KCNA Terms U.S. Kingpin of Human Rights Abuses

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- The U.S. State Department slandered the DPRK again in "an annual report on human rights" on February 25. The U.S. talked this or that about human rights situations in more than 190 countries as if it were an international human rights judge.
    It is ludicrous for the U.S. to talk about human rights abuses in the DPRK although it is beset with such serious human rights issues as racial discrimination, religious disputes, merciless assaults in prisons, murder, rapes, robbery, etc.
    The U.S. is not entitled to talk about human rights situation on the international arena.
    It was the U.S. which brought the worst disaster to the people of Afghanistan in view of humanitarianism by invading it, reducing its cities and villages to ashes to meet Washington's purpose and interests under the signboard of the "war on terrorism." It was again the U.S. which fabricated false information, violated the sovereignty of Iraq by force of arms and unhesitatingly dropped bombs on defenseless innocent peaceable citizens and even on children.
    Human rights precisely means state power. Therefore, the invasion of Iraq, a sovereign state, should be called into question as it was the worst human rights abuses.
    After launching a war in Iraq, the U.S. used approximately 311,000 depleted uranium shells, more than 13,000 cluster bombs and many other bombs and shells, severely devastating land, killing at least 10,000 civilians and wounding about 20,000.
    These atrocities suffice to prove that the U.S. is the chieftain of massacre and the worst violator of the right to existence. It also proves that the present U.S. administration is the world's most inhumane regime.
    Amnesty International issued statements on June 30 and July 20 last year to denounce the U.S. human rights abuses.
    The statements accused the U.S. of confining thousands of innocent Iraqis in prisons and thus inflicting all sorts of humiliation and pain upon them and even killing them without hesitation.
    In November the secretary general of Amnesty International assailed the U.S. for wantonly violating international law and human rights under the signboard of "war on terrorism" and punishing prisoners in POW camps in the naval base on Guantanamo and in Afghanistan as it pleases without going through necessary legal procedures.
    All facts go to clearly prove that the U.S. is the strangler of international democracy and the world's worst violator of human rights as it is hell-bent on mass-killings in different parts of the world, imposing economic sanctions and war on those countries advocating independence by spreading false information and breeding plots.
    Such being a stark fact, the U.S. is pulling up the DPRK over the non-existent human rights issue. This is nothing but a base trick to tarnish the international image of the DPRK and do harm to its state power by adding human rights issue to the nuclear issue.
    The U.S. much ado about the human rights issue in the DPRK only hardens the will of the Korean people to consolidate as firm as an iron-wall the socialist system, their protector.

Punishment of World's Worst Violator of Human Rights Called for

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today terms the U.S. the worst violator of human rights, commenting on all sorts of human rights abuses it has committed in every part of the world. The news analyst says:
    The Iraqi war fought by the U.S. was a crime of massacre of Iraqis and the most hideous human rights abuse.
    The U.S. Iraqi war reduced the whole land of Iraq to ashes and to a huge abattoir as defenseless peaceable civilians were massacred. It took the lives of at least 25,000 peaceable civilians.
    The U.S. massively used depleted uranium shells, a target of international criticism, contaminating Iraq with radioactive substance. Though the U.S. claims that the Iraqi war was brought to an end last spring, the U.S. occupation forces' outrageous oppression upon and brutal killings of Iraqis are still going on.
    On the contrary, the U.S. is escalating its crackdown upon and killings of civilians under the pretext of "a war against terrorism".
    The U.S. crimes against humanity are not confined to Iraq only.
    The U.S.-led "war against terrorism" has generated endless killings and maltreatment of civilians in various parts of the world including Afghanistan and Kosovo. This is the most hideous crime against humanity as it diametrically runs counter to the main spirit of the "world declaration on human rights".
    The reality in Iraq, a graveyard of human rights, teaches the bitter lesson that if a country loses its sovereignty, the human rights of its people are bound to be savagely violated.
    If these worst human rights abuses committed by the U.S. under the signboard of "protecting human rights" are overlooked, the world will be turned into a lawless one, a tundra of human rights where the U.S. lords it over.
    Human conscience will never tolerate it and history will certainly mete out a fair judgment to the U.S.

