Kim Yong Nam calls on Cambodian King

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, Thursday called on Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk at the guest house, on an official goodwill visit to Korea. He was accompanied by Korean ambassador to Cambodia Kim Yong Sop and officials concerned. He was greeted at the guest house by the King, the queen, Cambodian Ambassador E.P. to Korea Oum Mannorine and other suite members. Kim Yong Nam had a talk with the King in a cordial and friendly atmosphere. Kim Yong Nam gave a luncheon in honor of the King.


Kim Il Sung's passing away anniversary commemorated

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- Personages of different circles in Syria sent baskets of flowers to the DPRK embassy in Damascus on July 8 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the President Kim Il Sung's passing away. Among them were the cabinet of the Syrian Arab Republic, the national leadership of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, the executive committee of the Syria-Korea Friendship Association, the president of the People's Council, and the ministers of foreign affairs and defense. An event of laying a floral basket before President Kim Il Sung's Portrait took place at he Kim Il Sung Agricultural College in Cuba on July 7. In Mongolia, a function of laying floral baskets before Kim Il Sung's statue was held at a 10-year middle school in Altanbulag county, Tov Province, on July 8.


Kim Il Sung's reminiscences published in Ethiopia

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA)-- A commercial publishing house of Ethiopia brought out on July 8 vol. 1 of part I the anti-Japanese revolution of "With the Century", the reminiscences of the President Kim Il Sung.


Kim Il Sung's death anniversary commemorated abroad

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- A seminar on the revolutionary exploits of the President Kim Il Sung was held in Moscow on July 7 by members of the Russian Youth Society for the Study of the Juche Idea to commemorate the 5th anniversary of his passing away.
    Speakers at the seminar said the 20th century is unthinkable without the revolutionary history of President Kim Il Sung and that the greatest of his achievements is the creation of the Juche idea. With this idea, Korea could become a powerful socialist country, independent, self-supporting and self-reliant in defence and a satellite-launching state, a country which the United States is so afraid of, they said, adding the exploits of the President who embodied it in the Korean and the world revolution will remain forever.
    Meanwhile, such events as seminar, reading session, Korean film show, fine art exhibition and lecture meeting were held in Russia, Cuba, India, Peru, Uzbekistan, Guyana and Malaysia from July 1 to 5.


Seoul Subway Trade Union vows general strike

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- The Seoul Subway Trade Union on July 12 vowed a general strike against the authorities' refusal to keep their promise with it, a radio report from South Korea said. At a press conference, the union accused the authorities of still evading "negotiations" they promised to "resume" if the union suspended strikes. They are also persecuting those involved in the may strike, it charged, declaring that it will go on a general strike on Saturday.
    Meanwhile, the Mint Company Trade Union, too, expressed at the conference its will to join the Seoul Subway Trade Union's strike, saying the case of "suspected inducement to strike by the prosecution" has not been probed due to the authorities' party interests and policy. The union will stage tough struggles such as solidarity strike with other units if the authorities and the management still refuse to meet its demands, it warned.


Friendly gathering with LAIJI chairman

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- A friendly gathering with Jose Francisco Aguilar Bulgarelli, chairman of the Latin American Institute of the Juche Idea (LAIJI) and coordinator of the Costa Rica-Korea Institute of Friendship and Culture and the Costa Rican Committee for Supporting Korea's Reunification, and his party was held at Moranbong Senior Middle School no.1 on Thursday. The guests went round educational facilities of the school before appreciating an art performance given by schoolchildren. The participants in the gathering deepened feelings of friendship, talking with each other.


