KCNA Refutes U.S. Accusations against DPRK

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- The Human Rights Watch, which claims to be a U.S. non-governmental human rights organization, in an "annual report on human rights" released on Jan. 13 dealing with human rights performances in at least 60 countries once again pulled up the DPRK over "the issues of political offenders" and "defectors from the north". This is nothing surprising to us as it used to let loose a string of trite vituperations against the DPRK as a tool serving the successive U.S. administrations in the implementation of their "human rights policies." We term the Human Rights Watch's malignant mud-slinging at the DPRK over its human rights performance as sheer sophism fully representing the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK.
    It is beyond doubt that it cannot act otherwise away from the U.S. stand as it came into being in America. But it would be well advised to take issue with human rights abuses in its own country before saying this or that about other countries as it put up the signboard of "defense of human rights".
    The U.S., styling itself a "human rights judge", has no right to talk about human rights as it is the graveyard of human rights and the worst human rights abuser in the world. The political freedom, democracy and vital rights of the popular masses are abridged in the U.S. legally and institutionally.
    The U.S. election law restricts as strictly as possible the people's right to elect and bars the popular masses from freely taking part in the political life by putting up various preconditions such as sex, occupation, level of education, length of residence, property status, age, political view and religious belief.
    More than 10 intelligence institutions covering the whole area of the U.S. with a dense intelligence network are gathering specific information about the inhabitants who account for 90 percent of the population. On this basis they are encroaching upon the political activities and freedom of speech of the popular masses while gathering and analyzing the data about their political life and ideological trend by Internet and precision monitoring and wiretapping means.
    The total number of the poor is more than 34.6 million, that of the jobless goes beyond 8.6 million and industrial barons earn 400 times as much as ordinary workers in the U.S. where people are denied vital rights.
    The poor mental and cultural life is being institutionally encouraged there, driving many people into degeneration, despair and crimes. Ethnic and gender discrimination is growing more intolerable day by day.
    A total of 235 million weapons of various types are in use in the U.S., a cesspool of crimes. In consequence tens of thousands of people fall victim to gun-related crimes every year.
    The U.S. is a wrecker of democracy as it ruthlessly infringes upon the sovereignty of other countries and human rights of their peoples for the mere reason that they are different from it in ideology, system and religious belief.
    The U.S. invasion of Iraq in disregard of the United Nations and international law, its massacre of at least 100,000 civilians and use of depleted uranium bombs and abuses of prisoners go to clearly prove that it is the typical human rights abuser at present.
    It is preposterous, indeed, for the U.S. to take issue with other's human rights performance though it is censured for its poor human rights situation at home and abroad.
    The army and the people in the DPRK regard their socialist system as their life and soul and boundlessly value and absolutely support it.
    No matter how desperately the U.S. may work to vilify the DPRK's system, man-centered socialism of Korean style remains stable.

Japanese Right-wing Forces' Anti-DPRK Smear Campaign under Fire

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- The content of the program "Wartime sexual abuse exposed to criticism", a sequel of the serial program "How to try war" aired by NHK of Japan on January 30, 2001, was grossly altered just before its broadcasting under the pressure of ultra-right wing conservative forces including Shinzo Abe, acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, and Shoichi Nakagawa, minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, in the direction of covering up Japan's responsibility for the war, said a recent issue of the Japanese Asahi Shimbun. A spokesman for the DPRK Measure Committee for Demanding Compensation to Comfort Women for the Japanese Army and the Victims of Forcible Drafting in a statement Thursday gave a detailed account of how the program was altered.
    Right-wing forces and media of Japan are becoming so noisy in their smear campaign against the DPRK, persistently tampering with Japan's crime-woven past. This is aimed to paint the assailant as a victim in a bid to evade at any cost its responsibility to redeem the crimes committed by it against humanity in the past and create an atmosphere favorable for the realization of the militarization, he stressed, and went on:
    As for Abe and Nakagawa, they are known to be standard-bearers of the right-wing forces. Acting as director general and representative of "the society of young lawmakers contemplating the future and education in the history of Japan", they devoted themselves to justifying and beautifying Japan's past crimes. They are still spearheading the anti-DPRK smear campaign over the issue of abduction.
    Japanese media institutions, which claim to stand for neutrality and impartiality of the press, are taking the lead in tampering with the history and slandering the DPRK as faithful mouthpieces of the right-wing forces, blinded by money-making. But Japanese right-wing forces and media are grossly miscalculating.
    Japan's desperate efforts to deny and embellish its past crimes would only prompt the international community to dig up more deeply its crime-woven past and redouble their international solidarity and pressure campaign demanding its settlement.

