Greetings to Syrian President

     Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, on March 7 sent a message of greetings to Syrian President Bashar al Assad on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the March 8 Revolution in Syria. The message said:
    Over the past 40 years since the victorious revolution the Syrian Arab people have achieved great successes in their efforts to build independent and prosperous Syria under the correct guidance of the Arab Socialist Baath Party.
    I sincerely wish you and your people greater success in the future struggle to retake the occupied Golan Heights and achieve fair and comprehensive peace in the Middle-East and step up the modernization and progress of the country.
    I would like to take this opportunity to express the belief that the traditional friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would grow stronger and develop.

Chinese FM calls for direct talks between DPRK and U.S.

     Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- Tang Jiaxuan, Chinese Foreign Minister, on March 6 said that the "nuclear issue" of Korea should be settled at the direct talks between the DPRK and the U.S, according to Xinhua News report. China has exerted much effort to promote the peaceful talks between both sides, he added.

Bush administration censured

     Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- Over 100 days have passed since South Korean people staged an anti-U.S. candlelight procession in protest against the U.S. military court's declaration of the GIs who drove an armored car over the two girl students to death in late November last year not guilty. This anti-U.S. struggle of the South Korean people has been widely reported by more than 250 media in over 70 countries including Nepal, Syria, Cambodia, Nigeria, Egypt, Guinea, UK, Germany, Romania, Mexico, Guyana and Peru.
    The Hong Kong, China, newspaper "South China Morning Post," the Egyptian newspaper "Egyptian Gazette" and Itar-Tass described the procession as an open expression of discontent with the bush administration and an eruption of the long pent-up grievance of the South Korean people against its closest "military and political ally".
    The Libyan newspaper "Ad Shams" and the Indian newspaper "Samachar Post" held that the GIs' brutal acts should be judged by international law and human conscience.

U.S. dangerous air force strategy against DPRK under fire

     Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- The U.S. Defense Department is now examining its plan to dispatch a carrier into waters off the Korean Peninsula. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld issued an order to immediately deploy 24 B-52 and B-1 strategic bombers on Guam Island under the pretext of supporting the U.S. Forces present in South Korea.
    According to it, U.S. strategic bombers were deployed on the island on March 5. several U-2 planes and F-15 fighters are readying for their deployment in units of U.S. Forces present in South Korea and Japan. The U.S. Seventh Air Force Command in S. Korea has already been put in a "semi-war state."
    Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article says that these moves indicate that the U.S. air force is taking the lead in implementing the U.S. imperialists' strategy to mount a preemptive attack on the DPRK.
    The article continues:
    The U.S. seeks to indiscriminately destroy the "enemy" military bases and communications control facilities, manpower and strategic targets through its large-scale intensive preemptive air strikes and three-dimensional attacks in a bid to attain its goal of aggression.
    The U.S. imperialists are set to realize their "strategic air force scenario" on the Korean Peninsula, too.
    The aerial war exercises being staged by them in and around South Korea are part of important leverages to implement their air force strategy.
    In January this year alone they mobilized a total of more than 1,600 planes in the aerial war exercises in South Korea.
    A huge U.S. air force is involved in the U.S.-led Foal Eagle joint military exercise now under way in South Korea.
    It is the will and a mode of counter-action of the army and the people of the DPRK to react to "military punishment" with strong retaliation and cope with an all-out war with an all-out war. No force on earth can overpower their strength and break their will. The U.S. imperialists should stop their reckless adventures to test them.

DPRK ready to repel any U.S. military attack

     Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- The "plan for military strikes" at the nuclear facilities and military bases of the DPRK mapped out by the U.S. Department of Defense envisages not only cruise missile strikes and massive air raids, etc. but the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Minju Joson Sunday in a signed commentary says this "plan for military strike" presupposes a nuclear war.
    It continues:
    The United States attempted to use nuclear weapons against the DPRK not only during the Korean War but in the postwar period several times. Nobody can vouch it would not make a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK now that bush issued a secret order to use nukes against the "dangerous states."
    Once a nuclear war is ignited by the U.S. imperialists on the Korean Peninsula, not only the Koreans in the north and the south but the peoples in Asia and the world will suffer a horrible nuclear disaster.
    The DPRK can never remain a passive on-looker to the serious situation created by the U.S. moves to start a nuclear war against it.
    Its army and people will take every possible self-defensive measure to cope with the U.S. bellicose forces' new war moves.
    The U.S. war-like forces should be clearly mindful that although they may attempt to provoke the DPRK as they please, they can never go back alive after mounting an attack on it.
    The U.S. will be held wholly accountable for the disastrous consequences to be entailed by its reckless military moves.

