Kim Jong Il's Birthday to Be Marked in Britain

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- A British preparatory committee was formed on January 26 to celebrate the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il (February 16). Andy Brooks, general secretary of the C.C., the New Communist Party of Britain, was elected chairman of the preparatory committee.
    The committee has decided to organize a joint meeting of leftist political parties and a film show on the occasion of the February holiday.

Many Gifts to Kim Jong Il

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il has received over 14,300 valuable gifts from various parts of the world over the last decade. Among them are gifts from political party, state and government leaders, organizations and personages of military, political, economic, public, cultural and art, press and religious circles, international bodies, overseas compatriots and south Koreans. This means that he was presented with at least 1,400 gifts every year or nearly 120 gifts on a monthly average.
    In January last alone, he received gifts from state leaders, organizations and personages of many countries. They included presidents of Mozambique, Venezuela and Algeria, the director of the Italian Institute of International Relations, a delegation of U.S. congressmen, the secretary general of the International Institute of the Juche Idea and his party, and the chairman of the Russian GAZPROM Company.
    He was presented with valuable and meaningful gifts carrying the best wishes by party and state leaders of China and Cuba, the presidents of Russia, Guinea, Syria and Iran, the ex-presidents of the United States and Portugal and other party, state and government leaders, high-ranking officials, former state and government leaders and public figures of different countries.
    He also received gifts from the former president and personages and people from political, economic, public and other circles in south Korea.
    Those gifts listed as national treasures eloquently show how deeply humankind respects Kim Jong Il.

Increased Agricultural Production Called for

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The 49th plenary meeting of the C.C., the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea was held on Monday to discuss the tasks facing the union organizations to carry through the militant tasks laid down in the joint New Year editorial. The meeting proposed the tasks before the union organizations to decisively boost the agricultural production, true to the Workers' Party of Korea policy of agricultural revolution this significant year which marks the 60th anniversaries of the founding of the Party and the liberation of the country and ways for implementing them.
    It stressed the need for all the union officials and members to firmly maintain the stand and the style of work as the master responsible for the agricultural front, the main front of socialist economic construction this year.
    The meeting called on the organizations to conduct a political work and mass movement to arouse the agricultural workers to the implementation of the WPK's policy of agricultural revolution and lead them to fully discharge their mission by encouraging them to display the same patriotism and work style as done by the peasants in the 1950s.
    It urged the union organizations to launch a brisk technical innovation drive as required by the developing reality and improve the land management so as to turn the whole countryside into a socialist land of bliss and let the revolutionary soldier culture prevail in all fields of socialist co-op farms.

Posters for 9th Kimjongilia Festival Produced

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- Posters for the 9th Kimjongilia Festival have been produced. Seen in the upper part of the posters are letters reading "Celebration of February 16" and in the lower part letters "9th Kimjongilia Festival" and the period of the festival.
    Among them is a poster depicting beautiful Kimjongilia in full bloom against the background of Mt. Paektu. It means that this immortal flower will come into fuller bloom all over the world along with the holy mountain of revolution where the great sun of the 21st century rose.
    There is also a poster portraying the logo of the festival and the Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia Exhibition, the venue of the festival.

S. Korean Authorities' "Plan for Transfer of U.S. Military Base Assailed

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The south Korean military authorities recently announced the "plan for the transfer of the U.S. military base" yielding to the U.S. pressure. This is an unpardonable act of conspiring with the U.S. in its moves to ignite a war of aggression against the north as this helps it achieve its purpose while minimizing the casualties of its forces in case of "contingency". A spokesman for the National Democratic Front of south Korea (NDFSK) says this in a statement on January 29. Recalling the fact that on Jan. 18 the south Korean military authorities officially announced the "plan for the transfer of the U.S. military base" despite strong protest and opposition of different circles, he noted that the plan calls for, among other things, transferring the U.S. military base in Ryongsan, Seoul, by 2008, offering 3,490,000 phyong of Phyongthaek and Osan areas south of the River Han to the U.S. forces in south Korea by the end of this year and covering the expenses for the transfer of the base amounting to 4 trillion won.
    He demanded the south Korean military authorities declare the anachronistic plan null and void and stop at once the criminal moves to cooperate with outsiders in war, clearly understanding the will of the people to defend peace on the Korean Peninsula and open a new phase for independent reunification under the banner of the June 15 joint declaration.
    The NDFSK will join all the people in their struggle against the U.S. and war and for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops to thoroughly check and frustrate the criminal moves of the U.S. and the bellicose military forces to bring the Korean nation and the whole land a holocaust of a nuclear war, he concluded.