Unemployment Rate Increases in S. Korea

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- The unemployment rate is on the steady increase in south Korea, according to radio reports from south Korea. The National Statistical Office said that the number of jobless workers last year was 855,000, an increase of 36,000 over 2003.
    The worst of them is the problem of jobless young workers whose number reached 420,000.
    In Seoul unemployed men and women numbered 248,000 in December last year, an increase of 18,000 over November last, added radios.

Gift to Kim Jong Il from Italian Figure

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il was presented with a gift by Giancarlo Elia Valori, director of the Italian Institute of International Relations. The gift was conveyed to the DPRK ambassador to China by the director on Jan. 17.
    The director extended warm congratulations to Kim Jong Il on his birthday and wholeheartedly wished him good health and great success in the work to accomplish his noble cause.

DPRK's Joint New Year Editorial Favored

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Jean Marie Lambret, chief of the French Group for the Study of the Juche Idea, made public a statement on Jan. 12 in support of the joint New Year editorial of the DPRK. In the statement he said that 2005 is a year in which the Korean people would celebrate the 60th anniversaries of the Workers' Party of Korea and the liberation of Korea in grand style.
    The DPRK set forth the tasks to bring about a decisive turn in economic construction and the improvement of the standard of people's living this year by effecting a great revolutionary surge on all fronts of socialist construction, he said, referring to the specific tasks to be fulfilled by it to do so.
    He stressed that his group supports the Korean people in their drive to carry out the tasks laid down in the joint editorial.
    He expressed conviction that the Korean people would successfully realize three forms of cooperation -- cooperation for national independence, cooperation for peace against war and cooperation for reunification and patriotism-- in the idea of "By our nation itself" and thus record a brilliant page in the history of the movement for national reunification.

River-crossing Exercise to Be Staged in S. Korea

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- A south Korean army corps announced that it would launch a large-scale river-crossing exercise in the River Hanthan in Ryonchon County, Kyonggi Province, from January 20 to 26, according to south Korean MBC. It was reported that the exercise is aimed to increase the capacity to overcome river obstacles in winter and carry out a mobile warfare.
    The military exercises staged by the south Korean military bellicose forces one after another from the beginning of the new year are challenging the desire of the fellow countrymen to defend peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and laying difficulties in the way of achieving cooperation for peace against war.

Friendly Meeting with Cuban Diplomats Held

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- There was a friendly meeting of officials of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and staff members of the Cuban embassy here at Pyongyang Koryo Hotel on Jan. 19 on the occasion of the New Year Juche 94 (2005). Present there on invitation were Cuban Ambassador Ruben Perez Valdes and embassy officials.
    The meeting was attended by Pak Kyong Son, vice-department director of the WPK Central Committee, and officials of its International Department.
    Speeches were made.
    Speakers underscored the need to further strengthen the friendship and solidarity between the two countries, parties and peoples, which are developing under the deep concern of leader Kim Jong Il and respected Fidel Castro Ruz, this year, too.
    The participants conversed to one another over the cooperative relations between the two parties and countries, deepening the friendship.

Japanese LDP Heavyweight's Outburst under Fire

     Tokyo, January 18 (KNS-KCNA) -- So Chung On, director of the International Department of the Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, called a press conference on Jan. 18 at which he condemned the reckless remarks made by Shinzo Abe, acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, according to the KNS from Tokyo. Abe, in a recent TV appearance, told rubbish that Hwang Ho Nam and Jong Nam Yong who had participated in a mock tribunal on the issue of Japan's wartime sex slavery in the capacity of the then secretary general and permanent member of the DPRK Measure Committee for Demanding Compensation to Comfort Women for the Japanese Army and the Victims of the Pacific War, were "spies from north Korea", he noted, and continued:
    As for Hwang Ho Nam he is well known to various figures including media person of Japan as he has contributed to the DPRK-Japan friendship for years as a member of the Korean Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.
    Jong Nam Yong is an experienced doctor of law of the DPRK.
    Such being a hard fact, Abe labeled them spies, falsifying truth. This is nothing but reckless remarks aimed to blacken the dignity of the DPRK.
    The story about "spies from north Korea" cooked up by Abe is designed to divert elsewhere public criticism of his pressure put upon NHK and his political interference in its broadcasting service.
    The Koreans in Japan can hardly repress the national indignation at his behavior of unhesitatingly making groundless remarks to mislead public opinion and stoke bitterness towards the DPRK despite the fact that he is a politician holding a key position in the ruling party.
    Abe should retract his groundless remarks at once and apologize for them and the Japanese government should make a bold political decision to settle the wrongs done by Japan against the DPRK in the past at an early date, the director urged.

