General meeting of Tajik group for study of Juche idea held
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- A general meeting of the February 16 Tajik Group for the Study of the Juche Idea named after "Marshal Kim Jong Il" was held on December 24 last year on the occasion of the New Year.
The meeting discussed the issues of expanding the scope of group activity and setting up its branches in different provinces and decided to hold a national seminar on the scientific practice of the Juche idea in Tajikistan in February this year. Measures for its successful opening were also discussed at the meeting.
A message of greetings to the great leader Kim Jong Il was adopted at the meeting.
Month of winter sports opens
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- A month of winter sports has opened in the DPRK.
During the month school youth and children will conduct diverse sports activities including skating, sleighing and marching through a snowy road.
Speed-skating and other contests are also held.
Opening ceremonies were held in different cities and counties (districts) on January 9.
Establishment of diplomatic relations between DPRK and Italy
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry on Sunday answered the question put by the KCNA as regards the recent establishment of diplomatic relations between the DPRK and Italy.
The spokesman said that the DPRK and Italy opened diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level on the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and equality according to the independent decision of the two countries and it was the result of the independent foreign policy.
It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to establish and develop friendly and cooperative relations with all the countries which respect the sovereignty of our country and make a friendly approach to it in the lofty idea of independence, peace and friendship, he said, and went on:
The DPRK has made efforts to establish and develop friendly relations with western countries including Italy.
It was quite natural that the DPRK and Italy, sovereign states and dignified member nations of the united nations, established diplomatic relations= it fully conforms with the interests of the two peoples.
Our two countries will extensively expand and develop friendly and cooperative relations in various political, economic and cultural fields on the principles of mutual respect for independence, equality and mutual benefit.
Military drill announced in S. Korea
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- It was reportedly announced that units under the "army metropolitan defence command" in South Korea would stage a military drill in and around Seoul from January 10 to 14.
It was said that the drill code named "tactical exercise in the depth of winter" will include blank firing "tactical exercise" and night march.
The military maneuvers show the intention of the South Korean bellicose elements to worsen confrontation and tensions between the north and south this year, too.
Genocide in S. Korea under fire
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- A Nampho mass rally and meetings of the employees of the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Works, the Pyongyang Railway bureau and the Komdok Mine were held to glorify this year, the WPK's 55th anniversary, with signal victory in the crucible of greatly increased activity of Chollima.
Reporters and speakers underscored the need to make a leaping progress in socialist construction through an all-out charge in the same spirit that was displayed in the "arduous march" and forced march while adhering to the line of attaching great importance to ideology, the military and science and technology.
They said that all the people should be human bombs to safeguard the respected Marshal Kim Jong Il at any cost, bearing in mind the honor and happiness of having him at the head of the Worker's Party of Korea and the revolution.
They called upon all of the attendants to demonstrate the honor of being socialist victors once more in the present general advance to grandly mark the WPK's 55th anniversary, rallied close around Kim Jong Il, as they broke through so difficult "arduous march" and forced march and brought a turning point in building a powerful socialist nation.
Mass rallies held in DPRK
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- Different countries expressed support to the joint New Year editorial of Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi "glorify this year, the WPK's 55th anniversary, with signal victory in the crucible of greatly increased activity of Chollima."
Expressing their full support to the joint editorial, 12 Nepalese public organizations including the Nepal-Korea Friendship Association said in a joint statement issued on January 5 they were convinced that the Korean people would surely gain a brilliant success, advancing victoriously along the road of Juche.
The Center of Indian Trade Unions in a statement on January 4 said it considers that the line of attaching great importance to ideology, the military and science and technology indicates the most correct way of building a powerful socialist nation.
The statement expressed the belief that the Worker's Party of Korea would make greater achievements in this significant year marking the 55th anniversary of its foundation.
Baguma Isoke, Minister of State for Water, Lands and Environment of Uganda, in a statement on Jan. 4 said that the joint editorial is attracting the world's attention as it showed the stamina and future of Korea.
The Korean people's cause led by the great Kim Jong Il is just and it is sure to win victory, he said.
Joint New Year editorial supported
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today comments on massacres of fellow countrymen in Taejon and Taegu prisons which were committed on the order of the South Korean "government" backed by the U.S. during the last Korean War.
According to the recently declassified secret documents and pictures at the U.S. national archives, the South Korean Army and police shot to death 1,800 "political prisoners" in Taejon prison in July 1950.
Those killed were patriots who fought against the colonial military rule of the U.S. and the treacherous and anti-reunification policy of Syngman Rhee, the then "president" of South Korea.
