening sanctions, treating the DPRK as a "criminal".
    Facts clearly indicate who is chiefly to blame for the present grave situation.
    Nevertheless, recently the U.S., in conspiracy with the IAEA, kicked up a row, blustering that the "nuclear issue" of the DPRK should be put before the UN and sanctions be imposed upon it.
    Though the DPRK withdrew from the NPT, its nuclear activity at the present stage will be limited to such peaceful purposes as electricity production.

DPRK Government statement supported

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- The Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) in a statement on Jan. 14 said that the statement of the DPRK Government is not only an expression of its firm will not to tolerate the U.S. moves to stifle the DPRK and its nuclear blackmail even a little but the most just self-defence step to defend the supreme interests of the state and protect the sovereignty, the right to existence and dignity of the country and the nation. It was quite natural for the DPRK to pull out of the NPT for its supreme interests under the grave situation where the sovereignty of the nation is being violated and the security of the state is threatened, it noted.
    Supporting the principled stand of the DPRK to solve the "nuclear issue" in Korea with the U.S. through negotiations, the statement urged the U.S. to immediately drop its hostile policy towards the DPRK and stop threatening it with nukes and opt for the conclusion of a non-aggression treaty between the DPRK and the U.S.
    We express firm belief that the Japanese and other progressive people of the world will oppose the unilateral high-handed practices of the U.S. for domination and its hostile policy toward the DPRK and extend support and solidarity to the Korean people in their struggle for protecting the sovereignty and dignity of the country and nation, said the statement.

Swiss paper on some countries' concern over DPRK's withdrawal from NPT

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- The U.S. and some other countries should settle their domestic matters before worrying about North Korea's withdrawal from the NPT, said the Swiss newspaper 24 Heure on Jan. 11. The NPT failed to prevent some countries from possessing nuclear weapons, it said, adding: the NPT proves to be powerless in settling the nuclear issue.
    The U.S. and Israel inked the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty but they refused ratification, while acting like rogues, it said, and continued:
    The U.S. is going to give up its measure for the freeze of nuclear test and, sooner or later, restart an underground nuclear test for the development of a new nuclear weapon to destroy bunkers. It will invite a very dangerous international arms race and make the boundary line between nuclear weapons and conventional weapons vague.
    With the official announcement of its withdrawal from the ABM treaty last year, the bush administration is free to establish the missile defence system, a replica of "star wars", from the year 2004. Those countries which claim that North Korea "violates" the international law had better look back on their deeds.

U.S. urged to stop making fuss about nuclear issue

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- Prof. Mohamad Abubakar at Malay University of Malaysia, when interviewed by the central television of Malaysia on Jan. 3, denounced the unreasonable U.S. nuclear racket, asserting that North Korea's restart of its nuclear facilities would not be a threat to the U.S. and its neighboring countries. The U.S. row over this issue is aimed at securing a foundation to take a preemptive action and garnering the support of its allies for its moves to scrap the nuclear program of North Korea, he said, adding:
    If the U.S. continued moves lead to the outbreak of another war on the Korean Peninsula, Korea will literally turn into shambles of war, rendering the situation in the Asia-Pacific region unstable and posing a threat to its economic development.
    North Korea's nuclear program is not so menacing as what was claimed by the west, the U.S. in particular, he stressed.

Friendly meeting with Chinese embassy officials

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Foreign Ministry hosted a friendly meeting on January 16 on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 92 (2003). Invited there were Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Wu Donghe and embassy officials.
    Present were Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Yong Il and other officials concerned.
    Speeches were made there.
    The participants underscored the need to boost the DPRK-China friendly relations.

Friendly meeting with Cuban embassy officials

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- The international department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea hosted a friendly meeting at Pyongyang Koryo Hotel on January 16 on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 92 (2003). Invited to the meeting were Esteban Lobaina Romero, Cuban Ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of the embassy.
    Present there were Pak Kyong Son, vice department director of the WPK Central Committee, and other officials concerned.
    Speeches were made at the meeting.
    Then the participants stressed the need to boost the DPRK-Cuba friendly ties.
    Prior to the meeting, they saw a Korean documentary film "The Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il Gives On-the-Spot Guidance To The Work In Different Domains."