Zambian President on Development of Relations with DPRK

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- Zambia attaches great importance to the development of the relations with the DPRK. Zambian President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa said this when receiving credentials from new DPRK Ambassador e.p. to the country Pak Kun Gwang on Feb. 25.
    The president noted that the two countries have long developed the bilateral friendly and cooperative relations and supported and cooperated with each other on the international arena.
    It is natural for the DPRK to build up its military muscle to cope with foreign forces' military pressure, he said, welcoming the adoption of the North-South joint declaration in Pyongyang in 2000 and hoping that the north and the south of Korea would be reunified peacefully through dialogue.

Briefing on Situation on Korean Peninsula Held in Mexico

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- The National Executive Committee of the Workers' Party of Mexico held a briefing on the situation on the Korean peninsula on February 27. At the briefing the recent situation of the Korean peninsula was informed of and speeches were made.
    Alberto Anaya Gutierrez, coordinator (leader) of the National Executive Committee of the Workers' Party of Mexico, in his speech said that the Korean people are honorably defending the sovereignty of the country and national dignity under the leadership of Kim Jong Il despite the aggression moves and challenges of the U.S. imperialists.
    The U.S. imperialists, he noted, seek to isolate and stifle the DPRK under the pretext of the nuclear issue for their sinister purpose to deliberately render the situation of the region strained and realize their strategic objective of unipolar world.
    He stressed that they would express full support as ever to the Workers' Party and people of Korea in their struggle to defend national sovereignty and dignity and socialism and achieve national reunification.

Japan's Hostile Policy toward DPRK Flailed

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- The world public castigated Japan for adopting an "amendment to the law on foreign exchange." General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist-Leninist) Dilip Barua in a press statement on February 19 said that the adoption of the amendment is a wanton violation of the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration which promises to observe international law and refrain from threatening mutual security.
    Japan is driving DPRK-Japan relations to an unpredictable state by making economic sanctions against the DPRK a policy, he said, strongly demanding that the Japanese government withdraw the "amendment to the law on foreign exchange" at once.
    Bewketu Tassew, chief of the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Group for the Study of the Juche Idea, in a press statement on February 23 vehemently condemned the Japanese authorities for being more undisguised in their hostile policy toward the DPRK instead of apologizing and compensating for the crimes committed against the Korean people in the past.

Lithuanian President on Relations with DPRK

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas underscored the need to boost the relations between the Republic of Lithuania and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea when receiving credentials from new DPRK Ambassador e.p. to the country Jon In Chan on Feb. 25. The president expressed the conviction that the two countries could have constructive cooperation in the international arena and work hand in hand at the international organizations including the United Nations in particular.

Anniversary of March 1 Popular Uprising Marked in Seoul

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- Functions were held in Seoul on March 1 on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the March 1 Popular Uprising. The "March 1 National Meeting for Peace and Reunification" was held at Thapgol Park that day under the sponsorship of the preparatory committee of the Headquarters for the Promotion of National Joint Functions in 2004 made up of the All-People Council for National Reconciliation and Cooperation, religious orders and the Reunification Solidarity.
    The meeting was attended by figures from religious circles including Catholics and Chogye Order and members from the Reunification Solidarity, the South Headquarters of the National Alliance for the Country's Reunification (Pomminryon), the (south) Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and other civic and social organizations, over 300 in all.
    Speakers at the meeting called for eradicating all descendants of pro-Japanese stooges and sympathizers with traitors to the nation through the April general election, saying the desperate efforts of foreign forces to obstruct the implementation of the June 15 joint declaration and quell the nation's desire to independently reunify the country by its concerted efforts would get them nowhere.
    The "March 1 declaration on national independence", which had been adopted by the north and the south, was read out and an art performance was given at the meeting.
    Prior to the meeting, the Reunification Solidarity called a news conference denouncing the Japanese militarists in front of the Japanese embassy.
    A press release was read out at the conference.
    Meanwhile, the South Headquarters of Pomminryon released a statement titled "Let us defend the national sovereignty, upholding the banner of our nation-first spirit".
    The March 1 Popular Uprising was a nationwide patriotic resistance in which Koreans rose up as one in the struggle to put an end to Japanese imperialists' military tyranny and plunder and achieve the liberation and sovereignty of the country and an anti-Japanese and anti-foreign forces struggle as it demonstrated the might of the homogeneous nation with a history spanning 5000 years, the statement noted.