The massacres are indelible crimes against humanity that could be committed only by those obsessed with treachery, fascism and homicide, the paper points out, and says:
Such atrocities have been disclosed one after another.
The recent disclosure of killing was made at a time when U.S. aggression troops' killings of Korean people in different parts of Korea during the Korean war are brought to light one after another.
The U.S. and their stooges mercilessly murdered not only patriots but also war refugees in a bid to turn the war favorable to them by recovering from their repeated setbacks and put down the South Korean people's anti-war, anti-U.S., anti-authority sentiment.
Such being the case, the present South Korean ruling quarters are resorting to sleight of hand to cover up the truth behind the crimes and evade their responsibility for them, arguing that the disclosed documents are not enough to probe the truth.
This is nothing but an act of undisguisedly protecting the criminals U.S. and preceding dictators and an intention to commit the same massacres.
Line of attaching great importance of Korean-style socialism
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- The DPRK has appealed to the entire party and the whole army and all the people to hold fast to the line of attaching great importance to ideology in the New Year.
This line calls for taking people's thinking as a bottom line and solving all problems by its strength.
This is the basic line the Worker's Party of Korea has consistently maintained in the whole period of the revolution and construction.
Upon setting out on the road of revolution in his early years, the President Kim Il Sung called for enlisting the idea of the popular masses to defeat the Japanese imperialist brigands with the united strength of the whole Korean nation.
When he was busy leading the construction of a new society, he saw to it that the ideological revolution was pushed ahead of other work.
The validity of the Worker's Party of Korea line of attaching great importance to ideology was clearly proved by the general ideological mobilization movement for nation building, which gave a great momentum to the construction of new democratic Korea, and the Chollima movement that brought about a new great advance in the post-war socialist construction, etc.
The respected leader Kim Jong Il put forth the theory of ideology contending that the idea of the masses is a main factor in the revolution and construction, and has paid a deep attention to it.
He authored many works such as "On Some Problems of Education In the Juche Idea," "Giving Priority To Ideological Work Is Essential For Accomplishing Socialism" in each period of the developing revolution, thus ensuring that the ideological position of socialism was consolidated.
The Korean people have grasped through revolutionary practice the truth of history that holding fast to ideology leads socialism to victory and if not, socialism is bound to collapse.
Hence, the Korean people cherish the spirit of devotedly defending leader Kim Jong Il, the great defender of the socialist cause and ever-victorious commander, as the cornerstone of socialist idea and iron creed.
The line of attaching great importance to ideology is the lifeline of the WPK, a cornerstone of Korean-style socialism and one of the three pillars in building a powerful nation.
Korean people turn out in response to joint editorial
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) -- In the DPRK the working people from all walks of life have turned out in the struggle to implement the tasks set forth in the joint New Year editorial of the newspapers of the party, the army and the youth league.
Mass rallies have been held in different parts of the country including Pyongyang, south Phyongan and south Hamgyong provinces and Kaesong city and meetings to evince determinations in various units including the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces and the Ministry of Railways.
Farmers in Chonsam co-operative farm, Anbyon county, Kangwon Province, and workers in hydro-power station construction company no. 1 met to vow their resolution to glorify the 55th foundation anniversary of the Worker's Party of Korea as a grand festival of victors and challenged the working people across the country to a socialist emulation.
Large pictures and boards bearing the slogans "glorify 2000 with brilliant successes in the building of a powerful socialist nation ," "grand socialist march," "advance, struggle and advance again," etc. are seen in every quarter.
Graphic paintings, posters, poems, songs and other variety of artistic works have been created and popularized to encourage the working people to the implementation of the tasks set forth in the joint editorial.
Schoolchildren's brass bands and art propaganda groups at all levels are conducting brisk propaganda activities and loud-speaker cars are encouraging the people with songs reflecting the faith and will of the Korean people to glorify the year 2000 as a year of general advance of effecting an epochal progress in the building of a powerful nation.
Amidst heightened atmosphere feats of labour were reported in different units from the outset of the year.
Coal mines in Sunchon, Tokchon and Pukchang areas are carrying out their daily quotas at 120 percent, at 150 percent at maximum over those at the end of last year and supplying coal to Pyongyang, Pukchang, Sunchon and Chongchongang power bases, thus contributing to easing the strain on electricity.
The Musan Mine, a leading iron concentrates producer, successfully blew 100,000 ton earth on Jan. 1 and young shock brigade members of all provinces who volunteered for the Pyongyang-Nampho Motorway project blew a total of 100,000 ton earth on Jan. 4, thus securing tens of thousands of cubic metres of stones needed for the pavement.