Kim Jong Il's Birthday Celebrated in Various Countries

     Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- Seminars were held in Sankt-Petersburg of Russia, Katmandu of Nepal and Minsk of Belarus and by the Party for Peace and Unity of Russia and the February 16 Belorussian Youth Association for the Study of the Juche Idea and the Songun Politics from Feb. 6 to 18 to celebrate the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il. Speakers at the seminars pointed to the fact that Kim Jong Il gave a scientific elucidation of why socialism had collapsed in East European countries. And they explained in a profound way that he has made immortal contributions to the Korean revolution and the cause of global independence with his distinguished ideological and theoretical activities and Songun leadership. They stressed that the single-minded unity of socialist Korea will be further cemented and its cause of building a great prosperous powerful nation will be accomplished without fail as it is led by him.
    Meanwhile, meetings, photo exhibitions and film shows were held by the Kim Il Sung Institute of Agricultural Science in Guinea and the Guinean Art College and the Tunisia-Korea Friendship Association and in Mexico City of Mexico and a Korean book, photo and handicraft exhibition in Cotonou of Benin from February 9 to 18. On display at the venues of the events were works of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il, pictures showing the undying feats of the three generals of Mt. Paektu and handicraft works showing resourcefulness and talents of the Korean nation. Screened at the film shows were "They Were Always Together on the Road to Bring about the People's Well-being" and other Korean films.
    Congratulatory messages to Kim Jong Il were adopted at the seminars in Belarus and the meeting at the Guinean Art College.

Rodong Sinmun on Music-based Politics of WPK

     Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- A revolutionary song is a song of advance resounding in the ranks of struggle and a powerful impetus that stirs up the hearts of all the army and people to arouse them as one, says Rodong Sinmun today in an editorial. It goes on:
    The music-based politics of the Workers' Party of Korea reflects the reality of the country where the whole society is seething with revolutionary emotion and optimism and embodies leader Kim Jong Il's firm determination and will to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered on Mt. Paektu with the might of music and songs as well as arms.
    Revolutionary music has become an invincible weapon of the Korean revolution along with arms and the Korean army and people are firmly convinced of a rosy future of the country and a final victory of the cause of Juche in the music-based politics of the headquarters of the revolution.
    The music-based politics of the Party is a powerful weapon which helps strengthen in every way the single-minded unity of the army and people around the headquarters of the revolution.
    The single-minded unity of the revolutionary ranks in which all the army and people follow the leader, singing revolutionary songs, is unbreakable and more powerful than a nuclear weapon.
    The music-based politics of the Party is also a powerful means which enables the army and people to valiantly break through any trial and difficulty and create an epoch-making miracle in the revolution and construction.
    No matter what hard and vast task they may face, the Korean army and people will overcome difficulties, more loudly singing revolutionary songs, songs of Songun, and build a great prosperous powerful nation of Juche in this land with their own efforts. Korean revolutionary songs are songs of everlasting conviction, songs of advance that guarantee victory of the cause of Songun. The U.S. imperialists' war moves to stifle the DPRK with corrupt ideological and cultural poisoning and by force will be impotent before the Korean army and people dynamically advancing, optimistic of future and full of conviction.
    The Korean revolution will dynamically advance full of vigor as long as there are the invincible music-based politics of the great commander of Songun and the army and people who struggle, loudly singing songs of revolution.

AINDF's Declaration on Situation Hailed

     Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland released a statement on Sunday in support of the declaration on the situation made public by the Anti-imperialist National Democratic Front of south Korea as regards the "Grand National Party's" merger with the "United Liberal Democrats" and the intensified conspiracy and collusion of pro-American ultra-rightist conservatives to seize power with the approaching of the "local self-governing system election" slated for late May. The declaration branded the merger of remnants of the "Yusin" regime as a very dangerous criminal conspiracy intended to revive fascism, destroy the June 15 Joint Declaration, provoke a war, stamp out democracy and spoil the economy. It called upon all the south Korean people to try and ostracize the GNP, the wicked enemy of the nation, with great anti-conservative solidarity. The statement said that the collusion between the GNP and the ULD is not a mere reunion of "twin toadstools" rooted in the "Yusin" dictatorship but a political collusion to seize "power", a plot to revive fascism, the "Yusin" ghost in a bid to drive into the darkness of dictatorship again the south Korean people aspiring after a new politics and a new life.
    Lurking behind this despicable conspiracy and collusion of traitors, human scums and remnants of history is a dark tentacle of the United States seeking to block the trend of the times in which the Koreans are working together to reunify the country independently after the June 15 joint declaration, the statement pointed out, stressing: It is as clear as noonday that if a group of such nefarious traitors comes to power again, such medieval rule of darkness as that during the "Yusin" dictatorship will be revived in south Korea, the June 15 Joint Declaration, which opened up the era of independent reunification, will be endangered and the nation will sustain the holocaust of a nuclear war.