Congratulatory message to Czech President

     Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, on Saturday sent a congratulatory message to Vaclav Klaus on his election as President of the Czech Republic. The message expressed the belief that the relations between the two countries would develop on good terms in the future, too, and sincerely wished the president great success in his responsible work for the prosperity of the country.

Message of sympathy to Algerian President

     Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, yesterday sent a message expressing deep sympathy to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, government, people, victims and their bereaved families in connection with a recent crash of an airliner that claimed a big human loss.

U.S. call for "multilateral talks" under fire

     Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- U.S. State Secretary Powell during his recent visits to several countries insisted on his oft-repeated assertion that the only way of solving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is to hold "multilateral talks", saying that the issue is not concerned with North Korea and the U.S. only but it affects whole Northeast Asia and the rest of the world. In this regard Minju Joson today says in a signed commentary:
    The U.S. seeks a very sinister intention in persistently calling for "multilateral talks."
    The U.S. spawned the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula in a bid to invent a pretext to stifle the DPRK by force at any cost.
    Through "multilateral talks" the U.S. seeks to internationalize the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, evade its responsibility for spawning it and make its solution more difficult.
    The U.S. repeated call for the talks is unrealistic as it has nothing to do with the settlement of the issue.
    That's why the DPRK rejects the U.S. talk about the "multilateral talks."
    There is neither reason nor pretext for the U.S. to fail to respond to the direct talks with the DPRK at present. The U.S. clarified its intention more than once before the international community to seek a peaceful negotiated solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
    The DPRK-U.S. direct talks for the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula will do the u.s. good, too.
    If the U.S. truly wants the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue, it should drop its absurd assertions and immediately opt for the direct talks with the DPRK.

U.S. termed fascist and rogue state

     Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- Newspapers of progressive political parties in different countries in their articles disclosing the truth behind the U.S. reckless nuclear racket against the DPRK demanded the U.S. give up its anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK and opt for the conclusion of a non-aggression treaty between the DPRK and the U.S. Proretaren, organ of the Communist Party Marxist-Leninist (r) in Sweden, said that the situation where the DPRK's sovereignty is exposed to a threat compelled it to withdraw from the NPT and restart its nuclear facilities.
    La Comune, organ of the People's United Democracy-Unity Left Wing of Italy, said that a rogue state is the United States, not the DPRK, noting that the U.S. stopped the supply of heavy oil to the DPRK and threatened the DPRK with nuclear weapons instead of fulfilling its commitment under the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework to provide two light water reactors to the DPRK though 8 years have passed since its adoption.
    Saut al Shaab, organ of the Communist Party of Syria (Bagdash), said that it was quite natural for the DPRK to have decided to stop fulfilling its commitments related to its nuclear power plant under the situation where the U.S. has abandoned its duty to supply the heavy oil to the DPRK as substitute energy.
    Friheten, organ of the Communist Party of Norway, branded the U.S. as a dangerous fascist state of the present times, noting that it is the reckless deed for the U.S. to have long pursued a policy of pressure toward the DPRK to realize its ambition for world domination.
    The Marxist-Leninist, organ of the Communist Party of Canada (ML), in an editorial said that the DPRK's proposal for concluding a non-aggression treaty with the U.S. is the only realistic solution to the issue caused by the U.S. threat against the DPRK as it is aimed to seek its fundamental settlement.

Rodong Sinmun observes International Women's Day

     Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today dedicates an editorial to the March 8 International Women's Day. All the women in the DPRK renew their firm determination to devote all their efforts to the building of a powerful socialist nation under the army-based revolutionary leadership of Kim Jong Il on the occasion of the 93rd International Women's Day, the editorial says, and goes on:
    The DPRK is proud to note that the Korean revolution has most successfully solved the women's problem under the leadership of the great Workers' Party of Korea.
    The Korean women's movement started and led by President Kim Il Sung has entered into a new higher stage in the era of the army-based policy led by Kim Jong Il.
    The women, first of all, should enshrine the absolute worship of him and devotedly protect him.
    It is the greatest mission of the Korean women's movement to uphold his cause and devotedly defend him.
    The army-based policy of the WPK calls for projecting the army as the pillar of the revolution and it is the noble duty of the women in the era of the army-based policy to devote themselves to the efforts to increase the military power of the country.
    It is the most honorable revolutionary task for the Korean women to totally dedicate themselves to materializing his plan to build a powerful nation.
    The era of the army-based policy requires the women to live and work in a more revolutionary and militant manner than ever before.
    The women, fully aware of their high responsibility for the morrow of the country and the nation, should bring up their children as heroes and heroines and staunch fighters.
    All the women will remain true to the army-based revolutionary leadership of Kim Jong Il and creditably perform their honorable mission of turning one of the two wheels in the building of a powerful nation.

