Floral Baskets to DPRK Embassy in Beijing
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- Families of Zhou Wei, Zhang Yu, Zhang Yao, Yue Zhiyun and other Chinese related to the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle sent floral baskets to the DPRK embassy in Beijing on the occasion of the birthday of Kim Jong Il.
They were laid before the portraits of President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at the embassy on Feb. 15 and 16.
February Holiday Celebrated
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- Meetings took place in Russia, Belarus, Democratic Congo and India from Feb. 8 to 12 on the occasion of the February holiday.
Speeches were made there.
A deputy to the Zelenograd City Assembly of Moscow Region of Russia sincerely wished Kim Jong Il good health on his birthday. He highly praised him as a great man recognized by the world.
Vasili Delikov, chairman of the Belarus Association for the Study of the Juche Idea, said the DPRK is a beacon of hope for the progressives as it has become the focus of the world's attention.
Otete Gaston Mboyo, chairman of the National Committee of the Genuine Lumumbist Patriotic Party of Democratic Congo, noted that Kim Jong Il has made immortal contributions to the Korean revolution and the accomplishment of the human cause of independence, holding aloft the banner of Songun, adding that humankind will have a rosy future only when it follows Songun Korea.
V. K. Pandey, director of Manaba Bharati International School of India, and other figures said the DPRK has achieved one victory after another in the fierce confrontation with the allied forces of imperialism, striking the world with admiration.
A message of greetings to Kim Jong Il was adopted at the meeting in Belarus.
Kim Jong Il Praised by Russian Poet
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- Russian Poet Oleg Naumov dedicated his poem "Along the road of Songun revolution!" to the auspicious February holiday.
In the poem he described the road of Songun indicated by Kim Jong Il as a genuine path of revolution and a road of victory promising a bright future.
Kim Jong Il has built the DPRK as an invulnerable fortress and an independent powerful country, he said, adding the world people extend congratulations to him in reverence on his birthday.
He noted that the Korean people inspired by the long journey of dedication made by Kim Jong Il, the great sun, have demonstrated their might to the world, flying the red flag under his leadership.
Setting of Commemoration Day of June People's Resistance Demanded
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- The Society for Commemorating the Movement for Democracy of south Korea reportedly called a press conference on Feb. 7 to demand the "government" authorities set the commemoration day of the June people's resistance.
At the press conference the permanent co-representative of the society said: "The June 10 resistance was a civil revolution in which over five million people shouted 'overthrow dictatorship and win democracy' all over south Korea. This year marking its 20th anniversary is a proper time to set June 10 as a commemoration day".
The petition signed by 610 figures of the movement for democracy which was read out at the press conference held that the June resistance for democracy was a historic event that put an end to military dictatorship.
The "government" authorities should set June 10 as a commemoration day so that the resistance can be marked as a resistance for democracy succeeding to the March 1 uprising and the April 19 uprising, it said.
Agreements on Establishing Friendly Ties between Korean and Ecuadorian Cities Signed
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- An agreement on establishing friendly ties between Phyongsong City, South Phyongan Province, the DPRK, and Catamayo City, Loja Province, Ecuador, was signed on Feb. 19.
It was inked by An Myong Ok, chairwoman of the Phyongsong City People's Committee, and Ector Figueroa, mayor of Catamayo City, Loja Province, Ecuador.
An agreement on establishing friendly ties between Anju City, South Phyongan Province, the DPRK, and Troncal City, Canar Province, Ecuador, was also signed on the same day.
National Memorial Service for Choe Kwang Held
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- A national memorial service for Choe Kwang, revolutionary fighter, was held at the Central Youth Hall Wednesday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death.
The service was attended by Kim Yong Chun, Kim Il Chol, Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop, Kim Ki Nam and Cabinet members, officials of party, armed forces and power organs, public organizations, ministries and national institutions, officers and men of the Korean People's Army, working people in Pyongyang and members of the bereaved family.
Born into a poor peasant's family in an alien land in July Juche 7 (1918), Choe Kwang took part in the anti-Japanese armed struggle at his early age true to the leadership of President Kim Il Sung and greatly contributed to its victory. He also made a great contribution to the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War serving as a divisional commander and then an army corps commander during the war.
In the subsequent period, he held such important posts as president of Kim Il Sung Military University, chief of the KPA General Staff, minister of the People's Armed Forces, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and vice-chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission.