Anti-Americanism growing in S. Korea

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- Anti-Americanism is rapidly growing in South Korea. The south headquarters of the National Alliance of Youth and Students for the Country's Reunification reportedly released a commentary entitled the "U.S. assistant secretary of state Kelly's Seoul junket is a part of the nuclear war moves against North Korea" on Jan. 14.
    What he did during his Seoul trip is only the criminal act which accomplished South Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation for a nuclear war against North Korea and barred inter-Korean dialogue, the commentary noted, and went on:
    Kelly tried to inveigle South Korea into the U.S. blockade network of pressurizing North Korea and talked about "alliance" to smooth down the anti-American sentiment sparked off by the murder case of the schoolgirls. He schemed to make the forthcoming south-north ministerial talks leverage in forcing North Korea "scrap to nuclear program first" and check inter-Korean dialogue as a whole.
    The western Seoul district federation of university student councils held an anti-U.S., anti-war meeting and announced a resolution on Jan. 13.
    The resolution said that 70,000 students under the federation would turn out in the anti-U.S. campaign to vent the spite of the two schoolgirls and defend the nation's right to existence.
    At present, they would conduct widespread practical activities against the U.S. imperialists' moves of confrontation with the north and for conclusion of a non-aggression treaty between the north and the U.S., it noted.
    The South Korean professors council for democracy and the citizens' federation for democratic press movement co-sponsored an anti-U.S. seminar on the subject of "the anti-American discussion of our society and the press" on Jan. 10.
    Participants in the seminar unanimously held that all the people should come out in the anti-U.S. demonstration to rectify South Korea-U.S. relations.

Electricity production up

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- Electricity producers in charge of the lifeline of the national economy should stand in the van of this year's worthwhile strive for a fresh upsurge and innovations. Kim Ryong Su, manager of the East Pyongyang Thermal Power Plant, said this at a Pyongyang mass rally held to mark the beginning of the new year's general advance.
    His speech reflects the unanimous determination of all the electricity producers.
    Inspired by the Joint New Year Editorial, they are full of determination to bring about a fresh upswing in power production, steadily taking the power industry as an important link in economic revitalization.
    From December last year the U.S. administration has unilaterally renounced its obligation for heavy oil shipments to the DPRK under the agreed framework reached between the DPRK and the U.S in 1994. It has negatively affected the country's power situation.
    But the electricity producers have boosted the production, overcoming difficulties in the spirit of the Korean people who defended the country in the war started by the U.S. imperialists in the 1950s.
    The East Pyongyang Thermal Power Plant and the Hochongang Power Station have overfulfilled their daily assignments from the first day of the New Year by keeping all the generators in good condition and full-capacity operation.
    From the beginning of the New Year, the Sunchon Thermal Power Plant has produced electricity 30 percent more than the figure in the same days of last year.
    Minor power stations throughout the country are also boosting the power production.

Anecdote about Kim Jong Il

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- In October Juche 91 (2002) General Secretary Kim Jong Il went to a mountainous county to see a power station built by an organ in the county. The power station, built on the bank of a picturesque river, was surrounded by a fishing ground, public service facilities and resting places. The area reminds one of a recreation ground.
    But he was not happy to see the place because it was encircled by a fence.
    Officials told him the fence was built for the purpose to add beauty to the dam and keep outsiders from coming into the place in a disorderly way.
    He said that it was not good to have a fence in the beautiful place and that the fence was not necessary for the public service facilities visited by many people.
    He also said that there could never be privileged circles in the Korean society where the popular masses were the masters, and if there were such privileged people, they were only the people. He then told the officials to remove the fence at once.

Anti-U.S. rallies held

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- Rallies have been held in provincial seats in the wake of the rally of more than one million people in Pyongyang to support the DPRK Government's statement on the country's withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Ralliers have voiced hatred against the U.S. infringing upon the sovereignty of the Korean nation and the security of the state.
    Kim Sok Ju, an official of the North Phyongan Provincial People's Committee, told KCNA during the provincial rally:
    I cannot suppress indignation against the impudent, arrogant and aggressive practice of the U.S.
    The U.S. should clearly know that the Korean people neither want a war nor beg for peace with their dignity being violated and that there are limits to the Korean people's patience and self-control.
    If a dangerous situation is created on this land by the U.S. warmaniacs, the U.S. and its followers will find themselves in a bottomless abyss.
    Jang Sok Won, a worker of the Kim Chaek Iron and Steal Complex, in a press interview at the North Hamgyong Provincial Rally, urged the U.S. to have a correct understanding of the present situation and give up its strategy for dominating the whole of Korea.
    Kim Hi Chol, a student of the Wonsan University of Agriculture, told KCNA:
    Participating in the mass rally of Kangwon Province, I have hardened my resolution to defeat the enemies and defend the country with honor if the U.S. imperialists unleash a war.