Repatriation of POWs demanded

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- Families and relatives of Kim Yong Thae, Kim In So and Ham Se Hwan, who are unconverted long-term prisoners of the north origin, sent letters to human rights organizations in South Korea. They were Kim Ryong Je, son of Kim Yong Thae= Kim Hwa Sim and Kim Jong Sim, daughters of Kim In So= and Ham Suk Nyo, sister of Ham Se Hwan.
    Recalling that they had already written to those organizations time and again, they in the letters disclosed the South Korean authorities' human rights violations against unconverted long-term prisoners and demanded an immediate halt to such inhuman deeds. The South Korean authorities have argued that those prisoners should be exchanged for "ROK army POWs" and "persons kidnapped by the north" who do not exist in the DPRK, the letters noted, describing it as absolutely unjustifiable challenge to humanitarianism and the international law.
    There is no such person for "exchange" in the DPRK, they said, questioning how nonexistent person could be "exchanged" for those who want to go back to the DPRK where their families and relatives are residing. The South Korean authorities should immediately and unconditionally send back not only old Kim Yong Thae, Kim In So and Ham Se Hwan but also all other unconverted long-term prisoners whose families are in the north, they held.
    The letters called upon the South Korean human rights organizations to exert efforts to enable those prisoners to go back to the north as soon as possible.


Letters to world human rights bodies

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- Human rights organizations of the DPRK recently called upon international human rights organizations to give an active cooperation in the earliest possible repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in South Korea.
    Letters carrying such call were mailed to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the UN Commission on Human Rights and the Amnesty International respectively by the central committee of the DPRK Red Cross Society, the Korean Democratic Lawyers' Association, the DPRK Society for Human Rights Studies and the DPRK Measure Committee for the Rescue of Unconverted Long-Term Prisoners.
    They noted that in South Korea over 70 unconverted long-term prisoners are now suffering all pains under the authorities' harsh political persecution and indescribably difficult living conditions. Those prisoners are patriots who joined the Korean People's Army and fought for the reunification and independence of the country during the past Korean War, they said.
    However, the South Korean authorities have refused to send them back, mercilessly infringing upon their human rights, the letters pointed out. Prompted by an intention to use this issue for their insidious political purpose, they are now alleging that those unconverted long-term prisoners should be exchanged for "ROK army POWs" and "persons abducted by the north."
    They held that the unconverted long-term prisoners are not the persons to be exchanged for anybody but they are those who should be repatriated unconditionally in keeping with the requirements of the international law and humanitarianism. In the DPRK there is no "POW" nor "kidnapped person," claimed by the South Korean authorities, except those who refused to serve in the "ROK army" and joined the KPA to fight the enemy during the last Korean war and who decisively left the cursed South Korean society and voluntarily defected to the north, they declared.
    The letters called upon the international human rights organizations to exercise all their possible influence so that the South Korean authorities' inhuman deeds of blocking the repatriation of those unconverted long-term prisoners to the north can be checked and it be realized at an early date.


KCNA on Japan's secret study on air raid on DPRK

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- Japan's Air "Self-Defense Force" (ASDF) conducted a dangerous secret study on launching a surprise air raid on an inviolable territory of the DPRK, Kyodo quoted Japan's Defense Agency sources as saying on Tuesday.
    The keynote of the secret study was to work out the scenario in which the F-4EJ fighters would leave the Komatsu base in Ishikawa Prefecture and fly on a direct and low-altitude path to their target, and once there, would drop 16 500-pound bombs before returning home at a higher-than-usual altitude, the sources said. The action would target the DPRK base of missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers.
    This shocking war scenario clearly shows that the Japanese reactionaries' hostile moves and war preparations for reinvasion of the DPRK have reached an extremely shameless and reckless stage.
    The Japanese authorities are again undisguisedly expressing their "view " that military attacks on other country's bases fall under the "category of self-defense," the "view" that was already rejected in the diet in the past. Especially they have set military objects of the DPRK as a direct target after it launched a satellite.
    The secret study was concluded early last year by the "ASDF's" western air defense force headquarters and was informally reported to the air defense command, it was reported. This is undoubtedly part of the war plan worked out under the instruction of the Japanese authorities.
    It explains why the Japanese reactionaries raised a hue and cry over the DPRK's launch of the first satellite in late August last year and conducted frantic anti-DPRK smear campaign and why they are still making desperate efforts to build up public opinion over what they called "test missile launch".
    The Japanese militarists have sharpened their sword to reinvade Korea for 50 odd years after the war, instead of repenting of and apologizing for the never-to-be-condoned anti-ethical crimes they committed against the Korean people in the past. They have gone the length of openly working out a preemptive attack and "ASDF's" surprise air raid on other country, and justifying it, ignoring their "constitution."
    Astonished and enraged at such reckless war moves of the Japanese reactionaries, the Korean people and self-defensive revolutionary armed forces are keeping themselves fully ready to retaliate against the enemy's provocations a thousand times.