Many foreign women treated at Pyongyang Maternity Hospital

     Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- More than 7,600 foreign women have been treated at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital for over 20 years. Among them at least 700 women received assistance at a childbirth and obstetrical and gynecological treatment. The hospital is furnished with up-to-date medical equipment and staffed with competent medical workers. In five years after its opening more than 2,000 foreign women received health care there. Among them was Yasmin, wife of the former Palestinian Ambassador to the DPRK. She gave birth to a lovely daughter at the hospital. She got free medical treatment, provided with rare medicine.
    While staying in the DPRK Maira Pardillo Gomez, wife of a Cuban linguist, could realize her wish at the hospital she failed to do in eight years after her marriage.
    Jindallae, Saeppyol, Solmae and Solgwang are among the foreign children born at the hospital.
    Foreign women visiting the hospital praised the benevolent politics of the Workers' Party of Korea, saying that they also feel blessed to see such a wonderful maternity hospital built for all Korean women and children.

International Women's Day marked in DPRK

     Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held in Pyongyang today to mark the 93rd anniversary of the International Women's Day (March 8). Present were vice-president of the presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly Yang Hyong Sop, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Jung Rin and officials concerned and women from all walks of life and on invitation were wives of diplomats of foreign embassies here and other foreign women.
    Pak Sun Hui, chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's Union, in a report said that the Korean women's movement was pioneered and has been triumphantly advanced by the three generals of Mt. Paektu.
    President Kim Il Sung put forward the unique idea and theory on women's emancipation and movement on the basis of the immortal Juche idea and had brilliantly embodied them during the whole period of his revolutionary activity, the reporter noted, and went on:
    Anti-Japanese war woman hero Kim Jong Suk had developed the women's movement of Korea into the Juche-oriented movement upholding the idea and line of the president and performed precious exploits in the work for the unified development of the movement and for the strengthening of international solidarity.
    Kim Jong Il developed the movement on to a new higher stage under the banner of the army-centered policy while defending and glorifying the president's idea and feats of the women's movement and thus opened the heyday of the movement.
    All the Korean women should hold Kim Jong Il in high esteem with loyalty, defend him politically and ideologically at the risk of their lives and thoroughly put his idea and line into practice.
    The reporter called on all the Korean women to further develop the Juche-oriented Korean women's movement, united firm around Kim Jong Il, strengthen friendship and solidarity with all progressive women in the world aspiring after independence and vigorously struggle for world peace, the happiness of women and children and the building of an independent world free from all forms of domination and subordination.
    The national meeting was followed by an art performance given by the art propaganda squad under the central committee of the union, women and children.

Message of greetings to Syrian President

     Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) - General Secretary Kim Jong Il on Friday sent a message of greetings to Bashar al Assad, General Secretary of the C. C., the Arab Socialist Baath Party and President of Syria, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the March 8 Revolution in Syria. The Syrian people have achieved many successes in the work to build prosperous and modern Syria under the wise steermanship of eternal leader Hafez al Assad and you for the last 40 years since the March 8 Revolution, the message said, and continued:
    Availing myself of this opportunity, I reiterate our full support to the Syrian people in their just cause of achieving the progress and modernization of the country and retaking the occupied Arab territories including Golan Heights.
    I wish you good health and happiness and the friendly Syrian people greater progress and prosperity.

Food aid from EU

     Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- The first ship carrying food anchored at Nampho port on Saturday according to the decision of the EU at the end of 2002 to provide more than 70,000 tons of food to the DPRK through the WFP. The food aid from the EU will encourage the Korean people in their efforts to recover from the aftermath of the natural disasters.