KCNA urges U.S. to sincerely approach dialogue

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- James Kelly at a press conference on Jan. 13 during his visit to South Korea as a special envoy of the U.S. President said that the U.S. is willing to consider energy aid for North Korea and have "multi-faceted dialogue" with it if it ends "nuclear weapons development". In this regard, some of the international community describe his remarks as some sort of change made by the U.S. to peacefully settle the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. This is, however, a wrong understanding of the U.S. black-hearted intention.
    What Kelly said is, in essence, nothing different from the U.S. unilateral assertion that "North Korea should scrap its nuclear program before dialogue."
    If the U.S. truly wants peace on the Korean Peninsula and the settlement of the nuclear issue, it should conclude a non-aggression treaty with the DPRK and formally declare the abandonment of its hostile policy toward the latter at the negotiating table.
    Only when the U.S. does so, it is possible to clear the U.S. of its worries and ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia because Washington is chiefly to blame for the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
    The DPRK withdrew from the NPT and restarted its nuclear facilities entirely because of the U.S. gross violation of the NPT and the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework.
    Moreover, Kelly is chiefly accountable for dreaming up the fiction of the DPRK's "development of nuclear weapons" in a premeditated manner.
    When Kelly listened to the DPRK's serious warning during his visit to the DPRK as a special envoy of the U.S. President in early October last, he should have prudently approached it and admitted that the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK was anachronistic.
    But Kelly played first fiddle to hatching a sinister plot to publicize the DPRK's warning as its "admission of nuclear weapons development".
    He is now talking about "multi-faceted dialogue" and "energy aid," insisting on the absurd demand that the DPRK "scrap its nuclear program before dialogue." This is the height of folly.
    If the Bush administration has nothing to regret over the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula before the international community, there is no reason for it to fail to come out to negotiations with the DPRK to settle bilateral pending issues.
    The DPRK is fully ready for both dialogue and confrontation.
    The U.S. should bear in mind that all the issues can be settled satisfactorily at the dialogue with the DPRK only when the former has a sincere attitude based on good faith.

Implementation of June 15 joint declaration called for

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- The independence of the nation is the basic spirit of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration and its principle serves as a touchstone that distinguishes between the line of reunification and that of division and between patriotism and treachery, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. No one should deviate from the principle of national independence because the north and the south pledged to solve the issue of the country's reunification independently by the concerted efforts of the nation in the June 15 joint declaration.
    The situation on the Korean Peninsula remains very tense. The Koreans stand at the crossroads of peace or war.
    The option for national independence and great national unity set out in the joint declaration alone can preserve peace in this land and protect the destiny of the compatriots. All the Koreans should take this road of justice and demonstrate their strong patriotic will. If one hesitates to respond to the call of the nation, scared by the threat and blackmail of imperialists or waver before difficulties, this will be an unpardonable treacherous act.

GNP's sophism over "nuclear issue" flayed

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- The secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued its information bulletin no. 834 on Jan. 16, denouncing the Grand National Party of South Korea (GNP) for letting loose a string of sophism over the DPRK's "nuclear issue." On Jan. 15 a spokesman for the GNP in a commentary on the "north's nuclear issue" blustered that the "north should scrap its nuclear development at once."
    The information bulletin dismissed this as a balderdash that can be let loose only by fools of the GNP blindly following outside forces, ignorant of the nature of the "nuclear issue" on the Korean Peninsula.
    The north was compelled to take steps to lift its nuclear freeze and withdraw from the NPT because the U.S. let the IAEA, its servant, gravely threaten the sovereignty, vital rights and dignity of the DPRK, clamoring for a sort of "blockade" and "military punishment," the information bulletin said, and went on:
    However, the GNP is keeping mum about the U.S., the assailant, and saying this or that about the DPRK, the victim. This is an intolerable anti-national criminal act as it twisted the nature of the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula and encouraged its master in his moves to stifle the DPRK.
    The GNP sustained a miserable defeat at the "presidential election" as it regards it as its mode of existence to serve foreign forces, not the nation, and prolong its remaining days by currying favor with them. The GNP keen on such acts of treachery, far from drawing a due lesson from the defeat, will not escape a stern judgment of the whole nation.

U.S. nuclear blackmail slammed

     Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- It is a foolish miscalculation for the U.S. imperialists to attempt to bring the DPRK to its knees with nuclear blackmail. The bellicose forces of bush should cool their heads obsessed with nuclear war fever and drop their hostile policy towards the DPRK. Minju Joson today says this in a signed commentary.
    Referring to the fact that the U.S. imperialists have forced the DPRK to "scrap its nuclear program first," escalating pressure upon it with nuclear blackmail, the commentary goes on:
    The U.S. imperialists instigated the international atomic energy agency to adopt unreasonable "resolutions" on the DPRK and put its attempt to launch a preemptive attack on the DPRK into practice.
    Under this critical situation we faced two roads of whether to fight against the U.S. nuclear blackmail or to yield to it. The former was to defend and glorify the sovereignty and dignity of the nation and the latter was to be subject to the U.S.
    It is quite natural that the DPRK opted to defend the sovereignty and dignity of the nation, not to be subject to the U.S.
    The U.S. nuclear threat may work on other countries, but never on the DPRK.
    If the U.S. imperialists unleash a war of aggression against the DPRK its army and people would not miss the opportunity to wipe out the aggressors to the last one and achieve the historic cause of national reunification.