Credentials Presented to Kim Yong Nam

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, received credentials from MD. Yusoff Bin MD. Zain, new Malaysian ambassador e. p. to the DPRK, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today. DPRK Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Yong Il was on hand.
    After receiving the credentials, the president conversed with the ambassador.

Friendly Meeting Held at Russian Embassy

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- Russian Ambassador to the DPRK Andrei Karlov hosted a friendly meeting at the embassy today on the occasion of the 94th International Women's Day. Its participants first saw an art performance given by students of the school at the embassy.
    Speeches were made at the meeting.
    The participants talked about the need to boost the friendly relations between the DPRK and Russia growing stronger day by day under the deep care of leader Kim Jong Il and Putin and the friendship between the women of the two countries.
    Present there on invitation were Pak Sun Hui, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's Union, Hong Son Ok, vice-chairperson of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and other women officials.
    Staff members of the embassy were present there.

Organization against Corrupt Politicians Formed in S. Korea

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- The "Citizens' Solidarity for 2004 National Assembly Election" reportedly inaugurated on Feb. 29 the "Headquarters of the Movement for Banishment of Three Evils in Politics" for removing corrupt politicians, money-supported election and regional feelings. The inaugural ceremony was held in Seoul, at which a declaration was published.
    The declaration said corrupt politicians involved in scandals, politicians related to money-supported election who distribute money and valuables and old-time politicians fostering regional feelings would certainly be delisted from the forthcoming election.
    An art performance satirizing corrupt politicians was given by students at the ceremony.

GNP Condemned in S. Korea

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- A meeting was reportedly held in front of the building of the "Grand National Party" in Seoul on Feb.27 to denounce the GNP opposed to human rights and history and fully win a special combined law on probing truth behind the murder of civilians. Participating in the meeting were 32 societies of bereaved families and 29 civil and social organizations for human rights and bereaved families.
    The speakers threatened to set fire on the "National Assembly" if the special law was turned down at the assembly, declaring: "We will certainly condemn the political party which took truckful money. Let us people pool strength and expel from our society a handful of conservative forces and those seeking to benefit by argument on political coloring."
    They branded as "five traitors involved in the massacre of civilians" Pak Kwan Yong, speaker of the assembly, Choe Pyong Ryol, representative of the GNP, and "assemblymen" Hong Sa Dok, Ri Kang Du and Ri Pyong Sok who did their share in reserving the bill of the special combined law at the plenary meeting of the assembly on Feb. 9.
    The participants in the meeting in a statement rapped at the GNP for decrying the special combined law as one splitting the people while dealing with the issue of probing the truth of massacre of civilians in its interests and for its stratagem.
    The GNP and the "National Assembly" would surely be judged in the forthcoming election in the name of 5 million bereaved families of victims, the statement warned.

Friendly Meeting with Staff Members of Syrian Embassy

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- A friendly meeting was held at the DPRK-Syria Friendship Pyongyang Silk Mill today on the occasion of the 41st anniversary of the March 8 revolution in Syria. After looking round various production processes and cultural and welfare facilities of the mill, its participants enjoyed an art performance given by its employees and talked with each other, deepening the feelings of friendship.
    Present there on invitation were Muhammad Adib Alhani, charge d'affaires ad interim, and staff members of the Syrian embassy here.
    Present there were Jon Hyon Chan, vice-chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, officials concerned and employees of the mill.