Disgraceful History Should Not Be Allowed to Repeat Itself

     Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- The Koreans should fight in a do-or-die spirit against the aggressors who encroach upon their dignity and sovereignty. Should they make concession to outside forces and yield to them, they will lose their country and become colonial slaves. Rodong Sinmun Monday warns this in a signed commentary 130 years after the Japanese imperialists forced the feudal government of the Ri Dynasty to conclude the criminal "Kanghwa Island Treaty." The aggressive nature of the brigandish Japanese imperialists remains unchanged though 130 years have passed since then, the commentary notes, and goes on: In connection with the lapse of 130 years since the fabrication of this treaty all the Koreans should harden their determination to take a thousand-fold revenge upon the Japanese reactionaries keen to stage a comeback to Korea in order to force Japan to pay for all the monstrous crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists in the past and not to allow the nation's disgraceful history to repeat itself.
    It is an unforgettable lesson that the Koreans will meet only misfortune and disasters as long as there remain the sycophantic and treacherous forces who bring foreign forces into their country and curry favor with them.
    The Grand National Party of south Korea are leaving no stone unturned to block the struggle of the south Koreans for independence against outside forces, grumbling that the "alliance with outside forces is shaking". If the south Koreans overlook this, they will never realize their desire for independence, democracy and reunification.

Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from South Korea Called for

     Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- All the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad should conduct a patriotic movement for independent reunification, peace against war and great national unity under the banner of "By our nation itself" so as to get the U.S. imperialist aggression troops withdrawn from south Korea at an early date as they have brought all sorts of misfortune and sufferings to the Koreans for more than 60 years of their presence in south Korea, urges Rodong Sinmun Monday in a signed article. The Koreans' cause of national reunification has made dynamic progress, registering signal achievements unimaginable in the past since the advent of the June 15 era of reunification, the article notes, and goes on:
    Grand festivals for reunification were held in the north and the south with splendor for the first time in the history of the nation's division, which brought together not only non-governmental figures but authorities. The spirit of attaching importance to the nation, the Korean nation-first spirit is running high wherever Koreans live, making the hurricane of independent reunification rage throughout Korea. This is a stirring reality.
    However, the movement of the Korean nation for national reunification is by no means a smooth sailing. The situation in Korea still remains close to the brink of war and the inter-Korean relations often find themselves in the mire of frustration and stagnation quite contrary to the unanimous aspiration and wishes of all the Koreans. The U.S. has never favored inter-Korean reconciliation, unity and reunification, prompted by its intention to keep south Korea under its military occupation for an indefinite period, pursuant to its strategy for dominating Korea. The facts clearly indicate that a failure to force the U.S. imperialist aggression troops, the cancer-like entity harmful to the peace and reunification of the Korean Peninsula, to quit south Korea and check and foil the U.S. criminal strategy for dominating Korea would have an irrevocable grave impact on the implementation of the June 15 joint declaration, a gain attained through a hard struggle.
    The article calls on the Koreans to turn out as one in the struggle to force the U.S. imperialist aggression troops chiefly responsible for the nation's division to go back to their den from south Korea.