Over 180 Cases of U.S. Aerial Espionage in January

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists committed over 180 cases of day and night aerial espionage against the DPRK in January by mobilizing strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes with various missions, according to a military source. More than 30 cases were perpetrated by U-2 and RC-135, E-3, EP-3 and P-3.
    RC-7B, RC-12, RF-4C and other tactical reconnaissance planes were also involved in intensive aerial espionage against the forefront and coastal areas of the DPRK.
    Such aerial espionage intensified by the U.S. imperialists from the outset of the year goes to clearly prove that the moves of the warmongers to mount a surprise preemptive attack on the DPRK and stifle it by force of arms at any cost have reached their height.

Preparatory Committee Formed in Guinea

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- A preparatory committee for "meeting praising the great persons of Mt. Paektu" was inaugurated in Guinea with due ceremony on January 26. At the inaugural ceremony the chairman of the Guinea-Korea Friendship Association was elected chairman of the preparatory committee and the chairman of the National Information Council of Guinea and the director general of the African Regional Committee for the Study of the Juche Idea, its honorary chairmen.
    A statement published at the ceremony said that the plan to hold the "meeting praising the great persons of Mt. Paektu" reflects not only the desire of the Korean people to remain true to the cause of perpetuating the memory of President Kim Il Sung but also the unanimous wish of the peoples of Guinea and other developing countries who deeply respect and praise the three great persons of Korea.
    The meeting will always be recorded in history as a great event demonstrating the undisputed support and trust, international solidarity with the Korean people who are working hard to accomplish the cause of Juche started by Kim Il Sung and build a great prosperous powerful nation, single-mindedly united around their leader under the banner of the Songun policy, the statement said.

15th Individual Contests for February 16 Art Prize Begins

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The 15th Individual Contests for February 16 Art Prize have begun on the threshold of the February fete, the greatest auspicious event of the nation. The contests are held at the Pyongyang Grand Theatre and the Yun I Sang Concert Hall, divided into six groups such as vocal music, traditional string instruments, piano and dance.
    The opening ceremony took place at the Pyongyang International Cultural Centre on Monday, which was followed by group contests.
    The contests have been annually held with much success amid the great expectation and concern of artistes and people across the country. They draw artistes from central and local art troupes and artistes, teachers and students from art educational institutions.
    Through the contests, a large number of talented vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers have been produced and, in this course, the features of the daily developing Juche art and the vitality of the contests have been fully displayed.

S. Korean Buddhists Demand U.S. Troops' Pullout

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The south Korean Buddhist Solidarity for Peace reportedly made public a statement headlined "U.S. troops, get out of south Korea" on January 28. The statement said all the people should clearly realize that the U.S. troops are the Korean nation's sworn enemy who, after setting foot in south Korea as an aggressor, has trampled upon peace, brought the division of the Korean Peninsula and is blocking its reunification still today.
    The moves for the permanent presence of the U.S. troops in south Korea through the transfer and expansion of military bases are entirely for the interests of the U.S. which does not want peace in the Korean Peninsula, the statement pointed out, adding: The way out for the Korean nation now is to force the U.S. troops out of south Korea.
    The statement called upon all the people to rise up in the struggle to make this year the year of the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from south Korea, united as one for national independence, for peace against war and for reunification and patriotism with a stance of death-defying resistance.

