• Kim Jong Il Inspects Command of KPA Unit 630
  Pyongyang, January 31 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected the command of KPA Large Combined Unit 630. He first looked round the room devoted to the history of the unit. Recalling with deep emotion President Kim Il Sung's undying exploits associated with the history of the unit, he said that the wise leadership and meticulous care of the President helped it grow to be a strong large combined unit made up of combined units and other units of a-match-for-a hundred combatants. He highly appreciated the unit's merits, saying that it has a history of laudable feats performed in the defence of the country and socialist construction. [Military economy]
• UN Census Puts N.Korea Population at 24 Million
  The first UN census in North Korea in 15 years reveals the country has a population of more than 24 million people, according to Voice of America. VOA said Thursday that the census by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found 11.7 million males and 12.3 million females in 5.88 million households in North Korea's 10 provinces.

• Kim Jong-il 'Undergoing Regular Kidney Dialysis'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is reportedly receiving regular kidney dialysis, raising speculation that his health may be deteriorating. According to Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun, the 68-year-old dictator, who has a history of heart disease and is believed to have suffered a stroke in August of last year, could be suffering from complications from diabetes. The newspaper said the South Korean and Japanese governments were informed of Kim's health status last fall. The report added that Kim tends to receive treatment before he meets with foreign guests to show that he is in good health. [Media]
• Kim Jong-il Ordered Shoot-to-Kill Policy for Defectors
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ordered officials in May 2008 to shoot defectors or imprison them for 10 years of hard labor if they were arrested, according to information obtained by South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies. Previously only those caught attempting to escape directly to South Korea had been punished so severely.
• N.Korea Inches Toward New Pragmatism
  The text on the poster reads "Stand your ground and look at the world." North Korea appears to be inching toward a new pragmatism stressing people's welfare rather than the constant martial tones it employed in the past. A New Year's Day message in the official media in early January urged the people to fulfill their assigned tasks, and one of the propaganda posters accompanying it calls on the people to stand their ground and look at the world. Another poster shows a woman in traditional Korean costume and a child smiling behind piles of food, shoes, wine, and rainbow-striped traditional jackets.
• NK Girl Wears 'I Love Jesus' Shirt
  This photo, taken by a foreigner visiting Pyongyang last year, shows a North Korean girl wearing “I Love Jesus” T-shirt. / Courtesy of Radio Free Asia By Kim Se-jeong Staff Reporter A recently released photo of a North Korean girl offers a contradiction to what has been known about the Communist country's religious freedom and the extent of freedom made available to outsiders. The photo made public by the Radio Free Asia based in Washington, D.C has a young girl wearing a white T-shirt with an illustration and a sentence, "I ? Jesus." The picture was taken in Pyongyang by an anonymous photographer, and submitted to the radio station by Curtis Melvin, an American economist. He also runs a blog, "North Korean Economic Watch" Melvin said, "In a society where religious freedom is completely deprived, people wearing a shirt like that are found to be very interesting." Repression on religious freedom in North Korea is widely known. According to accounts from North Korean defectors and Christian missionaries who have helped North Koreans defect from the Communist country, the regime shows zero-tolerabce to those who develop a religious affiliation. If caught, they are tortured and sent to a concentration camp.
  Yet, from what it's shown in the photo, the photographer is in the middle of a big crowd, and the girl poses for a camera. [Media] [Propaganda] [Spin] [Religion]
• 200,000 Political Prisoners Held in N.Korean Camps
  Some 200,000 political prisoners are being held in concentration camps in North Korea, and some have been executed by shooting or hanging, according to South Korea's National Human Rights Commission. The commission on Wednesday released a study of conditions in North Korean political prison camps based on testimony from North Korean defectors collected for the commission by the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights last year. [Evidence] [Human rights] [Manipulation]
• Old Propaganda Hand Becomes N.Korean Culture Minister
  An Dong-chun The North Korean Supreme People's Assembly appointed An Dong-chun, the chairman of the Stalinist country's authors' association, as new culture minister, the official [North] Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday. An is an old hand at hailing and praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, having written books lauding Kim's achievements and served as deputy leader of a cadre idolizing the leader.
• 'Kim Jong-il Suffers From Depression'
  Kim Jong-il North Korean leader By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter A North Korea watcher said Sunday that Kim Jong-il appears to be suffering from post stroke depression (PSD). The latest update about the health of the North Korean leader differs from what those who met with Kim in person last year, such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian musician Oleg Ovsyannikov, have said.
• North Korea holds massive New Year's rally
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Saturday, January 2, 2010; 9:26 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- Tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied in the capital Saturday to support the communist government's policies for the new year, including improved relations with the U.S. and South Korea and a higher standard of living. The crowd braved chilly weather to pledge loyalty to leader Kim Jong Il as top officials applauded from a balcony overlooking Pyongyang's main square. Video from broadcaster APTN showed Kim did not attend the rally. North Korea - which does not tolerate any political opposition - stages the annual rally to bolster public support for the government's New Year policies, announced in an editorial in major newspapers. Pumping their fists into the air, about 100,000 people shouted "Let's implement it," referring to the policy goals, as they marched through the square with red flags.
• Joint New Year Editorial 2010
  As you know well of the Joint New Year Editorial of Rodong Sinmun, Josoninmingun and Chongnyonjonwi through the internet, 2010 is the significant year which marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration. Also, 2010 is the 65th year that the DPRK has liberated from the Japanese colonial rule and the country was divided into two by the foreign forces before 65 years. It is our stand that the entire Korean nation should crown the year 2010 as a year of opening a new phase of independent reunification by frustrating all challenges of the anti-reunification forces with their concerted efforts and stepping up the grand nationwide march toward reunification.
  The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the DPRK and the USA. It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to establish a lasting peace system on the Korean Peninsula and make it nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiation. Our Party and the government of our Republic will strive to develop relations of good-neighborliness and friendship with other countries and achieve global independence under the unfurled banner of independence, peace and friendship: [Unification] [NK US Policy]

• The Last Emperor
  From defectors and former aides, a portrait of Kim Jong Il is emerging of family dysfunction, palace intrigue and imperial menace (sic). By PETER MAASS Published: October 19, 2003 The Dear Leader is a workaholic. Kim Jong Il sleeps four hours a night, or if he works through the night, as he sometimes does, he sleeps four hours a day. His office is a hive of activity; reports cross his desk at all hours. Dressed as always in his signature khaki jumpsuit, he reads them all, issuing instructions to aides, dashing off handwritten notes or picking up the phone at 3 a.m. and telling subordinates what should lead the news broadcasts or whom to dispatch to a prison camp. His micromanaging style is less Caligula, with whom he has often been compared, and more Jimmy Carter on an authoritarian tear. [Kim Jong Il] [Media] [Spin]

• The Facts About Kim Jong-il's Private Train
  The private train North Korean leader Kim Jong-il uses on his trips either within the communist country or abroad consists of six around 90 carriages, and some 20 train stations have been built specifically for his own use. To defend Kim against attack, two separate trains precede and follow the main entourage, one handling reconnaissance and the other security. South Korean and U.S. intelligence have been spying on Kim's private train with satellites, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and other surveillance equipment, as well as testimonies of North Korean defectors
• Pyongyang rebuilt city devastated by explosion
  November 07, 2009 North Korea has built Soviet-style apartment complexes to give a face-lift to its border town of Ryongchon where a devastating 2004 explosion occurred, according to a satellite image compiled by a U.S. researcher. The April 22 blast in the rural northwestern town near China took place several hours after leader Kim Jong-il passed through its railway station, fueling suspicions that the incident may have been an assassination attempt. Kim was returning from a surprise trip to China when the Ryongchon tragedy occurred. The North announced days later that highly explosive ammonium-nitrate fertilizer at the station had accidentally hit an electric cable, triggering the explosion that killed 160 people and injured 1,300. “In 2004, much of the town of Ryongchon was tragically destroyed in a large explosion,” wrote Curtis Melvin, a George Mason University doctoral student who runs one of the most extensive blogs on the economy and geography of the communist country. According to the satellite image compiled by Melvin that was viewed by the Yonhap News Agency on Friday, Ryongchon has since transformed from ashes into a modern town. “Gone are the traditional homes,” Melvin wrote. “They have been replaced by typical Soviet-style apartment blocks.” Melvin did not reveal the source of the new overlay, but said in a separate posting that he merges up-to-date Google Earth images with help from people with access to information on the North. An e-mail requesting an interview was not immediately answered. Melvin, who studies economics, has visited North Korea earlier this decade, and been featured by international media for his efforts to “uncover” the secretive North through satellite images and private photos. Last August, Melvin released a satellite photo of a mansion that he said belongs to Kim Jong-il, the 67-year-old dictator. [Spin] [Cliche]
• Amid Authenticity Dispute, Kim Jong-il Makes Brisk Inspections
  Amid some speculation that the Kim Jong-il that the former U.S. President Bill Clinton met this summer was a fake, the identity-disputed leader of the world’s most reclusive country made a series of brisk inspections to a newly constructed power plant and a farm in the southern area of the country, along with Workers' Party officials, Yonhap reported, citing the state's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). During the visit to North Korea's South Hamgyeong Province, Kim congratulated laborers who participated in building the power station, and urged farmers to improve farming technologies to resolve the ongoing food shortage in the country, the KCNA said, not identifying the date when this took place. KCNA said Kim was accompanied by Workers' Party officials, including his only brother-in-law Jang Song-thaek, who is a department director of the Party, and Kim Ki-nam, a secretary of the Party. A few days earlier, KCNA said Kim paid a visit to a construction site to encourage workers. Recently, Toshimitsu Shigemura, a Japanese journalist-turned professor claimed that North Korea is using a “double” to play the role of Kim Jong-il for its domestic and international audience, claiming the real Kim died in 2003. [Kim Jong Il] [Bizarre]

• K Kim Jong-il Heir 'in Secret Visit to Army Corps'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and rumored heir apparent on Sept. 9 visited the Ninth North Korean Army Corps in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province which is in charge of guarding the North Korea-China border. The visit to the corps' commander and political commissars was conducted in tight secrecy and came amid growing fears about discipline at the unit. Kim Jong-un reportedly said, "The military unit which the general [Kim Jong-il] considers the most important is the Ninth Army Corps in charge of guarding the border." An inside source in North Korea said the first frontline for North Korea is not the military demarcation line between the two Koreas but the North Korea-China border. The atmosphere there is so tense that the sound of North Korean soldiers shooting at defectors is heard almost every day. In recent days, so many senior officers of the Ninth Corps have been involved in drug dealing and other money-making business that the National Defense Commission has decided to take direct charge of the corps. Foreign intelligence agencies are trying to woo Ninth Corps officers, sources said. Rumor has it that some leading officers of North Korea's Sixth Army Corps attempted a mutiny in 1996 due to bribery by a foreign intelligence agency. [Corruption] [Espionage]
• S.Korean Scholar: North Experiencing Discord Among Kim Family Members
  A leading North Korea researcher and adviser to South Korea's president says the North is experiencing some friction at the very top of the ruling Kim family. The North's leader may have temporarily halted a succession process to calm his son's ambitions. [Succession]
• Multiple Fires Rage in North Korea
  Multiple fires were raging in the northeast region of North Korea recently, with a plume of smoke extending far out over the ocean, AFP reported Thursday. The true-color image captured by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Aqua satellite on Oct. 15 showed the northeast skies covered by great plumes of smoke extending over the East Sea, according to AFP.
• Songun Revolutionary Cause Originated from DIU
  Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- The Korean revolution is a sacred one which was pioneered and has advanced under the banner of the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU). In the 1920s when the national liberation movement of Korea was undergoing bitter twists and turns, President Kim Il Sung formed the DIU on October 17, 1926 with a firm belief that the enemy armed to the teeth could be beat down only with arms. The formation of the DIU provided the root of the Workers' Party of Korea and marked the start of the Songun revolution. [Kim Il Sung] [Songun]
• Int'l Press Gets Glimpse of N.Korea's Daily Grind
  A W35 million price tag for the Internet connection to transmit a five-minute piece of footage is only one of the endless list of inconveniences that make up daily life in North Korea (US$1=W1,163). Kristine Kwok, a reporter for Hong Kong's South China Morning Post who accompanied Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on his visit to North Korea on Oct. 4 to 6, recounts them in a story titled "Life in the Hermit Kingdom." "Accessing the Internet is a distant dream for North Korean citizens and an expensive luxury for visiting foreigners," Kwok wrote. "Filing a news report of Wen shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il would cost a TV station the equivalent of HK$233,472. The North Korean Foreign Ministry eventually decided to pay all the Internet fees for the reporters --much to their relief."   [Media] [Sanctions] [ICT]
• ‘N. Korea Stops Promoting Leader’s Son’  
  North Korea has suspended a propaganda campaign to promote the youngest son of leader Kim Jong-il as his eventual successor, AFP reported last week. Instead, the communist state is calling for solidarity around the current leader, AFP said quoting South Korean Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho.  [Succession]  
• Repression and punishment in North Korea
  Linked below is a paper co-authored with Steph Haggard on the evolving role of the North Korean penal system based on refugee surveys conducted in China and South Korea. Traditionally used as an instrument of political repression, the penal system has emerged as a mechanism for predatory corruption as well. The regime disproportionately targets politically suspect individuals, particularly those involved in market-oriented economic activities. Extreme levels of violence appear to be ubiquitous, even in lower level facilities where detainees are typically incarcerated for less than a year. High levels of discretion with respect to arrest and detention, combined with the very high costs of incarceration, provide large incentives for bribery to avoid punishment. The more arbitrary and painful the experience with the penal system, the easier it is for officials to extort money for avoiding it. East-West Center: "Repression and Punishment in North Korea: Survey Evidence of Prison Camp Experiences" [Manipulation] [Human rights] [defectors reports]
• North Korean Prisons Have Become a System of Extortion, Refugees Say
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, October 6, 2009 TOKYO, Oct. 5 -- North Korea's infamous penal system, which for decades has silenced political dissent with slave labor camps, has evolved into a mechanism for extorting money from citizens trading in private markets, according to surveys of more than 1,600 North Korean refugees. This Story North Korean Prisons Have Become a System of Extortion, Refugees Say Special Report: North Korea -- Closed, Hungry, Heavily Armed Reacting to an explosive rise in market activity, North Korea has criminalized everyday market behavior and created a new kind of gulag for those it deems economic criminals, according to a report on the refugee surveys. It will be released this week by the East-West Center, a research organization established by Congress to promote understanding of Asia (sic). [Manipulation] [Human rights] [defectors reports] [Media]

• Kim Jong-il Opts for Socialism Over Communism
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il apparently explained the deletion of the word "communism" from the country's constitution, which was revised in April. "It is difficult to comprehend communism. I will try to get socialism right," Kim was reported as saying by a spokesman for the state-run Minju Chosun newspaper. The spokesman was talking to South Korean reporters on the sidelines of inter-Korean family reunions in Mt. Kumgang. "This is the reason behind the deletion of 'communism' from the constitution," he said. "Communism is meant to be a one-class society where there is no distinction between exploiter and exploited, but that system cannot exist while American imperialism lasts."
• North Korea modifies its Constitution to reflect Kim Jong-il system
  The 6 new articles strengthen the National Defense Committee and its chairman powers and elevate Songun to the level of Juche ideology It was confirmed Monday that North Korea had modified its Constitution during the first session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly on April 9 by strengthening the position, duties and authority of the chairman of the National Defense Commission by designating him as the country’s supreme leader and adding the Songun (Army First) ideology to North Korea’s existing ruling ideology of Juche. In particular analysts believe this constitutional reform, the first in 11 years, has given constitutional status and hence systematized the existing Songun Politics and Songun Revolutionary Line centered on the National Defense Commission and its Commissioner, Kim Jong-il. This ninth reform of the North Korean Constitution, modifies the existing constitution of seven chapters and 166 articles that was put in place Sept. 1998 into a new constitution consisting of seven chapters and 172 articles.
• Why N.Korean Regime Succession Is a Delicate Matter
  North Korea has officially denied there is any talk of a successor to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, but only last Thursday newspapers published a photo of a North Korean propaganda poster taken by a tourist that exalts Kim's third son, Jong-eun. "Comrade Kim Jong-eun" is hailed in the poster as "succeeding to the lineage of Mangyongdae and Mt. Baekdu." Mangyongdae is the birthplace of Kim Il-sung, and Mt. Baekdu the alleged birthplace of Kim Jong-il. [Succession]
• National Angling Contest Held  
          Pyongyang, September 17 (KCNA) -- A national angling contest was held on the bank of the River Taedong in Pyongyang on Sept. 17. More than 60 angling fans selected in provinces, ministries and national institutions competed in the contest. They were allowed to use up to four sets of fishing tackles including pole and line, mechanical pole and line and hook and line. As soon as the contest started, the contestants cast the river. When floats moved up and down the surface of water and the bell tinkled, they fished up continuously goldfishes, bitterlings and other fishes with skilled movements. At the contest, prizes were awarded to those who caught many fishes by employing tactful angling methods. An exhibition of newly invented angling tackles took place on the same day.  
• Kim Jong-il 'Alert and Agile'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is using both hands freely, according to a Russian musician who met with Kim during a recent visit to Pyongyang, despite reports that his left hand remains paralyzed after a stroke last year. Oleg Ovsyannikov, who was in the North for a concert celebrating the 61st anniversary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, told Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun on Tuesday, Kim's "memories and speech were clear" and "he moved both of his hands freely and smoked cigarettes." A Russian orchestra led by Ovsyannikov performed a joint concert with a North Korean orchestra at the Mansudae Art Theater in Pyongyang on Sept. 8. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il looks through a magnifying glass at the Bukjeong Machinery Complex in North Pyongan Province in this undated photo provided by the (North) Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday. /KCNA-Yonhap Looking at Ovsyannikov, who is 2 m tall, Kim greeted him with a smile saying "You are very tall indeed." Then Kim introduced the North Korean singers on stage to Ovsyannikov without any trouble, and showed off his good memory by reeling off a list of names of Russian lieder composers. Kim smoked American-made Marlboro cigarettes, drank tea, and firmly shook hands with him during the conversation. After the concert was over, Kim praised the concert and asked Ovsyannikov what he thought about the North Korean conductor. [Succession]
• Documents Record 2003 Massacre of N.Korean Defectors
  Chinese police in 2003 found the bodies of 56 North Koreans drifting down the Apnok River in October 2003, a newly published police log says. The 56 had apparently been shot trying to escape the North. North Korea Economy Watch, a U.S. website, on Saturday carried photos from a report filed by Badaogou police station in Baishan, Jilin Province, reporting the collection of the bodies. This website said it obtained the photos from an anonymous blog on Chinese portal site Wangyi.
• Somalia: North Korea Ship Foils Pirates
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 15, 2009 Somali pirates tried but failed to hijack a North Korean cargo ship almost two weeks ago when crew members fought back with Molotov cocktails, a maritime official said Tuesday. The ship was drifting off the Somali coast near Mogadishu on Sept. 5 as the crew worked on the engine when 10 pirates approached in two speedboats, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Malaysia. The North Korean ship immediately started its engine and moved away, and the captain called the bureau for help when the pirates, dressed in military clothing, began firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, Mr. Choong said.
• Soldiers and People Are Harmonious Whole in DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 11 (KCNA) -- Today the soldiers and people of the DPRK form inseparable ties as a harmonious whole. The people are treating the soldiers as their real children or brothers and devoting themselves to them and the latter dedicating their youth and lives for the country and people. This is the true feature of the DPRK. The Pyongyang City People's Committee has assisted the army with all sincerity on more than 110 occasions over last ten-odd years.
• National Meeting Held to Mark 61st Birthday of DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 8 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the April 25 House of Culture on Tuesday to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

• N. Korea Launches Arirang Festival
  North Korea opened the Arirang festival Monday night as huge crowds were watching the world's largest gymnastic performance, AFP reported quoting the communist state's official media. The 80-minute show opened at May Day Stadium, according to the Korean Central Broadcasting Station monitored by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. AFP said this year's show has added new scenes to highlight the country's campaign to build a "strong, prosperous and powerful nation."
• North Korea's Papillon
  John Feffer | July 20, 2009
  Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Asia Chronicle on 7/16/09. When I was a boy, I devoured the great work of escape fiction, Papillon, which chronicled the astonishing life of Henri Charriere. The French courts sent Charriere to a series of penal colonies off the coast of South America, for a crime he didn't commit. Nicknamed Papillon (butterfly) for the tattoo on his chest, Charriere managed to break out of several prisons, including a harrowing escape on a raft of coconuts from the virtually inescapable Devil's Island. Kim Yong has accomplished a similar feat. Camp #14 is North Korea's version of Devil's Island, a penal colony where the convicts go in and never leave. They spend years underground mining coal in unspeakable conditions with nowhere near enough food to survive. But, like Papillon, Kim managed to escape and tell his tale. It is now available in English as Long Road Home (Columbia University Press, 2009).
  Estimates vary, but less than one percent of the North Korean population labors in these camps. In the United States, approximately one percent of the population is behind bars, [Human rights][Evidence][Prisoners]

• Classmates Recall Kim Jong-un's Basketball Obsession
  A picture of on North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un at the age of 16 A picture of on North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un at the age of 16 Fellow students at Berne's German-speaking Liebefeld-Steinhölzli School recall North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un as unremarkable and obsessed with baseball, the Washington Post said Wednesday. Those who knew "Pak Un," the name he used at the Swiss school, say he was indifferent to political issues and never made any anti-American comments. He worshipped basketball players in the NBA. A friend who visited his apartment at no. 10 Kirchstrasse, Liebefeld, recalls that Kim had a room filled with NBA-memorabilia.
• NK Leader’s Grandson Is a Big Fan of Rain
  Among the 4,500 fans who packed the auditorium of the Venetian Resort Hotel in Macao on June 27 to see the South Korean pop idol, Rain, was a 14-year-old middle school student from North Korea, the world's most reclusive country.
  It's not a secret that Kim Jong-nam, the oldest son of Kim Jong-il, lives in Macao with his family ? his second wife, identified as Zhang, 35, and with his middle-school son. Although the two Koreas' relationship has been tense lately, the son of North Korea's supreme leader has been known to maintain "good neighborly relationship" with South Korean residents there, often socializing with them. In fact, Jong-nam often shows up at Korean restaurants there, run by South Koreans, according to Chosun Ilbo Saturday.
• Kim Jong-il Makes 1st Public Appearance in 3 Months
  Kim Jong-il looks at a document during a memorial rally at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on the 15th anniversary of his father Kim Il-sung's death on Wednesday. /Yonhap North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attended a memorial rally at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on the 15th anniversary of his father Kim Il-sung's death on Wednesday morning, a recorded video clip by the North Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station shows. It was the first footage showing Kim moving around in three months since the 12th Supreme People's Assembly went into session on April 9. Kim is seen walking with a slight limp but appears to have no trouble getting around, stands up without help and bows his head for a brief silent tribute. But when his mouth is closed, the right corner appears to be raised. The footage shows visibly thinning hair on the crown of his head when he bows his head for a brief silent tribute or sits reading.
• Events Held to Remember President Kim Il Sung
  Pyongyang, July 6 (KCNA) -- The remembrance meeting of school youth and children titled "The Sun and the Youth" and a similar meeting of members of the Democratic Women's Union of Korea and other women entitled "The Songun Revolutionary Cause Is Everlasting" were separately held at the Central Youth Hall and the Women's Hall on Monday on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of demise of President Kim Il Sung.