Truth behind U.S.'s massacre of ordinary people revealed

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- It has been brought to light that the U.S. imperialists massacred guiltless people in Yongdong, North Chungchong Province of South Korea during the Fatherland Liberation War (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953). They ruthlessly murdered more than 400 people in Rogun-ri, Hwanggan-myon, Yongdong county, for four days from July 25 to 28, 1950. They, having been routed by the advancing Korean People's Army, took people of Yongdong town to one place on July 25.
    Towards the evening, the U.S. forces let them go down to a riverside and shot to death those who did not obey the "order" to lie prone there. Next day they forced the remaining people to stand on railway tracks and called out a bomber over a radio apparatus to drop bombs over them and fire bullets at them for some 20 minutes, thus ruthlessly killing them. They pushed the survivors into two tunnels below railway tracks and fired machine guns into them from hillocks by their approaches. Many people attempted escape but nearly all of them were killed.


S. Korea's "sunshine policy" rejected

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- Jiri Jarka, chairman of the Mt. Paektu Czech-Korea Friendship Association, sent a letter to the South Korean chief executive on July 8 in protest against his "sunshine policy." In the letter, Jarka said the "sunshine policy" is finally aimed at destroying the DPRK's socialist system. This "policy" is contrary to the DPRK's line of great national unity and it is a hotbed of distrust and war between the north and the south of Korea, the letter pointed out. The association urges the chief executive of South Korea to renounce such "policy" at once and accept the constructive reunification proposals of the DPRK for a peaceful settlement of the Korean issue, it said.


Historical relic: Choesung Pavilion

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- Choesung Pavilion stands on the summit of Moran Hill in Pyongyang. With a facade of 7.36 metres and a flank of 4.67 metres, it is built on a granite embankment and is surrounded by a 0.8-meter-high stone fence. The floor is of square granite slabs. Red-painted wooden pillars that taper upward and brilliantly colored wooden beams add beauty to the building. The gabled roof gives an impression of lightness.
    The pavilion was built in mid-sixth century during the Koguryo period and was moved to its present location in 1716 during the Ri dynasty. When it was originally completed, it was called Osung pavilion. Later, when it was rebuilt, it was renamed Choesung Pavilion, the name that reflected the beautiful scenery on Moran Hill. In the past, when fighting against foreign invaders, the people of Pyongyang set up a beacon in the pavilion and used it as a command headquarters.
    The pavilion commands a good view of Pyongyang. It is preserved in its original state through the policy of preserving historical relics, adopted by the DPRK government. Now it is widely used as a recreation site by the working people.