Korean Agricultural Workers Raps at Shameless Act of Japan

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The Central Committee of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea, on behalf of all the agricultural workers, bitterly denounces the shameless and gangster-like behavior of Japan in persisting in its hostile policy towards the DPRK, adding new crimes to its crimes never to be condoned, says a spokesman for the C.C., the UAWK in a statement on Monday. The statement continues: This year which marks the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation, the Korean agricultural workers unanimously demand that Japan wholly settle its past of shocking crimes against the Korean people, keeping a close watch at its attitude.
    However, Japan is getting more frantic in its anti-DPRK hostile policy from the outset of the year, far from sincerely apologizing and compensating to the Korean people for the unheard-of misfortunes and sufferings it inflicted upon them. Such shameless act of Japan is touching off the pent-up hatred and wrath of our agricultural workers.
    During their occupation of Korea, the Japanese imperialists drafted more than 8.4 million young Koreans for military service and forced labor and most of them were peasants, and the 200,000 women they took away as "comfort women" for the imperial Japanese army were also mostly simple and honest rural women.
    The Korean agricultural workers will never forget the over one hundred-year-long history of crimes committed by Japan but fight relentlessly until the crimes are totally settled.

S. Korean Military's Cooperation with U.S. in Its War Moves Assailed

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The Ministry of National Defense of south Korea recently announced a plan related to the transfer of the base of U.S. forces in south Korea which calls for its offer of 3.49 million-phyong of land in the areas of Phyongthaek and Osan to them as sites for their base till the end of this year. In this regard Minju Joson Tuesday says in a signed commentary:
    The U.S. plan to transfer the base in Ryongsan where the Second Division of the U.S. Army, the main force of the U.S. forces in south Korea, and its Command are stationed to the area south of the River Han is aimed at "minimizing the casualties" to be caused by the "strong counter-action of the north" when it mounts a preemptive attack on the north.
    The south Korean military authorities' cooperation with the U.S. in the relocation of its forces' base intended to meet its strategic purpose only increases the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula.
    In case the U.S. starts another war in this land the Koreans and their land will be the first to suffer from it.
    The south Korean military authorities are helping the U.S. forces lay a springboard from which to launch a war by spending the money collected from people as taxes, far from standing against their war moves. Such treachery can never be pardoned.
    The south Korean military authorities' announcement of the humiliating plan related to the relocation of the U.S. forces' base goes against the wish of the nation for reunification.
    Those who are hell bent on the anti-national acts, while getting deeply involved in the U.S. preparations for a war against the north through their offer of a vast land for a new military base of the U.S. forces, are destined to go to ruin, rebuffed and condemned by the whole nation.

GNP's Coup-like Intrigue to Grab "Power" Assailed

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The moves to remove lawmakers from the Uri Party and the Democratic Workers' Party in south Korea is another political coup to reverse the ratio of the seats in the National Assembly, in which the ruling party holds the majority and the opposition party minority now, and lay a favorable foothold for the Grand National Party to grab "power" in the next term under the backstage manipulation of the United States, states Rodong Sinmun Tuesday. Hitting at the on-going maneuvers of the south Korean prosecution to punish lawmakers from the political parties seeking progressive reforms, the news analyst says: In the election to the 17th National Assembly in south Korea last year, the progressive reform forces won and the conservative forces suffered a miserable defeat, transferring the initiative in the NA from conservatism to progress for the first time in history.
    With the "diastrophism" in the political camp, voices of the progressive forces have grown louder and the calls for reforms have become vocal at the NA, something unthinkable before. This alarmed the U.S. more than anyone else. It has egged the ultra-right conservative forces including the GNP which regards it as the savior on to grab power. What is worth notice is the "impeachment of the president" just before the NA election last year. But this plot was checked and frustrated by the south Korean people who saw through the criminal scheme hidden behind it and the pro-U.S. conservative forces suffered a dismal defeat even in the NA election that followed.
    The situation in which the progressive reform forces gained strength and the GNP and other conservative forces got inferior in strength in the NA could not but be a crisis shaking the last stronghold of the U.S. colonial rule. Utterly dismayed by this, the U.S. is orchestrating the current coup to maintain the pro-American nature of the political camp by means of elbowing out of the NA lawmakers from the political parties seeking progress and reforms on charges of "illegal acts" through another plot.
    Catastrophic will be the consequences in case such reactionary conservative forces as the GNP get its clutches on the NA again.
    Whoever values the future of the country and the nation should deal a devastating blow to the criminal moves of the GNP and other ultra-right conservative forces to occupy the NA again and wrest "power" in south Korea under the backstage manipulation of the U.S.