Vice Marshal of the KPA Kim Yong Chun, member of the NDC of the DPRK and chief of the KPA General Staff, in a memorial address said that Choe Kwang's life was a brilliant one as he set an example in practice showing how a genuine revolutionary and ardent patriot should uphold his leader and how to live and fight for the homeland and the people.
He continued:
The laudable trait of Choe Kwang who devotedly defended the leader and thoroughly implemented his instructions with a noble outlook on the leader serves as a good example to be followed by the servicepersons and people of the DPRK who are working hard to defend the headquarters of the revolution headed by Kim Jong Il at the cost of their lives and implement the WPK's Songun revolutionary line to the letter.
Choe Kwang's life full of noble revolutionary spirit and feats will shine long along with the history of the homeland, greatly encouraging the Party, the army and people in their heroic struggle to firmly defend the socialist system based on Juche and bring about the phase of overall efflorescence in the drive for the prosperity of the country.
Kim Yong Chun stressed the need to hold higher generation after generation the red banner of Juche, the banner of Songun that was held high by the first generation of the Korean revolution including Choe Kwang in the thick forest of Mt. Paektu and make a dynamic revolutionary advance to usher in the golden days of Kim Il Sung's Korea.
Wreaths Laid before Bust of Choe Kwang
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- Wreaths were placed before the bust of Choe Kwang, a revolutionary martyr, at the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery in Mt. Taesong Wednesday on the 10th anniversary of his death.
Seen there was a wreath from General Secretary Kim Jong Il.
Present at the wreath-laying ceremony were Kim Il Chol, Yang Hyong Sop and Kim Ki Nam, Vice-Premier of the Cabinet Kwak Pom Gi, officials of military bodies, ministries, national institutions and educational organs, servicepersons of the KPA and members of the bereaved family.
Laid before the bust were wreaths in the name of the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces, ministries, national institutions and educational organs and party and power bodies in the city of Pyongyang and bunches of flowers.
The participants in the ceremony paid a silent tribute to the memory of Choe Kwang, who was intensely loyal to the Party, the leader, the country and the people and devoted his all to the struggle for the victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche.
Kim Yong Nam Meets Congratulatory Group of Koreans in Japan
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a talk in a compatriotic atmosphere with the congratulatory group of Koreans in Japan led by Ri Ki Sok, vice-chairman of the Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Wednesday.
Developing Korean Language
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- Mass media of the DPRK are widely propagating the superiority and characteristics of the Korean language and calling for making best use of it, on the occasion of the International Day of Mother Tongue which falls on Feb. 21.
Today many national spoken and written languages have been obliterated or assimilated owing to the "globalization" advocated by the imperialists. But the DPRK has developed its national language in combination with the Juche, national and modern characters.
The government of the DPRK has persistently pursued the correct linguistic policy of the Workers' Party of Korea on preserving and carrying forward the national language for over 60 years.
Right after the liberation of the country, the government took measures to use the Korean language as its official language, liquidate illiteracy, the outcome of the Japanese imperialists' colonial policy of keeping the Koreans in ignorance, remove Japanese words in the native language and abolish the use of Chinese characters. And it directed primary attention to creating the social conditions and linguistic environment for the development of the national language including the strengthening of the education in the national language.
Such standing linguistic institutes as the Society for the Study of Korean Language (1947), Terminology Assessment Committee (1949) and the Korean Linguistic Institute (1964) were formed to give a scientific guarantee to the development of the national language.
Along with this, the government has pushed ahead with a nation-wide work of arranging vocabularies and establishing correct trait of linguistic life in order to fully display the national characteristics of the language.
More than tens of thousands of common vocabularies and terminology have been purified from Chinese and foreign words. A lot of inherent Korean words have been discovered and arranged and the Korean written and spoken language has developed into a new system with inherent Korean words as the main.
In particular, the government has formulated the Pyongyang language as the cultured Korean language and pushed forward the work of giving full play to its advantage, with the result that the Pyongyang cultured language serves as a great wherewithal for the unified development of the Korean language.
Frontrunners in Building Rich and Powerful Nation
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- Many people are taking the lead in the revolutionary advance for building a great, prosperous and powerful socialist nation.
Wonderful successes are being achieved in all the sectors of the national economy thanks to the heroic efforts bent by the frontrunners with an ardent love for their motherland and strong will to turn the country into an earthly paradise good to live in.
Among the frontrunners are heroine Pak Ok Hui, chairwoman of a co-op farm management board in Janggang County, who initiated two or three crops a year in the northern part of the country, Ryom In Yun, manager of a mine which has overfulfiled its mineral production plan every year and built dwelling houses for thousands of families and public and production buildings by itself to convert the mine area into a "mining town" and the members of youth shock brigade of Thaechon who successfully constructed a large-sized hydro-power station, defying all difficulties and bottlenecks. They are all servants faithful to the people who have devoted themselves for the country and the nation.