Japan Should Give up Wild Ambition for Comeback to Korea

     Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- A hundred and thirty years have passed since Japan forced the feudal government of the Ri Dynasty (1392-1910) to conclude the "Kanghwa Island Treaty" on February 27 (then lunar February 3). This was the first gangster-like and aggressive treaty for occupying Korea and subordinating the Korean nation to Japan.
    At that time Japan provoked the aggressive warship "Unyo-maru" incident for the purpose of fabricating the treaty.
    After illegally infiltrating into the sea off the Kanghwa Island in September 1875 (lunar August) the horde of pirates of the warship surprised the Chojijin battery on the island and destroyed the batteries on the Jongsan and Yongjong islets. And they set fire to private houses and robbed people of their property. The Korean garrison dealt deserved punishment to the invaders who wantonly violated the sovereignty of the Korean nation.
    This notwithstanding, the Japanese imperialists threatened the feudal government of the Ri Dynasty with gunboats, clamoring that the Korean side committed hostile acts against Japan and should compensate her for the damage inflicted on the Unyo-maru and thus forced the latter to conclude the 12-point "Kanghwa Island Treaty" in February 1876.
    With this treaty as a pretext, Japan penetrated deep into various fields of Korea including politics, the economy and culture and put the whole of Korea under her military occupation, imposing immeasurable misfortunes and sufferings upon the Korean people for more than 40 years.
    It is natural in the light of the international law or in view of moral sense that Japan, the assaulter, sincerely apologizes and compensates to the Korean people, the victim, for her past criminal acts.
    Even today, more than sixty years after her surrender at the Second World War, however, Japan refuses to repent of her crime-woven past, trying to justify the history of aggression against Korea.
    Moreover, Japan, availing herself of the hostile policy of the United States against the DPRK, is committing every wrongdoing against it and is unscrupulously disclosing the wild ambition for territorial expansion, claiming "dominium over Tok Islet". The Japanese militarist forces should be well aware that the Korean people today are never those yesterday. They are well advised to abandon their wild ambition for the reinvasion of Korea.

Pyongyang Bell

     Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- The Pyongyang Bell is one of the national cultural heritage of Korea. It has been preserved well in the colorfully painted bell-house north of the Taedong Gate on the bank of the Taedong River flowing through Pyongyang thanks to the national cultural inheritance preservation policy of the Workers' Party and the government of Korea. It was not certain when the original bell was cast.
    The original bell was hanging in Pukjang Pavilion (northern commanding post) of the walled city of Pyongyang. The present one larger than the original one was cast in 1726 after its breakage owing to fire of the pavilion.
    The bell is 3.1 meters high, 1.6 meters in diameter of its mouth and 0.3 meters thick. It weighs 13.513 tons.
    Carved on the bell are images of Buddha, patterns of cloud, words, etc. Its hook depicts two twisted dragon heads (blue and yellow ones). The bell, one of the big bells in the period of the Ri Dynasty (1392-1910), has been called "famous thing of Pyongyang" for the gracefulness of its shape and beautiful peal ringing far and wide.
    By the 1890s, the bell was stroke to open and close all the gates of the walled city at 4 in the morning and 22 in the evening and to inform the invasion by foreign troops, natural calamities, New Year's Day, auspicious and other events. The Japanese imperialists who illegally occupied Korea in the early 20th century banned the Korean people from approaching it, to say nothing of striking it, saying that the bell was the symbol of the Korean nation and its sound was permeated with the nation's soul.
    President Kim Il Sung, who liberated the country in August Juche 34 (1945), saw to it to toll the bell on the eve of the New Year's Day that year to bring greater joy of national resurrection to the people.