Truth of Forcible Drafting and Forced Labor Imposed by Japan upon Koreans

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Measure Committee for Demanding Compensation to Comfort Women for the Japanese Army and Victims of Forcible Drafting on January 31 released a report on the probe into the truth about how Koreans were forcibly drafted into "the agricultural service corps" for the imperial Japanese army in which they were subjected to slave labour in connection with the recent finding out of survivors of this crime. Recalling that the Japanese imperialists organized the "agricultural service corps" with a mission to locally meet Japan's shortage of food created by their escalation of the war of aggression, the report said that they drafted a large number of young Koreans into the corps, forcing them to do slave labour on farms including the reclamation of land.
    The report continued:
    The imperial Japanese army took away at least 40,000 young and middle-aged Koreans to Japan at that time. 15,700 of them were drafted into the western district forces (Kyushu region), 17,000 into the "corps to support army" in every military district and 13,000 into the "agricultural service corps" and they carried spades and mattocks instead of rifles. This fact was revealed by a telegraphic message discovered in September of 2002 from the "diary of the secret operation of the Japanese troops stationed in Korea" which had been preserved in the library for defense studies of the Japan Defence Agency since it was worked out by the imperial Japanese army on April 8, 1945.
    The list of the Korean victims of forcible drafting obtained and disclosed last year dealt with the fact that at least 7,000 young Koreans were drafted into the "agricultural service corps Nos. 3, 4 and 5" for the imperial Japanese army. They were taken away from almost all parts of the Korean Peninsula including North and South Phyongan, Hwanghae, South Hamgyong, North and South Chungchong and Kangwon Provinces in about spring of 1945.
    It is clear from the data that at that time each corps was made up with 7 companies and each company comprised more than 250 Koreans on an average.
    The results of the analysis and investigation into the above-said list confirmed the fact that the person registered with the Japanese name "Taihan Umenobu" on the list of corps No. 3 was victim Jin Thae Bom (born on August 23, 1925) who lived in Taedonggang District, Pyongyang, and died in December 2004 and another person registered with Japanese name "Chirin Kanemura" on the list of corps No. 4 is victim Kim Chi Rin (born on March 11, 1924) who now resides in Central District of Pyongyang.
    The report gives a detailed account of how Kim Chi Rin and Jin Thae Bom were drafted into the corps respectively early in January of 1945 and in March of 1945 together with more than 3,000 young and middle-aged Koreans by the force of the evil law called "law on state general mobilization" and were forced to do slave labor there.
    The report said that the committee obtained not a few materials proving the slave labour forced by the imperial Japanese army upon many young Koreans drafted into the corps. It went on:
    The Japanese imperialists drove those Koreans to the shambles of their war of aggression and dreadful places of drudgery as their "soldiers" and "civilian employees for the army" in the past. This was the crime related to the forcible drafting and forced labor.
    This crime was a grave encroachment upon human rights. It was a crime against humanity and a crime related to slavery as it seriously challenged the justice and morality of the international community and wantonly breached international law.
    The Japanese government is, therefore, obliged to admit its responsibility for the crimes and take practical steps to restore the honor of those victims.
    But it has evaded the state responsibility for the crimes for the last six decades since the end of the war, insisting that the issue of Japan's postwar settlement has already been settled through a multi-national treaty and a bilateral treaty despite the resolutions and recommendations of the UN and other international organizations and juridical bodies demanding a fair solution to its crimes related to the forcible drafting and forced labor imposed upon Koreans including the issue of "soldiers" and "civilian employees for the army."
    In recent years the Japanese authorities staged a farce of paying "consolation money" to some foreigners in Japan who had been taken away as "soldiers" and "civilian employees" for the imperial Japanese army to gloss over this issue. But they are persistently insisting that there is "no reason to compensate" for the forcible drafting of over 8.4 million Koreans and the abduction of Koreans and other crimes committed by Japan against humanity in the past "in view of the existing law".
    The Japanese right-wing reactionaries falsified historical facts by claiming that those crimes are groundless and those Koreans went to Japan of their own accord. They unhesitatingly disallowed victims of the forcible drafting and bereaved families of the DPRK to enter Japan to participate in the meeting to hear testimonies and memorial services held there on several occasions.
    What is more serious is that though 60 years have passed since Japan's defeat the present Japanese government has not made any honest apology and even a small compensation to the victims and the bereaved families in the DPRK who suffered more than any others from the inhuman crimes perpetrated by the Japanese imperialists.
    The Japanese government must take this year as an opportunity to liquidate the history of its aggression and crimes in the past, thoroughly probe the truth about the serious human rights abuses committed by Japan in the past including the forcible drafting of Koreans and fully open them to the public, punish those responsible for the crimes and take practical measures to make honest apology and compensation to all the victims and the bereaved families as early as possible.