To carry on revolution and construction way Kim Il Sung did

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- To carry on the revolution and construction as the President Kim Il Sung wished and the way he did this is the firm determination and will of General Secretary Kim Jong Il.
    At a time when the world was watching what policy he would pursue after the passing away of the President he visited the people's army soldiers first. This was a solemn declaration that he would surmount difficulties and lead the Korean revolution to victory by attaching importance to the army, the President 's unique way of leading the revolution.
    He covered more than 48,140 km from August, Juche 83 (1994) to May, Juche 88 (1999) to give on-site guidance to army units, curbing the imperialists' maneuverings of isolation and suffocation and the enemies' moves for a new war and defending the destinies of the Korean revolution and people.
    When the whole country was bathed in bitter tears over the death of the President he put forth a slogan calling for arming more thoroughly with the revolutionary ideas of the great leader. On the new year, Juche 84 (1995) he sent an autographic letter to all the Korean people, asking them to do everything generation after generation as befitting the soldiers and disciples of the great leader.
    Whenever he visited army units, factories, enterprises and rural villages, he looked round the monuments to Kim Il Sung's on-site guidance first of all. This represents his noble intention to lead all the people to work and live the way the President did.
    As the President visited working people in the Kangson Steel Works right after the liberation of the country and in the rigorous period of post-war rehabilitation to overcome the difficulties in reliance on their strength, so he brought a great turning-point in building a powerful nation by visiting working people in Jagang Province in the period of the "arduous march" to lead them to break through the present difficulties in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance.
    The leader's work method - always finding himself among people, believing in their strength and bringing their creative ingenuity into full play - is being carried forward invariably by Kim Jong Il.


Credentials to Kim Yong Nam

   Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, received credentials from Lucas Pande Tabaya, new Zimbabwean Ambassador E.P. to the DPRK, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today. He had a talk with the new ambassador after accepting it.


S. Korean "Intelligence Service" hit for anti-national crime

    Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the national reconciliation council today made public a statement denouncing the South Korean Intelligence Service's malicious intervention in north-south non-governmental economic cooperation as part of the anti-north confrontation campaign.
    Last year the Hyun Dai Business Group of South Korea and the Love-Neighbors Society, an organisation of Koreans in the United States, respectively sent to the north 500 head of cattle in the first installment and 199 head of South Korean cattle, as a token of the start of the non-governmental economic cooperation with the north, the statement says.
    The statement describes the donation of cattle as a righteous act expressive of love of compatriots and humanitarianism. It continues: The South Korean Intelligence Service thrust its crooked tentacles of intervention into the undertaking. As a consequence, a large number of the donated cattle died. A growing number of the remaining cattle are expected to die.
    According to experts in charge of the donated cattle, 246 head of the 500 cattle donated by the hyun dai business group in the first batch have died and 39 of those donated by the love-neighbors society in the United States have met the same doom. The autopsy undertaken by a veterinary and quarantine organ shows that there were vinyl ropes, bundles of vinyl sheets, magnet, fragments of glass, big nails and other things in the stomachs of the dead cattle.
    A competent organ of the north has photographed and video-taped all evidences. This fact alone is enough to show what a vicious den of savages the South Korean Intelligence Service is and what a heinous group of traitors and anti-reunification elements the South Korean authorities who defend the service are.
    The National Reconciliation Council bitterly denounces the Intelligence Service for resorting to such a despicable trick in a bid to hinder and frustrate the non-governmental cooperation between the north and the south. If the South Korean authorities truly want national reconciliation and unity, they must dissolve the Intelligence Service, the headquarters of anti-communist, anti-north plots, before anything else.
    The South Korean authorities, however, are not willing to drop their bad habit. They renamed the "Agency for National Security Planning" "Intelligence Service" and strengthened its function. In June, they planted a hired spy among tourists of Mt. Kumgang for anti-DPRK purposes. Facts prove that although the South Korean authorities outwardly call for "reconciliation" and "non-governmental cooperation," they in fact incite antagonism and aggravate confrontation between the north and the south.
    The present chief executive of South Korea must draw a lesson from the destinies of his predecessors who went to their dooms after engaging in confrontation with the north. We will never tolerate the anti-national crime of the Intelligence Service which tries to foil inter-Korean non-governmental economic cooperation under the patronage of the chief executive of South Korea.
    The South Korean authorities must apologize to the nation for their uninvited interference in non-governmental economic cooperation and for their grave anti-national acts, give up the anti-north plots and dissolve the intelligence service without delay.



BACK

HOME