Busy as he was with field guidance, Kim Jong Il acquainted himself with their labor feats and highly appreciated them, saying that they were persons like hero and jewel.
They had the honor of addressing the Meeting of Frontrunners of the Songun Revolution amid the ovation of the entire people.
The Korean people always remember the devoted efforts of the frontrunners associated with the standardized fields, Kaechon-Lake Thaesong Waterway, Paekma-Cholsan Waterway, salterns on the east coast, Youth Hero Motorway, power stations built in different parts of the country and newly arranged famous mountains and recreation grounds and are trying to follow their spirit and way of work.
Greetings to Prime Minister of Saint Lucia
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- Pak Pong Ju, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, sent a message of greetings to John George Melvin Compton, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of its independence.
The message expressed the belief that the bilateral relations would further develop in mutual interests.
11th Kimjongilia Festival Closes
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- The 11th Kimjongilia Festival was closed with due ceremony at the Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia Exhibition Wednesday.
Present at the ceremony were Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop and others.
The best prize of the festival went to 85 units including the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland and the Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan and the excellent prize of the festival to 16 units including the Ministry of State Construction Control, the Ministry of Land and Environment Preservation and the Ministry of Construction and Building Materials Industries.
In the meantime, certificates for the participation in the festival were awarded to 40 individual servicepersons, working people and school youth and children and special prize of the festival went to two Chinese residents in the DPRK.
Kwak Pom Gi, vice-premier of the Cabinet who is chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia Festival, in his closing address underlined the need for all the participants of the festival to exert efforts to ensure that all the future festivals would be held on the highest level on the basis of the successes and experience gained in the festival and flowers of the sun kept in full bloom everywhere in the world.
Stop to Suppression of Koreans in Japan Urged
Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- The Council for the Solution of the Issue of the Volunteers Corps in south Korea reportedly made public a statement on Feb. 8 demanding the Japanese government immediately stop suppression of Koreans in Japan and violation of their human rights.
The statement denounced the Japanese government for resorting still to suppression and human rights abuses, far from admitting and apologizing for the crimes committed by Japan against the Korean nation in the past.
Noting that the violation of the human rights of Koreans in Japan by the Japanese authorities has reached the extent where it can never be tolerated, going beyond common knowledge, the statement said:
The Japanese authorities should make an apology and legal compensation for the past history of aggression and ensure the right to property of the Koreans in Japan and their human rights.
The council will conduct energetic activities to force the Japanese government to stop suppression of Koreans in Japan and pursue a policy of respecting their lives and human rights, it warned.
For Spanish-speaking people
Hermanadas ciudades coreanas y ecuatorianas
Pyongyang, 21 de febrero (ATCC) -- Quedo rubricado el dia 19 el acuerdo sobre hermanamiento entre la ciudad de Phyongsong de la provincia de Phyong-an del Sur de la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea y el municipio de Catamayo de la provincia de Loja del Ecuador.
Firmaron el documento la presidenta del Comite Popular de la Ciudad de Phyongsong, An Myong Ok, y el alcalde de Catamayo, Hector Figueroa.
Este dia, quedo suscrito el mismo acuerdo entre la ciudad de Anju de la misma provincia coreana y la de Troncal de la provincia ecuatoriana de Canar.
Precursores en la construccion de gran potencia prospera
Pyongyang, 21 de febrero (ATCC) -- Al frente de la marcha revolucionaria de hoy para la construccion de una gran potencia prospera socialista se hallan los precursores de la epoca.
Gracias a ellos quienes luchan con el cada vez mas calido patriotismo, gran abnegacion y heroismo por transformar la patria en el mejor paraiso de este mundo, se registran sorprendentes exitos innovadores en todos los sectores de la economia nacional.
Entre estos abanderados fieles a la patria y al pueblo figuran la heroina Pak Ok Hui, presidenta de la junta administrativa de una Granja cooperativa del distrito de Janggang, quien se puso en la delantera en el cultivo de doble y triple cosecha al ano en esa zona septentrional; Ryom In Yun, gerente de la Mina donde trabaja Jon Jong Sop, quien sobrecumple cada ano el plan de produccion de minerales y convirtio el contorno de su trabajo en una "ciudad minera" al construir por cuenta propia miles de viviendas y edificaciones publicas y productivas; y los miembros de la brigada juvenil de Thaechon, quienes construyeron magnificamente la central hidroelectrica de gran dimension superando todas las dificultades.
