Japan's Reckless Moves against DPRK Condemned

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- The Japanese right-wing conservative forces have recently kicked up an anti-DPRK racket, blustering that they would draw up an amendment to the "Law on Foreign Exchange and Trade" and a "bill on prohibiting and restricting the entry of specified foreign ships into Japanese ports" and submit them to the Diet session this year. In this regard, Rodong Sinmun today says in a signed commentary:
    This move is a wanton violation of the UN Charter and international law as it is part of the Japanese reactionaries' vicious moves to suffocate the DPRK by laying an "international siege" to the DPRK and applying economic sanctions against it. And this is a deliberate and premeditated provocation intended to escalate the confrontation between the DPRK and Japan and drive the situation on the Korean peninsula to a grave phase.
    Lurking behind the Japanese reactionaries' moves to impose sanctions on the DPRK is their black-hearted intention to fish in troubled waters by supporting the U.S. in its hostile policy towards Pyongyang this year, too.
    The DPRK has made it clear more than once that it would regard any "sanctions" and "blockade" against it as a declaration of war and take necessary self-defensive measures to cope with them. It is a base act of violating the spirit of the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and an anachronistic daydream for the Japanese reactionaries to try to frighten the army and the people of the DPRK and isolate and suffocate it.
    The desperate moves on the part of the Japanese reactionaries only harden the determination of the army and the people of the DPRK to settle accounts with Japan, their sworn enemy, without fail.
    The Japanese reactionaries' hostile policy towards the DPRK will only precipitate their international isolation and self-destruction.

GNP Heavyweight's Anti-North Vituperation Flailed

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- Hong Sa Dok, chief for general affairs of the Grand National Party of south Korea, fulminated the ridiculous anathemas that "the force supporting the present chief executive accounting for 20 percent is the pro-north force" and called for rejecting this force. Rodong Sinmun today carries a commentary in this regard.
    The news analyst says:
    His assertion was intended to divide the south Korean society into pro-north and anti-north parts. This shows that Hong is an ultra-right reactionary outperforming those who ruled the military dictatorial regime and a political imbecile bereft of any sense of the times.
    The south Koreans are demanding the dissolution of this party not only because of the disclosure of its financial scandals but because they are disillusioned about heavyweights of the GNP.
    As for Hong, he once joined in the movement for democratization in the past. Riding on the crest of this background, he entered the political world and later, just like a seasonal bird, moved to the GNP, urged by his greed for power, and is now serving the reactionary conservatives as their henchman. The GNP, which groups such philistines who defect from democracy to conservatism and move from one polar to the other polar, devoid of political idea, is now roistering and swaggering in south Korea as the "No. 1 party," making mockery of the south Korean society and its people. How can it be tolerated?
    The GNP is now running the whole gamut of artifices to turn the table in its favor, with upcoming election as a momentum.
    But it should clearly understand that this is foolish an act digging its own grave, the commentary warns.

Floral Basket Laid before Portrait of Kim Il Sung in Cuba

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- A function of laying a floral basket before the portrait of President Kim Il Sung on the occasion of the New Year was held at Kim Il Sung Economic Special School in Cuba on December 31. Present at the function were Secretary General of the Cuban Committee for Supporting Korea's Reunification Roberto Vasques Medina, staff of the school, the DPRK ambassador to Cuba and embassy officials.
    The participants laid the floral basket before the portrait of Kim Il Sung and made a bow.

Anti-U.S. Patriotic Hunger Strike Brisk in S. Korea

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- Presidium members of the South Headquarters of the National Alliance for the Country's Reunification are reportedly continuing their anti-U.S. patriotic hunger strike for checking the troop dispatch to Iraq in the New Year. On January 1, 22 days after their strike, they held a function of greeting the New Year with members of the Reunification Solidarity and the Democratic Workers' Party and students under the (south) Korean Federation of University Student Councils who visited the place of the strike in front of the "National Assembly" building.
    Kwon Yong Gil, representative of the Democratic Workers' Party, encouraged the strikers to fight more ardently, saying that the struggle of various circles for checking the troop dispatch to Iraq would be continued in the New Year, too.
    The strikers called for overthrowing the corrupt political camp through general elections this year and vigorously fighting for national reunification.