• N. Korean Leader Kim Jong-il Chooses Sneakers Over High-Heeled Shoes
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter Many people choose to wear high heels to make them slimmer and, most of all, taller. So too does North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, whose height is about 160 centimeters. Due to his relatively short height, Kim is said to have worn heels, or shoes with thick insoles, from a young age. But recently he showed up in public without the shoes, and instead wore sneakers. [Media] [Bizarre]
• Kim Jong-un 'Acting as Proxy for Kim Jong-il'
  North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un works as acting chairman of the National Defense Commission to support his ailing father Kim Jong-il, the Mainichi Shimbun said Saturday. Quoting sources close to the North Korean regime, the Japanese daily said the leader's youngest son (26) is assisting his father although the position is not an official title. [Succession]
• Kim Jong-il's Health 'Getting Rapidly Worse'
  The health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is rapidly deteriorating, prompting the hasty decision to name his third son Jong-un as heir apparent, sources told the Chinese press. The Global News, a sister paper of the official People’s Daily, on Thursday quoted a foreign ambassador in Pyongyang as saying that Kim Jong-il's fragile health made the situation in North Korea "very complicated." The envoy told the Global News that authorities in Pyongyang are keeping tight lid on information about Kim's health. A North Korean source in Beijing said Beijing-based North Korean officials from Ponghwa Hospital, which is treating Kim's illness, are looking to import expensive medical equipment, which has become contraband since the North conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. Pyongyang is also seeking to import an emergency helicopter from overseas. "Kim seems to be in serious condition," the source added. [Sanctions] [Succession]
• Rare appearance
  June 09, 2009 In an undated picture released yesterday by North Korea’s official news agency KCNA, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, third from left, visits an orchard in Kosan, Kangwon, with his aides. Kim is wearing a thick coat while other officials wear lighter clothes, fueling speculation that he is suffering health problems. [REUTERS]
• Kim Jong Il Guides Creation of Opera "Evgeni Onegin"
  Pyongyang, June 7 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave guidance to the creation of opera "Evgeni Onegin". After learning about the creation of "Evgeni Onegin", he watched the opera under creation. Pyongyang Kim Won Gyun Conservatory is recreating the Russian opera "Evgeni Onegin", which was staged in 1958 by it, in keeping with the demand of the new century in hearty response to the instruction of Kim Jong Il to depict the national classics as well as world's famous masterpieces.
• Kim Jong-il's Eldest Son 'in the Dark but Not in Exile'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Jong-nam captured on Nihon TV North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Jong-nam admits he relies on press reports for news that his younger brother Jong-un will succeed their father but denies he himself is looking for asylum abroad. Speaking to Nihon TV, Kim Jong-nam said he based his assumption on media reports and could neither confirm nor deny them definitely [Succession]
• Hardline Military 'Taking Over in N.Korea'
  Hardline xenophobic brass are gaining ground in North Korea after South Korean money dried up since the Lee Myung-bak administration was inaugurated, according to AERA, a weekly associated with the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun. "During the 10 years of the left-leaning Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, nearly 1 trillion yen (approximately W13 trillion) including investment from civilian enterprises went to North Korea," the weekly said. "Since the Lee Myung-bak administration's inauguration, South Korea has become tight with money, and this has dealt a severe blow to the North Korean military." Some reports say that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il collapsed again in early May, which may have been the reason for bringing forward the nuclear test and haste to ensure the succession, AERA said. The weekly quoted intelligence officials as saying Kim is now too frail to work even for an hour a day. [Succession] [Inversion]
• Kim Jong-un Unlikely Candidate for NK Leader
  By Andrei Lankov Korea Times Columnist
  North Korea watchers are a seriously overworked group these days as important and often unexpected events happen in a quick succession. A missile launch in early April was followed by a nuclear test in late May, and now an ICBM is being moved to a launch pad. A consensus is that all these moves are primarily aimed at the US on assumption that a tougher position will allow them to squeeze more aid from Washington eventually. We have seen this before, but this time the North Koreans behave with unusual intensity, so many observers came to suspect that this intensity is somehow related to North Korean domestic issues. [NK US policy] [Succession] [Media] [Spin] [Disinformation]
• Kim Jong names youngest son as North Korean successor
  Kim Jong Il's youngest son, Jong Un, 26, is to be the next leader of the communist state, according to local reports Buzz up! Digg it Associated Press guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 June 2009 06.06 BST Article historyKim Jong Il's youngest son, who reportedly enjoys skiing and studied English, German and French at a Swiss school will be North Korea's next leader, a South Korean lawmaker and newspapers said today. The secretive communist state sent the message about the 26-year-old son, Jong Un, after the nation's May 25 nuclear test, which along with a series of missile tests has greatly raised tensions in the region, the Hankook Ilbo reported. [succession]
• Spy Agency Confirms NK Leader's 3rd Son as Successor
  South Korea's National Intelligence Service has confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il designated his third and youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor shortly after the country's second nuclear test, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting lawmakers. The confirmation, given to members of the National Assembly information and intelligence committee Monday, is the first word from the Seoul government regarding North Korea's next leader following months of media speculation. Predictions that the elder Kim, 67, would soon designate his heir have circulated since he reportedly suffered a stroke last summer. [Succession]

• DPRK's Power Increased by Dint of Songun
  Pyongyang, May 26 (KCNA) -- The progressives of the world are praising highly the DPRK's successful launch of the artificial satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 as a brilliant victory of the great Songun politics. Only the United States and other bellicose forces, turning their face from the trend of the times, are hell-bent on aggressive rackets, taking issue with the satellite launch, a great undertaking in history. The army and people of Korea, however, are forcefully pushing ahead with the building of a great, prosperous and powerful nation with indomitable mental power, without shrinking in the least from the ever intensified moves of the hostile forces. This world-startling indomitable spirit is based on the confidence and pluck which have been cemented steel-strong in the flames of the Songun revolution. The actuality verifies how correct are Songun politics, reliable precious sword for defending national sovereignty and peace, and the increase of self-reliant defense capabilities, its offspring. Songun politics reflects the revolutionary will of the Workers' Party of Korea to safeguard with credit the national dignity and interests and achieve the cause of building a great, prosperous and powerful nation and the independent and peaceful reunification of the country without fail on the principle of giving importance and priority to the military affairs. The Korean army and people, who resolutely opted to take the road of Songun at the historic crossroads of independence and subordination, have opened a new era of national prosperity, frustrating all the reckless isolation and stifling moves of the imperialist allied forces on the forefront against imperialism and for independence. It is the revolutionary mettle and immovable will of the army and people of Korea not to allow any slightest moves of the hostile forces against their just cause. It was strikingly manifested in the fact that some time ago the DPRK solemnly declared at home and abroad that it would further increase the self-defensive nuclear deterrent and defend reliably the peace and security on the Korean Peninsula with the might of Songun to cope with the acts of the enemy incriminating the DPRK's right to peaceful space development. Today the imperialist reactionaries' hostile policy toward the DPRK is going to naught in face of the might of Songun and the DPRK is demonstrating its power all over the world. Only prosperity is in store for the DPRK as long as it is guided by Songun politics, a symbol of independence and dignity.
• Youngest son of Kim Jong-il tests role as heir
  May 12, 2009 The third and youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been increasingly visible on official occasions and masterminded some of the country’s major publicity events, such as a recent fireworks extravaganza, in an apparent bid to burnish his image as a successor, sources said Monday. Kim Jong-un, who is believed to have been tapped in January as the isolated state’s next leader, has been seen making efforts to elevate his reputation by organizing the April 15 fireworks show and initiating an economic reconstruction drive, called the “150-day campaign,” sources privy to North Korean internal affairs said on condition of anonymity.
• Measures against Swine Flu Taken in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 6 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is intensifying preventive actions against swine flu on high alert for the influenza spreading rapidly in the world. Pak Myong Su, vice-chairman of the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Commission, had an interview with KCNA regarding the state measures taken against A/H1N1 flu. Reporter: Would you tell me about the state measures taken against A/H1N1 influenza spreading widely in Mexico, the United States and many other countries? Vice-chairman: For the present, the foreigners entering our country, especially those from the outbreak areas, are strictly quarantined in the frontier and those who are suspected to have been infected are under medical surveillance in isolation until they have been confirmed.
• Power Struggle Looms in N.Korea
  The North Korean elite lead insecure lives nowadays. Some members of the Unification and Propaganda Department of the Workers Party, accused of having bungled their South Korea policy, have recently been sent to the Yoduk concentration camp. All North Korean intelligence officers assigned overseas were called back home early this year to undergo questioning by the State Security Department. About 30 percent of them have yet to return to their overseas posts, and those who have returned were emaciated from harsh interrogations, according to sources. Asked what the food situation is like in North Korea, a North Korean overseas official said what was more serious in the North is the manhunt. The State Security Department is hunting innocent people in a bid to ferret out spies implicated in South Korea's recently reinforced overseas intelligence activities. [Agency]
• Kim Jong Il Gives Field Guidance to Secondary School in Rakwon County  
          Pyongyang, April 29 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave field guidance to Honored Red Flag Sojung Secondary School newly built in Rakwon County. This school was constructed by solider-builders dispatched by leader Kim Jong Il as a benevolent present to the children in a seaside village. He also sent many educational equipment and materials, including computers, to the school. After being briefed on the history of the school, he acquainted himself in detail with the conditions of computer education, going round a room for computer education, guided by the principal of the school. Saying that in order to help everyone acquire high computing technique it is urgent to fix the computer education as a major basic subject at the stage of elementary and secondary education and concentrate efforts on it, he underscored the need to work out the teaching schedule well in conformity with the characters of schoolers and raise the qualifications of teachers in this field. [Education]  

• Italian Food Restaurant
  Pyongyang, April 28 (KCNA) -- There is a restaurant specializing in Italian dishes in Kwangbok Street, Pyongyang. Its main dishes are various kinds of pizza and spaghetti dishes including pizza margherita and spaghetti vongole bianco. It also serves famous Korean and foreign dishes. Manager of the restaurant Kim Sang Sun told KCNA: There is a moving story behind the appearance of this restaurant. General Secretary Kim Jong Il took care that a restaurant specializing in Italian dishes was opened, saying the Koreans should be let to taste world- famous dishes. He took necessary measures, learning that the restaurant found it a tough row to hoe, having no cook experienced in Italian dishes. Now our cooks are just as good as Italians in making Italian dishes. No wonder the Korean and foreign customers are satisfied with the famous dishes of the world served by our restaurant.
• Kim Jong Il's son elevated to defense post
  By HYUNG-JIN KIM The Associated Press Sunday, April 26, 2009; 11:00 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's youngest son has reportedly been named to the powerful National Defense Commission, an appointment analysts said indicates the 26-year-old is being groomed to take power. Kim Jong Un speaks English, likes basketball _ and is said to look and act just like his father.
• N. Korea’s Unique Food Attracting Foreigners
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter North Korea has unique food made with rare ingredients. The Choson Sinbo newspaper, the communist regime's de facto mouthpiece, published in Tokyo, introduced a range of cuisine including ostrich soup and simmered chicken heart at a festival presenting holiday food last week. One of the dishes that received critical acclaim was ostrich soup in ostrich eggshell.
• N. Korean leader confesses fatigue due to economic drive: state paper
  SEOUL, Apr 18, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has confessed he's struggling with the grinding pace of his activities but keeps pushing himself onwards out of responsibility for the fate of his homeland, the North's party mouthpiece said Friday. "A man is not made of iron and ought to take care his own body. But I have no time to do so," Kim was quoted as saying by the Rodong Sinmun, published by the Workers' Party, during a recent field trip. "Why wouldn't I be tired and need more sleep?" Kim said. "Even though I'm tired, I'm pushing myself to keep going. What drives me to keep going despite the fatigue and distress? The profound sense of duty of bearing the fate of our homeland -- our people -- on my shoulders." The 67-year-old leader, now back in control after a reported stroke last summer, has significantly increased his economy-related visits this year, making 49 such trips as of Friday, compared to 19 last year and 17 in 2007, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry. Watchers say Kim's stepped-up public activities are a sign of Pyongyang striving to increase industrial output for its 2012 economic campaign. [Kim Jong Il]
• Actress Recalls NK Leader as Culture Devotee
  Choi Eun-hee A veteran actress has recalled North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as an impressive culture devotee so dedicated that he would write down dance moves on paper. "He was the first man I met who attempted to make a 'dance notation.' I was curious how dance moves could be transformed onto paper, but I never stayed to see it being printed," South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. "Aside from everything else, Chairman Kim was highly communicative when it came to culture and films. He was a man who learned about the world through movies." Choi was kidnapped to Pyongyang in 1978 and made 17 films there under the North Korean dictator's watchful eyes with her husband director Shin Sang-ok, who passed away in 2006. "We were treated well (in North Korea), but could not really pursue an artistic career," Choi was quoted as saying. "They still call us traitors for fleeing." [Kim Jong Il]
• N.Korea Releases Photos of Military High Command
  Official North Korean newspapers released photos of all 12 members of North Korea's top organ of power, the Defense Commission, which is chaired by Kim Jong-il. The Rodong Sinmun and Minju Chosun released the photos after the new commission was confirmed by the recently elected rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly. In the past, North Korea released only the photos of the chairman and vice chairmen.
• Grand Evening of Fireworks Held
  Pyongyang, April 15 (KCNA) -- A grand evening of fireworks "Fireworks for Building Great Prosperous and Powerful Nation" was held on the bank of the Taedong River here on Tuesday evening to commemorate the 97th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. The bank of the river and the roads facing the Tower of the Juche Idea were crowded with hundreds of thousands of citizens from all walks of life who gathered to watch the fireworks. General Secretary Kim Jong Il took the tribune of honor.
• [Kim Jong-il’s third term: politics] North Korea strengthens foundations for a “post-Kim system”
  While NDC has risen as a state authority, Chang Sung-taek, brother-in-law of Kim, may assume position of “delegated authority” With the help of experts at the Hankyoreh Peace Research Institute, the Hankyoreh presents its analysis and forecasts on the character and direction of “Kim Jong-il‘s Third Term System,” which was inaugurated by the first meeting of North Korea’s 12th Supreme People‘s Assembly last Thursday. -- Editor Kim Yong-hyun, professor of North Korean Studies in Dongguk University At the first meeting of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim Jong-il was reelected as chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea (NDC), while Chang Sung-taek, Director of Administration Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, also became a member of the NDC. The NDC has now expanded and grown stronger in terms of its members and systemic strength. A new stable foundation and chain of command has been set in place for the “post-Kim Jong-il system.”
• NKorea's Kim brings close relative to center stage
  By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Friday, April By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Friday, April 10, 2009; 11:21 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il is officially back on center stage following a reported stroke, but has promoted a trusted in-law to the spotlight in the clearest sign yet he is making preparations for an eventual successor, analysts said Friday. Though looking thinner and grayer, and limping slightly, Kim's appearance at the closely watched first session of the North's new parliament Thursday was more than enough to lay to rest any lingering doubts about his health, and prove he is in charge. Kim appointed his brother-in-law Jang Song Thaek to the all-powerful National Defense Commission, providing analysts with clues about what the future may hold for North Korea after Kim either dies or becomes incapacitated.
• N.Korean Parliament Convenes
  North Korean Kim Jong-il claps at the Supreme People's Assembly on Thursday in this video grab from recorded footage aired by the KCTV channel. The 12th North Korean Supreme People's Assembly in its first general meeting on Thursday amended the constitution for the first time in 11 years and reappointed Kim Jong-il as the country's commander-in-chief, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The constitution, established in September 1948, was first amended in December 1972, introducing the chairmanship and consolidating Kim Il-sung's dictatorship. The second amendment in September 1998 gave more power to the National Defense Commission, signaling the first phase of Kim Jong-il's leadership.
• Kim Jong Il returns to center stage looking good with a slight limp
  Based on Supreme People’s Assembly footage, experts say that his health has since improved » North Korea National Defense Commission Chairman, Kim Jong-il, pays a silent tribute during the Supreme People’s Assembly meeting in Pyongyang, April 9. A noticeably older-looking Kim Jong-il appeared Thursday at Pyongyang’s Mansudae Assembly Hall, the site of the first meeting of North Korea’s 12th Supreme People’s Assembly. Kim Jong-il who now is 67 years old was visibly grayer and thinner. Some outside observers suggest the wrinkles on his face look deep for his age, perhaps as a result of a large weight loss experienced within a short period of time. Intelligence authorities are attributing this to a special diet that he has been following since his recovery from a collapse caused by a cerebrovascular ailment last year. In a recorded video of the assembly convening aired Thursday by North Korea’s Chosun Central TV, prior to the commencement of the meeting Kim appeared from the right side of the stage to receive a standing ovation from the representatives present. He proceeded to enter the hall by walking ten steps to the central seat of the main platform. He appeared to be limping slightly in his left leg, which some have suggested might be paralyzed, but he moved his arms relatively freely.
• N.Korean Parliament Convenes
  North Korean Kim Jong-il claps at the Supreme People's Assembly on Thursday in this video grab from recorded footage aired by the KCTV channel. The 12th North Korean Supreme People's Assembly in its first general meeting on Thursday amended the constitution for the first time in 11 years and reappointed Kim Jong-il as the country's commander-in-chief, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
• Kim Jong Il Elected Chairman of NDC of DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- The First Session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK held here elected General Secretary Kim Jong Il chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission. The session solemnly declared internally and externally that Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and supreme commander of the revolutionary armed forces, was elected chairman of the NDC of the DPRK, reflecting the unanimous will and wishes of all the servicepersons and people, as he has performed the immortal exploits to shine long in the history of the country and put the dignity and position of the DPRK on the highest level by wisely leading the Juche revolutionary cause started in Mt. Paektu to victory through his distinguished ideological and theoretical activities and with his dynamic leadership.
• North Korean Leader, Thin and Limping, Returns to Assembly and Gains New Term
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 9, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, returned to center stage in the North’s capital, Pyongyang, on Thursday when the country’s Parliament elected him to another five-year term. But the secretive government gave no clues, after months of questions about Mr. Kim’s failing health, as to which of his three sons would be prepared to succeed him. State television showed Mr. Kim, 67, receiving a standing ovation as he walked, with a slight limp, into the session of the rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly. In contrast to his former paunchy build, he looked gaunt and older, but he maintained his authority, returning the applause and motioning the delegates to be seated. He appeared to have difficulty using his left hand because of, doctors believe, a stroke he suffered last August.
• DPRK Stirred by Launching of Satellite
  Pyongyang, April 8 (KCNA) -- Scientists and technicians of the DPRK succeeded in putting Kwangmyongsong-2, an experimental communications satellite, into the orbit by carrier rocket Unha-2 under the state long-term plan for the development of outer space on April 5. Upon hearing this news, the Koreans are excited with great joy. Chief Secretary Kim Phyong Hae of the North Phyongan Provincial Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea said that this historic event is a manifestation of the unshakable will of leader Kim Jong Il to open the gate to a great, prosperous and powerful nation without fail, breaking through any difficulty. He continued: [Spin]
• Unopposed, Kim Jong-Il Takes Third Term
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 9, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, had himself re-elected to another five-year term by Parliament on Thursday as questions persisted over his failing health and his regime’s confrontation with the outside world after its recent rocket launch. The Supreme People’s Assembly “upheld” Mr. Kim as chairman of the country’s most powerful agency, the National Defense Commission, said the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Meanwhile, Pak Tok-hun, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the UN, warned yesterday that the North would take “strong steps” against any Security Council action against the rocket launch. Pak insisted that Pyongyang launched a satellite and said the Security Council was “undemocratic” in criticizing North Korea for launching the satellite while other countries were allowed to do the same. “This is a satellite. Everyone can distinguish a satellite from a missile,” Pak said. “Every country has the right, the inalienable right, to use outer space peacefully. “Not a few countries, many countries, they’ve already launched a satellite, several hundred times,” Pak added. “Does it mean that it is O.K. for them to launch a satellite, but we are not allowed to do that? This is not fair.” [Satellite] [Double standards]

• Varied Anti-Tuberculosis Activities
  Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- Varied anti-tuberculosis activities are being conducted in the DPRK in step with the strategy for eradicating tuberculosis in the world. The DPRK government has directed deep attention to the work for preventing and uprooting the infectious diseases as an important part of its health policy from long ago. First of all, efforts are being concentrated on the hygienic propaganda against tuberculosis, while raising the social interest in the importance of the anti-tuberculosis activities and strengthening support to them. The doctors in charge of households and prophylactic treatment organs are enlisted in the work in a positive way. Meanwhile, the hygienic propaganda is being conducted through mass media and a new scientific film "Tuberculosis and Health" was released. Colorful activities are also held in the country every year on the occasion of the "World TB's Day" (March 24). The government has taken positive measures to prevent tuberculosis. As part of the measures, all the newborn babies are vaccinated with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) within seven days from 18 hours after birth and a step is being taken to supply preventive medicine to them without interruption. Efforts are being exerted not only to regularly conduct medical check-up through medical consultation and medical examination car but also to block all the channels to the outbreak of TB cases. The DPRK is further deepening contacts with the World Health Organization and other international organizations in the anti-tuberculosis activities.
• Kim Jong-il Looking Leaner Than Before
  A picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, left, taken on Sunday from a scene aired by the North Korean Central Television, shows a thinner Kim than the one taken before the second inter-Korean summit with former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in Pyongyang in October 2007. / Yonhap-Korea Times By Kim Se-jeong Staff Reporter The latest pictures released by the (North) Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) showed a much thinner Kim Jong-il, 67, than a couple of months ago. A picture, reportedly taken during a tour of the Kim Il-sung University's new swimming pool facility and released late last week, seemed to be clear confirmation of Kim's deteriorating health. While visiting the swimming complex, Kim appeared to be thinner than in January when photographs were released by Chinese media after his rare meeting with a Chinese official in Pyongyang.
• Kim Jong Il Provides On-the-Spot Guidance to Newly Built Swimming Complex at Kim Il Sung University
  Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to the newly built swimming complex at Kim Il Sung University. The swimming complex built on the personal initiative of Kim Jong Il has a large swimming pool and wading pool. They have been built in such a peculiar style that they not only offer the teachers and students an ample opportunity of training their bodies and enjoying cultural rest but can host international competitions.
• Kim Jong-il's Son Not on List of New Delegates
  Kim Jong-un, the third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and possible successor to his father, was not named as a delegate to the Supreme People's Assembly. The list of 687 new delegates to the SPA was announced on Monday. "Rumors about Kim Jong-un's appointment as the successor will probably die down for the time being," said a Unification Ministry official.
• N.Koreans 'Elect' Parliament   
      North Korea on Sunday conducted elections for the Supreme People's Assembly, marking what some have described as the third Kim Jong-il regime. North Korean leader Kim (67) reshuffled the power structure on the occasion of nominal elections for the SPA in August 1998 and in August 2003, ratcheting up tension on the peninsula with a view to tightening his hold on power. In 1998 when his first regime started, the North sent a submarine into South Korean waters near Sokcho, Gangwon Province and test-fired a Taepodong-1 missile, which it claimed was a satellite. During the elections for the SPA in 2003, the second North Korean nuclear crisis over suspected development of highly enriched uranium reached its height   [Bizarre]    
•   Kim Jong Il Participates in Voting  
          Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Sunday inspected Kim Il Sung Political University and participated in the election of deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly together with servicepersons. When he arrived at the university, teachers and students and their families enthusiastically welcomed him, extending the highest glory and the warmest thanks to him. After warmly acknowledging their enthusiastic welcome, he moved to the festively decorated polling station. There he received a ballot from the chairman of the Election Committee of Sub-Constituency No. 22 of Constituency No. 342 for the election of deputy to the SPA and voted for KPA officer Jon Il, candidate for deputy to the SPA. He met and had a talk with the candidate. After his voting, he went round the room devoted to the history of the university, conducted by its rector.  
• Elections in North may shed light on succession
  March 07, 2009 Following North Korea’s parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday, the third term of Kim Jong-il’s reign will begin. Experts in South Korea said the election outcome will serve as a barometer for many political changes in the North, pointing toward the communist country’s overhaul of its power elite, the future of inter-Korean relations and the possibility of a father-to-son power succession. The North holds elections for the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s unicameral rubber-stamp legislature, every five years. Although Assembly members are lawmakers on the surface, they actually hold additional positions - often top spots in the Workers’ Party, military and government. Every five years marks a turning point in the Dear Leader’s regime.
• NK to Hold 'Most Democratic Election'
  With North Korea preparing for a once-in-five-years legislature election Sunday, its state media Saturday urged its citizens to go and vote by praising its election system and denouncing South Korea's "capitalist-corrupted" election practice, Yonhap reported. "Simply put, South Korean elections are all about money, government influence, coercion, fraud and trickery. Most of all, money is the best," Jong Kyu-jin, who is believed to have defected to North Korea in 1989, was quoted as saying by Radio Pyongyang. He said North Korea's election "best serves the people and is the most democratic system in the world."
• N.Korea's Elite Combat Forces Revealed
  The operational department of the North Korean Workers Party is a special force of highly-trained secret agents. Consisting of some 2,000 highly trained individuals, it was established for the purpose of undermining the enemy's leadership in time of war.

• Kim Jong Il Sends Open Letter to All Voters throughout Country
  Pyongyang, February 18 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Tuesday sent an open letter to all voters throughout the country. The letter said: Voters' meetings were held in all constituencies of the country to nominate candidates for deputies to the 12th Supreme People's Assembly amid high political enthusiasm of the service personnel and people who are stepping up the general onward march towards the future of a great, prosperous and powerful socialist country, and they nominated me as candidate for the post of deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly. This is an expression of their absolute support for and trust in our Party, and their revolutionary confidence and indomitable will to carry forward the revolutionary cause of Juche to the end under the Party's Songun-based revolutionary leadership. I extend my heartfelt thanks to the entire electorate of the country for their deep trust in me.
• Kim Jong-il's 3rd Son 'Chosen as Heir'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has chosen his third son Jong-un as his heir apparent, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Tuesday. The Japanese daily quoted a North Korean official as saying the General Political Staff, the key organ of the People's Army, has been distributing a memorandum saying Jong-un (26) was chosen as the heir early last month.
• North Korea Census Results Announced
  The population of North Korea totaled 24.05 million as of Oct. 2008, reported Radio Free Asia on Saturday, citing the preliminary census by the United Nations Population Fund. There were 11.72 million men and 12.33 million women. South Pyeongan Province was the most populated province, with 4.05 million and the capital city Pyongyang had 3.26 million people. North Korea conducted a census survey for the first time in 15 years since 1993 with the help of the UNFPA in October last year.
• 1st Picture of Kim Jong-il's Youngest Son Revealed
  Kim Jong-un at 11 The first known photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son Jong-un has been made public amid rumors that Kim junior is his father's likeliest successor.
• N.Korea Reshuffles Top Military Posts
  From left, Kim Yong-chun and Ri Yong-ho North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has reshuffled senior military leaders. The official news agency said on Wednesday the National Defense Commission and the Workers' Party's Central Military Commission appointed Vice Marshall Kim Yong-chun (73), vice chairman of the Defense Commission, as minister of People's Armed Forces or defense minister. Gen. Ri Yong-ho, commander of the Pyongyang Defense Command, is the new chief of the North Korean Army's General Staff. A South Korean intelligence officer said, "It's unusual for North Korea to reshuffle key military leaders in a situation where it is increasing the threat of armed conflict by showing signs of preparing for a long-range missile test. We're carefully analyzing why North Korea has replaced the key officials."
• Minister of People's Armed Forces and Chief of General Staff Newly Appointed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, February 11 (KCNA) -- A decision of the DPRK National Defence Commission and the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea was released on February 11 in the name of Kim Jong Il, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission. Vice Marshal of the Korean People's Army Kim Yong Chun was appointed as minister of the People's Armed Forces of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and KPA General Ri Yong Ho as chief of the KPA General Staff, according to the decision.
• Kim Jong-il 'Didn't Have Brain Surgery'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may not have undergone a brain surgery, as previously reported, a diplomatic source in Beijing said on Monday. The source said Chinese special envoy Wang Jiarui, who met Kim over a five-hour boozy lunch in Pyongyang on Jan. 23, did not see any trace of brain surgery. Wang reportedly saw no trace that Kim's hair had been shorn trace of hair cut necessary for brain surgery or any scars on Kim's head. Nor did Kim wear a wig in an attempt to hide it. "Kim's left hand was neither paralyzed nor swollen, and when we shook hands, I could feel the power in his right hand," the source quoted Wang as saying. Kim also reportedly accepted a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered by Wang with both hands.
• Kim Jong-il 'Drinking Heavily'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il drank a great deal of potent liquor during a lengthy lunch with visiting Chinese special envoy Wang Jiarui on Jan. 23, a diplomatic source in Beijing said Thursday. "Following a conference in the morning of Jan. 23, Kim lunched with Wang for over two hours," the source said. "I understand that North Korean spirits were served on the occasion, and Kim proposed a number of toasts and drank many small cups of liquor." Meeting Wang, the first foreign visitor since he reportedly suffered a stroke last fall, Kim may have drunk hard in a bid to demonstrate his health, diplomats in Beijing speculate. The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday quoted a diplomatic source as saying prior to his meeting with Wang, Kim refrained from inspection tours for over a week to recover his health. The daily said the lunch lasted for about five hours. Kyodo News on Wednesday said Kim commented on the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama by saying, "We'll see how the U.S moves." [Media]