Koreans to Force Japan to Pay for Hideous Crimes Committed against Korea

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The Japanese imperialists committed such hideous crime by depriving Korea of her sovereignty. However, Japan has not yet redeemed its monstrous crimes perpetrated against humanity though a century has passed since then. Moreover, it is still busy raising a hue and cry over the issue of "a few abductees" which had already been settled. Koreans can not but ask Japan if it has the face to do so.
    Minju Joson today says this in a signed commentary as regards the recent disclosure of a confidential document of Emperor Kojong informing the international community of the injustice of the "Ulsa Five-Point Treaty".
    The commentary goes on:
    The disclosure of this document scientifically proved that the "Ulsa Five-Point Treaty" which the Japanese imperialists used as a pretext for depriving Korea of her diplomatic right and enforcing the "governor-general rule" was a false and fraudulent document as it failed to go through elementary procedures and lacked a necessary form as a treaty.
    As the document fully disclosed, Japan is the century-old sworn enemy of the Korean people as it usurped the sovereignty of the Korean nation and reduced them to colonial slaves in the most savage manner.
    Such being a hard fact, Japan is citing what it calls the issue of "abduction" to intensify its smear campaign against the DPRK over "human rights issue."
    No matter how Japan hypes the issue of "abduction" in a desperate bid to evade its responsibility to redeem its past crimes this will only add to its crimes. With nothing can Japan beautify or cover up its shameful past.
    All the crimes committed by Japan against the Korean people in the past are the most monstrous ones baffling human imagination. It is, therefore, an important political task of the international community to force Japan to redress them for the sake of peace and development of humankind and the building of a new just world structure.
    The army and people in the DPRK will hold Japan accountable for all crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists in Korea including what they perpetrated in 1905 and force it to pay a dear price for those crimes.

Commemorative Stamps Issued

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The Korea Stamp Corporation recently issued stamps in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the "250-mile Journey for National Liberation" made by President Kim Il Sung in his teens and the 45th anniversary of the Chongsan-ri spirit and the Chongsan-ri method provided by him. Seen in the first souvenir stamp are a picture of the President crossing the River Amnok with a firm resolution not to come back to the motherland before achieving the independence of Korea and words "The 80th anniversary of the '250-mile Journey for National Liberation'" and "Juche 14 (1925)-Juche 94 (2005)".
    Printed in another souvenir stamp are a statue of the President among farmers and words "The 45th anniversary of the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method", "Juche 49 (1960)" and "Juche 94 (2005)".
    The face value of each souvenir stamp is 120 won.
    Stamps showing eight scenic views in the era of Songun politics were also issued.
    The eight views are "Sunrise over Mt. Paektu", "Snow-covered tapaksol (young pine trees) post", "Chol Pass clad with royal azalea", "Illuminated night view of the River Jangja", "Reverberating Ullim Waterfalls", "Rezoned Handre Plain", "Sea of potato flowers in Taehongdan" and "Beautiful view of Poman-ri Village". Their face values are 3, 12, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 100 won respectively.