National Cooperation Called for

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- All Koreans in the north and the south and overseas should reject the outside forces, strengthen national cooperation and solidarity and wage a more vigorous struggle to achieve the greatest success in the movement for national reunification this year under the uplifted banner of national independence, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. It continues:
    National cooperation is the most just and correct mode of struggle to realize the century-old desire of the entire Korean nation for the reunification of the country and a shortcut to reunification.
    The U.S. is now desperately stepping up its preparations for settling the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. by force of arms. And the ultra-right conservatives including Choe Pyong Ryol and his ilk of the "Grand National Party" are becoming more undisguised than ever before in their reckless pro-U.S. sycophantic traitorous acts and moves for confrontation against reunification, backed by the U.S. National cooperation can never come true unless the bad habit of unconditionally serving the outside forces, idolizing them with an illusion about them, is dropped.
    The Korean nation should fully realize the national cooperation and vigorously pave a wide avenue for independent reunification through national cooperation under the uplifted slogan of our nation-first spirit.

Glorifying Kim Jong Il's Achievements Called for

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- What leader Kim Jong Il achieved and created in the course of his long journey for Songun leadership serves as an eternal boon to accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche started by President Kim Il Sung and a treasured sword enabling the Korean people to win victory after victory in the new year's all-out onward march. Rodong Sinmun today says this in an editorial. It goes on:
    The key to strengthening the front of politics and ideology of Korean-style socialism in every way and consolidating the front of anti-imperialism and military affairs as firm as a rock lies in glorifying the exploits performed by Kim Jong Il in the course of his Songun leadership and that to bringing about a great leap forward on the front of economy and science also lies in preserving his Songun leadership exploits.
    The exploits performed and the boon created by the Party under the banner of Songun serve as a source of strength that enables the army and people of the DPRK to win victory after victory in the confrontation with the imperialists in the New Year, too.
    It is imperative to consolidate the front of anti-imperialism and military affairs in every way on the basis of strong military muscle built under the Songun leadership and react to the enemies' vicious anti-DPRK moves with the toughest steps.
    What Kim Jong Il achieved and created in the way of his Songun serves as a banner for gigantic creation and leap forward as it encourages the whole army and people to pave a wide avenue for building a great prosperous powerful nation with high patriotic zeal.
    The all-out onward march this year is a drive to bring about a great leap forward on the front of economy and science along the road of building a great prosperous powerful nation opened by Kim Jong Il under the banner of Songun on the basis of his Songun leadership exploits.
    Tasks before the army and people are herculean but nothing is insurmountable for them when they uphold and fully embody the immortal exploits performed by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
    The Korean people should conduct a revolutionary offensive to bring about a leap forward on all fronts of building a great prosperous powerful nation, regarding Kim Jong Il's great Songun leadership exploits as a weapon to win sure victory.
    This is the task before them this year and a requirement of the era.

Korean People Optimistic about New Year

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- The Korean people have started the new year's efforts for building a great prosperous powerful nation with firm belief that they can safeguard the sovereignty and dignity of the nation and make a radical progress in economic construction and in the improvement of the people's living under the Songun-based leadership of Kim Jong Il. General Ko Jung Ho of the Korean People's Army told the KCNA:
    "The servicemen have taken the first step with a new hope in the new year's march under the banner of Songun. All of them are determined to defend the leader with their lives and further strengthen the front of anti-imperialism and military affairs. We will defend and thoroughly implement the Songun idea and politics and thus fully demonstrate the might of the invincible revolutionary army".
    Though the economic condition of the nation is still difficult, the people are replete with surging enthusiasm and optimism, loudly singing revolutionary songs in their villages and working sites.
    The workers of the Musan Mining Complex successfully carried out a 120,000-cubic meter blast in the first work of the new year and produced large quantities of concentrated iron ore.
    The Kujang Area Coal Complex has overfulfilled its daily assignments from the beginning of the new year and. the Ryongsong Machine Complex and the Taean Heavy Machine Complex have registered signal successes in the production of ordered equipment.
    The researchers of the Hamhung Branch of the Academy of Sciences, who made tremendous achievements in scientific and technical researches last year, and other scientists throughout the country are now filled with a firm determination to hit higher targets of science and thus to make a positive contribution to the building of a great prosperous powerful nation. Assistance to rural communities is also brisk.
    All people throughout the country are supplying a large quantity of manure and farming tools to nearby co-operative farms.