• Kim Jong-il's Son Denies Chinese Backing for Succession
  The eldest son of ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Tuesday said he does not think China supports him as his father's successor and that nobody knows who will be the Stalinist country's next leader. But Kim Jong-nam, who has spent much of his time abroad in recent years, stopped short of ruling out that he may fill his father's shoes. Japanese reporters had asked Kim junior whether he has China's support as the next leader when he arrived in Beijing from Pyongyang by North Korean carrier Air Koryo last Saturday. He was en route to Macau, where he has spent a great deal of time.
• Succession Is Kim Jong-il's Decision Alone, Son Says
  Kim Jong-nam (38), the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, last Saturday said his father alone determines who succeeds him. Kim Jong-nam made the remark in Beijing. It was his first comment on the sensitive issue of who will succeed the ailing leader, from whom he is said to have been estranged.
• New Year in North Korea
  In this photo, North Korean children celebrate the Lunar New Year in Pyongyang on Monday, Jan. 26, 2009.
• North Korea in 2008 and 2009: the view from Pyongyang
  Posted Date : 2009-01-16 (IFES Forum No. 09-1-16-1) by B. C. Koh (Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago) The joint editorial published on New Year’s day in the daily organs of North Korea’s three most influential organizations—The Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), The Korean People’s Army (KPA), and The Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League—merits attention, because it enumerates Pyongyang’s official view of what it has accomplished in the preceding year and what it hopes to accomplish in the New Year. This practice began in 1995 in lieu of the New Year’s Day messages the late Kim Il Sung used to give. This year’s joint editorial in the Nodong Sinmun, Choson Inmingun, and Ch’ongnyon Chonwi was entitled “Let Us Glorify This Year as The Year of a New Revolutionary Upsurge While Sounding A Bugle for a General Advance.” Like its predecessors, it boasts of notable achievements in many sectors, and anticipates an epochal progress in the coming year—all of which owes and will owe to the sagacious and brilliant leadership of Kim Jong Il as well as to the foundation laid by and the immortal ideas of the late Great Leader Kim Il Sung.
  If the North hopes for a favorable response from the Obama administration, however, it is bound to be disappointed. U.S. Secretary of State designate Hillary Rodham Clinton made it clear that the Obama administration would pursue a “very aggressive effort” against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Speaking at a Senate confirmation hearing on January 13, Clinton also said that the incoming administration would favor the Six-Party Talks. In her words, “we have got to end North Korea as a proliferator… So we will embark upon a very aggressive effort to try to determine the best way forward to achieve our objectives with them.” She mentioned the suspected transfer of nuclear weapons technology by the North to Syria and “both the plutonium reprocessing program and the highly enriched uranium program, which there is reason to believe exists, although never quite verified.”
• Lunar New Year in Pyongyang
  North Korean children jump rope as they mark the Lunar New Year in Pyongyang, North Korea Monday, Jan. 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
• KCNA Report on Suspected Japanese Drug Smuggler's Departure from DPRK
  Pyongyang, January 13 (KCNA) -- A suspected Japanese drug smuggler departed from the DPRK after being held in custody here. The Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday released the following report in this regard: Yoshiaki Sawada, former department director of the Enterprise Co., Ltd, of Japan, who had been held in custody in the DPRK since October 2003 for attempting to smuggle drug in violation of the law of the DPRK and international law, left here on Tuesday thanks to a humanitarian measure taken by an institution concerned of the DPRK. The results of the investigation conducted by the institution clearly proved the truth behind a despicable plot hatched by a Japanese-plot breeding organization to charge the ship Mangyongbong-92 with "drug trafficking" by using the above-said man and seriously damage the prestige of the DPRK and the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, taking advantage of this case. The suspected man frankly admitted his crime and relations with those forces behind the operation and made a sincere apology for his wrongdoing. The above-said institution of the DPRK treated him in a humanitarian manner and leniently dealt with his case, taking his wish to go back home and health condition and so on into consideration. [Drugs]
• N.Korea to Hold 'Election' in March
  North Korea will hold what is billed as an election for the Supreme People's Assembly, the parliament, on March 8, the official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. The assembly rubberstamps personnel, budget and external policy decisions for the regime.
• Election of Deputies to 12th SPA to Be Held
  Pyongyang, January 7 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Tuesday promulgated its decision on holding the election of deputies to the SPA of the DPRK. According to the decision, the election of deputies to the 12th SPA will be held on March 8, Juche 98 (2009) according to Article 90 of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK.
• N.Korea in Sweeping Shakeup at the Top
  The North Korean regime has carried out a sweeping Cabinet overhaul, replacing at least nine ministers and making some changes to key positions in the People’s Army and the Workers' Party. In addition to three appointments reported in the official North Korean media earlier, the Unification Ministry says Chon Kil-su was appointed new railways minister, Kim Kwang-yong forestry minister and Ri Yong-nam trade minister.
• Pyongyang Mass Rally Held
  Pyongyang, January 5 (KCNA) -- A Pyongyang mass rally took place at the Kim Il Sung Square Monday to respond to the letter of the employees of the Chollima Steel Complex and carry through the militant tasks laid down in the joint New Year editorial. Attending the rally were Kim Yong Il, Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop, Kim Jung Rin, leading officials of ministries, national institutions and working people's organizations and others including over 100,000 citizens. Read out there was the letter of the complex employees addressed to the working people across the country.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, January 4 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected Unit 1489 under the Artillery Command of the KPA and watched the firing training of its artillery pieces. He was greeted on the spot by Col. General Ri Jong Bu, artillery commander of the KPA, and other general officers and commanding officers of the unit. He acquainted himself with the unit's performance of duty. Then he mounted an observation platform where he was briefed on the training program and watched the firing training.
• Why Does Kim Jong-il Promise Great Things for 2012?
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been quoted as saying it was "the firm intention of the party and the people to open the gates on a powerful country by 2012." He made the cryptic statement while inspecting the Chollima Steel Complex in South Pyongan Province, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Earlier, Kim was quoted by the Korean Central Television Station as saying, "Now that an ideologically and militarily powerful country has been achieved through the development of nuclear weapons, an economically powerful country should be achieved by 2012." "A country" in each case seems to refer to a stage in North Korea's development. But why 2012? North Korea experts note that 2012 is the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth, and suggest his son may be looking for some milestone for the occasion.