Slogan Calling for Following Anti-Japanese Guerrillas

    Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have turned out in onward march for Songun revolution under the slogan "Let us produce, study and live like the anti-Japanese guerrillas!" The slogan reflects the revolutionary will of the Workers' Party of Korea to follow the revolutionary spirit, fighting trait and mode of life of the anti-Japanese revolutionary war veterans and to carry forward the revolutionary traditions of Mt. Paektu down through generations.
    The slogan was set forth in the 1970s. It, however, is still seen everywhere in Korea--towns, villages, factories and farms and mines.
    This shows that the Korean people harden their determination to defend and carry forward the revolutionary traditions established by President Kim Il Sung during the anti-Japanese armed struggle and to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered by him with the revolutionary spirit of Mt. Paektu.
    The servicepersons and people of the DPRK have won victory at each stage of the revolutionary development, overcoming all the difficulties and trials like the anti-Japanese guerrillas.
    In the years of the "Arduous March" and the forced march they keenly realized that no way is better than that of the revolutionary veterans.
    The anti-Japanese guerrillas made bombs by themselves. In the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance, the Korean people put factories into operation again, consolidated the foundation for Songun and safeguarded socialism.
    The will of the Korean people is well illustrated by the fact that they have facelifted the revolutionary battle and historic sites in the Mt. Paektu area, KPA soldiers, working people of all strata, youth and students visit them in an endless stream and they study hard the reminiscences of anti-Japanese guerrillas as a true textbook of life.
    Under the slogan, the Korean people will certainly register signal successes this year in which the 60th anniversaries of the Workers' Party of Korea and national liberation fall and thus build a great prosperous powerful nation at an early date.

DPRK Doctors Prove Successful in Cardiac Surgery

     Pyongyang, February 1 (KCNA) -- The Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the Hospital attached to Pyongyang University of Medicine in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has proved successful in heart operation of a three-year-old girl suffering from tetralogy of fallot coupled with atrial septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus and pulmonary atresia. Now the patient is in normal condition.
    The department, founded in the 1970s, has been made up of competent doctors who are capable of doing any complex heart operation including tetralogy of fallot.
    In particular, the team successfully carried out surgery of a baby under five months with congenital cardiac malformation in the 2000s.
    It has made more than 300 operations every year.
    The rate of successful operation is 97 percent.
    Prof. and Dr. Sin Jae Chon, a Labor Hero, said in an interview with KCNA:
    The people of the DPRK are enjoying free medical service. It is the duty of the medical workers to let the people fully enjoy benefits from the socialist health system. We thus have striven hard to do our bit.
    We have established a system in which our department carries on functions of various departments such as diagnosis before operation, anesthesia, surgery, extracorporeal circulation and intensive cure in a comprehensive way. And a special attention is paid to pooling medical arts and minds of doctors and nurses. As a result, the treatment processes have been organically linked to bear a fine fruition.

For Spanish-speaking people

Kim Jong Il recibe mas de 14 mil 300 presentes

     Pyongyang, el primero de febrero (ATCC) -- El Dirigente Kim Jong Il recibio mas de 14 mil 300 presentes que le dirigieran durante los ultimos diez anos los jefes de partido, Estado y gobierno, entidades y personalidades individuales de los circulos militares, politicos, economicos, sociales, artisticos, culturales, de prensa e informacion y religiosos de numerosos paises de los cinco continentes del mundo, organizaciones internacionales, coreanos en ultramar y habitantes del Sur de Corea. Esto significa que el Dirigente recibio cada ano mas de mil 400 regalos y cada mes casi 120 como promedio.
    Solo en enero del ano en curso el Dirigente recibio presentes que le dirigieran los jefes de Estado, entidades y personalidades de muchos paises, entre otros, los presidentes de Mozambique, Venezuela y Argelia, el secretario general del Instituto Italiano de Relaciones Internacionales, la delegacion de parlamentarios norteamericanos, el secretario general del Instituto Internacional de la Idea Juche y su comitiva y el director de la Compania "Gazprom" de Rusia.
    Los dirigentes del partido y el Estado de China y Cuba, los presidentes de Rusia, Guinea, Siria e Iran, los ex presidentes de EE.UU. y Portugal y otros jefes de partido, Estado y gobierno, personalidades de alto rango, ex jefes de Estado y gobierno, personalidades de distintos sectores del mundo prepararon con toda sinceridad los regalos significativos.
    Le dirigieron presentes tambien el ex presidente, personalidades de los circulos politicos, economicos, sociales y otros sectores y habitantes del Sur de Corea.
    Tales regalos de tesoro nacional demuestran elocuentemente cuan fervorosa es el alma de la humanidad que venera al gran hombre simpar, gran General insigne del Songun (priorizacion militar)