Aunque estaba muy ocupado por la orientacion sobre el terreno, el Dirigente Kim Jong Il averiguo en detalles los exitos logrados por ellos y los apreciaron como "hombres heroicos" y "personas de valor de perla".
En medio de calidos votos de los habitantes de todo el pais, ellos participaron en el recien clausurado Congreso de Precursores de la Revolucion del Songun.
El pueblo coreano ve los rios de sudor de esos hombres en las parcelas estandarizadas, los canales Kaechon-lago Thaesong y Paekma-Cholsan, las salinas a lo largo del Mar Este, la carretera Chongnyon Yongung, las centrales hidroelectricas construidas en distintas partes del pais, los montes y lugares famosos para el recreo del pueblo.
Teniendo siempre presente los esfuerzos abnegados de los abanderados, grabados en todas las creaciones de la epoca del Songun que fueron levantadas en tiempos mas dificiles, el pueblo coreano hace todo lo posible por aprender el modo de lucha y trabajo de ellos.
Idioma coreano en pleno desarrollo
Pyongyang, 21 de febrero (ATCC) -- Con motivo del "Dia internacional de lengua materna" (21 de febrero), se desarrolla ampliamente en Corea una campana publicitaria para mantener las ventajas y peculiaridades del idioma nacional y hablarlo mejor.
Aunque se desaparecen o van a asimilarse las palabras y letras de numerosas naciones debido a las influencias negativas de la "globalizacion", preconizada por los imperialistas, sobre el dominio linguistico, en la Republica Popular Democratica de Corea se desarrolla plenamente el idioma nacional caracterizado por la autenticidad, la nacionalidad y el caracter contemporaneo.
Durante mas de 60 anos pasados, el gobierno de la RPDC vino trabajando intensamente para mantener y desarrollar el idioma nacional bajo la correcta politica del Partido del Trabajo de Corea en esta materia.
Inmediatamente despues de la liberacion del pais (en agosto de 1945), el gobierno tomo una serie de medidas filologicas, entre otras, el uso del coreano como lengua oficial del Estado, la lucha por acabar con el analfabetismo (producto de la politica de los imperialistas japoneses para mantener a los paises coloniales en oscurantismo), la eliminacion de palabras derivadas del japones, la prohibicion del uso de letras chinas, etc.
Por otra parte, presto primordial atencion a la intensificacion de ensenanza de lengua coreana y otras labores para crear las condiciones sociales y el ambiente linguistico necesarios al desarrollo del idioma nacional.
Ademas, preparo las condiciones cientificas al organizar la "Asociacion de Estudio de la Lengua Coreana" (1947), el "Comite de Evaluacion de Tecnicismo" (1949), el "Instituto Linguistico del Coreano" (1964) y otras entidades filologas.
A fin de poner en pleno juego la nacionalidad de la lengua coreana impulso en toda la sociedad el ordenamiento lexicologico y la implantacion del correcto modo del hablar.
Hasta la fecha, fueron corregidos en lengua coreana decenas de miles de palabras generales y terminos tecnologicos, derivados del chino y otras lenguas extranjeras, y hallados innumerables patrimonios lexicologicos propios del coreano.
De esta manera, la lengua coreana se desarrollo como un nuevo sistema fundamentado en el vocabulario propio.
Sobre todo, definio como lengua culta el idioma desarrollado basandose en el lexico de Pyongyang e impulso las labores para poner de manifiesto su superioridad.
Por lo tanto, la lengua culta de Pyongyang constituye un valioso patrimonio para el desarrollo unificado del idioma nacional de Corea.
Kim Jong Il recibe cestos de flores y presentes provenientes de Rusia
Pyongyang, 21 de febrero (ATCC) -- El Dirigente Kim Jong Il recibio cesto de flores o presentes que le dirigieran con motivo de su cumpleanos (16 de febrero) el Conjunto de Danza Folclorica Academica Nacional de Moiseyev de Rusia y personalidades de circulo social de una ciudad de la region de Volgograd y el gerente general del Instituto Tecnologico de Ciencias de Vidrio.
Los titulares del citado Conjunto de Danza, el Fondo Internacional de Caridad "Protectores del arte secular" y el Instituto referido los entregaron del dia 14 al 16 al embajador extraordinario y plenipotenciario y un funcionario de Corea, acreditados en Rusia.