• Kim Jong-il's Leadership 'Stable'
  Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong on Monday said it seems the North Korean leadership is “stable.” He based the opinion on a flurry of official North Korean reports showing ailing leader Kim Jong-il inspecting various sites. The unification minister made the remarks at a meeting with reporters on the ministry beat over luncheon, citing North Korean media reports that Kim Jong-il engaged in public activities on 22 occasions since Oct. 4. "We should conclude that everything is normal" in North Korea, he added.
• Kim Jong-il appears in public for inspections of state institutions
  Despite long absence amidst reports of ill health, number of public appearances this year totals 94 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il conducted an inspection of the Chollima Steel Complex in South Pyeongan Province, North Korea’s Korean Central Television reported Thursday. This report comes four days after a report last Sunday that he inspected a pottery factory in the city of Huicheon, Jagang Province. The network did not announced the date of Kim’s inspection visit, as is customary.
• N.Korea Resistance 'Growing'
  A South Korean activist on Tuesday claimed the iron curtain shutting North Korea off from the outside world beginning to crack due to a massive inflow of information. Ha Tae-keung, the president of Open Radio for North Korea, made the claim in an article titled, "North Korea in Media War," on the website Redian. "The recent controversy over sending leaflets to North Korea is simply a sign of how strained Pyongyang is over the inflow of outside information," he wrote. "Something surprising is taking place in the North this year," Ha said. "One of the two pillars underpinning the North Korean system -- information control and iron-fisted rule -- is crumbling down rapidly." North Korean refugees in China find another world in China, meet South Koreans and watch South Korean TV, according to Ha, and those that are deported back as well as North Korean traders who cross the border have become messengers conveying the reality of the outside world. Ha said VCDs, DVDs, radio and mobile phones reach across North Korea.
• Kim Jong-il Outings 'No Fakes'
  South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities believe North Korean leader Kim Jong-il did make the semi-public appearances the North has been reporting in recent weeks, despite ill health apparently brought about by a stroke. A senior South Korean intelligence officer on Sunday said Kim's personal armored train did travel to the areas where Kim was said to have made the visits. "Based on the information we gathered, we think it is highly likely that he actually visited these cities," he said. Both South Korean and the U.S. intelligence agencies reconnoitered the movement of Kim's personal train with the KH-12 satellite, the U-2 scout plane, and South Korea's Kumgang spotter plane, and confirmed that the train was moving. [Military balance] [Espionage]
• N. Korean Leader Makes Sixth Public Appearance
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, center, conducts an on-site inspection at a ceramic plant in Jagangdo in this undated image, released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, Sunday. / Yonhap North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has recently paid a visit to a ceramic factory, the sixth in a series of trips to military and public facilities following a stroke he suffered earlier in the year, the North's official news agency reported Sunday, in an apparent move to silence rumors about Kim's health. The communist nation has released a string of pictures showing the leader inspecting various facilities, according to Yonhap News Agency. The awkward positioning of Kim's left hand in the images, however, has renewed suspicion that he may be suffering from the after effects of the stroke he reportedly suffered in August.
• 'Kim Jong-il Did Not Undergo Operation'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, center, visits a chicken factory in Sariwon, south of North Korean capital Pyongyang in this undated picture released by North Korea’s official news agency Korean Central News Agency. / Yonhap By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had a stroke but is now better, a French doctor who last treated him said Thursday. Paris-based neurosurgeon Francois-Xavier Roux told French newspaper Le Figaro that the secretive leader, however, did not undergo surgery.
• French Doctor Speaks Out on Kim Jong-il's Health
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered a cerebral hemorrhage but did not undergo surgery and is recovering, according to a French neurosurgeon who treated the reclusive leader in October. Francois-Xavier Roux made the disclosure in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro. Meanwhile, French intelligence services reportedly checked with a heart surgeon from Lyons who visited the North to treat Kim back in 2004 whether he brought back a blood sample with him and whether Kim had contracted AIDS. Le Figaro carried a full-page feature on Thursday on the secretive treatment of the top-class families of North Korea. Under the title "These French Doctors at Kim Jong-il's Bedside (Ces medecins francais au chevet de Kim Jong-il)," the daily reported the behind-the-scenes stories. in November, 1991, when Kim Il-sung had a heart attack, North Korea took a heart surgeon from Lyons to Pyongyang, and North Korean diplomats in Switzerland sent a pacemaker for his operation to the North in a diplomatic pouch.
• Banks of Taedong River Lowered
  Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- The banks of Taedong River flowing through Pyongyang have been lowered and consolidated between the Okryu Restaurant and the Chungsong Bridge. The original banks which had been reinforced on various occasions after the liberation of the country played a big role in protecting the city from floods in the past. This project has been done because several barrages were constructed across the river so as to control the water level and prevent floods including the West Sea Barrage in the mouth of the river and the Mirim, Ponghwa, Songchon and Sunchon Barrages in the upper reaches. As a result one can view the Tower of Juche Idea, the east Pyongyang area and rich stream of the river from the west bank. Roads have been constructed along the river and a large number of trees and the flowering plants of good species planted on the riverside areas. The bank areas have been turned into parks for the
• Walled City of Pyongyang, Capital of Koguryo
  Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- The Walled City of Pyongyang, capital of Koguryo (277 B.C.-668 A.D.) is one of the national cultural legacies of Korea with a history spanning fifty centuries. Koguryo moved its capital to Pyongyang in the year of 427 and built the walls in the latter half of the 6th century (552-586). Six wall stones inscribed with letters were found in modern ages, which proved the stage, period and scale of the wall construction. The Walled City of Pyongyang with about 16 kilometers in circumference of the walls, 23 kilometers in total length of the walls and 11.85 square kilometers in total area has Moran Hill in the north and Taedong and Pothong Rivers in the east, west and south, which provided natural and geographical conditions unfavorable for the foreign invaders and favorable for defenders.
  It, which was called Jangan Walls, consisted of four castles -- Naesong (inner castle) where the royal palace was located, Jungsong (middle castle), the administration centre of Koguryo, where central government offices were located, Woesong (outer castle) where there were main residential quarters and Puksong around Moran Hill (outer ring walls for defending the city). According to a historical record, there were more than 210,500 households inside and outside of the walls. The walls were 4-5 meters high in hilly lands and 7-9 meters high in flat areas. The Walled City Pyongyang was really an impregnable fortress with various defence facilities, many wall gates and commanding posts in the walls.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-spot Guidance to Reconstructed Central Zoo
  Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to the Central Zoo reconstructed on an expansion basis. It covers an area of more than a hundred hectares at the foot of picturesque Mt. Taesong. After being briefed on the zoo in front of a big painting showing a panoramic view of the zoo, he went round aquarium, tiger, bear and horse sheds and other places for a long while. Learning in detail about the reconstruction and operation of the zoo, he expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the appearance of the zoo has radically changed in a few years.
• Survey of Aged Population in 2007
  Pyongyang, November 27 (KCNA) -- Researches into and survey of the situation of the aged population took place in the DPRK in Juche 96 (2007). Before the survey, researchers of the Population Centre worked out a survey plan, survey index and survey questionnaires on the basis of experiences in the past census. Meanwhile, substantial test survey and census workshop were organized in preparation for a spot survey. On this basis, the researchers carried out a survey among old folks above sixty and their families in nearly 60 dongs and ris of Pyongyang City, South Phyongan and South Hamgyong Provinces In this course a lot of information about the demographic conditions and socio-economic activities of the aged persons, their educational and health status, the characteristics of their families and understanding of the question of aged people were collected. [Ageing society]
• 'North Korean Leader Had Another Stroke'
  Kim Jong-il By Michael Ha Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered another stroke and a seizure last month, and his condition got bad enough to consider emergency surgery, a report said Wednesday. Japan's Mainichi newspaper said that Kim suffered the recurrence of a brain hemorrhage, which was followed by a seizure, in late October. The situation was serious enough that Kim's attending physicians had to consider surgery, the report said, citing an unnamed Chinese official familiar with Kim's health status. The newspaper said it could not confirm whether Kim had more surgery but added his condition now appears to have stabilized for the time being.
• North Korea’s Very Cautious Cinematic Thaw
  Malte Herwig The Pyongyang International Cinema House was packed for screenings at North Korea’s film festival in September. By MALTE HERWIG Published: November 21, 2008 PYONGYANG, North Korea Guards outside the Pyongyang International Cinema House. HUMOR may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the citizens of North Korea, a country known mostly for militant anti-Western propaganda, chronic food shortages and an internationally isolated government pursuing nuclear weapons. And yet audiences at the 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival here clearly enjoyed themselves this fall during screenings of Western dramas and comedies, occasionally even erupting into riotous laughter.
  After more than a decade of natural disasters, famine and economic mismanagement, everyday life is no laughing matter for the 23 million Koreans north of the demilitarized zone, which has separated the Koreas since the end of the war between the two countries in 1953 [Victim] [Spin] [EWA]
• DPRK adopts social security law
  Posted Date : 2008-11-07 (NK Brief No. 08-11-7-1) (North) Korean Central Broadcasting reported on November 6 that the DPRK Cabinet had adopted a ‘Social Security Implementation Measure’. This measure “laid down in detail questions of principle and methods to be observed in improving the social security work such as the recipients of social security allowances and their standards, their preferential treatment, social security procedures, disbursement of social security fund, organization and management of social security organs, production and supply by subsidiary mechanism.” The broadcast explained that the measure was a “firm guarantee has been provided to meet better the growing demand of the people and convenience in their life and enable the welfare recipients to enjoy greater benefits of social security at the expense of the state.”
• N.Korea Reports Another Kim Jong-il Outing
  North Korea continues to report supposed public appearances by leader Kim Jong-il in apparent efforts to show that he is in good health, but observers continue to cast doubt on the veracity of these reports. The (North) Korean Central News Agency on Sunday reported Kim had watched an art performance by a naval company of the People's Army, but it neither specified when and where he watched the performance, nor supplied any photos or video images. It was 10 days after a report that he attended a performance by an art troupe on Nov. 6.
• Kim Jong Il Enjoys Art Performance Given by Soldiers of KPA Companies
  Pyongyang, November 16 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il appreciated an art performance given by soldiers of a company under KPA Unit 235, a company under KPA Unit 851 and a company under KPA Unit 507 who proved successful at the 32nd art festival of servicepersons of the KPA.
• N.Korea Releases More Kim Jong-il Photos
  North Korea on Wednesday released 15 photos of its leader Kim Jong-il inspecting two military units. The release came three days after another set of pictures of him watching a soccer match were published Sunday. They were apparently put out to coincide with Election Day in the U.S.
• New Kim Jong-il Photos Hint at Minor Stroke
  North Korea on Sunday released photos that it claims show leader Kim Jong-il watching a football match. It was an apparent effort to demonstrate he is well, but experts say even these carefully vetted images reveal signs that Kim is suffering the effects of a stroke
• Football fan Kim Jong-il's a picture of health
  New photographs fail to solve the mystery of whether the North Korean leader is ill
  Peter Walker guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 02 2008 12.47 GMT Article history North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, who according to the country's official media was attending a football match. Photo: KCNA/AFP It's currently the most tantalising guessing game in global affairs: exactly what is the state of Kim Jong-il's health? A series of reports variously claim that the North Korean leader is recovering after a stroke or similar ailment, and that a French brain surgeon has been consulted.
• More Kim Jong-Il Photos Are Released
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: November 2, 2008 SEOUL — The North Korean state-run news media on Sunday released photos showing its leader, Kim Jong-il, smiling and looking vivacious, some two months after he was believed to have suffered a stroke. North Korea has in recent weeks struggled to counter intense speculation from abroad about the state of its leader’s health, with methods that have tended to raise more questions about Mr. Kim’s medical condition.
• Pak Song Chol Dies
  Pyongyang, October 29 (KCNA) -- Pak Song Chol, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and honorary vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, died of long illness at 5 a.m. on Oct. 28 to our regret at the age of 95. He was born in a poor peasant's family in Kyongju City of North Kyongsang Province on September 2, Juche 2 (1913).   He was a faithful revolutionary soldier who devoted his whole life to the cause of national liberation and working class liberation and socialist construction and the independent reunification of the country under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung.
• Kim Jong-il 'not Incapacitated yet'
  Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday said the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is not good, "but I don't think that he's in a state in which he's unable to make any decisions at all." Aso was speaking at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the House of Councilors. "We have received intelligence reports that he is in hospital," Aso added.
• Kim Jong-il's Son 'Sees Brain Surgeon in Paris'
  Kim Jong-nam leaves a hospital in Paris last week in this Fuji TV video footage. /Yonhap     Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in Paris last week met with a neurosurgeon who then left for Pyongyang, Japan's Fuji Television reported Monday. 
• Response to “Has the Next Great Leader of North Korea Been Announced?
  October 24th, 2008 The following are comments on the editorial "Has the Next Great Leader of North Korea Been Announced?” by Rudiger Frank. John J. Tkacik, Jr, is the Senior Research Fellow in Asian Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Rudiger Frank is a Professor of East Asian Economy and Society and Vice Director of the East Asian Institute at the University of Vienna. II. Comments by John J. Tkacik, Jr. on “Has the Next Great Leader of North Korea Been Announced?” Ruediger Frank is, of course, the expert on North Korean leadership dynamics, so I would defer to his expertise on the matter, but I wonder if he may be overlooking the legitimating power of the “Songun” (Soengun) ideology as he predicts “collective leadership” after Kim Jong Il’s passing – whenever that happy moment may arrive.  
• Has the Next Great Leader of North Korea Been Announced?
  By Rudiger Frank
  October 21st, 2008 Rudiger Frank, Professor of East Asian Economy and Society and Vice Director of the East Asian Institute at the University of Vienna, writes, "This time, we could see the Party taking over the role of a church, safeguarding ideology and the leadership of the two "Eternal" leaders, forming or organizing the collective leadership that seems to be the only logical step, and appointing a leader who will not be Great but visible. The recent homage to the Party's monument could be the first step in the process of announcing this solution; the next Great Leader of North Korea could be Mother Party."
• N. Korea releases photos of Kim Jong-il
  Experts question the validity of the photos, citing the difference in the season depicted » North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency released this and other photos of Kim Jong-il on October 11, the first photos of Kim released in 56 days amid rumors about the state of his health. Questions remain about the authenticity of the photos because none of them were dated, leading to the speculation that they were taken at an earlier date. A North Korean news outlet released photographs of North Korea’s National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il inspecting a military unit on October 11. Video footage of Kim was not, however, released. It was first time in 56 days that the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency carried a photo of Kim; the last time was on August 16, following a report on the North Korean leader’s inspection of a military unit on August 14.
• Southern Dramas Available in N. Korea
  By Park Si-soo Staff Reporter Various video and audio productions from capitalist countries are becoming more widely available in North Korea, with the authorities becoming more lenient on those enjoying such contents. Previously North Koreans could be subject to life-long jail terms or even capital punishment, according to a white paper on human rights in North Korea released Monday.
• Kim Jong Il Enjoys Student Football Match
  Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il enjoyed a student football match on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of Kim Il Sung University, the highest institution of Juche-based education and science. There was the football match between teams of Kim Il Sung University and Pyongyang University of Railways that day, at which the former beat the latter 4-1.   After watching the match, Kim Jong Il congratulated the players on their good results, saying that the revolutionary and militant students in our country are good at art and sporting activities while devoting all their wisdom and enthusiasm to the study of science for the country and the people
• NK Leader Seen in Public Since Illness: Report
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il saw a soccer game, the first public appearance since speculation arose that he had suffered a stroke, the communist state's news agency reported Saturday. The 66-year-old Kim, who reportedly have had surgery after suffering from cerebral hemorrhaging in August enjoyed a college football match, according to the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "After watching the match, leader Kim Jong-il congratulated the players on their good results, saying that the revolutionary and militant students in our country are good at art and sporting activities," the North's KCNA news agency reported.
• N. Korea's first census since 1994 begins
  PYONGYANG Oct. 1 North Korea on Wednesday began taking its first census since January 1994, which is also the second ever to be held in the country. Tens of thousands of examiners will carry out the survey until Oct. 15 under cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund, authorities said. According to the 2007 almanac published by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, the country's population was 23,612,000 as of 2004. October 2, 2008
• Painters of Juche Life? Art from Pyongyang
  A Berlin exposition challenges expectations, offers insights on North Korea
  Jan Creutzenberg Starving children, collapsing nuclear plants, a leader wearing sunglasses and a jump suit -- when it comes to North Korea, the choice of imagery in the press is limited. Several coffee table books, illustrated travel accounts and even a graphic novel present impressions of empty boulevards, monumental statues, workers with a smile on their face and the colorful Arirang Mass Games. But what about the image North Korea draws of itself? Recently a catalogue of propaganda posters presents a rather grim face with slogans ranging from "Death to US imperialists, our sworn enemy!" to "Let's extensively raise goats in all families!" The exhibition "Art from Pyongyang," currently on display at the Art Center Berlin, shows different pictures: the "Hermit Kingdom" appears less industrialized and militarized, but rather idyllic. No wonder -- for it is the first time North Korea's Ministry of Culture officially held an exhibition abroad. [Image]
• Gallery Pyongyang
  Berlin gallery specialising in art from DPRK. Many excellent photos
• Kim Jong-il on Spotlight
  By Tong Kim September 25th, 2008 Tong Kim, Research Professor with Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, writes, "One thing that the experience of the reports on Kim's health issue reminds us is the realization of how little we know about North Korea's leadership. The past decade of engaging the North has enabled the South to learn more about North Koreans. In this context, it is more imperative now to resume inter-Korean dialogue."
• Who Makes the Decisions in N.Korea Now?
    Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Monday that North Korea had asked the agency’s inspectors to remove seals and surveillance equipment at the Yongbyon reprocessing plant. The six party talks are deadlocked because the United States and North Korea have been unable to agree on a system to verify the contents of the nuclear materials the communist country has declared. As the deadlock continued, North Korea began to take one step after another to restore operations at its Yongbyon plant, which had been disabled, in protest against the international community. If North Korea removes the seals and expels U.S. disablement officials and IAEA inspectors, then the six party talks face ruin.
• 'NK Leader May Attend Workers' Party Ceremony Oct. 10'
  'NK Leader May Attend Workers' Party Ceremony Oct. 10' North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will likely appear in public at a ceremony in early October to celebrate the founding of the ruling Workers' Party and quell speculation about his health, a nongovernmental organization said Wednesday.
• Statements about Kim Jong-il’s health reflect mixed views
  China reports Kim is convalescing, while U.S. appears cautious and N. Korea defensive about rumors the leader is ill
  Chinese, U.S. and North Korean officials are making more concrete statements about rumors that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is suffering ill health.   During a visit to Japan, Liu Hongcai, deputy chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, said in a September 16 meeting with New Komeito Party leader Ota Akihiro that Kim’s illness might not be as serious as reported in the media. He said it was impossible to know the exact situation, but Kim might need to convalesce for the time being.
• Speculation on North Korean Leader Thrives in Factual Vacuum
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: September 19, 2008 CHEORWON, South Korea — When Kim Il-sung, the revered North Korean founder and president, died in 1994, the demilitarized zone between the Koreas became what soldiers and civilian residents in this frontier town remember as "an opera house of funeral songs."
  For 10 days, the North Korean propaganda loudspeakers filled the air with dirges and Soviet-style funeral marches, so heavy in mood that one resident said "it felt like a dark cloud." Now reports are saying that Kim Il-sung’s son, Kim Jong-il, the current leader, has had a stroke. Rumors about his condition run rampant. But North Korea, which may be the world’s most secretive nation, has betrayed no signs of unrest so far. Officials and analysts in Seoul, the South Korean capital, say it appears to be business as usual.
• Wanted: Chinese Doctors Who Treated Kim Jong-il
    Feverish speculation about the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il now centers on the Chinese doctors rumored to have treated him after a possible stroke last month. A South Korean senior intelligence officer on Thursday said it "doesn't seem that the doctors performed surgery" on Kim. All of them, however, were reportedly neurosurgeons
• N.Korea's Leading Apparatchiks Revealed
  Gen. Hyon Chol-hae, the 74-year-old deputy director of the general political department of the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) has been North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s most frequent companion on official occasions. Hyon has accompanied Kim, who is said to be recovering from a stroke, on 32 occasions this year.
• Kim Jong-il Out of Public View Over Chuseok
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who is reportedly recovering from neurosurgery after suffering a stroke, remained out of public view on Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving Day, it was confirmed on Monday.
• North Korea After Kim Jong Il
  Rumors of a stroke or illness have Korea watchers wondering what the nuclear-armed, communist country would look like after Dear Leader by Moon Ihlwan
• NK Stresses Unity Amid Report of Kim Jong-il's Illness
  North Korea emphasized Sunday the necessity of maintaining national unity and loyalty towards leader Kim Jong-il, amid recent reports that Kim had collapsed and is recovering from a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage. A lengthy political discourse that appeared in North Korea's official newspaper, the Rodong Shinmun -- and was carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency ? said that the country's mightiest weapon is unity. ``Our mightiest weapon ? the real missile ? is 'the missile of unity.' There are weapons that can destroy missiles, but there is not any weapon that can destroy a crystal made up of tens of millions of hearts," the newspaper said.
• N. Korea Leader Recovering Fast: Official
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is recovering from surgery fast enough to brush his teeth by himself, said a government official, Friday. The official said he was informed that Kim is not in a serious condition as opposed to some reports or speculations by North Korea experts. He said that the South is closely monitoring Kim's health status. Asked about the succession plan of leadership in the North, the official said group or collective leadership has been in place there, saying it is his personal view. The South Korean government reportedly received the intelligence regarding the North Korean leader's stroke two to three days after Kim collapsed.
• Kim Jong-il 'Suffering Convulsions'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is recovering from a stroke but is suffering irregular convulsions, which prevented him from appearing at an event marking North Korea's 60th anniversary on Tuesday, a diplomatic source based in Beijing who is well versed in the internal affairs of North Korea said Thursday.
• Torchlight Soiree Marks 60th Birthday of DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 9 (KCNA) -- A torchlight soiree of youth and students "The Homeland of Songun" was held at Kim Il Sung Square Tuesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK. Present there on invitation were senior officials of the Party, the army and the state, the chairman of a friendly party, deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly, officials of the party, armed forces and power organs, social organizations, ministries and national institutions, anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, servicepersons of the KPA, officials in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and media, heroes, persons of distinguished services, working people in the city, the chief of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front, the congratulatory group of Koreans in Japan and other congratulatory groups and delegations of overseas compatriots and Koreans overseas, diplomatic envoys of various countries and staff members of different embassies and representatives of international organizations here, foreign delegations, delegations of organizations for the study of the Juche idea and friendship and solidarity organizations and foreign guests.
• Kim Ok at Dear Leader's Sickbed
  South Korean intelligence officials are increasingly paying attention to a woman who is taking care of the ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Kim Ok, 44, is known to be de facto the fourth wife of Kim Jong-il. As Kim’s confidante, she is one of a handful of people who have free access to the bedridden Kim Jong-il. Analysts pointed out her as someone who deserves "the most attention" in terms of her growing political clout, which is likely to grow further. For example, she is expected to influence on Kim Jong-il’s key personnel appointment and who can see the ailing Kim, in case the leader recovers his illness and resumes his work in a limited manner. Kim Ok majored in piano at Pyongyang Musical College and started to work at one of the offices that managed secretarial tasks for Kim Jong-il.
• NK Leader Underwent Heart Surgery Last Year
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il underwent heart surgery by a team of German doctors last year, a Japanese daily newspaper said. Asahi Shimbun said only a handful of South Korean government officials were informed of the surgery by one of the German doctors. The Japanese newspaper cited a Korean government official, who was allegedly one of them. The daily said Kim had undergone coronary artery surgery in April 2007 and recovered later.
• North Korea’s Leader Is Seriously Ill, U.S. Intelligence Officials Say
  By MARK MAZZETTI and CHOE SANG-HUN Published: September 9, 2008 WASHINGTON — Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s leader, is seriously ill and is likely to have suffered a stroke weeks ago, American officials said Tuesday, raising the prospect of a chaotic power struggle in nuclear-armed North Korea.
  . No public appearances by the North Korean leader have been reported since mid-August. Intelligence officials in Washington said that the exact status of Mr. Kim’s health was unclear, but that on Tuesday he failed to attend a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of North Korea and that American intelligence agencies believed that he was now under the care of doctors in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Reconnoitering Company