Reception Hosted for Korean Religionists at Russian Embassy

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Russian Ambassador to the DPRK Andrei Karlov hosted a reception Wednesday evening at the embassy for members of the Korean Council of Religionists on the occasion of the New Year Juche 94 (2005). Present there on invitation were Chairman of the Korean Orthodox Church Committee Ho Il Jin and members of the council.
    The ambassador and embassy officials were on hand.
    Speeches were made at the reception.

Significant Landmark for Turn in Socialist Rural Construction

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today dedicates an article to the 30th anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il's famous work "On Enhancing the Role of Party Organizations in the Drive to Implement Socialist Rural Theses". The work, published on Jan. 20, Juche 64 (1975), gives a flawless exposition of the importance of the solution of the rural question in socialist construction and matters of principle arising in improving and strengthening the Party's guidance of the rural economy.
    Stressing that the greatness of Kim Jong Il's guidance to the rural economy has been proved more strikingly in the practice of the Korean revolution over the last ten years, the author of the article says:
    The sagacity of Kim Jong Il's guidance in leading the socialist rural construction to victory finds manifestation in placing the ideological revolution to remould the ideological awareness of the farmers definitely before all other work and laying a solid material and technological foundation for dynamically pushing forward agricultural production as required by the building of a great prosperous powerful nation.
    It finds manifestation also in firmly maintaining the socialist principle in the management and operation of the rural economy.
    Kim Jong Il has unswervingly upheld socialist ownership and the principle of collectivism in grim circumstances in which the imperialists have gone to extremes in their moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK. This was a sure guarantee for the steadfast defense of the socialist rural economic system of Korean style.
    In recent years the U.S. imperialists have got more malicious in their schemes to isolate and stifle the DPRK. This has caused temporary difficulties in socialist economic construction, but the faith of the Korean people and all the agricultural workers in the advantages of Korean-style socialism and Korean-style rural economic system is growing stronger as the days go by.
    It is the most precious fruit reaped by Kim Jong Il in the work for socialist rural construction that he has firmly upheld the revolutionary principle and stand under the uplifted banner of Songun and defended the banner of Juche, the banner of socialism in whatever adversity

Peace in Korean Peninsula Is Prerequisite to Global Peace

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Assurance of global peace and security depends on guaranteeing peace on the Korean Peninsula, says Rodong Sinmun Thursday in a signed article. Noting that only when the Korean Peninsula is peaceful and secure can the world be so, the article goes on:
    The RSOI and the Foal Eagle and Ulji Focus Lens joint military exercises staged by the U.S. every year are preliminary and nuclear test wars aimed at a preemptive attack on the DPRK. To unleash a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula and make a preemptive strike at the DPRK is the U.S. policy and military strategy to stifle it. So the U.S. moves to ignite a new Korean war cannot but be a factor of threat to peace and security of Asia and the rest of the world.
    If the United States starts a war on the peninsula, it will easily spread to the Asia-Pacific region and the world will be engulfed in it.
    The guarantee of peace of the Korean Peninsula is immediately the guarantee of global peace. The maintenance of peace in the peninsula and the Asia-Pacific region is entirely attributable to the great Songun politics of the DPRK and its mighty deterrent that no formidable enemy dare defy.
    If tension is to be eased and war danger be removed in the Korean Peninsula, their root cause must be eradicated before anything else.
    With the U.S. troops and the nuclear weapons, the source of war, left in south Korea, the peace and security of Asia and the world cannot be expected, not to speak of those in the Korean Peninsula.

Rodong Sinmun Calls for Performing Heroic Feats

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today editorially calls upon all the people to rally close around the great headquarters of the revolution under the uplifted banner of Songun and perform heroic feats in this year's general onward march and thus significantly greet the 60th anniversaries of the Workers' Party of Korea and the liberation of the country. Through the drive to celebrate the above-said holidays this significant year in grand style the Korean people will give steady continuity to the ever-victorious tradition of the Korean revolution and strikingly demonstrate the spirit of heroic Juche Korea which stands dignified for its independence and remains invincible thanks to its unity, the editorial says, and goes on:
    It is necessary to uphold the invincible Songun policy with one mind and one purpose and learn from the fighting spirit and noble example of the revolutionary forerunners who performed the immortal heroic feats in the annals of the country.
    The secret of performing heroic feats in the on-going general onward march is to display the revolutionary soldier spirit and fully meet the need to develop modern science and technology.
    All domains of national economy and all units should energetically accelerate the technological updating of national economy on the basis of modern science and technology, true to the Party's policy of attaching importance to them.