For Spanish-speaking people

Kim Jong Il dirige fundicion de metales no ferrosos Kumgang

     Pyongyang, 27 de febrero (ATCC) -- El Dirigente Kim Jong Il, Secretario General del Partido del Trabajo de Corea y Presidente del Comite de Defensa Nacional de la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea, dirigio sobre el terreno la Fundicion de Metales no Ferrosos Kumgang de Munchon. Tras ver la sala de presentacion del historial recorrio los talleres de licuacion y de electrolisis de zinc y otros procesos de la Fundicion para enterarse en detalle del estado de dotacion tecnica y de produccion.
    Expreso gran satisfaccion de que los obreros de la empresa, infinitamente fieles al partido y la revolucion, hacen ingentes esfuerzos por aumentar la produccion de metales no ferrosos y acondicionaron bien el centro del trabajo conforme a la demanda de la epoca del Songun (priorizacion militar).
    Es loable el que la empresa tomo riendas sueltas de la labor para realizar la modernizacion y la fundamentacion cientifica del proceso de produccion y emancipo totalmente a los trabajadores de las faenas dificiles y duras, dijo el Dirigente y subrayo que deben materializar estrictamente las demandas de la idea Juche de anteponer al hombre al trazar cualquier cosa.
    Senalo que los obreros de la empresa mantuvieron invariablemente la firme posicion clasista y el principio socialista aun en medio de la situacion tan dificil y compleja, apoyaron al partido con la pura conciencia y obligacion moral y demostraron fehacientemente el invencible poderio de la heroica clase obrera de Corea, y glorifico a los obreros que dedicaron todo lo suyo al enriquecimiento y prosperidad de la patria. El Dirigente presento las tareas que se presentan ante la empresa. Apunto que a medida que se promueve la construccion de la economia socialista se aumenta mas la demanda sobre metales no ferrosos y anadio que es preciso producir y suministrar mas cantidad de metales no ferrosos indispensables. La Fundicion de Metales no Ferrosos Kumgang de Munchon es una planta prometedora construida para producir varios metales no ferrosos y articulos quimicos de base y por eso debe hacer disenos con amplia vision y trabajar con vigor para que sea convertida en un corto tiempo en una gran base de produccion de metales no ferrosos, destaco y subrayo que para ese efecto deben seguir impulsando la labor para realizar la modernizacion y la cientifizacion del proceso de produccion.
    El Dirigente asevero que hay que mejorar y fortalecer la labor de intendencia sobre los trabajadores.
    Nuestra sociedad es la de clase obrera. Por eso, todos los funcionarios directivos de las fabricas y empresas deben ser fieles servidores a los obreros y prodigar minuciosa atencion hasta los pormenores de vida de ellos, recalco. El Dirigente expreso esperanza y conviccion de que los obreros de la Fundicion cumpliran magnificamente el papel de vanguardia en la realizacion de la estrategia economica del partido.
    Le acompanaron los primeros subjefes de departamento del CC del PTC Ri Jae Il y Kim Tong Un.

FDRP apoya declaracion del FDNA

    　Pyongyang, 27 de febrero (ATCC) -- El Frente Democratico Nacional Antiimperialista (FDNA) del Sur de Corea emitio una declaracion sobre la situacion en relacion con que en visperas de las "elecciones de autonomia local", que tendran lugar a finales de mayo que viene, se activan los complots de las fuerzas conservadoras ultraderechistas proyanquis para apoderarse del "poder", a citar un ejemplo, el "partido hannara" se fusiono con la "Alianza Liberal Democratica". La declaracion estigmatiza esta farsa de fusion de los remanentes de "renovacion" de una confabulacion criminal de cinco puntos para la restauracion del fascismo, para la destruccion de la epoca del 15 de junio, para la provocacion de una guerra, para la supresion de la democracia y para la bancarrota de la economia y exhorta a todos los surcoreanos a sentenciar y enterrar el "partido Hannara", enemigo de la nacion, con la gran alianza contra las fuerzas conservadoras.
    El vocero del Comite Central del Frente Democratico para la Reunificacion de la Patria (FDRP) hizo publica el dia 26 una declaracion para apoyar tal exhortacion del FDNA. 　El documento va como sigue:
    　La fusion del "partido hannara" con la "Alianza Liberal Democratica" es una conspiracion politica para arrebatar el "poder", un complot para meter en un abismo de oscuridad fascista a los surcoreanos aspirantes a una nueva politica y nueva vida, y un resurgimiento del fantasma de la "renovacion".
    　En la trasera de la villana confabulacion de los traidores a la nacion y marginados de la historia esta extendido un tentaculo oscuro de EE.UU. que intenta detener la corriente de la epoca, que abre con las fuerzas unidas de la nacion la era del 15 de junio para la reunificacion independiente
    　Si la horda de traidores toma de nuevo el poder, resurgira en el Sur de Corea la dominacion medieval igual a la dictatorial de "renovacion", se pondra en peligro la Declaracion Conjunta del 15 de Junio que abrio la epoca para la reunificacion independiente, y la nacion sufrira catastrofes de la guerra nuclear.