  Pyongyang, August 6 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected the Reconnoitering Company of KPA Unit 891. He took warm care of its soldiers' living, going round an education room, bedroom, mess hall, wash-cum-bath house, daily provision store, sports hall, military lecture room, outdoor resting place and other places of the company. He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the company has built the exterior and interior of its barracks like a rest home and assiduously managed its economic life.
• Torrential Rains Hit DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Heavy rains poured in many parts of the DPRK from August one to three, influenced by the low pressure created in the middle of the West Sea of Korea. The precipitations in Sepho, Hoeyang, Kosong and Phyonggang areas of Kangwon Province and Paechon and Yonan areas of South Hwanghae Province were respectively 322mm, 303mm, 244mm, 225mm, 224mm and 177mm on August two alone
• Who Will Lead North Korea After Kim Jong-il?
    By Andrei Lankov Korea Times Columnist Succession prospects are one of the most frequent questions any North Korean watcher has to deal with. North Korea is a hereditary dictatorship, a de-facto absolute monarchy, and hence it seems logical that sooner or later aging Kim Jong-il will nominate one of his sons as a heir designate ? much like his own father did in the 1970s.
• English Lesson in N. Korea
  JULY 25, 2008 08:53 A group of people dispatched to North Korea by the Institute for Strategic Reconciliation, a think tank established by Asian-Americans, teach English to the reclusive country’s middle school students. Though North Korea once educated its teachers by inviting British citizens, it is reportedly the first time for the communist country to invite Americans to educate their students. The dispatched English education team includes five second-generation Korean-Americans. [Education]
• National Meeting Held to Mark 55th Anniversary of Victory in War
  Pyongyang, July 26 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the April 25 House of Culture on Saturday to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War. Present at the meeting were senior officials of the party, the army and the state, the chairman of a friendly party, officials of the party, armed forces and power bodies, public organizations, ministries and national institutions, servicepersons of the Korean People's Army, officials in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and media, persons of distinguished services in the war, servicemen's families, those who distinguished themselves in assisting the army, working people in Pyongyang, overseas compatriots and the chief of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front. Present there on invitation were diplomatic envoys of various countries, representatives of international organizations and members of the military attaches corps here. A report was delivered by Vice Marshal of the KPA Kim Il Chol, member of the DPRK National Defence Commission and minister of the People's Armed Forces. July 27, Juche 42 (1953) is shining as the day of the second liberation of the country in the annals of the sacred struggle of the Korean people for sovereignty, independence and socialism as they defeated the U.S. imperialist aggressors and defended the sovereignty of the country and the nation, the reporter said, and went on: [Korean War]
• N.Korea Carried Out 901 Public Executions in 2007
  North Korea committed a total of 6,738 human rights violations in 2007, of which 901 were public executions, according to the North Korean Human Rights Infringement Record Center. The center, affiliated with the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, on Tuesday published its white paper on human rights in North Korea for the year.
• Aid Program Applied to Education
  Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- Kim Hyong Jik University of Education has of late developed an education aid program which helps place the training of personnel on a more scientific and comprehensive basis to meet the requirements of the IT era. Ri Jin Sop, chief of the Education Information Center of the university, told KCNA: The center has developed a remote-controlled lecture system to lift the quality of education to a higher level. The education system enables students to listen to lectures, have question and answer and take examinations with the help of computers in the absence of teachers
• E-edition "History and Culture of River Taedong"
  Pyongyang, July 21 (KCNA) -- The Korean Cultural Preservation Centre has recently brought out the e-edition "History and Culture of River Taedong". It consists of six parts: Primitive Age, Ancient Korea, Koguryo, Koryo, Ri Dynasty and Modern Age. It gives a vivid description of the history and culture of the River Taedong, the cradle of the Korean nation which holds a legitimate position in the cultivation of world human culture. [ICT]
• Successes in Researches into Bird Influenza
  Pyongyang, July 21 (KCNA) -- Scientists of the Veterinary Institute under the Academy of Agricultural Science of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has achieved successes in researches into avian flu. From four years ago the scientists of the institute have been engaged in researches to clarify some biological features of various kinds of bird flu viruses spreading in the world and built a data base for their genes. In this course, they have established a gene analysis method of diagnosing various types of bird flu instantly and correctly without standard serum and standard antigen. And they newly developed a diagnostic reagent which is highly sensitive to bird flu viruses. The new diagnostic reagent, whose sensitivity to the avian flu viruses is above 95 percent, is higher in accuracy than the previous one. They also established the process of manufacturing the diagnostic reagent. The new diagnostic reagent is appreciated by the units which have introduced it.
• DPRK bolsters social security laws
  Posted Date : 2008-07-17 (NK Brief No. 08-7-17-1) Recent transformations in the North Korean economy and society have led the government to draft policies to link the social welfare matrix to the social security law. The ‘Democratic Chosun’, a publication of the Central Peoples’ Standing Committee and the Cabinet, has on five occasions (April 3 and 4, May 14, 16, and 23, 2008) run articles titled, “Regarding the Social Security Law,” explaining recent changes to the law and its affects on the North’s social welfare. This law contains six sections and 49 articles, the purpose of which is to strictly establish the structure and methodology of the nation’s social security system, and to protect the health of the people while providing them with secure and happy lives. Details of the law have not yet been made available. North Korea established the National Social Security Law on August 30, 1951, although it was not actually enforced until after the April 14, 1978 Socialist Labor Law was passed. North Korea’s social security system is a means with which to control the country’s socialist economy, and also acts to restrict the lives of the people, as well. From when the September 8, 1948 Constitution was passed right up until today, North Korea has provided its people with social insurance and social security systems. Society’s sick, feeble, and handicapped receive treatment assistance or material support from the social insurance system. By looking at past transitioning countries, one can see that transforming systems and quickly changing social and economic structures lead to linking of social security with social welfare in order to protect the society’s weak. In North Korea, the passing of the July 1, 2002 Economic Management Reform Measures and other sudden changes in the social and economic environments raised concerns regarding the issue of protecting the country’s most vulnerable. Combined with the North’s food shortages, the protection of the society’s elderly, children, pregnant, and other vulnerable elements has become a special issue of concern for North Korean authorities.
• Kim Jong Il Pays Homage to Kim Il Sung
  Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace on Tuesday. He was accompanied by KPA Chief of the General Staff Kim Kyok Sik, Minister of the People's Armed Forces Kim Il Chol, First Vice-Director of the KPA General Political Department Kim Jong Gak, staff members of the KPA Supreme Command and general officers of the KPA. He paid homage to President Kim Il Sung together with the commanding officers of the KPA.
• Pyongyang to Become International City by 2012
  North Korea is creating a commercial street in downtown Pyongyang as part of a large-scale project to turn the capital into an international city by 2012, when its late leader Kim Il-sung marks the centennial birthday, according to Yonhap News. North Korea broke ground in December to construct a 50-story twin tower hotel, a trade center, a modern department store and office buildings under the initiative of Jang Song-taek, brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong-il, Yonhap reported quoting informed sources. The creation of "Geumgang street" is part of the North's broader plan to rebuild its sagging economy by 2012, a year honoring the 100th birthday of its late leader Kim Il-sung, the sources said.
• N.Korean Border Guards 'Shoot to Kill Defectors'
  North Korean border guards armed with Russian Dragunov sniper rifles shot dead citizens who tried to flee the impoverished nation by fording the Duman or Tumen River into China, the Sunday Times reported citing human rights campaigners.
• Brisk City Greening
  Pyongyang, June 20 (KCNA) -- City greening is in full swing in the DPRK. The Pyongyang Flower Institute has intensified researches to increase flower resources. It has bred many species of beautiful and fragrant flower seeds by bioengineering method while improving flower varieties. The Pyongyang Greenery Station is not only planting and tending a lot of flower seedlings according to seasons but also scrupulously organizing the work of propagating them. The station transplants cosmos of new high-grade breed, rose and Weigela florida and other flower shrubs in streets every year in proper combination with evergreens in an effort to further beautify the towns and villages and provide the citizens with an environment of cultural and emotional life. In order to encourage floriculture throughout the country, the government organizes various flower shows and fairs and widely introduces how to cultivate flower plants and how to care flower gardens and general knowledge on flower plants through mass media.
• Activities for Increasing Ranks of Voluntary Unpaid Blood Donors
  Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has conducted diverse activities for increasing the ranks of voluntary unpaid blood donors. Blood transfusion can be ensured successfully only when people donate blood to the society and people of their own accord. Hence the government has put the collection of voluntary donors and the supply of blood as an important health policy and directed deep attention to the work. It has long established a well-arranged nation-wide blood supply system and brought up lots of competent blood-transfusion officials so as to guarantee the life security of the people.
• World Environment Day Observed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) -- A national workshop on the occasion of World Environment Day was held at the People's Palace of Culture on June 5. Kim Kyong Jun, vice-minister of Land and Environment Preservation, made an opening speech. It was followed by speeches made on the subjects "Present situation, cause and future consequences of global warming," etc. Speakers referred to the adverse impact of climate change on humankind at present and measures against it and steps being taken by the DPRK to preserve and improve the natural environment. An event was held at Moranbong Middle School No. 1 on the same day.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-spot Guidance to Reconstructed Cultural Establishment and Renovated Public Catering Centers
  Pyongyang, June 5 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to the reconstructed cultural establishment and renovated public catering centers in Pyongyang. The Taedongmun Cinema House, Okryu Restaurant and Chongryu Restaurant which had served the people for a long period as buildings symbolic of the WPK's policy of love for people have been reconstructed or renovated as monumental structures in the era of Songun, bringing great joy to the people of the country who will significantly mark the diamond jubilee of the DPRK.
• Brisk Anti-Tobacco Campaign in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 31 (KCNA) -- An anti-tobacco campaign is being launched vigorously in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. With the formation of the State Tobacco Control Committee the no-smoking campaign is being conducted as a state health activity and all forms of advertisement, support, promotion and others on tobacco goods which may encourage smoking are strictly banned throughout the country. The public places have been set as no-smoking districts, people are allowed to smoke only in limited places and smoking among the students is controlled strictly in particular.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-the-Spot Guidance to Hamhung University of Medicine
  Pyongyang, May 29 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to Hamhung University of Medicine. He first went round the monument to the on-the-spot guidance given by President Kim Il Sung and the monument to his on-the-spot instructions standing in the compound of the university and the room devoted to its history.
• Sinchon Museum Visited by Endless Stream of Koreans, Overseas Compatriots and Foreigners
  Pyongyang, May 27 (KCNA) -- More than 15.4 million people have visited the Sinchon Museum in Sinchon County, South Hwanghae Province of the DPRK for the past five decades since it was opened. Among them were at least 220,000 overseas Koreans and more than 30,000 foreigners. During the last Korean War, the U.S. imperialists and class enemies killed more than 30,000 innocent people or a quarter of the population of Sinchon County in the most brutal way. [Korean War events]
• Group Leadership Likely to Lead North Korea: Experts
  MAY 26, 2008 07:52 A recent report showed that more than half of the 22 Ph.D. researchers at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis expect a form of group leadership will take place in North Korea after Kim Jong Il dies. The majority of them said Kim’s second son Kim Jong Chul, 27, is the dictator’s favorite, but first son Kim Jong Nam, 37, and brother-in-law Chang Song Taek, 62, are thought to have a stronger power base for succession.
• Pyongyang Undergoes Facelift
  Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- A campaign for putting Pyongyang on a new look has been vigorously launched with the approach of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK. The city is abustle with the work of paving most of the streets with asphalt, greening areas along streets and painting buildings. More than 20 streets including Ryongnamsan, Ponghwa, Yongung, Changgwang and Hyoksin Streets and their sideroads and roads leading to and in parks, recreation grounds and other cultural resorts around Moran Hill and along the Taedong River have been already asphalt-surfaced. According to the data available, the pavement project has been carried out over 50 per cent.
• Bird Flu Prevention Work Intensified in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is exerting greater effort to prevent the avian flu spreading in wide areas of the world because of the spring migration of wild birds. In an interview with KCNA Ri Kyong Gun, chief of the veterinary section under the State Emergency Quarantine Committee, said the DPRK is conducting epizootic work against bird flu on a regular basis every year in close cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In connection with the recent outbreak of avian flu in areas of North and South Cholla Provinces, south Korea, he continued to say, we are intensifying the anti-epizootic campaign to prevent the bird flu which exerts harmful influence on the national economy and people from spreading to the north.
• N. Korean population estimated at 23.48 million: CIA
  North Korea's population is expected to increase slightly to 23.48 million in July, according to a U.S. intelligence agency report.     North Korea will see its population increase to 23,479,089 in July, up 0.73 percent from 23,301,725 a year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency said in its updated version of the World Factbook 2008.   The report, available on the agency's Website, also estimated the average life expectancy for North Koreans at 72.2 years, 0.28 of a year longer than a year earlier.
• North Korea’s Literary Theory
  North Korean students study at a school in Pyongyang in this 2003 file photo. / Korea Times This is the first part in a series of articles by Choi Yearn-hong who is to publish his memoirs under the title of My American Memoir: A Korean-American Life, later this year in the United States. The writer was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and University of Seoul. He is a poet, essay critic and a long-time columnist for The Korea Times. ? ED. North Korean literature promotes socialist ideology, new technology and Puritan communist culture. Kim Jong-il has been criticizing North Korean literature as lacking philosophic depth, aesthetic sense, sensitivity and artistic craftsmanship, and thus as mundane, mechanical, repetitive and ``distant from life.'' His different theories, ``the seed theory,'' ``literature as a study of man,'' and ``Our Own Creative Works,'' attempted to correct weaknesses in North Korean literature. I doubt his theories have achieved what they were supposed to accomplish. North Korean literature in the 1980s and 1990s reflects the North Korean reality and economy which suffers from numerous bottlenecks that lead to shortages in many areas.
• N.Korea's Cherished Newswoman
  A report published in a North Korean magazine on Tuesday reveals the unusual treatment accorded to one of that nation's most beloved newswomen. The story in the monthly magazine Naenara describes the life of Ri Chun-hi, an anchorwoman at the state-run Korean Central Broadcasting Station. "She lives with her husband, two sons, a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter in a house in a beautiful place in Pyongyang, the capital," the magazine said. "The modern dwelling house and car were given to her as gifts by the state." The 65-year-old Ri is also quite familiar to South Koreans as she is in charge of announcing official North Korean statements directed at foreign nations  
• Heaven Day Ceremony of Chondoism Held
  Pyongyang, April 5 (KCNA) -- A Heaven Day ceremony was held in Pyongyang on Saturday to mark the 148th foundation anniversary of Chondoism. Present there were Chairwoman Ryu Mi Yong, adviser O Ik Je and office bearers of the Korean Chondoist Church Central Guidance Committee and Chondoists in Pyongyang. [Religion]
• SPA Session to Be Convened
  Pyongyang, March 20 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly on March 17 promulgated a decision on convening the SPA session. According to it, the 6th session of the 11th SPA will be convened in Pyongyang on April 9.
• N. Korea to convene parliamentary session
  North Korea will convene an annual session of the Supreme People's Assembly, its rubber-stamp legislature, next month, the communist state's official news media reported Thursday. "The 6th session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly will be convened in Pyongyang on April 9," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, quoting a decision by the SPA Presidium.
• 10th anniversary of Torch of Songgang Kindled by Kim Jong Il Marked
     Kimchaek, March 9 (KCNA) -- A meeting took place at the Songjin Steel Complex on March 9 to mark the 10th anniversary of the torch of Songgang kindled by General Secretary Kim Jong Il.     A congratulatory message sent by the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea to the workers, technicians and officials of the complex was conveyed at the meeting.     The congratulatory message recalled that Kim Jong Il visited the complex on March 9, Juche 87 (1998) to kindle the torch of Songgang, the torch for effecting a new great revolutionary upswing, and dynamically led the workers there to take the lead in pulling through the difficulties during the "Arduous March," the forced march by rushing forward once again at the speed of Chollima (the winged horse).
• Exceptional Winter Climate
  Pyongyang, March 3 (KCNA) -- An abnormal climatic phenomenon never seen previously was witnessed in the DPRK last winter. Kim Mun Uk, a room chief in the Hydro-Meteorological Service, said: A temperature below fifteen degrees Celsius below zero was quite rare in the winter season and it passed without midwinter cold. The cycle of three cold days and four warm days which had occurred with the periodic alternation of high and low atmospheric pressures was hardly witnessed. And there was a little snow with the dry weather prolonged. According to data available, snow scarcely fell in Pyongyang and other areas of the western coast and some areas of the eastern coast in the period from mid-December last year to February 21 this year and the precipitation in January was 0 mm in Pyongyang, Phyongsong and Sariwon, the lowest ever since the beginning of meteorological observation.
• Pyongyang Media Stresses National Unity
  On the day of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s inauguration, the organ of the Central Committee of the North Korean Workers’ Party offered only a veiled reference to the event. "We can advance independent unification and peaceful prosperity only when we achieve grand unity of the entire nation based on the principle of national self-reliance," the Rodong Shinmun wrote. North Korea has yet to report Lee's election, more than two months since election day.
• State Symphony Orchestra, National Treasure
  Pyongyang, February 18 (KCNA) -- The State Symphony Orchestra of the DPRK is an art troupe valued at national treasure. �@Founded on August 8, Juche 35(1946) under the guidance of President Kim Il Sung, the orchestra has covered a road of development that it can really be proud of. �@Its history is not long, but it has grown into an orchestra of vast prospects with a group of top-notch instrumentalists and an excellent creative staff. �@In the 1970s Kim Jong Il gave an energetic guidance to it to create an original mixed orchestra of Korean style, thus opening up a new horizon for the development of Juche-oriented symphony. �@The symphony involves three orchestral groups in which such national instruments as saenap (a Korean brass wind instrument) and small gong thick in national flavor and peculiar in tone are mixed with western instruments. It is characteristic of rich and unique power of representation.
• Rare Sandpipers Found in Myanmar
  By MICHAEL CASEY The Associated Press Wednesday, February 13, 2008; 8:01 PM BANGKOK, Thailand -- Eighty-four spoon-billed sandpipers have been discovered in a coastal stretch of Myanmar, offering hope for saving the endangered birds, a conservation group said Thursday. The discovery in early February comes only months after Russian researchers reported that numbers of the tiny birds _ with speckled brow feathers and a distinctive spoon-shaped bill _ had dropped 70 percent in the past few years in their breeding sites in Siberia and none had been seen this year in their traditional wintering sites in Bangladesh, Britain-based conservation group BirdLife International said. The World Conservation Union lists the bird as endangered with only 200 to 300 pairs left in the wild. The discovery of 84 birds wintering in Myanmar _ only one of which appears to have come from Siberia _ raises the prospect of breeding grounds elsewhere, BirdLife said. The birds' migration route takes them from Siberia down through Japan, North Korea, South Korea, mainland China and Taiwan, to their main wintering grounds in South Asia.
• N. Korea Intensifies Press Oppression
  North Korea executed a state-run company's director last year for having made phone calls abroad without government permission, an international journalist group said in its annual report released Sunday. The case reflects a marked increase in executions for the offense of communication with people outside the totalitarian country, Reporters Without Borders said. ``North Korea is the world's most isolated country and the security forces are responsible for keeping it that way at all costs,’’ it said in the report. `` North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is visiting media newsrooms, giving orders to reporters and correcting the editorials.’’ The group campaigning for freedom of speech also introduced burgeoning efforts to break the isolation. About a dozen North Korean reporters, who received secret training in China, launched the country's first magazine immune to censorship in November. ``Working closely with a Japanese news agency, Rimjingang has promised unprecedented news about the situation within the country,’’ it said. ``The first edition carried interviews with North Koreans and an analysis of the country's economic situation.’’ (Yonhap) [Media]
• N.Korea Says Population Hit 23.6 Mil. in 2004
  North Korea's population reached 23,612,000 in 2004, according to a 2007 almanac released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency on Sunday. The country's yearbook for 2006, released in early 2007, did not report the North's population for 2003.
  According to the latest yearbook, the communist country's population grew by about 1.5 million, or around 200,000 per year, from 22,114,000 in 1996, when the "march of hardship" was coming to an end.
• Is North Korea Undergoing a Restructuring?
  JANUARY 16, 2008 01:46 North Korea has been undergoing a “major restructuring” of its party, government and military organizations since the New Year. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il instructed on Dec. 29 that all of the regime’s institutions, including the Workers` Party, the cabinet, the military and national security agency, reduce their bureaucracies and the number of senior officials by 30 percent beginning in 2008, according to a well-informed source on Pyongyang’s internal affairs. “High ranking officials are very anxious about the restructuring since those who may lose their posts will either be forced to retire or be transferred to the workforce,” according to the source. Some organizations responsible for customs administration were reportedly downsized by Jan. 1, 2008. Employees of the National Security Agency, the National Intelligence Command, the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Office and Foreign Product Inspection Office work in the North’s customs office, but the employees of the regional headquarters have stopped working since Jan. 1. Although detailed plans for the restructuring have not been announced, speculation is rife among high ranking officials that the first target of the reform will be each institution’s agencies linked to earning foreign currency, given that an excessive number of those agencies had been established. The communist regime has a huge organization system. The National Defense Commission consists of one committee and two departments, while the cabinet is made up of three committees, 30 sections, one institute, one bank and two departments. The Workers` Party also runs five committees, two departments, 14 bureaus and one research center. Each of them has increased their size by launching an agency that can earn foreign currency, since the so-called “March of Hardship” in the mid-1990s.
• Former Unconverted Long-term Prisoner Dies
  Pyongyang, January 15 (KCNA) -- Former unconverted long-term prisoner Kim Yong Thae, pro-reunification patriotic fighter, died from an incurable disease on Jan. 14 at the age of 76. His obituary was released on Tuesday. It said: He was born in a poor peasant family in Kwaksan County, North Phyongan Province on July 23, Juche 20 (1931). He joined the Korean People's Army during the Fatherland Liberation War. His illness forced him to remain in an enemy-controlled area during the period of the KPA's strategic temporary retreat. He was arrested by the enemy while fighting as a Jirisan guerilla. He remained true to his revolutionary faith as a member of the Workers' Party of Korea despite brutal torture and operation to force conversion on him behind bars for several decades. After coming into the care of the DPRK 8 years ago, he devoted his energy and wisdom to building a great prosperous powerful socialist nation and achieving the cause of national reunification till the moment his heart stopped beating.
• New Era of Reunification and Prosperity Will Come in 2008
  Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- The Korean people are aflame with the zeal to open up a new era of independent reunification and peace and prosperity by joining efforts of the whole nation in response to the joint New Year editorial. �@The slogan of the joint editorial "Open up a new era of independent reunification and peace and prosperity by pooling the efforts of our nation!" indicates correct and realistic direction and way of this year's struggle for national reunification whereby to thoroughly implement the October 4 declaration under the banner of "by our nation itself" set forth in the June 15 joint declaration.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, January 7 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected KPA Unit 776 honored with the title of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment. Kim Jong Il looked round the room dedicated to the history of the unit, guided by the commander of the unit.

  New Year’s Joint Editorial 2008
  Text and commentary on the editorial
  

  • Joint New Year Editorial of Leading Newspapers in DPRK
    Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi today released the joint New Year editorial "Glorify This Year of the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the DPRK as a Year of Historical Turn Which Will Go Down in the History of the Country" on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 97 (2008).
    Official full text
  • Summary
    Summary of the Joint Editorial by Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People; Societies for Friendship with the Asia Pacific People; Korea-Asia Pacific Exchange
  • N.Korea New Year's Message Stresses Cooperation with South
    North Korea’s uniform New Year editorial on policy directions for 2008 omits the denuclearization process and still makes no mention of the election of Lee Myung-bak as president in South Korea. Published in three newspapers -- the North Korean Workers' Party organ Rodong Shinmun, the North Korean People's Army newspaper, and the Vanguard Youth newspaper, such editorials have been a regular feature on Jan. 1 since 1995.
  • Continuing South Korea’s leading role
    [Editorial] The joint editorial appearing on New Year's Day in North Korea's three main newspapers is considered the Pyongyang government's New Year's address. This year's editorial used the term "peaceful prosperity" (pyeonghwa beonyeong) several times over. Gone were the usual calls for a "grand union of anti-conservatives" in the South to oppose the Grand National Party and the other usual criticisms of the GNP. Overall, the editorial emphasizes uniting behind the North Korean government and strengthening the North's economy, and it also placed a lot of weight on advancing inter-Korean relations by, among other things, thoroughly implementing October's summit declaration. This shows you that Pyongyang has considerable expectations for the new South Korean government, that of President-elect Lee Myung-bak. The six-party talks are reaching a crucial point, specifically over the North's declaration of its nuclear past and present and the United States' removal of the North from its list of terror-sponsoring states.
  • Pyongyang Urges Seoul to Honor Summit Accords
    By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter North Korea Tuesday expressed hope in a New Year's message that inter-Korean summit accords on economic cooperation will be implemented on schedule under the incoming administration that has pledged to get tougher on the North. The North refrained from commenting on President-elect Lee Myung-bak and his North Korea policy, which prioritizes the North's nuclear disarmament before aid.