For Spanish-speaking people

no surtira efecto el chantaje nuclear

     pyongyang, 17 de enero (atcc) -- el intento de los imperialistas norteamericanos de doblegar con el chantaje nuclear a la republica popular democratica de corea es una absurda equivocacion. la banda de belicistas de bush debe enfriar la cabeza calentada por el fervor de guerra nuclear y abandonar su anacronica politica hostil a corea. asi senala el periodico "minju joson" en un comentario individual de hoy y continua:
    ee.uu. nos amenaza con el chantaje nuclear, nos obliga la "renuncia nuclear, primero" y fortalece mas la presion contra nosotros.
    tambien, instigo a la organizacion internacional de energia atomica a aprobar las "resoluciones" injustas contra la rpdc y esta a punto de llevar a la practica el intento de ataque nuclear anticipado. bajo tal situacion nos hallamos en el punto critico: luchar contra el chantaje nuclear de los imperialistas norteamericanos o doblegarnos ante estos. el primer camino es el de defender la soberania y la dignidad de la nacion y el segundo, el de depender de ee.uu. para nosotros es muy natural optar el primer camino.
    el chantaje nuclear de ee.uu. no surtira efecto jamas para nuestro pais.
    si los imperialistas norteamericanos desencadenan la guerra de agresion a la rpdc, nuestro ejercito y pueblo no volveran a perder la ocasion para aniquilar a todos los agresores y lograr sin falta la historica causa de la reunificacion de la patria.

ee.uu. debe tener sincero proceder ante dialogo con la rpdc

     pyongyang, 17 de enero (atcc) -- durante su visita a sudcorea en calidad de enviado especial del presidente norteamericano, kelly ofrecio el dia 13 una conferencia de prensa, en la cual dijo que si la republica popular democratica de corea renuncia el "plan nuclear", ee.uu. podra buscar asistencia de energia y entablar "diversos dialogos" con la rpdc. ahora, una parte de la sociedad internacional describe la palabra de kelly, como si ee.uu. tuviera alguna disposicion de resolver por via pacifica el problema nuclear de la peninsula coreana.
    en una palabra, ellos comprenden erroneamente el siniestro designio de ee.uu.
    la palabra de kelly, en su esencia, es igual que la insistencia de ee.uu. que impone unilateralmente a la rpdc la "renuncia nuclear, primero".
    si ee.uu. desea de veras la paz y la solucion del problema nuclear en la peninsula coreana, debe concertar un tratado de no agresion en las negociaciones con la rpdc y anunciar oficialmente la renuncia de su politica de hostilidad a esta.
    solo al hacerlo asi ee.uu., fautor del surgimiento del problema nuclear de la peninsula coreana. desapareceran tambien los puntos de preocupacion de ese pais y se podran lograr la paz y la estabilidad del nordeste asiatico.
    la rpdc abandono el tratado de no proliferacion nuclear y puso en funcionamiento las instalaciones nucleares congeladas, lo que se debe a que ee.uu. violo flagrantemente el tnpn y el acuerdo basico concertado con la rpdc.
    kelly es uno de quienes difundieron premeditadamente rumores del "desarrollo de armas nucleares" de la rpdc.
    a principios de octubre del ano pasado este tipejo visito la rpdc en calidad de enviado especial de bush.
    en aquel entonces, si recibio nuestra severa advertencia, el debio tratarla seriamente y comprender por si mismo que la politica de hostilidad a corea de la administracion norteamericana es anacronica.
    sin embargo, kelly desempeno el papel principal al tramar una siniestra conspiracion de convertir nuestra advertencia en el "reconocimiento del desarrollo de armas nucleares".
    si la administracion bush esta digna ante la sociedad internacional en cuanto al problema nuclear de la peninsula coreana, no tendra razon por la cual no se sentara directamente ante la mesa de negociaciones con la rpdc para resolver los problemas pendientes entre ambas partes.
    la rpdc esta dispuesta tanto al dialogo como al enfrentamiento.
    ee.uu. debe darse clara cuenta de que solo cuando tenga verdaderamente un proceder de buena voluntad, se resolveran satisfactoriamente todos los problemas.