For Spanish-speaking people

kim jong il junto con kim yong nam felicita a fidel castro ruz

     pyongyang, 8 de marzo (atcc) -- kim jong il, secretario general del partido del trabajo de corea, presidente del comite de defensa nacional de la republica popular democratica de corea y comandante supremo del ejercito popular de corea y kim yong nam, presidente del presidium de la asamblea popular suprema de la rpdc enviaron el dia 7 un mensaje de felicitacion a fidel castro ruz, presidente del consejo de estado de la republica de cuba por su reeleccion a este cargo. el mensaje senala:
    enviamos a ud., en nombre del partido del trabajo de corea, del gobierno y del pueblo, las calurosas felicitaciones por haber sido reelecto como presidente del consejo de estado de la republica de cuba segun la unanime voluntad del pueblo cubano.
    su reeleccion como presidente del consejo de estado de la republica de cuba es una muestra de la firme voluntad y conviccion del pueblo revolucionario de cuba de defender y llevar a feliz termino hasta el fin la causa del socialismo bajo su direccion.
    seguros de que las tradicionales relaciones de amistad y cooperacion existentes entre nuestros dos paises se fortaleceran y desarrollaran invariablemente, aprovechamos esta ocasion para formularle sinceros votos por los mayores exitos en su responsable trabajo por defender las conquistas del socialismo frustrando las siniestras maniobras de los imperialistas contra cuba y por lograr la prosperidad del pais.

mujeres extranjeras disfrutan de servicio medico en pyongyang

     pyongyang, 8 de marzo (atcc) -- la casa de maternidad de pyongyang cuenta con los equipos medicos ultramodernos y competentes trabajadores asistenciales. durante mas de 20 anos transcurridos mas de 7 600 mujeres extranjeras disfrutaron del servicio medico en la casa de maternidad de pyongyang, de ellas mas de 700, la asistencia de parto y ginecologica.
    durante 5 anos posteriores a la inauguracion de este hospital materno mas de 2 000 mujeres de varios paises disfrutaron de servicio medico.
    por ejemplo, yasmin, esposa del ex embajador del estado de palestina en corea dio a luz una nina en esta casa de maternidad.
    en esta, ella consumio medicinas valiosas sin gastar ni un centavo.
    maira pardillo gomez, esposa de un linguista cubano que trabajaba en corea hizo realidad su deseo de tener a su hijo al cabo de 8 anos del casamiento en esa casa de maternidad.
    hasta la fecha el colectivo de este hospital trajo al mundo a numerosos ninos extranjeros, entre otros "jindalae", "saepyol", "solmae" y "solgwang".
    por eso las mujeres de varios paises del mundo que la visitan elogian la politica de benevolencia del partido del trabajo de corea al decir que gracias a contar con la excelente casa de maternidad ofrecida para todas las mujeres y ninos de corea ellas mismas llegan a disfrutar de una vida bendita.

ostentemos con vigor espiritu revolucionario de coreanas

     pyongyang, 8 de marzo (atcc) -- el periodico "rodong sinmun" consagro hoy un editorial al 93 aniversario del dia internacional de la mujer de todo el mundo (8 de marzo). el editorial senala:
    hoy en dia todas las mujeres coreanas en fiesta hacen mas firme la voluntad de dedicar todo lo suyo a la construccion de potencia socialista bajo la direccion revolucionaria de priorizacion militar del dirigente kim jong il.
    nuestra revolucion ha venido solucionando mas brillantemente el problema femenino bajo la direccion del gran partido. el movimiento por la emancipacion de mujeres de corea allanado y dirigido por el presidente kim il sung llego a una nueva etapa alta en la epoca de priorizacion militar conducida por el dirigente.
    las mujeres deben guardar, antes que nada, la absoluta adoracion al dirigente y defender a ultranza a este.
    la mision suprema del movimiento de las mujeres de corea es apoyar la causa del dirigente y defender a ultranza a este.
    la politica de priorizacion militar de nuestro partido es la politica que presenta el ejercito como un pilar de la revolucion, y dedicar todo lo suyo a la lucha por fortalecer las fuerzas militares del pais es el noble deber de las mujeres de la epoca de priorizacion militar.
    poner de manifiesto la indoblegable abnegacion para apoyar el proyecto del dirigente de construir potencia prospera es la tarea revolucionaria mas honrosa presentada hoy ante las mujeres coreanas.
    la epoca de priorizacion militar exige a las mujeres vivir y trabajar de manera revolucionaria y combativa, mas que nunca.
    las mujeres con la noble responsabilidad sobre el futuro de la patria y la nacion deben dar a luz numerosos hijos y crearlos como heroes y firmes combatientes de fusil.
    todas las mujeres deben seguir fielmente la direccion revolucionaria de priorizacion militar del respetado general kim jong il, gran sol del siglo 21 para cumplir con la mision honrosa de encargarse de una rueda de carro para la construccion de potencia prospera.