2007

• N.Korea 'Resumes Public Executions'
  North Korea has apparently stepped up public executions this year. The Stalinist country had carried out fewer public executions since 2000, but according to Seoul-based relief agency Good Friends, they increased this year.
• Kim Jong-il's Second Son Gets Key Politburo Post
  Kim Jong-chul, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's second son, was assigned to the post of the vice chief of the ruling Korean Workers' Party's Organization and Guidance Department, a hugely influential posts in North Korea, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Saturday. Quoting sources close to the North Korean regime, the Japanese daily wrote the 27-year old "has his office at the KWP headquarters, as Chairman Kim does. He receives instructions from his father as occasion arises."
• Even Hermits Can Get Rich
  Kim Jong Il's Korea may be an impoverished nation, but a select few are finding ways of accumulating wealth. By Christian Caryl | Newsweek Web Exclusive Nov 11, 2007  Even amid the grandeur of North Korea's Myohyang Mountain tourist area, where few Westerners have ever been allowed to visit, it's impossible not to gawk at him: a middle-aged North Korean sightseer decked out in a crisp Kim Jong Il-style suit, sunglasses and implausible upswept hairdo. But the most striking thing isn't his Dear Leader-wannabe getup; it's the device he's holding. In one of the most desperately poor countries on earth, it's worth half a year's pay for most of his fellow inhabitants: a sleek little Japanese digital video Handycam. [Media] [Daily life] [Marketisation]
• Kim Jong-il's Eldest Son Resurfaces in Paris
  Kim Jong-il's Eldest Son 'Back in Pyongyang' The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam (36), has been spotted in Paris earlier this month. Japan’s Fuji TV aired a video clip on Tuesday in which a plump man it said was Kim Jong-nam left a luxurious hotel near the Champs Elysees and walked to a limousine. Dodging questions with a smile, Kim said in fluent French, "I just went to the dentist and I can't talk much. I'm sorry." Asked about his linguistic skill, Kim answered, “Everyone knows I studied in Europe.” Asked whether he has a friend in Paris, he said, “It would be disrespect to my friend if I talked about the person.”  
• Thae Jong Su Appointed as Vice-Premier of DPRK Cabinet
  Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- Thae Jong Su was appointed as vice-premier of the DPRK Cabinet. A decree of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly in this regard was promulgated on Tuesday.
• Struggle against Bourgeois Way of Life Called for
  Pyongyang, October 12 (KCNA) -- The bourgeois way of life is like dreadful ideological poison as it makes people degenerate and corrupt, says Rodong Sinmun Friday in a signed article. It goes on: The American way of life represents the corrupt bourgeois way of life. It is the imperialist mode of existence based on all sorts of inhuman and miscellaneous ideas and modes including extreme individualism, the principle of existence governed by the jungle law, extreme misanthropy and national chauvinism. The bourgeois way of life reduces people to human beings no better than animals who only seek their own interests and behave as they please and mental cripples who know nothing but money. The virus of the above-said way of life lies in that it lures people into dissipation by stimulating their vulgar taste and sentiments. The virus of this way of life also lies in that it renders people deformed and benighted [Softpower]
• International Day of Older Persons Observed
  Pyongyang, October 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today observes International Day of Older Persons. Noting that international efforts are being made to increase interest in the problem of the aging of population and use the potential, technique, experience and wisdom of the aged for social life and human development, the paper says in a signed article: The work of protecting aged persons is undertaken amid the deep concern of the state and society in the DPRK. There is the social trait of respecting revolutionary elders such as anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, war veterans and persons of merits and other aged men and women and giving them preferential treatment. The aged are let to do useful work for the state and society with their special knowledge and technique and rich experience, according to their health conditions and hopes.
• DPRK education reform underway
  Posted Date : 2007-09-11    (NK Brief No. 07-9-11-1) The 2007 New Year’s Joint Editorial revealed that this year, North Korea is promoting radical educational reform, boldly casting out ‘cram education,’ and other remnants of their old system while emphasizing ‘Education Revolution.’ North Korea’s new educational reform can generally be summarized into four major parts: early childhood education and the standardization of foreign language and computer education, emphasis on ingenuity over memorization, strengthening practical education (gifted education), and on-going reeducation of teachers and professors. In order to support this kind of reform, North Korea established an education fund in 2005, and has remodeled more than 70 middle and high schools in Pyongyang, showing their increased interest and investment in the country’s education. The idea attracting the most attention is that efforts are being poured into cultivating “capable beings who learn one thing, understand tens, and use it to do hundreds”—no longer focusing on cram education and rote memorization. [ICT] [Reform]
• Military-First Politics (Songun): Understanding Kim Jong-il's North Korea
  Han S. Park
  Dr. Han Park defines and examines the concept of songun within the North Korean political system. He uses interviews, North Korean publications, and first-hand observations to support his views of the precise role that songun plays in Kim Jong-il's North Korea--including its impact on culture, the military, foreign policy, the economy, and the education system.
  Han S. Park is University Professor of Political Science, School of Public and International Affairs, and Director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues (GLOBIS), at the University of Georgia, in Athens, Georgia. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Korea Economic Institute, Washington, D.C., on 23 May 2007.
• National Angling Contest Held
  Pyongyang, September 7 (KCNA) -- A national angling contest was held on the bank of the River Taedong in Pyongyang on September 6. Angling fans selected in provinces, ministries and national institutions competed in the contest sponsored by the Central Committee of the DPRK Natural Conservation Union. The contestants were allowed to choose any type of angling tackle catering to their tastes and liking and use up to four sets of tackle each. At the contest, special prize went to Han Kom Mu, chief staffer of the Taehung Guidance Bureau, who caught several fishes at a time by employing tactful angling methods and first prize to An Kang San who lives in Taesong-dong, Sariwon City, North Hwanghae Province. An exhibition of newly invented angling tackle took place on the same day.
• Kim Yang-gon Emerges as Key Figure in N.Korea
  Kim Yang-gon (69), the director of the United Front Department of North Korea's Workers' Party The director of the United Front Department of North Korea's Workers' Party, who played a key role in arranging the second inter-Korean summit, is emerging as an influential figure in the North. Kim Yang-gon accompanied North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a recent inspection of a military unit, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday -- an unusual role for the director of the department, who is in charge of the North’s political campaigns and business interests in South Korea. In March, Kim Yang-gon accompanied Kim Jong-il on a visit to the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang. A North Korea expert says the latest inspection was “proof that Kim Yang-gon's status in the North has been consolidated. It seems Kim Jong-il was preparing for the forthcoming inter-Korean summit even during his inspection tour.” An intelligence officer said the inspected unit appeared to be a South Korean underground operations unit near Pyongyang or Kim Jong-il's guard unit. He added Kim Yang-gon had emerged as one of Kim Jong-il's closest aides.
• North Korea announces arrest of spies tied to foreign agency
  September 06, 2007 North Korea said yesterday it had arrested spies working for an unspecified foreign country who were collecting intelligence on the communist state's military and state secrets. It said a foreign spy agency had trapped "some corrupt" North Koreans traveling abroad by using money, sex and blackmail and turned them into moles, the official Korean Central News Agency said. "Recently, the National Security Service of the DPRK has arrested spies who were recruited by a foreign spy agency and the agent who was directing them," it said. The agent posed as a businessman, it said, adding the spies' missions included taking pictures and drawing maps of key military facilities. They were also asked to collect documents on military and state secrets and spread the ideas of freedom and democracy to key figures so that they would flee the authoritarian North, the KCNA said. [Espionage] [Media]
• Espionage Acts of Foreign Intelligence Service Disclosed
  Pyongyang, September 5 (KCNA) -- Espionage acts of a foreign intelligence service were disclosed and smashed some time ago in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The state security organ of the DPRK arrested the spies absorbed to the foreign intelligence service and intelligence agent who commanded them and seized their intelligence apparatuses. As brought to light during the investigation into the case and the statements of the arrested spies, the foreign intelligence service absorbed some unsound people out of the visitors of the DPRK to third countries by the method of money and girls, threat and blackmail and turned them into its paid spies in an attempt to spy on important military objects and strategic key-points related with the supreme interests of the DPRK. Their duty was to take photographs of an important military object in an area and confirm the spot co-ordinates and collect concrete data on the object with the help of the GPS after they received it. Their duty was also to obtain original texts of documents of the DPRK including the state and military secrets and the ideological tendencies of the people and, at the same time, to create illusion about the "free world" among senior officials and lure them out to third countries if possible. After it infiltrated the hired spies into the DPRK, the foreign intelligence service sent an intelligence agent to the DPRK under the guise of a trader to command their activities on the spot. He carried with him a digital camera battery to which the GPS was attached. [Espionage]  
• N.Korean Museum Said to Be Selling National Treasure
  An important 'chae-hyeop' lacquered bamboo box was reported to be for sale by North Korea's Central History Museum. In the caption at the bottom, the museum's vice curator is saying he would sell the box for US$700,000 The Korean Central History Museum in Pyongyang is reported to have asked a Japanese journalist to sell a cleverly woven bamboo box, a rare national treasure, for US$700,000. The museum even allowed a cameraman to take close-up photos of the lacquered box, called a "chae-hyeop." When the incident was made known last Thursday, South Korean cultural experts expressed concern and suggested Pyongyang would be better off if the box were leased to Seoul's National Museum instead of sold.
• Performance of "Arirang" Suspended
  Pyongyang, August 27 (KCNA) -- The grand gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" which was resumed on August 1 was suspended for the time being due to the unexpected torrential rain and flood damage. It has now become hard to continue the performance as working people in different parts of the country are all out to recover from the flood damage these days. The performance is expected to be staged again after the flood damage is cleared away.
• Has Power Transition Begun in NK?
  Kim Jong-nam By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has returned home after living overseas for years and taken up a key post in the Stalinist state's ruling Workers' Party, a news report said Monday. North Korea watchers say the return of Kim Jong-nam, 36, who had been living in Macau for the past few years, is expected to influence Kim Jong-il's succession plans in the future.
• Kim Jong-il's Eldest Son 'Back in Pyongyang'
    The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam (36) has returned to Pyongyang and is working at the Organization and Guidance Department of North Korea's Worker's Party, an intelligence source said Sunday. The department is the key agency that controls all of the party, the military and the government of North Korea. This has prompted analysts to speculate about a reconciliation and the possibility that Jopng-nam, who has been living in exile in Macau, could inherit the leadership instead of his younger half-brothers Jong-chul (26) and Jong-woon (24), who were variously tipped for the succession
• North postpones Arirang festival once again due to flooding
  August 28, 2007 Due to severe flooding in the country, North Korea has temporarily suspended Arirang, its regular series of mass games, the country’s state-run media reported yesterday. The Korea Central News Agency said the mass gymnastics and dance performances will be canceled for the time being because laborers around the nation are being mobilized for flood recovery projects. The report said the Arirang festival will resume after North Korea recovers, but did not give any specific date.  
• NK Continues Mass Gymnastics Show
  North Korea is continuing its mass gymnastics performance despite heavy floods that devastated much of the communist country, the North's state media reported Tuesday. "Arirang," named after a famous traditional Korean folk song, was held in 2002 and 2005, but was cancelled last year due to floods. The first part of this year's show, which ran about 80 minutes starting at 8 p.m. every day except for Sunday, was held between mid-May and May 20. The second part started on Aug. 1 and is to last until mid-October.
• Guinness Certificate Awarded to "Arirang"
  Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) -- A certificate of the Guinness World Records was awarded to the grand gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang". It was handed to Song Sok Hwan, vice-minister of Culture, by Wu Xiaohong, representative of the Guinness World Records Ltd., on a visit to the DPRK at the May Day Stadium on August 15. The record of largest gymnastic and artistic performance in the world was created in Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK, the certificate says. Conveying the certificate, the representative said the grand gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" could be successfully created thanks to the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il, and expressed deepest respect to him. Warmly haling the registration of the performance in the Guinness World Records, the representative hoped that "Arirang" would successfully go on in the future. More than 7 million Koreans in the north and the south and overseas and foreigners have watched the performance which has taken place over 180 times. [Bizarre]
• Kim Jong Il Visits Jonggwang Temple
  Pyongyang, August 12 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited the Jonggwang Temple, an ancient historic and cultural site. The temple situated in Wonsa-ri, Riwon County, South Hamgyong Province, is one of the ancient structures built in mid-7th century. He was briefed on the historic relics. He learned in detail about how the temple is preserved and managed, walking round its interior and exterior including Taeung Hall, Myongbu Hall and the Sari Tower. The Jonggwang Temple is of great value as a national treasure because it keeps in their original state valuable historic relics including precious pictures vividly reflecting the phases of those times, he said, underscoring the need to show it to many people. Our country has lots of valuable historic and cultural relics as it boasts 5,000 year-long history and brilliant culture, he noted, adding that this is the pride of the Korean nation. [Religion]
• Xiaohaerbaling Meeting of Strategic Significance for National Liberation
  Pyongyang, August 10 (KCNA) -- August 15 is the day of the Korean people's national liberation. On this occasion, they are recollecting with deep emotion the historic Xiaohaerbaling meeting (August 1940) that decided to change the strategic line at the new turning period of the Korean revolution, along with the Mingyuegou meeting (December 1931) and the Nanhutou meeting (February 1936) that also set forth important strategic lines on the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
  The President delivered a speech titled "On Preparing for the Great Event of National Liberation" at the meeting. He advanced it as a new strategic task to preserve and accumulate the force of the KPRA, the backbone of the Korean revolution, and train its officers and men to be able political and military cadres in the preparation for greeting actively the great event of national liberation. In order to carry out this task with success, he put forward a new fighting policy on switching over from large-unit operations to small-unit actions. [Kim Il Sung] [NK SK policy] [Six Party Talks]
• DPRK Students Prove Successful at International Math Olympiad
  Pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- DPRK students won one gold and four silver medals at the recent 48th International Math Olympiad held in Vietnam. The gold medal was awarded to An Sung Chol, student of Pyongyang Middle School No. 1, four silver medals went to Kang Chung Hyok, student of Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, Kim Jin Hyok and Sin Kum Song, students of Pyongyang Middle School No. 1, and An Ok Song, student of East Pyongyang Middle School No. 1, and an honorary certificate was conferred upon Pak Il Jin, student of Pyongyang Pothonggang Middle School No. 1.
• Kim Jong-il in Rare Round of Public Appearances
  North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il has absolved five days of public appearances by visiting military units and a machinery factory, the first time this year the reclusive leader has appeared in public for so many days in a row. The North's official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday said Kim visited a machinery factory in Chongjin city, North Hamgyeong province after visits to four military units between July 31 and Aug. 3.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-Site Guidance to Newly Built Hospital
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-site guidance to the newly built North Hamgyong Provincial People's Hospital. The hospital opened some days ago is a comprehensive medical service center covering more than 50,000 square meters as it has all equipment for medical treatment and service facilities.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-the-Spot Guidance to Ranam Coal Mining Machine Complex
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to the Ranam Coal Mining Machine Complex. He first looked round the monument to the on-the-spot guidance of President Kim Il Sung and the room devoted to its history. Looking back with deep emotion on the history of the development of the complex, he said it has turned into the nation's reliable large machine producer under the wise leadership of the President and his care. He learned about the production at the complex, making the rounds of the machine assembling shop and other places of the complex.
• Kim's Army Visits Prompt Speculation
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 4, 2007 Filed at 10:39 p.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has visited military bases for four straight days, an unusual frequency that has prompted speculation he may be about to make a decision regarding the country's disputed nuclear program. The visits come ahead of a joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise. On Friday, North Korea denounced the upcoming Aug. 20-21 drill as an ''unacceptable provocation.'' The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday that Kim inspected an army unit and expressed satisfaction with its combat readiness. It was the fourth straight day that KCNA reported Kim visiting an army base [Joint US military]
• Results of Election of Deputies to Local Power Bodies Released
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- The Central Election Guidance Committee for the Election of Deputies to the Provincial (Municipality Directly under Central Authority), City (District) and County People's Assemblies of the DPRK issued a report on the results of the election on July 30.
• Kim Jong Il Participates in Election of Deputies to Local People's Assemblies
  Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Sunday visited the Chusang Co-op Farm in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province to participate in the election of deputies to the provincial, city and county people's assemblies of the DPRK. He received ballots from the chairman of Sub-Constituency No. 36 of Constituency No. 85 for election of deputies to the South Hamgyong Provincial People's Assembly and cast them for Choe Sun Hui, sub-work team head of the Sangjung Co-op Farm of Hamju County, who is candidate for deputy to the South Hamgyong Provincial People's Assembly and Ho Kum Suk, chairperson of the Management Board of the Chusang Co-op Farm of the County, who is candidate for deputy to the Hamju County People's Assembly. Then he conversed with the candidates. After voting, he acquainted himself with the farm work there and the rural construction.
• Pyongyang Cultured Language, Pride of Korea
  Pyongyang, July 25 (KCNA) -- The Korean people are proud of having the Pyongyang cultured language and are embodying in their linguistic life thoroughly. The Pyongyang cultured language is the standard one of the nation, which is fully reflecting the national characteristics and constantly developing in accordance with the requirements of the times. The Koreans are a nation of one and the same blood who have lived in a territory with same culture down through history. They have developed the Korean language into the Pyongyang cultured language, centering around Pyongyang, the hub of the politics, economy and culture, since the liberation of the country from the Japanese colonial rule. The Korean language, with abundant vocabularies, can correctly distinguish the differences between various objects and their meanings and clearly express people's feelings and emotion, color, taste and etiquette. Its pronunciations are fluent, intonations soft and sounds beautiful. The Pyongyang cultured language comprehends the superior linguistic factors of the national language. In particular, all the words of foreign origin which are difficult to understand have been removed and a vocabulary system has been established on the basis of home-grown words. As a result, the Pyongyang cultured language protects the purity of the Korean language on a high level. Chinese and Japanese words had been brought into the Korean language in the past owing to the flunkeyism of feudal rulers and the Japanese imperialists' moves to obliterate the Korean language. Foreign words including them have been arranged into Korean ones.
• Population Urbanization Issue Settled in DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 12 (KCNA) -- The fast urbanization of population in the world has raised serious socio-economic problems including difficulty in city management, destruction of ecological environment and worsening working and living conditions. Activities are being conducted to cope with the problem in the international arena. The DPRK government has put forward a unique socialist principle for the formation of urban population and ways for its implementation already long ago and made a history of Juche-oriented urban construction. Above all, it has built more than 95 percent of cities on a minor scale and allocated industrial productive forces rationally throughout the country, thus providing conditions for even distribution of population.
• North Korean leader says working overnight is his 'habit': report
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is said to frequently work overnight, according to a recent report by the North's official media on Sunday. "Staying up all night is my habit," Kim was quoted as saying by the Rodong Sinmun newspaper in a story about the 65-year-old leader's work style. The paper cited a February pre-dawn telephone dialogue between Kim and a senior worker, who didn't want to be identified. "How's your health? I again wake up a sleeping comrade," said Kim before ordering the worker's tasks. The worker responded, "General (Kim), 4:00 a.m. has already passed. How could you stay up all night again? Please take a break for a while." Kim replied, "It's nothing. At this time, my work is in full swing." [Kim Jong Il]
• North Korea : A Case to Answer – A Call to Act
  Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s report, North Korea : A Case to Answer – A Call to Act, states that “there is a prima facie case for the commission of crimes against humanity, namely murder, extermination, enslavement/forced labour, forcible transfer of population, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, persecution, enforced disappearance of persons, other inhumane acts and, perhaps, rape and sexual violence. It also examines the possibility of genocide and concludes that there are indicators of genocide against religious groups, specifically Christians, implemented in particular in the 1950s and 1960s. The strictly hierarchical system of government and the information available about decision-making in North Korea suggests that the political leadership, and in particular Kim Jong-Il, is responsible for the commission of such crimes.” The analysis focuses primarily on the extensive political prison camp system where 200,000 people are believed to be held. It has been written by international lawyers and provides extensive testimonies and quotes from North Koreans. It represents the culmination of seven years of research and draws heavily on interviews and consultations with over 80 North Korean defectors. [Human rights] [Defector reports] [Manipulation]
• Born and raised in a North Korean gulag
  By Choe Sang-Hun Published: July 9, 2007
  SEOUL: On Nov. 29, 1996, 14-year-old Shin Dong Hyok and his father were made to sit in the front row of a crowd assembled to watch executions. The two had already spent seven months in a North Korean prison camp's torture compound, and Shin assumed they were among those to be put to death. [Defector report]
• Kim Jong-il Looks Unwell
  Adding substance to rumors about his declining health, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il looks worse than two months ago, when he attended a ceremony to celebrate the 75th birthday of the North Korean Army. Seen meeting the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Tuesday, the 66-year-old North Korean leader looked thinner, with serious hair loss and dry skin.
• Kim Jong-il makes less public appearances this year
  During the first half of this year, North Korea's National Defence Commission chairman Kim Jong-il made less than half as many public appearances as he did during the same period last year. Analysis of North Korean media reports, released on July 3 by South Korean news agency Yonhap, indicate that as of the end of June of this year, Kim made a total of 29 appearances, 45 percent of the 64 public appearances he made last year. He has been seen far less frequently than his 39 appearances in 2005, 44 appearances in 2004 and 51 appearances in 2003.
• Slim Kim
  July 05, 2007       The photo at right shows a much slimmer North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in a meeting on Tuesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi compared to the photo on the left taken on Aug. 30, 2006. The photo of a slender Kim has given rise again to speculation that he may be in ill health. The media earlier this year questioned Kim's health, but South Korea's National Intelligence Service said he is in good condition. Officials say there are no signs of preparations for succession. Kim, who suffers from diabetes and heart disease, is reported to have quit smoking and cut down on his drinking years ago. Maybe he has also been working out. [REUTERS/YONHAP [Kim Jong Il]
• Superiority of Korean Language
  Pyongyang, July 3 (KCNA) -- The Korean language has a long history with the formation of the Korean nation. With the creation of Hunminjongum (the Korean alphabet) in 1444, the Korean people have used it in writing. The Korean spoken language is fluent and gentle to hear. It has also good intonation. It, with rich pronunciation, can express correctly any difficult and complicate pronunciation. The Korean alphabet consists of 21 vowels and 19 consonants. The vowel not only reverberates loudly but also constitutes the core in a syllable, the smallest unit of the pronunciation. Only when it is combined with the vowel, can the consonant form a vivid syllable and clearly reverberate in well harmony with the before and behind words. The vowels and consonants of the Korean alphabet can express the general meanings and minute differences of the objects, phenomena and processes. Therefore, it is possible to pronounce all the foreign languages correctly. There are more than 5,000 languages in the world, none of which can compare with the Korean written and spoken languages delicate in expression, rich in meaning and abundant in vocabulary.
• Woman Who Fled North Korea Returns There
  By AUDRA ANG The Associated Press Tuesday, June 26, 2007; 9:26 AM BEIJING -- A woman who fled North Korea after living there for 43 years returned to the communist country Tuesday following nearly four years in Japan, saying she missed her children and found Japanese society unwelcoming. To Chu Ji arrived in Pyongyang and was greeted by her family, who brought her a bouquet of flowers and embraced her, weeping.
  North Korean To Chu Ji, watched by an unidentified boy, speaks to reporters after arriving at Pyongyang airport in North Korea Tuesday, June 26, 2007 in this image made from television. To, who spent three years and seven months living in Japan after she claims she was kidnapped, returned to her homeland on Before leaving, To spoke at a rare news conference at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, saying she had been cheated by "bad people" into leaving North Korea in 2003. [Refugee reception]
• Local Election to Be Held in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 19 (KCNA) -- The election of deputies to the Provincial (City under the Direct Control of the Government), City (District) and County People's Assemblies will be held in the DPRK on July 29 according to Article 133 of the Socialist Constitution and the decision of the Local People's Committees, said the information released by the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly on Monday.
• Central Election Guidance Committee Formed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 24 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly on June 23 issued its decision No. 96 on organizing the central election guidance committee for the elections of deputies to provincial (city under the direct control of the government), city (district) and county people's assemblies. According to it, the central election guidance committee was formed with Yang Hyong Sop as chairman, Kim Jung Rin as vice-chairman, Choe Yong Rim as secretary and Ju Sang Song, Kim Kyong Ho, Ryom Sun Gil, Kang Chang Uk, Pak Sun Hui and Kim Yong Ho as members.
• N.Korea's Kang Sok-ju Appointed to NDC
  North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju, who is in responsible for Pyongyang's diplomatic affairs including the nuclear issue, was in May made a member of the ruling National Defense Commission (NDC) led by dictator Kim Jong-il, Russian sources said Sunday. The sources said Kim appointed Kang to the leadership body to strengthen his power base, with the move seen as ensuring the NDC holds sway over the military as well as domestic and foreign affairs. Kang has served as the First Vice Foreign Minister since 1986 and is known as the only foreign ministry official who can directly advise Kim. He was a signer of the 1994 Geneva Accords between the U.S. and North Korea and the leader of Pyongyang's representatives in the six-nation talks. Kang recently visited Moscow for treatment of a cataract. [Agreed Framework]
• Safety of Blood Transfusion Ensured in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 14 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is making an earnest effort to ensure the safety of blood transfusion according to the program of the World Health Organization. Safe blood transfusion has been raised as a key problem in the improvement of public health and prevention of epidemics. A regular state blood service system has been established in the country many years ago so as to guarantee the safety of people's lives. On the basis of it, the government has paid attention to increasing the number of voluntary unpaid blood donors. And it is training competent blood experts, while organizing regular information activities to give the people new understandings on blood transfusion. It is organizing colorful events on the occasion of the "World Blood Donor Day" (June 14) to give pride and honor to those who voluntarily donate their blood free of charge.
  The public health sector of the country is strengthening collaboration with the WHO and other international organizations, keeping close ties with them to ensure the safety of blood transfusion.
• Kim Jong Il Had Artery Surgery in May, Person Says
  (Update2) By Bradley K. Martin and Hideko Takayama June 14 (Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was operated on by a team of German doctors last month to open a blocked artery, a person connected to the Kim regime said. While doctors from German Heart Institute Berlin arrived in Pyongyang prepared to perform major surgery on Kim, they found only one clogged artery, the person said. The 65-year-old Kim, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, recovered well from the surgery, said the person, who asked that his name not be used because North Korea wanted the operation kept secret.
• NIS Investigating Reports of Ailing Kim Jong-il
  Rumors are growing that reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health is failing. Following the first report on the matter by the Chosun Ilbo on May 28, Japan's Shukan Gendai on Saturday reported that Kim had heart surgery by a team of German doctors, and the U.K.'s Telegraph on Monday wrote that he can barely walk 30 yards without tiring. On May 29, U.S.-based MSNBC wrote on their website that U.S. intelligence officials confirmed that they are "taking seriously recent reports of a deterioration" in Kim's health
• N.Korea’s Population, Life Expectancy Inch Up
  The total population of North Korea as of July 2007 will be 23,301,725 and average life expectancy 71,92 years, according to estimates by the CIA. Men live 69.18 years and women 74.8. As for the South, the population will be 49,044,970, and the average life span 77.23 years --73.81 years for men and 80.93 years for women. The figures come from the latest update of the CIA’s “World Factbook” uploaded on Sunday.
  1. A government-owned store in Pyongyang is festooned with icicles. 2. This farm in South Pyongan Province funded by the Korean Foundation for World Aid was selected as the best farmyard in March. 3. Pyongyang Citizens return from work on the tram. 4. Busy in the rice fields. Some shopping centers in downtown Pyonyang are closed since staff are mobilized for work in the fields during the rice-panting season. Pyongyang citizens are obliged to go to the countryside and help out in the paddy fields for 40 days a year. North Korea’s population grew 0.79 percent compared to 23,113,019 last year, and the increase has been steady since 2003. The average life span has also inched up from 70.79 years in 2003. Infant morality decreased from 25.66 deaths out of 1,000 infants in 2003 to 22.56. North Korean women had on average 2.05 children. The CIA estimates North Korea’s economic growth rate at 1 percent and per capita GDP at US$1,800
• Speculation arises again over N. Korean leader's health
  Keen attention is being paid to the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il after a British newspaper speculated that he may need heart surgery to restore his failing health. Citing western government sources, the Daily Telegraph reported North Korea's reclusive leader has been so unwell that he could not walk more than 30 yards without a rest.
• To be or not to be the N.K. foreign minister
  Following the death of former foreign minister of North Korea Paek Nam-sun this January, eyes and ears are open to who would succeed him. While in most countries, being named the next foreign minister would be a coveted honor, it was the opposite in North Korea. Kang Sok-ju, the first vice foreign minister, indeed, has tried with all his means not to be named the new foreign minister, according to sources familiar with the North Korean system. "North Korea designated Kang as the successor of late Paek, but he somehow dodged the actual appointment citing his illness, possibly arthritis," a source was quoted as saying by Yonhap News. Instead, former ambassador to Russia Pak Ui-chun was named to the seat on May 18 after it was vacant for four months. Whether it was possible for Kang to "dodge" the appointment remains unconfirmed, the situation is quite understandable considering how North Korea bestows actual authority on the No. 2 man while the more public figure takes on the official top seat. Kang, seeking to remain in a position of real power, may have wanted to stay where he is
• Public Welfare Promoted in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 8 (KCNA) -- Efforts to ensure social insurance and social security systems on a high level are being exerted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The example of the Hamju County Farmers' Rest Home has been generalized in all the other rest centers throughout the country with success. The Sokwangsa Rest Home and the recuperation home attached to the Kum Song Tractor Plant are being renovated to suit the requirements of the Songun era. A great care is being shown to affording convenience in the life of the disabled soldiers, war veterans and women and promoting their health. The houses for the aged, houses for the handicapped without kith or kin and convalescent hospitals for disabled soldiers are being facelifted at the state expense in Pyongyang, Jagang Province, South Hamgyong Province and other areas. Subsidies are paid in time to the special disabled soldiers for their health promotion and the preferential supply is being done to their protectors across the country. The special subsidy system for the women with many children is in force on a high level.
• DPRK Strives to Prevent Global Warming
  Pyongyang, June 5 (KCNA) -- The abnormal climate phenomena caused by global warming has been raised today as a hard problem in the world. The UN Environment Programme set "Global Warming" as the theme for this year on the occasion of the World Environment Day (June 5), since it threatens the life and security of humankind. Organized on the occasion of the day in the country were colorful events including a scientific symposium and a national seminar on reducing the emission of atmospheric green- house gases and preventing global warming, and film shows for arousing profound social interest in the issue. Jong Hyong Il, a department director in the Ministry of Land and Environment Preservation, told KCNA that the DPRK which has been suffering from the upward temperature in recent years is conducting varied activities in accordance with the world trend for preventing such phenomena. He went on: It deepens the scientific researches into elevation of energy efficiency and utilization of regenerated energy and directs efforts to the work for applying the results. The construction of large and minor hydro-power stations is being pushed ahead through an all-people movement and application of wind power positively encouraged. An effort to improve the efficiency of solar batteries is being made, too. Meanwhile, a brisk tree-planting campaign is being launched to increase the adsorption of carbon. The DPRK, a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol and the Montreal Protocol on Substances Destroying Ozone Layer, is doing its best to restrict and reduce the emission of atmospheric green-house gases as much as possible.
• Rumors Say Kim Jong-il's Health Deteriorating
  NIS 'Checking Rumors That Kim Jong-il Is Sick'
  South Korean intelligence officials are investigating information that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health has deteriorated recently, a source said. "The National Intelligence Service has obtained information that the reclusive leader Kim's diabetes and heart disease have been worsening. This information is more reliable than former rumors," a government official said. "It is known that U.S. intelligence officials are also looking into similar information," the official added. Kim was born in 1942 and is 66 years old this year. He has conducted official activities 23 times from January 1 to May 27 this year, which is half the number of activities he led by this time last year.
• North Korea: The Nadir of Freedom
  Kondgan Oh The Newsletter of FPRI’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education May 2007 Vol. 12, No. 16 Kondgan Oh is a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author of North Korea Through the Looking Glass (Brookings, 2000). This essay is based on her presentation at the May 5-6, 2007 Living Without Freedom: A History Institute for Teachers, sponsored by FPRI’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education, held at and co-sponsored by the National Constitution Center and the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia. FPRI’s History Institute program is chaired by David Eisenhower and Walter A. McDougall and receives core support from the Annenberg Foundation. The program on Living without Freedom was supported by a grant from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Videotapes and texts of this and other lectures are available online. North Korea is a country devastated by tyrannical rule, famine, death, and a strict caste system. A small country, it is nonetheless important because it’s located in the middle of the dynamic Northeast Asia region, surrounded by China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan. Also, its weapons capabilities are among the world’s most deadly. It tested a nuclear weapon on October 8, 2006, and is unlikely to cease its pursuit of these weapons. Unlike East Germany, North Korea has had no mass exodus. By early 2007, 10,000 North Koreans had defected to South Korea. The U.S. has few North Koreans; those that are here are generally attached to the UN mission.