Afiches para IX Festival de Kimjongilias

     Pyongyang, el primero de febrero (ATCC) -- Fueron creadas nuevas pancartas para la novena edicion del Festival de Kimjongilias. En las partes superiores de los afiches estan escritas las letras "Festejo del 16 de febrero", y en las inferiores se ven las inscripciones "IX Festival de Kimjongilias" y el periodo del certamen.
    La pancarta, que describe la Kimjongilia en pleno florecimiento con el monte Paektu en su trasfondo, demuestra que esta flor inmortal florecera en todo el mundo junto con el monte sagrado de la revolucion donde aparecio el gran Sol del siglo XXI.
    Tambien se ven los afiches que describen la insignia del festival y la Exposicion Permanente de Kimilsungia y Kimjongilia, lugar del festival.

XV concurso individual por "Premio Artistico del 16 de Febrero"

     Pyongyang, el primero de febrero (ATCC) -- En Corea esta en marcha el XV concurso individual por el "Premio Artistico del 16 de Febrero" con motivo de la maxima fiesta nacional (cumpleanos del Dirigente Kim Jong Il). El certamen se realiza dividido en 6 secciones, entre otras, la musica vocal, la instrumental de cuerda, el piano y la danza en el Gran Teatro de Pyongyang y la Casa de Musica Yun I Sang.
    Tuvo lugar la vispera el acto inaugural en la Casa Internacional de Cultura de Pyongyang.
    Acto seguido, subio el telon del concurso por secciones.
    El certamen se realiza cada ano en medio de gran esperanza y atencion de los artistas y otros habitantes de todo el pais con la participacion de los artistas de las entidades artisticas, maestros y alumnos de los planteles de ensenanza artistica en el centro y localidades.
    A traves de los concursos anteriores salieron muchos talentosos musicos, ejecutantes y bailadores y en este proceso, se han manifestado con vigor la fisonomia del arte jucheana que se desarrolla de dia en dia y la vitalidad del concurso.

UTAC denuncia actos descarados de Japon

     Pyongyang, el primero de febrero (ATCC) -- El Comite Central de la Union de Trabajadores Agricolas de Corea (UTAC) publico el 31 de enero una declaracion que senala en particular: A nombre de todos los afiliados, denunciamos categoricamente los actos descarados y gangsteriles de Japon que persigue obstinadamente su politica hostil a la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea abultando asi su expediente de crimenes nunca reparables.
    Este ano es el 60 aniversario de la restauracion de la patria.
    Por lo tanto, todos los trabajadores agricolas de Corea siguen de cerca la posicion de Japon respecto a la indemnizacion y demandan al unisono a este pais liquidar cabalmente su pasado criminal danado al pueblo coreano.
    Pero, Japon, en vez de pedir disculpas por haber acarreado inauditos sufrimientos y amarguras al pueblo coreano y remunerarlos, practica desde el principio del nuevo ano su cada vez mas temeraria politica hostil a la RPDC.
    Esta accion descarada del pais-isla produce la explosion del odio y la furia de nuestros agricultores.
    Durante el periodo de la ocupacion japonesa sobre Corea, por conceptos del "trabajo forzado" y la "recluta" fueron arrestados a punta de bayonetas mas de 8 millones 400 mil adultos y jovenes, en su mayoria campesinos. Ademas, la gran parte de las 200 mil coreanas victimas del abuso sexual por el ejercito japones tambien eran modestas mujeres del campo.
    Los trabajadores agricolas de Corea nunca olvidaran la historia criminal de mas de cien anos de Japon y lucharan energicamente por hacer la cuenta final de esta.