Brisk Winter Sports Activities in DPRK

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Sports activities in the winter season are brisk in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. A group running took place at Kim Il Sung Square recently to mark the first Sports Day this year with the participation of some 3,000 officials of the ministries and national institutions.
    That day the plazas in front of the Monument to Party Founding and the Arch of Triumph were also crowded with working people from many industrial establishments in Pyongyang for group running, mass rhythmic gymnastics and Taekwon-Do performances and other sports and amusement games.
    There were similar functions and activities at factories, enterprises and other units across the country.
    Schools at all levels throughout the country started winter sports activities that day.
    More than 2,000 schoolchildren in Sosong District, Pyongyang, had an opening ceremony of the month of physical culture and sports activities in the winter season at Ryonmot Park. The ceremony was followed by colorful sports and amusement games such as kite flying and skating, sledding, top-spinning and shuttlecock on the ice rink in the park.
    Students in Ryanggang Province are training their physical strength and mind through march along snow-covered road to revolutionary battle sites and historic sites in the Mt. Paektu area and winter sports activities including speed skating and skiing contests.
    Winter folk amusement games and mass sports activities are also brisk among students in Jagang Province.
    The government has set a month for physical culture and sports in the winter season every year so that all people and children could train their physical strength.

Famous Song Still Touches Heartstrings

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Eighty years have elapsed since President Kim Il Sung, in his teens, crossed the River Amnok, which Korea and China border, with a firm resolution to liberate the country occupied by the Japanese imperialists. Thirteen days after he left Mangyongdae in Pyongyang on January 22, Juche 14 (1925) for national liberation, he arrived at Phophyong on the bank of the river.
    Departing the motherland with bitter heart, he made a solemn resolution to come back to the motherland without fail after defeating the Japanese imperialists. He walked slowly towards the opposite side of the river singing quietly the Song of the River Amnok composed by someone.
    The song reflects the firm determination made by the river-crossing Koreans to fight for the independence of the nation and come back to the country, bearing in mind the serious lesson of the March First Popular Uprising (1919) against the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule.
    In his reminiscences "With the Century" the President writes:
    "That day I underwent a truly painful psychological experience. Because this experience had left a wound in my heart, at the banquet given by patriots in the homeland in my honor after my triumphal return home, I spoke first about that experience".
    It was on September 18, Juche 80 (1991) that he visited the Phophyong Ferry in Kim Hyong Jik County, Ryanggang Province. Walking quietly on the bank of the river and recollecting the day 66 years ago, he stopped before a monument on which the words of the song are inscribed and began singing the song. He was joined by officials accompanying him and lecturers in singing the song.
    The President always kept in his mind the song reflecting patriotism of the Korean people in the protracted anti-Japanese war for the liberation of the country, in the building of a new state, in the hard-fought Korean war and during his inspection tour for building a rich and strong country.
    Today the Korean people, singing the song, hardens their will to make shine the exploits performed by the President for the liberation of the country as well as the patriotic will not to repeat the bitter history of the ruined nation.

Portable Medicinal Stone for Deoxidized Drinking Water Developed

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Scientists of the Geological Survey Faculty in Kim Chaek University of Technology of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has succeeded in developing portable medicinal stone for deoxidized drinking water. It is made of natural minerals which contain rich ingredients good for human body.
    It not only instantly removes active oxygen but also contains 13 kinds of elements including Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu and Se.
    One can easily make deoxidized water as fresh as natural mineral water with the stone in any place.
    Drinking the water every day improves health, prevents aging and controls cancer cell. It is also efficacious for such diseases as colitis, chronic diarrhea and constipation, circulatory disorder, diabetes and inflammation.