• North Korean leader happy in home skies: expert
  By Jack Kim Reuters Sunday, May 27, 2007; 2:47 AM SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has no problem flying, crisscrossing his rugged country on military planes, contrary to popular belief that he avoids air travel at all cost, a South Korean expert said. Media reports and diplomats have said Kim -- like his late father -- has a debilitating aversion to flying and almost always travels by train or motorcade under tight secrecy. "Not much has been known about Kim Jong-il's air travel, but when you look at his movement on field guidance at military bases, he doesn't seem to have a particular aversion to flying," said Ko Jae-hong of the Institute for National Security Strategy. [Kim Jong Il] [Disinformation]
• North Korea Resumes Jamming Broadcasts
  By HANS GREIMEL The Associated Press Thursday, May 24, 2007; 8:42 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- Communist North Korea has resumed jamming short wave radio broadcasts from outside the country after a break of several months, an international media watchdog group said. The reclusive country has been trying to block such broadcasts _ by groups such as the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia _ for nearly half a century, but the jamming had been in substantial decline since lMacro running .......ast July, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement released Wednesday. On May 11, however, North Korea began stepping up its jamming of independent and dissident broadcasts. The group denounced the jamming as a "violation of international law."
• N Korea gets less severe on escapees
  By Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: May 3 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 3 2007 03:00 International pressure is causing North Korea to change the way it treats those caught trying to flee the country, although torture and imprisonment re-main commonplace, a leading South Korean human rights watchdog said yesterday. In a new report based on interviews with 20 former political prisoners, the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights said since 2002 North Korean authorities had slowly begun to treat differently those caught leaving. "Simple escapers" to China were now interrogated for shorter periods, while those trying to get to South Korea, a voyage considered an act of treachery, received much harsher treatment, former prisoners told the group.
• DPRK Strives to Reduce Levels of Greenhouse Gases
  Pyongyang, April 22 (KCNA) -- The DPRK government is taking an active part in the international activities for reducing levels of industrial gases, which are of great significance in solving the global environment issue. The air pollution by the waste gas from diesel engines claims 800,000 in the world every year and the emission amount of carbon dioxide, the factor of the global warming, has been increased by 30 percent as compared with that two decades ago. The issue of reducing levels of the greenhouse gases threatening the existence and development of the humankind is one common to all the countries around the world. The DPRK government has drawn up a strategy for reducing greenhouse gases and taken positive measures for its implementation.
• Regional Consultation on Strengthening Health Systems Based on PHC Approach Held
  Pyongyang, April 20 (KCNA) -- The WHO Southeast Asian Regional Consultation on Strengthening Health Systems based on PHC Approach was held at the People's Palace of Culture from April 18 to 20. It was attended by a delegation of the Regional Office for South-East Asia of the World Health Organization led by Director Samlee Plianbangchang and delegations and delegates from the DPRK, Nepal, East Timor, Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Thailand, diplomatic envoys of various countries and representatives of international organizations here.
• North Korea Names New Military Head: Yonhap
  By REUTERS Published: April 22, 2007 Filed at 3:49 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has named a new military chief after his predecessor was appointed as the deputy of the National Defense Commission following 12 years in the top military post, Yonhap news agency said on Sunday. It said the North's official KCNA news agency had named the new military chief in a report carried in late on Saturday. KCNA said General Kim Kyok-sik, chief of the general staff of the Korean People's Army, had accompanied leader Kim Jong-il on an inspection of two military bases. It did not elaborate.
• Kim Yong Il Elected Premier of DPRK Cabinet
  Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Il was elected premier of the DPRK Cabinet at the 5th Session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK. Born on May 2, Juche 33(1944), he served in the Korean People's Army for nine years from Juche 50(1961) and then graduated from the University of Marine Transport to obtain the qualification of navigation officer. After spending three years as a three-revolution team member, he worked as instructor and deputy director of a general bureau of the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport for 14 years. He was minister of Land and Marine Transport from Juche 83(1994) till he was elected premier of the Cabinet.  
• Kim Yong-il Elected North Korean Premier
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Kim Yong-il North Korea’s legislature on Wednesday elected Transport Minister Kim Yong-il as the country’s new premier, the North’s state-controlled news agency reported. He replaces Pak Pong-ju who has been accused of embezzling some of the national budget, the report said. According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim was elected as the new premier in a plenary session of the North’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), a rubber-stamp legislature of the Stalinist state. Kim, 62, rose to his position after starting his bureaucratic career as a rank-and-filer in the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport. He is known to have expert knowledge in economic affairs.
• 5th Session of 11th SPA of DPRK Held
  Pyongyang, April 11 (KCNA) -- The 5th session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK was held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Wednesday. General Secretary Kim Jong Il attended the session. Present there were deputies to the SPA. Officials of the Party, military and power organs, social organizations, ministries and national institutions and officials in the fields of science, education, culture and art, public health and media were present there as observers.
  The session relieved Deputy Pak Pong Ju of premiership and elected Deputy Kim Yong Il premier of the Cabinet of the DPRK. Deputy Kim Yong Chun was elected vice-chairman of the NDC of the DPRK at the session.
• Report on Results of Implementation of Last Year's State Budget and State Budget for This Year
  Pyongyang, April 11 (KCNA) -- Deputy to the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly Ro Tu Chol, vice-premier of the Cabinet, delivered a report on the results of implementation of the state budget of the DPRK for Juche 95 (2006) and its state budget for Juche 96 (2007) at the fifth session of the 11th SPA held on Wednesday. According to the report, the state budgetary revenue last year was fulfilled at 97.5 percent as compared with that under plan or a jump of 4.4 percent over that in the previous year
  15.8 percent of the total state budgetary expenditure will be allocated for national defence.
• SPA Hears Report on Work of Cabinet Last Year and Its Tasks for This Year
  Pyongyang, April 11 (KCNA) -- Deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly Kwak Pom Gi, vice-premier of the Cabinet, delivered a report on the work of the DPRK Cabinet in Juche 95 (2006) and its tasks for Juche 96 (2007) at the fifth session of the eleventh SPA held on Wednesday. According to the report, precious successes were made in socialist economic construction last year; the total revenue in the sectors of the national economy grew as compared with that in the previous year and the production of major industrial goods showed a marked increase in the same period.
• N.Korean Premier Sacking May Signal More Opening
  By REUTERS Published: April 12, 2007 Filed at 3:22 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's appointment of a new premier suggests the impoverished and isolated state wants to open up more and bring in real economic reform, analysts in the South said on Thursday. A brief mention at the end of a state news agency report on Wednesday's meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly said Pak Pong-ju had been removed and replaced by Land and Transport Minister Kim Yong-il. No reason was given. ``I think North Korea has reached a point where they think it is necessary to actually build an economy even if it takes changing the leader,'' Yoo Ho-yeol, professor of North Korean studies at Korea University, said. Once seen as a rising star to lead the country's nascent economic reforms, analysts said Pak may have fallen foul of the powerful military and some cited speculation he was sacked for corruption.
• North Korea Replaces Prime Minister
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 11, 2007 Filed at 11:17 a.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea replaced its prime minister Wednesday during a session of its rubber-stamp parliament, the country's state media reported. Pak Pong Ju was relieved of the premiership and replaced by Kim Yong Il, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, without giving any reasons for the shuffle. Pak, previously the minister of chemical industries, had been appointed in 2003 in a move that was believed to indicate the North's attempts to revive its moribund economy. His replacement Kim had served as transport minister since 2003. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il attended the meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, KCNA reported, but apparently did not make any comments there. [Economic reform]
• Public Health Services in DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea keeps paying much effort to the public health services. The public health organs at all levels are vaccinating all the people, young and old, men and women, against various kinds of diseases in conformity with the policy of prophylactic treatment of the Workers' Party of Korea. A spring clean-up campaign is being vigorously launched at residential quarters and working sites to keep clean the surroundings for the purpose of eliminating the sources of diseases with the help of the hygienic and anti-epidemic institutions at all levels. Meanwhile, radios, TV and publications regularly give hygienic knowledge to prevent and wipe out epidemics. Preventive injection and medicines are being mass-produced to be supplied to the inhabitants free of charge.
• Anniversary of Chondoism Observed
  Pyongyang, April 5 (KCNA) -- The "Heaven Day Ceremony" was held in Pyongyang Thursday to commemorate the 147th anniversary of the foundation of Chondoism. Present there were Chairwoman Ryu Mi Yong, Advisor O Ik Je and officials of the Korean Chondoist Church Central Guidance Committee and Chondoists in Pyongyang. [Religion]
• NK Defector Offers Glimpses of Life in Pyongyang
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Lim Il, a North Korean defector-turned-author, speaks in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul Thursday. /Korea Times Photo by Shim Hyun-chul Take a guess as to whether sneaky middle-aged men sexually molest women in packed commuter buses in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, just as takes place in capitalist Seoul. Lim Il, 39, a North Korean defector-turned-author who resides in Seoul, says ``yes, they do'' and actually ``they do a lot of it.'' ``It's not rare to witness men groping women's butts during rush hours in the strict Stalinist state,'' Lim said in an interview with The Korea Times Thursday. ``Well, I saw such cases more than once a week. That's probably because there are no red-light districts allowed in Pyongyang and women don't have cell-phones to call the police.'' [Media]
• N Korea envoys 'keeping children'
  North Korea's Beijing embassy is reportedly not co-operating North Korean diplomats stationed overseas are reportedly refusing an order to send their children home, according to South Korean media. The order was issued earlier this year in an apparent attempt to stop defections from the hardline regime. It said diplomats should send all but one of their children back to North Korea by the end of March. But South Korea's Yonhap news agency said diplomats were resisting the order, in an "unprecedented" move. Yonhap quoted an unnamed source as saying the incident could trigger a "major political scandal", given how unusual it is for North Korea's ruling Communist Party to be disobeyed.  
• Session of DPRK Supreme People's Assembly to Be Convened
  Pyongyang, March 22 (KCNA) -- The fifth session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK will be convened here on April 11, Juche 96 (2007), according to a decision of its Presidium promulgated Wednesday.
• Former Unconverted Long-term Prisoner Receives Birthday Spread
  Pyongyang, March 22 (KCNA) -- Choe Ha Jong, an indomitable patriotic fighter for reunification, who was a former unconverted long-term prisoner, greeted his 80th birthday. A benevolent birthday spread sent by Kim Jong Il was conveyed to him on March 21. Born in Ryongho-ri, Kim Chaek City, North Hamgyong Province, on March 21, Juche 16 (1927), he went to an alien land with a dream of learning, burdened by the sorrow of national ruin, but he could not realize his hope of youth. Only in the embrace of the true motherland liberated by President Kim Il Sung could he lead a worthy life and become a student of Kim Il Sung University and a member of the Workers' Party of Korea. During the Fatherland Liberation War he joined the Korean People's Army and fought bravely for the victory in the war. Later he was arrested by the enemy while fighting heroically for the reunification of the country. But he remained true to his principle as a revolutionary to the end for 36 years. [Human rights]
• Romanian Woman 'Kidnapped by N.Korea in 1978'
  Updated Mar.22,2007 09:05 KST   A Romanian woman who went missing in Rome in 1978 was abducted by a North Korean agent and lived in the North for some two decades, the Romanian daily Evenimentul Zilei reported in its March 20 issue. Doina Bumbea was 27 when she went missing. [Abductees] [Bizarre]
• Women Centenarians
  Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- The number of long-lived persons is increasing in the DPRK. Kim Pu Yong residing in Tongmyong-dong, Rason City, and Choe Kil Bok in Jangbaek-dong, Munchon City, recently celebrated their centenary birthdays. These women centenarians did not lay their work aside even after retiring on a pension and have always led an optimistic life. They love national dishes including kimchi and bean past soup, not having unbalanced diet. Kim Jong Il sent birthday spreads to them
• North Korea's Cruelty
  By Kay Seok Saturday, March 17, 2007; Page A19 SEOUL -- North Korea is again dominating headlines by signing a deal to close its main nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors to return in exchange for energy and economic assistance. As North Korea watchers cautiously welcome this possible step toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, a deeply disturbing development has garnered almost no attention: Pyongyang's hardening policy toward North Korean border-crossers. [Human rights]
• Home of N.Korean Leader's Son 'Burgled'
    Intelligence services have information that the Macau home of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Kim Jong-nam was burgled, sources say. Authorities are trying to confirm the information. A government official in Seoul told a reporter there was a rumor that homes in an exclusive villa complex in Coloane Island were broken into, and related government offices and police are investigating. The Zhuyuan Haoyuan villa complex is 15 minutes from downtown Macau and its 80 villas are among the territory's most exclusive. The average price of each villa is estimated HK$15 million, roughly US$1.92 million. Yellow sunflower symbols adorning the doors of nos. 361 and 371 easily identify them as Kim Jong-nam's.
• National Meeting Marks International Women's Day
  Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- A national meeting to mark the 97th anniversary of the International Women's Day was held at the People's Palace of Culture Thursday. The meeting was attended by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, senior officials of working people's organizations, women officials, women labor innovators and women in Pyongyang and Korean women from Japan staying in the socialist homeland. Present there on invitation were women of foreign embassies and missions of international organizations here.
• NK Diplomats Ordered to Send Kids Home
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter North Korean diplomats and those who work at overseas branches of state-run trading companies have been ordered to send their children home except for one child by the end of this month, sources said. The order was issued on Feb. 14, after a one-month-and-a-half notice, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. In the early 1990s, the North ordered its students abroad to return home during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakdown of the Berlin Wall. But this was the first time for Pyongyang to call home the children of diplomats and officials at trading companies.
• N Korea 'cracks down on escapees'
  A protest in Seoul last month over treatment of would-be defectors North Korea has toughened its line on people who try to flee across the border into China, a new report by a rights watchdog says. Human Rights Watch says that even those who are trying to cross the border for the first time face years in prison. It says repatriated escapees can spend up to five years in political prison camps and are beaten and starved. The group says the North Korean government "persecutes its citizens for simply trying to survive". North Korea has so far made no comment on the report.
• N. Korean Leader Kim Considers 'group Leadership' system: Sources
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il might consider a "collective" leadership system after he leaves office, a move away from the long-anticipated father-to-son power transfer, Yonhap News reported on Feb. 25, 2007
• Measles Outbreak Infects 3,000 N.Koreans
  A measles epidemic broke out across North Korea infecting some 3,000 people and causing four deaths, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Monday. The IFRC in Geneva, Switzerland, said that since the outbreak last November, 3,000 North Koreans have been infected and 1,013 have been treated by local health authorities, Reuters reported. The IRFC said, "The continued presence of the measles is accompanied by a risk of increasing cases and the further spread of the illness to other parts of the country." North Korean public health authorities requested 5 million doses of measles vaccine from international bodies such as IFRC and WHO.
• 4 Dies From Measles Epidemic in North Korea
  A measles epidemic has claimed at least four lives and infected about 3,000 people in North Korea, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Monday. The federation said in a statement that measles has been found in 30 North Korean counties since the outbreak started in November last year. It added that four deaths were reported on Jan. 4 when two children and two adults died from measles and its complications such as pneumonia. Around 3,000 North Koreans were confirmed to have infected with the disease. Pyongyang has asked international organizations for massive doses of vaccine to prevent further spread of the epidemic. The North has requested 5 million doses of measles vaccine to immunize its citizens aged from seven to 45. The requested doses cost $1.5 million, and North Korea will pay the costs for transportation, distribution and staff training.
• N Korea guards 'face execution'
  Two North Korean soldiers are thought to be at immediate risk of execution for helping North Koreans flee to China, Amnesty International says. It said the two border guards were due to be executed in January, but this was postponed until after the leader Kim Jong-il's 65th birthday last Friday. Amnesty International is calling for international pressure to be put on the North Korean leadership over the issue.
• North Korea Marks Leader's 65th Birthday
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Friday, February 16, 2007; 12:12 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- Thousands of people danced and brought flowers in North Korea's capital Friday to celebrate the 65th birthday of "dear leader" Kim Jong Il, amid progress in ending its nuclear programs and speculation abroad over who will eventually succeed him.
• Kim Jong-il celebrates his 65th
  Peter Walker and agencies Friday February 16, 2007 Guardian Unlimited   North Korea celebrated leader Kim Jong-il's 65th birthday today with the expected mix of public marches, lavish personal praise and fierce anti-US rhetoric.
• Foreign Guests Arrive
     Pyongyang, February 14 (KCNA) -- Foreign guests flew into Pyongyang Tuesday to join the visitors to the secret camp in Mt. Paektu on the occasion of the birthday of Kim Jong Il. They included General Secretary of the Bangladesh Peace Council Kamal Hyder who is vice-president of the World Peace Council, Abdel Azim El Maghraby, asst. secretary general of the Arab Lawyers Union, Don Borrie, chairman of the New Zealand-DPRK Society who is co-chairman of the Oceanic Committee for Solidarity with the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, K. S. Rao, chairman of the Indian Committee for Supporting Korea's Reunification, a Chinese delegation headed by Chen Jun, executive deputy secretary-general of the China Association for International Friendly Contact, Norma G. Binas, vice-president of the Philippines Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification in the Korean Peninsula, Ristiyanto, secretary general of the Indonesia-Korea Association for Friendship and Cultural Exchange, Hector Figueroa, major of Catamayo, Loja in Ecuador, Daniel Alvarez Celi, chairman of the Ecuadorian Committee for Supporting Korea's Independent and Peaceful Reunification, Tania Alvarado Chavez, president of the Ecuador-Guayaquil Institute for Friendship with the Korean People, Trotsky Serano, president of the Canar Provincial Institute for the Friendship and Solidarity with the DPRK of Ecuador, Francis F. Lyimo, vice-chairman of the Tanzania-DPRK Friendship Association, Anders Kristensen, secretary general of the Nordic Cooperation Committee for Friendship and Solidarity with the Korean People and chairman of the Denmark-DPRK Friendship Association, Martin Lotscher, president of the Swiss Committee for Supporting the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a delegation of the "Jongilbong" Russia-Korea Friendship Association of Ulyanovsk Region led by Aleksandr Kruzlikov, first secretary of the Ulyanovsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Meinolf Mario Wulf, representative of the Association for Friendship with the Korean People headquartered in Spain.     Arriving on the same day by train were D. Tsakhilgaan, president of the Union for Peace and Friendship of Mongolia, and his party, a delegation of the Nepal Journalist Association led by its Chairman Manju Ratna Sakya, a delegation of the Mongolia-Korea Friendship Society led by its Executive Chairman B. Baigalmaa.     Arriving here earlier were Ludmila Levkova, chief of the Russia-Korea Children's Friendship Association Named after Kim Jong Il of 11th Middle School in Khabarovsk City, Russia, and her party, a delegation of the Australia-DPRK Association for Friendship and Cultural Exchange led by its National Secretary Raymond Ferguson, Noboru Kameda, representative of the Japan-DPRK Cultural Society, Takashi Nata, representative of the Ehime Institute for Modern Korea Studies of Japan, Zhang Qi, grandson of Zhang Weihua, anti-Japanese revolutionary martyr, and Song Shukuan, general manager of the Zaoyuan Fish Breeding Company of China.
• Pyongyang Abustle with Preparations for Lunar New Year's Day
     Pyongyang, February 14 (KCNA) -- Working people and schoolchildren in Pyongyang are busy with preparations for the lunar New Year's Day (February 18).     Schoolchildren are engrossed in preparing the New Year performance rich in national tinge.     The Pyongyang Circus and State Comic Troupe are perfecting the depiction of art works of new themes at the final stage to give laugh and joy to the citizens.     Industrial establishments and neighborhood units are planning to play such folk games as yut and Korean chess on the holiday. Schoolchildren are holding tug-of-war, kite-flying, top-spinning and other folk games at their schools and classes by league match method.     Shops, the Okryu Restaurant, the Chongryu Restaurant, fun-fairs and other service facilities are also absorbed in making full preparation to receive customers.     Korean costume companies are busy at making ordered folk dresses for women, old persons and children.     All the families are securing holiday foodstuffs and cleaning their houses.
• Nuke Deal Touches Few Pyongyang Residents
  There was no indication in the streets of Pyongyang on Tuesday that six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program had reached a historic agreement in Beijing the same day. Pyongyang citizens were unaware of the news while the city was busy with preparations for the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Feb 16., the North’s biggest holiday. [Agreement070213]
• Book sheds light on life in N.K. army
  Defector says S.K. perception mired in stereotype
  Contrary to rumors of brutality among the ranks, according to a book by a North Korean defector, there is no corporal punishment and detention within the North Korean Army.
  Instead, ranked officers draw a square on the practice grounds and have the rule-breakers do a "formal march" (the North Korean parade walk) along the outline of the square. The military detention system was also abolished in the 1960s. In other cases, a soldier who disobeys the orders of his/her squad leader will be pressed to assume responsibility for their action, and then faces a ‘mutual verbal critique’ during the daily assembly. The book, Would North Korean Soldiers Have Hardtacks? by Lee Jeong-yeon, a 38-year old ex-DPRK soldier, was written to give "a more accurate and objective information on the DPRK armed forces to the South Koreans," Lee said. The work highlights many of the details of North Korean military life. [Daily life] [Human rights] [Defector report] [EWA]
• Kim Jong-il's Son Makes Surprise Appearance in Beijing
  Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, appeared in Beijing on Sunday. Immigration officials at Shoudu Airport in Beijing said that Kim Jong-nam was included on a list of VIPs who arrived in the Chinese capital that day. Kim, wearing a cap, sunglasses, and blue jeans, was first spotted in the afternoon by Japanese television crews at the airport. He stopped briefly in front of a hotel in Beijing to answer reporters' questions. “I have nothing to do with the six-party talks or the ongoing talks regarding the U.S. financial sanctions on North Korea. I came here for a personal reason,” Kim said. When asked about the possibility of his succession to North Korea’s leadership, he said that he had nothing to say on the matter. Kim arrived in Beijing by a direct flight from Macau. People are guessing that he may head next to Pyongyang for the Feb. 16 birthday of his father.
• NK Leader's Eldest Son in Beijing
  The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is in Beijing for a brief stop on his way back home, Yonhap News Agency reported today. "Kim Jong-nam, 35, arrived in Beijing Sunday to visit Pyongyang to attend his father's birthday party," Yonhap reported quoting one of Kim’s friends. "He will fly to Pyongyang on Tuesday and come back to Beijing after the event."
• Kim Jong-il’s Son Living Life of Riley in Macau
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s eldest son Kim Jong-nam has been living in Macau with his family for 10 years, sources say. Several Macanese who met the younger Kim say he has fake Portuguese and Dominican Republic passports and frequently travels to Beijing, Bangkok, Vienna and Moscow
• Kim Jong-il's Son Caught on Candid Camera
  The eldest son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam, got caught on camera at a five-star hotel in Macau by Japan's TBS television on Friday afternoon. Kim denied his identity, saying “No” when a TBS reporter asked whether he was Kim Jong-nam. The Japanese reporter then asked Kim’s opinion on the economic sanctions on North Korea, but Kim only answered, “I have nothing to say.” Both spoke in English. The reporter got the same answer when he asked Kim whether he was on vacation. Queried if he was staying in the city’s luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kim junior said, “I can’t tell you. My private life.” Kim then grabbed a taxi, named the destination in Chinese and disappeared.
• Makgolli, Folk Drink of Korea
  Pyongyang, January 30 (KCNA) -- The Korean people are fond of Makgolli (unrefined liquor), a folk drink. From olden times the Korean peasants have been used to gather together at break and lunch time and to relieve themselves from fatigue, drinking Makgolli. Makgolli is made mainly with starch. The boiled and cooled starch is mixed with malt and some boiled rice. The mixture is fermented for five-seven days at the temperature of 25-27 degrees centigrade and 75 percent of relative humidity. It is filtered out before drinking. It contains alcohol below ten percent and a lot of nutritive elements including sugar. It tastes sour and sweet and makes the drinkers exhilarant. It is also applicable for disease treatment. Makgolli made from the boiled root bark of Acanthopanax sessiliflorum and hulled adlay makes spleen, stomach and intestines healthy. And it is efficacious for treating such diseases as arthritis and neuralgia.
• Day of Buddha's Attainment of Great Wisdom Marked
  Pyongyang, January 26 (KCNA) -- Masses praying for national reunification took place at different temples of the DPRK on Friday to mark the Day of Buddha's Attainment of Great Wisdom. Present at the masses were office bearers of the Central Committee of the Korean Buddhist Federation and its provincial, city and county committees, priests of temples and believers.
• Korea Education Fund Gets Brisk
  Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) -- The Korea Education Fund is active in backing educational institutions in the DPRK. Ri Yong, secretary of the KEF, said, in an interview with KCNA, that Koreans at home and abroad and political, public and educational figures and organizations in many countries have been rendering a lot of material and financial assistance to the DPRK in its educational work proceeding from the lofty humanitarian idea in accordance with the call of the Korea Education Fund (KEF) established in January Juche 94 (2005). Its support, he went on to say, has been given to the insufficient educational apparatuses and school things, improvement of infrastructure of educational institutions and studying conditions at schools and to training of personnel. In a recent year alone, organizations in Germany, Canada and other countries and members of the Germany Agro Action (GAA) in the European Union Office in the DPRK rendered a large amount of finance and materials. Especially the Koreans residing in China, Canada and other countries donated scientific and technical books of various fields and facilities to the KEF to help the improvement of educational conditions and the development of education. The KEF hails all the donators at home and abroad on the principle of good intentions and voluntariness and will continue to promote the tradition of international cooperation. It is situated in Ryonhwa-Dong No 2, Central District, Pyongyang. (E-mail: kef@co.chesin.com, Homepage: www.koredufund.com) [Training] [Opening]
• Contaminated Beef in North Korea
  Mysterious disease reportedly leaves victims looking like 'sliced meat' Robert Neff (neff) Email Article Print Article Published 2007-01-16 05:00 (KST) In a country infamous for famines, it is no wonder that cattle in North Korea are prized so highly and considered "national property." According to government sources, North Korea had about 575,000 head of cattle in 2002, but considering the recent floods and food shortages this number may have dropped. In addition to the floods and food shortages, North Koreans must contend with the bovine diseases that cause health concerns not only to the cattle, but also for the people. The most serious incident took place in the summer of last year. It began in the North Korean region of Yanggang. A horrible and mysterious disease which the frightened residents called "leprosy" for its horrible devastation of its victims causing them to break out in boils and oozing skin that progressed to the point that, as one North Korean defector described it, left its victims looking "like pieces of sliced meat."
• North conducts emergency drill of top security
  Exercise believed to be preparation for an unforeseen change in power
  January 15, 2007 ? Several security organs directly in charge of the safety of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, conducted an emergency drill in Pyongyang on Friday, intelligence sources from South Korea and the United States said. Military troops and tanks from the Pyongyang Defense Command were deployed rapidly while increased military communications were noted that day. In addition, the Escort Bureau, in charge of protecting Mr. Kim, also had a busy day, the sources said. The incident sparked a flurry of activity by the South's intelligence community, as the increased military activity in the North's capital did not fit the usual pattern of winter drills conducted by the North's military. The fact that security organs closely guarding the North's leader's safety were involved in the activities sparked momentary suspicion among some sources that a military coup might have occurred in the North.
• Kim Jong-il ‘Won’t Quit Till He’s 90’
  Right after North Korea conducted its nuclear test on Oct. 9 last year, the hermit nation’s leader Kim Jong-il said, "I’m going to be the longest-serving leader in the world. I can rule this nation till I’m 80 or 90," according to a Japanese newspaper. Since then, any mention of the succession has been taboo in the North, the Mainichi Shimbun said Thursday.
• . Korean foreign minister dies
  North Korea's foreign minister, who was suffering from chronic disease, has died, the communist country's official media reported Wednesday. He was 78. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a wreath of flowers to the altar set up for Paek Nam-sun, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The KCNA provided no details about the cause of his death or the date. "(North Korean) Leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday sent a wreath to the bier of late Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, deputy to the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, expressing deep condolences over his death," the report said.
  Paek was born in Ryanggang Province in 1929, and graduated from Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang. He served as foreign minister for the communist country since 1998. Using his alias Paek Nam-jun, Paek attended major inter-Korean meetings held in the 1990s and served at key posts for the North's Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland and other political organs. Paek is reported to have received medical treatment for his disease in Kuala Lumpur in July 2006 when he led the North Korean delegation to the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). He was allegedly suffering from chronic kidney problems.
• North's foreign minister, 77, is dead
  January 04, 2007 ? North Korea's foreign minister, Paek Nam-sun, has died, the country's official news outlet said yesterday. He was 77. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a floral tribute to Mr. Paek's family, the Korean Central News Agency said. The short report included no details on the cause or place of his death. North Korea watchers and South Korean government officials said the North's foreign policy will probably not change because of his death; he did not appear in a list of North Korea's power elite. In Seoul, the administration met last night to consider whether or not to send a condolence message. No decision had been announced as of late evening.
• Military influence broadens in Kim Jong-il's North
  January 04, 2007 ? Since its founder Kim Il Sung's death in 1994, North Korea's political landscape has been transformed dramatically, and military officials have solidified their standing in the power elite of the communist country. They have elbowed aside civilian politicians and bureaucrats, a new analysis shows, and the data confirm that the North's "Military first" political slogan is much more than rhetoric.
• N. Korean Foreign Minister Dies
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, who was suffering from a chronic disease, has died, the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Wednesday. He was 78. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a wreath of flowers to the bier of the late foreign minister, expressing deep condolences over his death, the report said. The report, however, did not provide details on how or when Paek died. Born in 1929 in Ryanggang Province, a highland area near the North Korea-China border, Paek graduated from Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang and began his diplomatic career in the 1960s. He has worked as foreign minister since 1998.
• Joint New Year Editorial Issued
  Press Release No. 1 Embassy of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in Canberra
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi today released a joint editorial under the title "Usher in a Great Heyday of Songun Korea Full of Confidence in Victory" on the occasion of the hope-filled New Year. (By email from DPRK embassy, Canberra)
• Pyongyang on New Year's Day
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- The New Year's Day of Juche 96 (2007) has come. From the early morning, streams of the Korean people visit statues of the great President Kim Il Sung, the eternal sun of Juche, with floral baskets and bunches of flowers to make a New Year's bow to him. Officers and men of the Korean People's Army, working people of all strata and school youth and children in Pyongyang visit his statue on Mansu Hill with the pride of having adorned the year 2006 with great labor successes. They are full of optimism and firm resolution to perform feats in the hopeful New Year.
• North Korea vows to strengthen military power in New Year
  North Korea vowed Monday it will continue to uphold in the new year its military-first policy that has helped it develop nuclear weapons and strive to rebuild its moribund economy. In a joint newspaper editorial that summed up its policy goals for 2007, the hard-line communist country also called for unflinching loyalty to leader Kim Jong-il who will turn 65. "Our access to a nuclear deterrent was an auspicious event in the national history as it meant the realization of the Korean people's centuries-old desire to have national strength no one could dare challenge," said the editorial carried jointly by newspapers representing the North's party, military and youth militia.
• North Korea goes it alone
  [EDITORIALS] North Korea stressed in New Year's editorials of its major publications, such as Rodong Sinmun, that the country needed to become an economically strong nation. The editorials of the North's official mouthpieces, which these major publications essentially are used as, are an official guideline that serves as a direction for the North's political, economic, foreign affairs and inter-Korean relationships ? in short, all aspects of the North's society. As the editorials have emphasized the importance of growth, it is likely that the North will put its efforts behind reviving its ailing economy.
• Joint New Year Editorial Issued
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi today released a joint editorial under the title "Usher in a Great Heyday of Songun Korea Full of Confidence in Victory" on the occasion of the hope-filled New Year. The DPRK has never seen in the annals of the protracted and arduous Korean revolution such year as 2006 in which the position of the country was justifiably raised to the level of powerful one and the dignity of the Korean nation was vigorously demonstrated, the editorial says, proudly reviewing the epoch-making events and historical victories gained last year.
• N. Korea Stresses Economic Revival
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea's New Year joint newspaper editorial on Monday underlined that it will strive to modernize its economy. The editorial also said Pyongyang will continue strengthening its defense power by focusing on ``songun'' or ``military-first'' policy that enabled it to conduct an underground nuclear test last October
• N. Korea Builds Hospital Ward for Bird Flu Patients
  North Korea has finished construction on a hospital ward for patients with bird flu and other contagious diseases with financial support from the World Health Organization (WHO), a media report said Sunday. The WHO had been helping North Korea to build the isolated ward inside a Pyongyang hospital since June, said the Chosun Sinbo, published by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