U.S. Interference in Internal Affairs of Korea Assailed

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- The U.S. is now forcing the south Korean authorities to adjust the process of improving the inter-Korean relations citing the nuclear issue as a pretext. This is aimed not only to hamstring the project of reconnecting the rail and road links, the tour of Mt. Kumgang and the construction of the Kaesong Industrial Zone but to prevent Korea from being reunified and bring the Korean nation a holocaust of a nuclear war, said a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland in a statement issued Friday. He continued:
    The U.S. recent pressure upon the south Korean authorities to adjust the process of improving the inter-Korean relations depending on the progress to be made in the discussion of the "nuclear issue" is an intolerable challenge to the Korean nation aspiring after the national reconciliation, unity and a serious interference in the internal affairs of the Korean nation.
    All facts clearly prove that it is none other than the U.S. which is interrupting the national cooperation and harassing peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, he said, stressing that now is the time for all the Korean nation to turn out in a nationwide anti-U.S. resistance to take practical actions to build the structure of the Korean nation's confrontation with the U.S. under the banner of the Korean nation-first spirit.

World Useful Plants Dictionary Published

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- The Plant Resources Institute under the Academy of Agricultural Science of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has published World Useful Plants Dictionary. It is of great academic and practical significance as it gives detailed explanations of useful plants on the globe.
    It contains some 6,000 species of plants of economic value.
    Among them are plants for timber, fiber, oil, edibility, fodder, perfumery, garden and honey, grain and industrial crops, vegetables, fruit trees, sea plants and mushrooms.
    Each vocabulary has its own family and scientific names (original name and nickname) and English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese names. It also gives chromosome number, the habitat, distribution and cultivation areas, morphological features, methods of propagation, general and special components and their adaptation.
    It gives concrete cultivation and proliferation methods to the plants of greater economic value and black and white pictures to about 2,000 species of main useful plants.

Spokesman of DPRK FM Dismisses Any Change from DPRK as Ridiculous

     Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- The United States is hyping recent developments in some Middle East countries, the cases orchestrated by itself. It is seized with hallucination that the same would happen on the Korean peninsula and some countries echo this "hope" and "expect" some change. This is nothing but a folly of imbeciles utterly ignorant of the DPRK's independent policy.
    What happened in Middle East countries is the issues that belong to the U.S. and peoples of those countries in all respects, he noted, adding that the DPRK has never been influenced by others and this will not happen in the future, too.
    A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared this in an answer given to the question raised by KCNA on Jan. 9 as regards the U.S. attempt to link recent developments in those countries to the DPRK.
    He went on:
    The DPRK has only its principle, the principle of independence and it assesses every development on this principle and acts according to its own judgment and decision. To expect any "change" from the DPRK stand is as foolish as expecting a shower from clear sky.
    Explicitly speaking, the recent developments in those countries only reinforce the DPRK's firm belief in the validity and vitality of its Songun policy.
    It is the historical truth that peace is won and defended only with strength. The DPRK will never abandon its principle it adopted to prevent a war and preserve peace on the Korean peninsula nor step back even an inch from the path of independence chosen by the Korean people. This is the fair and aboveboard and fixed political mode.

For Spanish-speaking people

Marcha del Songun llena de optimismo

     Pyongyang, 9 de enero (ATCC) -- El pueblo coreano, lleno de renovada fe de los triunfadores, emprendio el camino del avance del Ano Nuevo. A la pregunta de un reportero de la Agencia Telegrafica Central de Corea (ATCC) por la impresion que tiene al acoger el nuevo ano tras hacer balance orgulloso del ano pasado, Ko Jung Ho, general del Ejercito Popular de Corea (EPC) respondio:
    Hemos emprendido con vigor llenos de optimismo la marcha del Songun (priorizacion militar) de este ano.
    En todas las trincheras se resuenan las voces de juramento de los oficiales y soldados del EPC de exaltar el invencible poderio, con fusiles de defensa decisiva al Lider, en el camino de consolidar como muralla de acero el frente del antiimperialismo y los asuntos militares.
    Nos prepararemos firmemente como defensores absolutos y ejecutores cabales de la idea y la politica de Songun para demostrar plenamente el poderio del invencible ejercito revolucionario.
    La situacion economica del pais sigue siendo dificil, pero, en todas las calles y centros del trabajo, no cesan de oirse las canciones revolucionarias, y todas las personas estan llenas de pasion, entusiasmo y optimismo.
    En la primera jornada de trabajo del ano nuevo, los obreros del Complejo Minero de Musan, realizaron con exito la gran voladura de 120 mil toneladas y produjeron gran cantidad de minerales de hierro concentrados y aumentan cada dia mas sus exitos.
    Los obreros del Complejo Carbonifero de la Region de Kujang sobrecumplen desde el inicio del nuevo ano sus planes diarios y, los del Complejo de Maquinaria de Ryongsong y del Complejo de Maquinaria Pesada de Taean registran grandes innovaciones en la produccion de los equipos pedidos.
    Todos los cientificos del pais, en particular los investigadores de la Filial de Hamhung de la Academia de Ciencias aceleran la marcha del nuevo ano con la firme decision de ocupar las nuevas metas de la ciencia de punta para de esta manera contribuir a la construccion de una gran potencia prospera.
    Se desarrolla animadamente la labor de apoyo a los campos rurales socialistas.
    Los funcionarios de los organos y empresas a todos los niveles e incluso los habitantes de los barrios y de las unidades de vecinos del pais, en particular, de las provincias de Hwanghae del Sur y de Hamgyong del Norte envian a las granjas cooperativas cercanas mucha cantidad de estiercoles e instrumentos agricolas.
    Todo el pueblo avanza firmemente hacia el futuro brillante de una gran potencia prospera con la conviccion invariable de que al seguir la direccion del Dirigente Kim Jong Il mediante el Songun puede defender la soberania y dignidad de la nacion y lograr un viraje decisivo en la construccion economica y en la vida del pueblo.