President Kim Il Sung's Feats in Agrarian Reform

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- March 5 is the 58th anniversary of the promulgation of the law on agrarian reform in Korea. Now the Korean people are recollecting the immortal feats performed by President Kim Il Sung in carrying out agrarian reform just after the liberation of the country in August 1945.
    At that time, peasants accounted for 80 percent of the country's population. But in north Korea, alone, landlords who made up only four percent in all the farmhouses were owning 58.2 percent of the arable land.
    The peasants' long-cherished desire was to have their own land to do farming.
    Taking their desire into account, Kim Il Sung set the agrarian reform as a primary task and wisely guided the efforts to carry it out.
    He visited various local areas including Taedong County, South Phyongan Province, and spent more than a month among peasants to acquaint himself with the situation of the countryside and the earnest demand of the peasants for land. During the days, he made an accurate analysis of the feudal landownership and decided on those who should be deprived of land, and ways of confiscating and distributing their land and doing away with the tenant system for good. Basing himself on the land programme he laid down in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and on rich experience he gained in the efforts for its implementation, he completed the law on agrarian reform.
    "Law on Agrarian Reform in North Korea" worked out by him was promulgated as a law of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea on March 5, Juche 35 (1946).
    The agricultural working people in the country significantly commemorate March 5 every year to hand down Kim Il Sung's undying feats down through generations.

Gift to Kim Jong Il from Malaysian Government

     Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il received a gift from the Malaysian government. It was handed today to Kim Yong Nam, president of the presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, by MD. Yusoff Bin MD. Zain, new Malaysian ambassador e.p. to the DPRK.

For Spanish-speaking people

Mexico: reunion de anuncio a la situacion de la Peninsula Coreana

     Pyongyang, 4 de marzo (ATCC) -- El Comite Ejecutivo Nacional del Partido del Trabajo de Mexico (PTM) organizo el pasado 27 de febrero una reunion de informacion sobre la situacion creada en estos dias en la Peninsula Coreana. Tras dar a conocerla, varias personalidades pronunciaron discursos.
    El coordinador (lider) del CEN del PTM, Alberto Anaya Gutierrez, en su discurso, dijo que el pueblo coreano, bajo la direccion del Dirigente Kim Jong Il, defiende honrosamente la soberania del pais y la dignidad nacional frustrando con valentia las maquinaciones de agresion y desafios de los imperialistas norteamericanos.
    Explico que los yanquis tratan de aislar y aplastar a la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea so pretexto del problema nuclear para realizar su siniestro objetivo estrategico de unipolarizacion mundial al agravar intencionalmente una situacion en esa region.
    Enfatizo que ellos mismos, tambien en el futuro al igual que en el pasado, se solidarizaran enteramente con la lucha del Partido del Trabajo de Corea y del pueblo coreano por defender la soberania y la dignidad nacionales y el socialismo y lograr la reunificacion del pais.

Zambia presta gran atencion al desarrollo de relaciones con Corea

     Pyongyang, 4 de marzo (ATCC) -- Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, presidente de la Republica de Zambia, enfatizo que su pais concede suma importancia al desarrollo de las relaciones con la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea. El 25 de febrero, Pak Kun Gwang le presento al mandatario zambiano las cartas credenciales que le acreditan como nuevo embajador extraordinario y plenipotenciario de la RPDC.
    En la ocasion el presidente dijo que desde hace mucho tiempo los dos paises han venido desarrollando las relaciones de amistad y cooperacion y apoyandose y cooperando en palestra internacional.
    Senalo que es sumamente merecido el que Corea fortalece las fuerzas armadas para hacer frente a la presion militar de las fuerzas extranjeras, y apunto que apoya la Declaracion Conjunta Norte-Sur del 15 de Junio aprobada en el ano 2000 en Pyongyang, y desea la realizacion de la reunificacion pacifica de Corea a traves del dialogo entre ambas partes.

Presidente de Lituania se refiere al desarrollo de relaciones con Corea

     Pyongyang, 4 de marzo (ATCC) -- Rolandas Paksas, presidente de la Republica de Lituania subrayo la necesidad de desarrollar aun mas las relaciones con la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea. El 25 de febrero, Jon In Chan le presento al mandatario lituano las cartas credenciales que le acreditan como nuevo embajador extraordinario y plenipotenciario de la RPDC en ese pais.
    En la audiencia, Rolandas expreso conviccion de que los dos paises podran hacer la cooperacion constructiva en la escena internacional y trabajar mano a mano en las organizaciones internacionales, sobre todo, en la ONU.