GNP's Move for Confrontation with North Flailed

     Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Cha Sang Bo, vice-chairman of the General Association of Koreans in China, in a statement on Jan. 15 denounced the Grand National Party of south Korea for working hard to incite confrontation with the north even in a foreign country. He urged the GNP to face up to the trend of the times and stop acting rashly. "National assemblymen" from the GNP tried to call a press conference over the issue of "defectors from the north" at Changsong Hotel in Beijing on Jan. 12 but was stopped from doing so by the Chinese government. They were expelled from there.
    This indicates that the GNP is a group of wicked traitors running wild, unaware that its service for the United States is little short of digging its own grave as it fully reveals once again its sinister intention to stand in confrontation with the north to the end at the U.S. instigation, he said, and went on:
    The Koreans in China will join the compatriots at home, who regard the man-centered Korean-style socialist system as their life and soul, in the struggle to shatter the vicious campaign of the U.S. and the GNP against the north over human rights and their moves for confrontation with it.

For Spanish-speaking people

Kim Jong Il recibe presente del secretario general del IRII

     Pyongyang, 20 de enero (ATCC) -- El Dirigente Kim Jong Il recibio presente que le dirigiera el secretario general del Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales de Italia, Giancarlo Elia Valori. El titular italiano lo entrego el dia 17 al embajador extraordinario y plenipotenciario de la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea en China.
    El felicito calurosamente el cumpleanos de Su Excelencia el Mariscal Kim Jong Il, gran Dirigente del pueblo coreano, y le deseo de todo corazon buena salud y grandes exitos en la realizacion de su noble causa.

Encuentro de amistad con miembros de Embajada de Cuba

     Pyongyang, 20 de enero (ATCC) -- Con motivo del Nuevo Ano 94 (2005) de la Era Juche, tuvo lugar el dia 19 en el Hotel Coryo de Pyongyang un encuentro de amistad entre funcionarios del Departamento Internacional del Comite Central del Partido del Trabajo de Corea y miembros de la Embajada de la Republica de Cuba en Corea. Fueron invitados ahi el embajador extraordinario y plenipotenciario, Ruben Perez Valdes, y otros miembros de la sede diplomatica cubana.
    Y participaron el subtitular Pak Kyong Son y otros funcionarios del Departamento Internacional del CC del PTC.
    En el acto hicieron uso de la palabra.
    Los oradores senalaron la necesidad de intensificar tambien en el nuevo ano la amistad y la solidaridad entre los partidos y los pueblos de ambos paises que se desarrollan en medio de la profunda atencion del Dirigente Kim Jong Il y del Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz.
    Los participantes profundizaron el sentimiento de de amistad departiendo sobre las relaciones de cooperacion entre los dos partidos y paises.

Van en aumento desempleados en Sur de Corea

     Pyongyang, 20 de enero (ATCC) -- Segun informaciones radiales del Sur de Corea, sigue aumentando el numero de desempleados surcoreanos. La Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas anuncio que el numero de desempleados del ano pasado registro un aumento de 36 mil con respecto a 2003 llegando en total a 855 mil.
    Es gravisima la desocupacion de los jovenes que llegan a 420 mil.
    En Seul el numero de desempleados en diciembre del ano expirado es de 248 mil, cifra que representa un aumento de 18 mil con respecto a noviembre.

Paz de Peninsula Coreana es requisito para la paz mundial

     Pyongyang, 20 de enero (ATCC) -- La paz y la seguridad del mundo estan acopladas directamente con las de la Peninsula Coreana. Senala asi el diario Rodong Sinmun, en un articulo individual insertado en su edicion del dia 20, y prosigue:
    El "ejercicio conjunto de refuerzo para el tiempo de guerra", "aguilucho", "Ulji Focus Lens", etc. que desarrolla cada ano el pais norteamericano son las guerras preliminares y de ensayo nuclear para asestar un golpe preventivo a la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea.
    Provocar la guerra nuclear en la Peninsula Coreana y asestar un golpe preventivo a la RPDC constituye la politica de aplastamiento y la estrategia militar de EE.UU. contra la RPDC.
    Por lo tanto, las maniobras de provocacion de una nueva guerra coreana de EE.UU. devienen un factor de amenaza a la paz y la seguridad de Asia y el resto del mundo.
    La guerra que desate EE.UU. en esta Peninsula se extendera facilmente por la region de Asia- Pacifico y, a la larga, a todo el mundo.
    La paz del mundo esta acoplada directamente con la paz de la Peninsula Coreana.
    La preservacion de la paz de la Peninsula Coreana y la region de Asia-Pacifico se debe enteramente a la gran politica de Songun (priorizacion militar) y a la poderosa fuerza de detencion de la RPDC.
    Para relajar la tension y eliminar el peligro de guerra en la Peninsula Coreana, hay que retirar del Sur de Corea a las tropas estadounidenses y sus armas nucleares, causa raigal de la guerra.