CRPP condena maniobras de EE.UU.

     Pyongyang, 9 de enero (ATCC) -- El vocero del Comite por la Reunificacion Pacifica de la Patria (CRPP) hizo publica el dia 8 una declaracion condenando las criminales maniobras de aumento armamentista de Estados Unidos que introduce equipos militares de punta en el Sur de Corea. Tal movimiento militar de EE.UU. muestra evidentemente que este pais enfatiza verbalmente la "solucion del problema nuclear mediante las conversaciones" y de hecho, abriga la invariable ambicion de aplastar con fuerzas a la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea acelerando planificada y sigilosamente los preparativos de la guerra nuclear en la Peninsula Coreana, senala el documento y continua:
    Las fuerzas armadas revolucionarias de la RPDC estan preparadas como invencible ejercito capaz de enfrentarse tanto a cualquier "ataque de precision" como al primer ataque nuclear de EE.UU.. Para salvaguardar la independencia del pais y el derecho a vivir y preservar la paz y la estabilidad de la Peninsula Coreana y el contorno de esta, tambien en el futuro, responderemos siempre con sobredureza a la "teoria de fuerza" de EE.UU.
    El Norte y el Sur de Corea deben luchar con las fuerzas unidas contra EE.UU. que intenta acarrear un desastre nuclear a la nacion coreana. Por ultimo, la declaracion llama energicamente a todos los habitantes de distintos sectores del Sur de Corea a levantarse como un solo hombre en la sagrada lucha antiyanqui.

Es estupido esperar algo de RPDC - Declara el vocero del MINREX -

     Pyongyang, 9 de enero (ATCC) -- A la pregunta de un reportero de la Agencia Telegrafica Central de Corea formulada el dia 9 en relacion con que en estos tiempos, Estados Unidos relaciona los acontecimientos recien ocurridos en algunos paises del Medio Oriente con la RPDC, el vocero del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea respondio como sigue: Recientemente, EE.UU. libra una campana de propaganda exagerada sobre los incidentes ocurridos en algunos paises del Medio Oriente por la manipulacion de los mismos norteamericanos y esta sumergido en la alucinacion deseando la reaparicion de sus impactos en la Peninsula Coreana. Para el colmo, algunos paises simpatizantes con la ilusion de EE.UU. exponen la "esperanza" de sacar algun provecho.
    Al respecto, el vocero declaro que tal pensamiento no pasa de ser una ilusion de quienes no saben nada de la politica independiente de nuestro pais, y continuo:
    Los incidentes que acaban de suceder en paises del Medio Oriente son los asuntos de EE.UU. y los pueblos de la citada region. La RPDC no dejo ni dejara conducida nunca por la influencia de alguien.
    A la RPDC se le permiten solo sus propios principios independientes y esta, al tomarlos por cartabon, actua segun su juicio y su decision.
    Esperar algun "cambio" de tal posicion es igual que buscar agua en el desierto.
    Los eventos recien ocurridos en algunos paises del Medio Oriente hacen que la RPDC tenga conviccion mas firme de la justeza y la vitalidad de la politica de Songun (priorizacion militar).
    Es una verdad de la historia que la paz es lograda y preservada por las fuerzas armadas. No concederemos jamas nuestros principios establecidos para prevenir la guerra y preservar la paz en la Peninsula Coreana ni cederemos ni un palmo del camino independiente optado por nuestro pueblo. Esto es nuestro justo e imparcial modo de politica.