2006

• Rodong Sinmun Reviews This Year's Achievements
  Pyongyang, December 26 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun terms this year a year of great leap in which the cause of building a prosperous powerful nation of Juche has been put on a higher stage of development and broad vistas opened up for the country and the nation. This year the army and the people of the DPRK made radical changes in politics, military affairs, economy, culture and all other fields under the Songun leadership of Kim Jong Il, ushering in a new heyday of national prosperity, the daily says in a by-lined article today, and goes on:
• Korean News Service Photo service
  DPRK photos, text in Korean
• N.K. general to lead if Kim loses power
  A top military commander is expected to take the reins in North Korea in the event its leader Kim Jong-il loses power during an emergency, a South Korean parliamentary report said yesterday. The report on a possible North Korean crisis pinpointed General Oh Geuk-ryul, chief of central combat operations of the Workers' Party, as the strongest candidate to take contingency leadership of the communist country.
• Unique Theory on People's Guerrilla War in World History of War
  Pyongyang, December 16 (KCNA) --The theory on people's guerrilla war, the unique theory of Juche on armed struggle adds a brilliant page to the world history of war. At the Mingyuegou Meeting on December 16, Juche 20 (1931), President Kim Il Sung advanced a proposition that the people are the state, the people are the home front and the people are the regular army.
  When the war starts, the people will become soldiers and rise up. Therefore, the guerrilla warfare which we shall wage can be called a people's war. [Role of NK military] [Songun]
• 'Kim Jong-il's Death Won't Lead North to Collapse'
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter North Korea would be sustained by one of its top military officials even after its reclusive leader Kim Jong-il’s death, a National Assembly committee reported Monday. The report issued by the Assembly’s intelligence committee admitted that an emergency situation would be sparked by Kim’s death. It said, however, that top military officials, especially Gen. Oh Guk-ryol, 75, would mobilize troops to stabilize the management of state affairs. The report said that Kim’s top priority is not to establish diplomatic relations with the United States and gain economic aid, but rather to appoint a successor to maintain the North’s current political system.
• Kim Jong-il: Strategy and Psychology
  Mike Mazarr
  December 12, 2006 KEI Washington, DC [Kim Jong Il]
• Korean Student Proves Successful at International Concours
  Pyongyang, December 13 (KCNA) -- Ri Myong Gum, DPRK girl studying at Santa Chechilia Conservatory in Rome, won a prize at an international concours for Giacomo Lauri Volpi Prize held in Latina, Italy, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. The concours drew 80 renowned male and female singers from the DPRK, Italy, Russia, China and other countries and regions. Ri competed in the adult group that comprised 47 famous professional singers and came second to receive a prize and a diploma.
• 70th Anniversary of Monthly Samil Marked
     Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the People's Palace of Culture on November 30 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Monthly Samil, a revolutionary journal founded by President Kim Il Sung. Present there were Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, officials of the press and printing organs, reporters, editors and media persons.
• World AIDS Day Observed
     Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson Friday dedicates an article to World AIDS Day. The day was instituted as a link in the whole chain of the global efforts and activities for preventing and controlling AIDS horribly threatening human lives while rapidly prevailing worldwide, notes the article.     Reviewing many successes recorded in its prevention and treatment with the efforts to prevent it gathering force worldwide, the article says:     Under the wise guidance of Kim Jong Il, the DPRK established the strategy of prevention and control of AIDS with orderly systems of its information, prognostication and watch, and examination across the country. On this basis, measures have been taken not to allow a single AIDS case.     AIDS called "the plague of the 20th century" and "the leprosy of the 20th century" is still threatening the existence of humankind in the 21st century. However, there is no doubt that humankind will totally eradicate it on the earth and get rid of its threat.
• Being Wooed by Kim Jong-il: a Leader’s Wife Writes
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s third wife Ko Young-hee.
  “Jan. 28, 1973 was an extremely cold day. The clock pointed to 11 p.m., so I was about to go to bed when there was a knock at the door. I thought it might be my father, but when I opened the door, I couldn’t be anything but surprised: someone had come to tell me that our Dear General was out there standing in a snowstorm, waiting for me...” A memoir about what it is like to love a man who never came in from the cold, purportedly written by Kim Jong-il’s third wife Ko Young-hee, has hit the bookshelves of Pyongyang. [Kim Jong Il]
• Heredity Consultation Brisk in DPRK
     Pyongyang, November 28 (KCNA) -- Heredity consultation about patients suffering from constitutional diseases is under way on a high scientific level in the Democratic People�fs Republic of Korea. The Heredity Consultation Office of the Hospital Attached to Pyongyang University of Medicine has conducted researches for more than two decades to correctly judge at least 100 kinds of heredity causes, environmental and external factors and diagnose and treat basic diseases that affect the growth of human bodies.     It has studied and put on record all symptoms of amyotrophia before making a remote-controlled observation of them. It is diagnosing such cases and those who have such symptoms through PCR observation and by a chain analyzing method.     This helped find out the women with the above-said symptom in good time and diagnose them before childbirth, making it possible to prevent the birth of babies suffering from amyotrophia.
• Anti-epidemic Work against Bird Flu Intensified in DPRK
     Pyongyang, November 27 (KCNA) -- The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has intensified the anti-epidemic work against bird flu at the turn of the season. This work is under way every year as a nationwide movement under the coordinated guidance of the State Emergency Preventive Committee.     U Song Rim, director of the Central Veterinary and Anti-epizootic Center under the Ministry of Agriculture, told KCNA that the anti-epidemic work against bird flu is brisk as the veterinary and anti-epizootic organizations are playing an increasing role.
• Kimchi-making for Winter at Its Height
     Pyongyang, November 17 (KCNA) -- The season of making Kimchi for the winter has come in Korea. Kimchi, a world-famous foodstuff, is the pride of the Korean women.     It is the ardent wish of the housewives to prepare tasty Kimchi.     Recently, hundreds of women phone the Phyongchon Kimchi Factory every day regarding technical issues raised in making winter Kimchi.     The topic among women is how to prepare tasty Kimchi.     The TVs and the radios introduce the methods of making various kinds of winter Kimchi as well as the powder of Kimchi lactic acid bacilli, fluid for culturing Kimchi lactic acid bacilli, Kimchi fluorine preservative and others which keep the inherent taste of Kimchi and preserve it for months.     Foodstuff shops and public service facilities are crowded with women to purchase condiments needed for Kimchi.
• Central Zoo under Reconstruction
     Pyongyang, November 13 (KCNA) -- The Central Zoo at the foot of Mt. Taesong in Pyongyang, the DPRK, is being refurbished. The projects are being conducted in the direction of providing better living conditions to the animals to suit their physiological characteristics and of ensuring the best conveniences to the visitors.     The reconstruction of elephant, giraffe, chimpanzee and many other animal cages is being vigorously carried on.     The new cages will be furnished with facilities to ensure temperature and ventilation in winter.     Water project is also under way.     Ju Kum Chol, a section chief of the zoo, told KCNA that people would soon enjoy a good holiday in the renovated zoo.
• All People Called upon to Work Hard to Build Rich and Powerful Nation
     Pyongyang, November 12 (KCNA) -- A great prosperous powerful socialist nation of Juche the Korean people are working hard to build means a country in which the sovereign right and interests of the popular masses are fully guaranteed in all fabrics of social life including politics, economy, ideology and culture and a country with strong national power which no enemy dares attack. Building this kind of country would bring the prosperity of Korean style. Rodong Sinmun Sunday says this in a signed article. I
• 12th National Drama Festival Held
  Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- The 12th national drama festival was held here from October 25 till November 2. Dramas created by art organizations in Pyongyang and local areas were juried before being put on the stage. Staged during the festival were nearly 20 dramas and narrative art pieces dealing with the greatness and vitality of the Songun policy of the Workers' Party of Korea and truthfully representing the persevering struggle and admirable life style of the Korean people out in the drive to build a great prosperous powerful nation.
• Activated Insam Capsules for Liver Protection Developed
  Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- Activated insam capsules for liver protection developed by Kanggye University of Medicine in the DPRK are hailed by local and foreign clients for its high efficacy. The drug, made with more than ten Koryo medicinal materials including insam (ginseng), is potent for acute and chronic hepatitis, hepatic cirrhosis, fatty liver, toxic hepatitis, cholecystitis and pancreatitis. It, with strong detox function, detoxifies various poisons including alcoholism and food poisoning. And in case of taking medicinal chemicals together with the drug, the liver can be protected. Taking it after liquors helps eliminating poisonous action on liver by alcohol within two hours. The drug was highly appreciated at the 9th national exhibition of inventions and new technology held in September. It obtained a patent of the DPRK in June this year.
• Animal Resources Increase in DPRK
  Pyongyang, October 31 (KCNA) -- Animal resources have increased in the DPRK as the days go by. In October Juche 45 (1956), President Kim Il Sung saw to it that a decision of the DPRK Cabinet "On Fostering the Character of Loving the Nature among the People and Strengthening the Work for Protection and Propagation of Beneficial Birds and Beasts" was adopted in order to increase the country's natural wealth, and wisely led the activities for carrying it into practice.
• 'Factional warlords could emerge in N.K.'’
  U.S. expert says Kim Jong-il's alliance with military could destabilize regime in the future A destabilization of North Korea's regime could lead to the emergence of factional warlords , a U.S. expert on North Korean military said in a report. Ken E. Gause, a researcher at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's alliance with the military has been a "key buttress" of his rule for the last decade, but has the possibility of destabilizing the regime in the future. "As the North Korean economy has deteriorated under Kim Jong-il, many elites have been forced to compete for privileges and access like never before," Gause said in the 68-page report. "If the regime loses its ability to placate the elite through goods and services, there is a real chance for the creation of factions. If the situation persists, this factionalism could transform itself into centers of opposition to the regime." [Collapse] [Victim] [Predictions]
• Samjiyon County Undergoes Facelift
  Pyongyang, October 30 (KCNA) -- The Samjiyon area, located in the northern part of Korea, is being facelifted more beautifully and colorfully. New kinds of street lamps are being installed in the streets of Samjiyon Township to suit the peculiarities of loop line roads, buildings and residential quarters. Tall lamps are being set up along Potnamu (white birch) Street and other main streets of the township and relatively low lamps being set up along the roads from around the Samjiyon Schoolchildren's Palace to the Lake Samji and the "Kapsan-Musan guard road" to blend well with forest scenery. Garden lamps and clutches of lamps are being installed in the areas around the Paektu Museum, the Chonji Health Complex and other monumental buildings to add beauty to the nocturnal view of the streets. The project started in late September.
• N. Korea Beefs Up Counterintelligence
  North Korea has toughened surveillance of locals suspected of gathering information about its nuclear and military activities in the wake of its Oct. 9 atomic bomb test, the Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday. Quoting an informed source, the report said the Ministry of People's Security, Pyongyang's top police agency, issued a directive to its security agencies on Oct. 15 that they should closely monitor and report suspicious activities.
• North Korean leader's kin hurt in mishap
    October 09, 2006 ? Jang Song-thaek, brother-in-law of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and a senior member of the country's governing Workers' Party, was severely injured in a traffic accident in Pyongyang recently, sources well informed about North Korean affairs said yesterday. Mr. Jang, the first vice department director of the Workers' Party, is considered a member of Pyongyang's power elite. He is married to Kim Kyong-hui, the party's light industry department director and younger sister of Mr. Kim. In August they lost their daughter who reportedly committed suicide while in Paris as a student.
• Kim Jong Il Absolutely Trusted by World People
  Pyongyang, October 5 (KCNA) -- The progressives repose profound trust in Kim Jong Il today when the people's struggle for independence has entered on a new high phase, says Rodong Sinmun in a signed article Thursday. Personages of different strata, political parties and organizations of various countries sent a large number of wholehearted gifts, congratulatory letters and messages of greetings to him and influential news media gave wide coverage of his revolutionary activities, the article says, and goes on: [In denial] [Bizarre]  
• Initiation of Munitions Industry in DPRK
  Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) -- Today the DPRK has a powerful munitions industry to produce any weapons and combat material and technical equipment. President Kim Il Sung visited the Phyongchon plain in early October Juche 34 (1945) right after the liberation of the country to initiate the munitions industry. In order to build a new Korea before the foundation of the Party, state and regular army, he went out to the plain to found the national defence industry prior to his visit to the workers of the Kangson Steel Works. He said that the fight against the imperialists was not over and the victor should be armed with more and more weapons.
• International Day of Elder Persons Observed
  Pyongyang, October 1 (KCNA) -- Papers here today dedicate by-lined articles to the International Day of Elder Persons. The issue of senility is one of great global concern, but the issue of elder persons is resolved right in Korea thanks to the deep attention and popular policy of the Party and the state, Rodong Sinmun says, and goes on:
• Female Inmates in North Face Compulsory Abortion
  By Kim Rahn Staff Reporter Female inmates in North Korea are forced to have abortions while criminals are sometimes publicly executed, according to a South Korean lawyers' group. The Korean Bar Association yesterday released a report on the human rights situation in North Korea, after two years of data collection and interviews with 100 North Korean defectors who came to the South after 2000. [Defector reports] [Human rights]
• Kim Jong-il Uses Body Double
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il has employed at least two doubles to impersonate him at public functions due largely to his fear of being assassinated, a South Korean intelligence official said Friday. It is no secret that other authoritarian figures such as deposed Iraq leader Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler also used physical doubles at times for political, intelligence and safety reasons. ``As far as I know, at least two Kim Jong-il look-alikes fill in for him for some lower profile official events to reduce the chances of Kim being exposed to terrorist attempts,'' a South Korean intelligence official said on request of anonymity. [Bizarre] [Assassination]
• Despite gains, North Koreans disillusioned
  Food, fuel, and know-how are flowing into the totalitarian state, but citizens are dispirited. By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – Mrs. Park is North Korean salt of the earth. Until the 70-year-old was stripped, beaten, and charged with dissent, Park and her family were patriotic, loyal, ordinary. They were true believers in the ruling Kim family's "juche" ideology, which holds that Korea must be separate from all nations and that total obedience is owed to the Kim family. Park's eight kids worshiped Kim Il Sung, the "father of their minds." When Kim died and millions perished in an epic famine, the Parks didn't panic. They wrote a letter to Kim Jong Il, volunteering to farm - something only a pure and loyal family would dare in North Korea. [Defector report]
• Bulletin of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People
  Pyongyang March 2006 [Kim Il Sung] [drugs] [Missiles]
• Koryo Pharmacy Built
  Pyongyang, September 14 (KCNA) -- A Koryo pharmacy has been built in Sariwon City, North Hwanghae Province, the DPRK, to give common knowledge on Koryo medicine to people and help improve their health and treat their diseases. Its building is a tile-roofed one of Korean-style, which is well blended with the folk street of the city and its surrounding landscape. It serves customers with tens of kinds of tonics including Kyongokgo and Changchulgo, medicines efficacious for various diseases and hundreds of kinds of Koryo medicinal stuffs.  
• Veterinary, Anti-epizootic Campaign Brisk in DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 11 (KCNA) -- The veterinary and anti-epizootic campaign is gathering momentum in the DPRK in September and October, months of veterinary and anti-epizootic campaign. The Veterinary and Epizootic Prevention Department of the Ministry of Agriculture has notified a working plan to be done in the period to each provincial rural economy committee and veterinary and epizootic prevention center and officials of relevant institutions are properly carrying on it. The Central Veterinary and Epizootic Prevention Center is channeling efforts into producing preventive medicines for bird flu and other epizootic diseases.
• 'Most N. Koreans Vulnerable to Epidemics'
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - A medical checkup of more than 1,000 North Korean defectors indicates that their fellow countrymen in the communist country are generally left defenseless against epidemics, a lawmaker said Wednesday. Quoting a 2005 report by the state-run Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Rep. Chung Hyung-keun said 77 percent of 1,075 North Korean defectors examined here were found to have suffered diphtheria and rubella while in the North.
• Myths and Folktales Told by N. Koreans
  [Books] By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
  Once upon a time, there was a turtle that got caught on the shore at Tonghaehyun, South Pyongan Province, which is now part of North Korea. When the village people rushed to eat it, their chief stopped them and put it back in the sea. That night, a white-haired old man appeared in the village chief's dream and thanked Park Se-tong. ``My son, who was recklessly playing outside regardless of weather, narrowly escaped being boiled and eaten and you saved him,'' the old man said, promising that three generations of Park's descendants would enjoy high ranking positions in government in return for his good deed.
• Philosophical Principle of Juche Idea
  Pyongyang, August 18 (KCNA) --The Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything, which was fathered by President Kim Il Sung. Man is the master of everything. This means that man is the master of the world and his destiny. This also clarifies the position of man in the world. The man lets everything in the nature and society serve him and dominates it. The people are not subjected to the nature but subordinate it to their requirements. The further their intelligence and ability develop, the wider their domination sphere expands.
• Kim Jong-il's Appearance Aims to Seek Normalcy'
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's first public appearance in 40 days is a gesture to restore relations with South Korea, an American specialist in Asian affairs said Tuesday. It symbolizes ``return to normalcy" from the turbulent situation caused by missile launches on July 5 and an intention to restore relations between the two Koreas, Larry Niksch of the U.S. Congressional Research Service said in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA).
• Kim resurfaces in North's media
    August 15, 2006 ? North Korea's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, made his first public appearance since his country launched missiles more than a month ago, the country's state-run Korean Central TV reported over the weekend. The network reported that Mr. Kim visited a livestock farm run by a military unit called 757, accompanied by several senior military officers. The exact timing of the visit was not reported nor was the location revealed, as is customary in the North.
• NK Leader Makes Public Appearance
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il has made a public appearance, putting an end to more than a month-long absence. According to the North's state media yesterday, Kim has recently visited an army unit. North's official media outlets has not reported news on Kim since July 4, a day before a day before Pyongyang test fired missiles, according to South Korea's spy agency. [Media]
• Pyongyang Cinemas Packed to Full
  Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) -- The newly released feature film "Diary of a Girl Student" has been screened at cinema houses in Pyongyang from the last Sunday. The number of cinemagoers reaches tens of thousands every day. TV billboard and hoardings on the facade of the cinemas further arouse interest of people.  
• Kim Jong Il's Absence Raises Speculation
  North Korea's Kim Jong Il Hasn't Been Seen in Public Since July 4, Raising Speculation
  By KWANG-TAE KIM SEOUL, South Korea Aug 8, 2006 (AP)— North Korean leader Kim Jong Il hasn't appeared in public since his country test-fired missiles that drew international condemnation, leading to speculation of a possible sense of crisis inside the reclusive nation. Kim attended a Russian art performance and visited a tire factory July 4, a day before the missile launches, and he hasn't appeared publicly since, according to South Korea's spy agency. The North's propaganda machine hasn't reported on Kim's activities since the missile launches, but last week the country's official news agency said Kim sent a consolation message to ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
• Bathing Resorts on East Coast Boom
  Pyongyang, August 7 (KCNA) -- The bathing resorts along the shore of the East Sea of Korea are booming these days, the hottest period of the summer. Beautiful are seashores where curious rocks, sandy beaches, sweet brier flowers and pine-tree forests are well blended with the blue sea water. The quality of water is good and its temperature is 25-29 degrees centigrade in summer. There are many bathing resorts on the east coast including Songdowon, Majon and Soho. Each day tens of thousands of working people and school children are enjoying their holidays, bathing in the sea and in the sun on the sandy beaches and practicing flag signaling. There are a swimming beach and a rest home for miners in Kiam-ri, Riwon County. In summer, a special train for miners of Komdok, Paekgumsan and Taehung in the Tanchon area is operated every day. Other scenic spots on the east coast -- Haechilbo of Mt. Chilbo which constitutes beautiful scenery with rainbow rock, elephant rock and curious rock cliffs, Chongsokjong in the sea off Thongchon and Haksadae in the sea off Riwon -- are all full of joy of people who are enjoying their holidays. This shows well the optimism of the Korean people who invariably advancing forward, convinced of the better morrow, although they are facing difficulties today.
• New Feature Film Released
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- The Korean Film Studio recently produced a new feature film "Diary of a Girl Student" to be listed as a masterpiece in the Songun era. A preview of the film was held at the People's Palace of Culture on Thursday. It was appreciated by Kim Yong Nam, Pak Pong Ju, Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop and others. The film makes an impressive and truthful representation of the life of an ordinary scientist's family in a diary style. It perfectly answers the questions as to where lie the pleasure and happiness of the Korean people in the Songun era and what is the genuine ideal of the younger generation
• Thousands 'beg' to be enlisted in North Korea, sources say
    August 04, 2006 ? Men and women of military age who have not yet joined the service have sent petitions to the government begging to be enlisted as soon as possible, sources close to North Korean affairs said yesterday. From behind the scenes, the government has organized similar such drives before, North Korean defectors said. One of the sources, who recently returned from Pyongyang, said he saw gatherings at schools, factories and companies in which North Korean youth groups pledged their patriotism and signed petitions asking the ruling Workers' Party to allow them to join the military. Such gatherings took place in Pyongyang and also around the nation, the source said. [Songun]
• .Korean Propaganda Machine Judders Into Action
  Articles praising North Korea's Songun or military-first ideology have poured out on the homepages of pro-North Korean organizations like Solidarity for Unification, the National Alliance for Democracy and Reunification of Korea and the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification since late July. "The Songun ideology is a historic moment in the emergence of our nation in a new shape in the 21st century, putting an end to the woes of a weak nation," says one article. "But for North Korea's great military strength, the U.S. would have invaded the North and caused war in our country," says another. The articles are signed by dubious organizations such as "Group of Seoul Citizens Supporting the Songun Ideology" and "Co-representatives of A Group of College Students Supporting the Songun Ideology [Songun] [Media]
• Pyongyang pushes 'army-first' policy
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune
  Published: August 2, 2006
  SEOUL Seo Hyang Wol, a 43-year-old North Korean housewife, has given birth to nine children, making her a shining example of a national campaign to increase birth rates. But that is not the only thing that makes "women across the republic abuzz with talk of emulating her," according to North Korea's official news media. Inspired by the leader Kim Jong Il's "songun," or "army-first," policy, Seo named three daughters Chong Byol, Pok Byol and Tan Byol - or "Rifle Star," "Bomb Star" and "Bullet Star." A son born in 2003 and a daughter born last year were named Son Gun and Hyok Myong. Put together, the names mean "army-first revolution." [Songun] [Media][Victim]
• North halts plans for rites there on Aug. 15
    August 02, 2006 ? Following up its postponement of this year's Arirang Festival, North Korea told the South yesterday that it was also calling off the scheduled inter-Korean celebration of Liberation Day, the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender in 1945. Pyongyang cited recent flood damage as the cause of the cancellation. The North Korean Committee for Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration told its South Korean counterpart that it would be too difficult to continue with the celebration. "Due to the unusually heavy rainfall, both Koreas suffered great damage and many North Koreans have been mobilized for recovery work around the country," the committee said. "The North has been treating the Aug. 15 celebration and the Arirang Festival as important, so the cancellation indicates that the situation is serious there," a spokesman for the South Korean committee said. Although the North blamed the flood damage for the cancellation, many North Korea watchers here see a political motivation. "The North faced the floods amid the national crisis after the missile firings," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Seoul's Dongguk University. "The South and the United States begin their joint military drill on Aug. 21, so the North probably decided to call off the events." Mr. Koh said Pyongyang probably intended to create tension domestically and induce assistance from the international community, including the South, by emphasizing the amount of damage it had suffered.  
• Citing flooding, North pushes back a festival
    July 31, 2006 ? The North Korean Arirang festival, which was to have begun on Aug. 15, was postponed until next spring, according to the president of the Korean American National Coordinating Council. Rain damage in North Korea was cited as the reason for the delay. Yoon Kil-sang, the president of the council, posted the postponement announcement Friday (in the United States) on Minjok, an Internet news site there. He said he was notified by the North Korean mission to the United Nations of the postponement.
• 60th Anniversary of Law on Sex Equality Observed
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- Papers here Sunday dedicate editorials to the 60th anniversary of the promulgation of the Law on Sex Equality. Rodong Sinmun in an editorial says that the promulgation of the law by President Kim Il Sung on July 30, Juche 35 (1946) was a historic event which brought about a radical change in the position and socio-political life of women. The Korean women have devotedly defended the Party and the leader, remained faithful to the idea and cause of the leader and dynamically rolled one of the two wheels of the revolution, making a positive contribution to building a prosperous powerful country in the last six decades, the daily says, and goes on:
• Yes, dear (leader): Kim reportedly has a new love
    July 24, 2006 ? North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il has taken his former private secretary as his new companion, after his purported former wife died of cancer two years ago, reliable sources said yesterday. The marital status of Mr. Kim, who turned 64 in February, has never been officially confirmed, but it has been widely believed that three women have been treated as his wives.
• Kim Jong-il 'Marries Former Secretary'
  A picture presumed to be of Kim Ok when she accompanied Cho Myong-nok, North Korea's first vice chairman of national defense, to Washington when he visited as special envoy of Kim Jong-il in October 2000, from the U.S. Defense Ministry homepage./Yonhap
  Rare Sighting of Kim Jong-il's Clapton-Loving Son   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has married his former secretary, sources claimed Sunday. Kim has been living with Kim Ok (42) since his wife Ko Yong-hi died of cancer in 2004, and she is effectively the communist nation's "first lady," they said.
• Kim Jong-il has new wife: report
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has reportedly taken his former secretary as a new wife after his purported spouse died of cancer in 2004. The emergence of Kim's new wife is expected to give a new twist to a power struggle between his sons over who would succeed at the helm of the communist country. "I heard Kim has been living together with a woman named Kim Ok, who served as his secretary, as Ko Yong-hi died two years ago," Yonhap News Agency quoted a South Korean government source as saying.
• North Korea also Reeling from Rain Casualties
  Torrential rainfall left some 100 North Koreans dead and more than 9,000 suffering significant damages. Downpours also inundated farmlands, which is expected to further aggravate food shortages. "Six hours of heavy rains dropped 280-320 mm on Sunday, destroying 11,524 houses and leaving more than 9,000 victims in three counties of South Pyongan Province", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said Wednesday. There were around 100 individuals found dead or reported missing as of Monday but considering that damage assessments are not usually carried out in a timely manner in North Korea, the final figures are expected to be much higher.
• Buddhist Masses for Reunification Held
  Pyongyang, July 20 (KCNA) -- Buddhist masses to defend peace against the U.S. and war and pray for the reunification of the country were held at temples across the DPRK Thursday on the lapse of 140 years since the United States infiltrated the USS Sherman into Korea on an aggressive mission. Present at the masses were office-bearers of the Central Committee of the Korean Buddhist Federation and its provincial, city and county committees, resident priests of the temples, monks and Buddhists.
• DPRK Seriously Affected by Heavy Rains
  Pyongyang, July 21 (KCNA) -- It rained torrentially between 14 and 16 of July, causing heavy human and material losses in many parts of the DPRK. The government of the DPRK has taken emergency measures to rehabilitate the disaster-hit areas and investigated the losses. According to the investigation, several areas in South Phyongan, Kangwon and South Hamgyong Provinces were hit hard. In the Yangdok, Sinyang and Songchon areas of South Phyongan Province, a lot of people died, more than 6,200 dwelling houses and some 490 public buildings were partially or totally destroyed and submerged, and thousands of hectares of arable land inundated, washed away and buried. And motor roads, bridges and railway trunk lines were seriously damaged at over 200 points and electricity and communication networks cut off
• North Korean Diplomats Gather in Pyongyang
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korean diplomats are gathering in Pyongyang this week for the first time in five years amid rising international pressures over its recent launch of seven missiles. But the meeting date does not appear to be an aftershock of the missile launches on July 5 as the diplomats were notified to come to Pyongyang ``long before'' the launches, intelligence sources said. The number of diplomats coming to Pyongyang is somewhere between 30 to 35, they said.
• Korea Is Proud of Long History of Characters
  Pyongyang, July 3 (KCNA) -- The Korean nation has used characters from more than 5,000 years ago. During the Kojoson (ancient Korea) period when people in many parts of the world were still in a primitive state, the ancestors of the Korean nation made and used Sinji Characters, the first of its kind in the Korean history. King Tangun, founder of Kojoson, instructed Sinji, an officer, to create letters. One day Sinji went hunting and saw deer's footprints imprinted on a sandy land. In the footprints, he got a clue for creating letters. The name of the Sinji Characters was derived from the fact.
  The Sinji Characters are phonetic and syllabic ones. Their forms differ from those of the ideographic characters of China and of the syllabic characters of Japan. The Korean nation created Hunminjongum (Korean alphabet) in 1444 by carrying forward the Sinji Characters. [Heritage]
• NCB delegation Arrives
  Pyongyang, June 27 (KCNA) -- A delegation of the International Narcotics Control Board led by former President Hamid Ghodse arrived here Tuesday. The DPRK government hosted a reception in honor of the delegation in the evening.[Drugs]
• Old Castles of Koguryo Restored
  Pyongyang, June 9 (KCNA) -- Some parts of the castles of Mt. Taesong and Pyongyang have been restored to their original state. They are the national treasures showing the history of Koguryo, a powerful state which existed in Korea for nearly a thousand years, and the prominent wisdom of its people. The castle of Mt. Taesong has a long history as one of large castles of Koguryo.
  Some parts of the inner and outer walls of Pyongyang have been restored with success. The part of the inner wall from the Ulmil Pavilion to the Chongryu Pavilion on Moran Hill has been rebuilt with old wall stones. Its defence setups were also restored to their original state. Besides, a part of the outer wall near Jang Chol Gu Commercial University has been rehabilitated in the form of the walls belonging to Koguryo.
• 700 North Koreans Killed in Train Collision: Report
  SEOUL (Yonhap) ? Nearly 700 North Koreans, including 270 soldiers, were killed in April when two trains collided in the isolated communist country, an Internet news provider reported on Tuesday. The accident took place in Kowon, South Hamgyong Province, when a freight train collided head-on with a six-car passenger train, the Seoul-based Daily NK said, quoting a North Korean railway official in Chongjin, the administrative seat of the province. [Media]
• Armored Cars "Sonyonho" Presented to KPA
  Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) -- The members of the Korean Children's Union across the country presented to the Korean People's Army many armored cars "Sonyonho" provided by them through a dynamic movement for doing good things on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the union. Kim Kyong Ho, first secretary of the Central Committee of the youth league, in a report at a ceremony held at Jonsung Square Monday said that these armored cars are associated with burning patriotism and sincere desire of the union members across the country to contribute even a bit to increasing the combat capability of the KPA, the best mainstay for the Songun revolution and the main force of revolution, true to the Songun leadership of Kim Jong Il
• World Environment Day Marked
  Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) -- A function took place at Kim Song Ju Primary School Monday on the occasion of the World Environment Day. Present there were officials of the Ministry of Land and Environment Preservation, teachers of the school, working people in the city and a delegation of the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE International).
• KCNA on Changes in Area of Mt. Paektu
  Pyongyang, June 4 (KCNA) -- Five decades have passed since leader Kim Jong Il started the study tour of revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt. Paektu. The first study tour of the area organized by him in June Juche 45 (1956) was a great action which solemnly declared before the era his firm faith and will to defend and glorify forever the revolutionary traditions established by President Kim Il Sung and a historic event of weighty significance in keeping the continuity of the Korean revolution started in Paektu forests. Kim Jong Il has since worked heart and soul to turn Ryanggang Province into a grand seat of education in the revolutionary traditions. He visited the province on nearly 40 occasions in last five decades.
• Silk, Traditional Korean Textile
  Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- Silk cloth is a traditional fabric of Korea. The Korean people have woven various kinds of silk fabrics from thousands of years ago, earning fame from the international community for the high standard of their weaving technique. Silk fabrics have been widely used in their everyday life as materials for quality clothes and ornaments. Those wearing silk clothes are often met in the country. It is an old custom that the brides and aged people put on graceful silk dresses and participate in their wedding and birthday feasts. In particular, children in rainbow-striped silk garments and women in chima and jogori (Korean-style skirt and coat) on national holidays and anniversaries stir up national emotion and add beauty to streets. In order to fully meet the demand of the people for silk cloths, the government of the DPRK built silk production bases in different parts of the country.
• Book "Research into Koguryo Relics" Published
  Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- Book "Research into Koguryo Relics" has been recently published by the Science and Encyclopedia Press of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It is widely read by people at home and abroad. The book gives analysis of various kinds of relics created and used by the people of Koguryo, the strongest feudal state (277 BC-668 AD) in the Korean history, to clearly show the then political and military systems and development of economy and technology.
• World No Tobacco Day Observed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- An event was held at the People's Palace of Culture Wednesday on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day. Present there were Vice-Minister of Public Health Choe Chang Sik, officials in the field of public health in Pyongyang, officials of ministries, national institutions and working people in the city, and Tej Walia, representative of the WHO here, staff members of missions of international organizations and diplomatic envoys of various countries here.
• Time-honored Pyongyang
  Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- Pyongyang, the DPRK, has the longest history as the capital city in the world. People have inhabited Pyongyang, with all the natural elements needed for human existence, from more than a million years ago. Tangun, ancestral father of the Korean nation who was born in Pyongyang, founded Kojoson (ancient Korea), the first state of Korea, in the early 30th century BC and set up the capital here.
• International Children's Day Celebrated
  Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- A friendship gathering took place at the Mangyongdae Fun Fair on Thursday with children and women in Pyongyang and foreign children and women attending on the occasion of the 56th International Children's Day. Present there were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Ryu Mi Yong, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Korean Chondoist Chongu Party, and others.
• University ban for Korean smokers
  Good exam grades will no longer be the main requirement for students hoping to get a university degree in North Korea. The government has announced plans to ban students who smoke from higher education, unless they give up. The communist country has been on an anti-smoking drive for years, led by leader Kim Jong-il, a reformed smoker. Mr Kim once described smokers as one of the "three main fools of the 21st Century" along with people who were ignorant of music and computers. [Media]
• Number of Smokers Decreases in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 31 (KCNA) -- No-smoking campaign has been actively conducted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. According to Choe Chang Sik, vice minister of Public Health, the smoking rate of the country went down by about 15 percent at present below 2000. The government has set itself the goal of reducing the smoking rate to 30 percent by 2010 and further tightened the control over cigarettes while paying greater attention to the campaign. The DPRK enacted the Smoking Control Law to make a legal foundation for no-smoking campaign. According to the law, no-smoking places have been expanded, cigarettes are strictly banned to sell to children and smokers are denied the quality of entering universities. In order to decrease the smoking rate through such levers as cultivation, production and sale of tobacco, ties with tobacco producers and sellers have been made closer. In particular, various methods and means including smoking-quit pills and smoking-quit pipes are being developed to help those give up smoking. The anti-smoking campaign is further invigorated through mass media, art propaganda activities and health lectures. A function was held at the People's Palace of Culture Wednesday on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day, at which good experience in giving up smoking was introduced.
• DPRK Celebrates Day of Sun
  National Meeting Held to Commemorate Kim Il Sung's Birth Anniversary
  A national meeting was held at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on April 14 to commemorate the 94th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. Present at the meeting were Kim Yong Nam, Jo Myong Rok, Pak Pong Ju, Kim Yong Chun and Jon Pyong Ho and others.
• Multimedia for Developing Children's Intellectual Powers Made
  Pyongyang, May 22 (KCNA) -- The Korean Documentary and Scientific Film Studio, in close contact with the Academy of Pedagogical Science, has recently produced "Encyclopedia of Developing Children's Intellectual Powers" (1) for four to five-year old children. The multimedia program is edited in an interesting way to suit the ages and mental qualities of children on the basis of successes and experience gained in preschool education. It consists of two parts titled "Observation on Flowers" and "Observation on Animals", which vividly show varied shapes, colors and physiology of flowers and species, features and modes of existence of animals, helping children in boosting their observation abilities. Under the titles "Time for Studying together with Mother", "Homework Given by Mother", "Break" and "Interesting Riddles" the multimedia deals with interesting matters of promoting mothers' concern for bringing up their children as intelligent ones from the childhood.
• DPRK Celebrates Day of Sun
  National Meeting Held to Commemorate Kim Il Sung's Birth Anniversary
  A national meeting was held at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on April 14 to commemorate the 94th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. Present at the meeting were Kim Yong Nam, Jo Myong Rok, Pak Pong Ju, Kim Yong Chun and Jon Pyong Ho and others.
• 24th April Spring Friendship Art Festival Held
• 8th Kimilsungia Festival Held
• Abnormal Snow in Korea
  Rain and snow fell in most parts of the DPRK on April 17 due to the effect of depression moving from Huabei of China to the northward of the West Sea of Korea. Ri Chol Su, vice-director of the Central Weather Forecast Institute under the Hydro-Meteorological Service, said: In Pyongyang area it snowed from around 06:30 to around 09:00. The snow lied 1 centimeter thick and its precipitation was 2 millimeters. Such phenomenon was observed in Korea on April 17, 1962.
• DPRK Celebrates Anniversary of Kim Jong Il's Election as NDC Chairman
• New School Year Begins in Korea
  A new school year has begun at schools at all levels across the DPRK. Ceremonies of marking the year took place at Kim Song Ju Primary School, Pyongyang Primary School No.4, Kim Jong Suk Middle School No.1, Changdok School, Samhung Middle School, Mubong Middle School in Samjiyon County, Hero Sukchon Middle School No.1 and all other schools across the country on Saturday. At the ceremonies, reporters and speakers recalled that President Kim Il Sung established the best socialist educational system, regarding education as an important matter decisive of the victory of the revolution and the destiny of the nation long ago, and showed warm loving care for the younger generations.
• Night view of Pyongyang
  A night view of Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea, on Monday. North Korean officials claimed that the city's electricity supply has been improved and more lights are now turned on at night. The photo was taken from the Koryo Hotel near the Pyongyang train station using an f-stop of 2.8 with a 30 second exposure, ISO 200. The scene appeared darker to the naked eye. By Kim Choon-sik [photo] [Energy]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Women's Company of KPA
  Pyongyang, May 11 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, inspected a women's company of KPA Unit 838. He acquainted himself with the company's performance of duty
• Kim Jong Il Provides On-Site Guidance to Newly Built Pyongyang Conservatory
  Pyongyang, May 10 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, provided on-site guidance to the newly built Pyongyang Conservatory. He was received by leading officials of the conservatory on the spot. The commander of the unit which had participated in its construction made a report to him on its successful construction. . The conservatory covering a plottage of 5 hectares on the bank of the Taedong River has been constructed by soldier-builders in a matter of two years. It is a seat of learning music and arts as it is equipped with all educational facilities such as a main building, a building for a special education, an annex, an 800-seater concert hall, several auditoriums, a hostel, a gymnasium and entertainment and service facilities. [Military economy]
• Kim Jong Il Gives Field Guidance to Cultural, Sports Facilities and Construction site of Power Station
• North, South Korea Discuss Prevention of Clashes in West Sea
  General-level Military Talks Held in Panmunjom The third round of inter-Korean general-level military talks were held at Panmunjom on March 2 and 3.
• NK Novels Defict Shared Korean History
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Representative figures from Korean history such as Buddhist priest Sosan, left, and Ahn Joong-keun are featured in books published in North Korea. Two North Korean novels, recently published in the South by a company aiming to introduce a series of historic novels from the other half of the Korean Peninsula, may well serve as a timely reminder of the historical background to anti-Japanese sentiment that runs deep in both Koreas. While it might be argued the novels are just more examples of pan-Korean nationalism, which the North Korean regime relentlessly touts, they are also a reminder that, despite ideological differences and continuous haggling over who is the legitimate government truly representing the Korean people, the two Koreas share national heroes and common feelings toward the ``intruders'' over the hundreds of years before national division. The first of the historic novel series, ``Ahn Joong-keun Shoots Ito Hirobumi (Ahn Joong-keun Idungbakmunul-ssoda),'' is set in the early 20th century, during which time Japan's move to annex Korea gained momentum. The novel, which the North claims was originally a revolutionary drama piece created by its founding father Kim Il-sung in 1928, is adapted by Lim Jong-sang, 73, an established writer in the communist country. {Japanese colonialism} [Joint Korean] [Heritage]
• North Korea's Population Stands at 23.11 Million
  The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States has predicted that the North Korean population could grow by 0.84 percent to 23.11 million in July 2006 from last year. The estimation was contained in the CIA's updated ``World Factbook.'' The report said North Korea's birthrate was estimated to have fallen slightly with 15.54 births per 1,000 population in July, compared with 16.09 births last year, the report said. It said infant mortality rate in the North was estimated to fall to 23.29 deaths per 1,000 births, representing the fourth consecutive annual decline. According to the report, life expectancy was estimated to stand at 71.56 years, a fourth consecutive annual increase.
• Angling Encouraged in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 31 (KCNA) -- Angling becomes brisk in the large and small rivers, lakes and reservoirs in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with the beginning of spring. Angling has a long history in Korea. It, along with agriculture, collection of edible plants and hunting, was a mainstay for the Korean people from the Neolithic era. People in the era used a fishing hook similar to the present one. The hook had an eye to tie up line and the point with a barb was sharpened. There was anchor-shaped fishing hook, too. The materials of hooks were animal bones or teeth. The sizes of hooks were 3 centimeters or 5-8 centimeters.
• Time-honored Floor Heating System
  Pyongyang, March 27 (KCNA) -- Hot-water and electricity have been widely introduced in ondol (floor heating system) of dwelling houses in cities and rural areas including Pyongyang, Kanggye City of Jagang Province and Taehongdan County of Ryanggang Province in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The heating systems provide the people with good living environment. They are an application of the scientific and technical development to the ondol housing custom. The Korean people have created and developed their peculiar ondol-heating system from the time when they settled down in this land.
• Kimchi recognized as top 5 health food
  March 27, 2006 ? The staple Korean food kimchi was selected as one of the world's five healthiest foods by Health Magazine published in the United States. The magazine recommended readers incorporate the spicy fermented cabbage dish into their diets for its bacteria lactobacilli, which can also be found in yogurt, as well as its high content of vitamins A, B and C, according to the magazine's online edition for March. Citing recent studies, the magazine said the healthy bacteria in kimchi can prevent yeast infections, help with digestion and may also help prevent cancer. The magazine also provided readers with a few cooking tips, such as scrambling eggs or topping a baked potato with kimchi. Other foods to make the magazine's top five list were Spanish olive oil for heart disease prevention, Japanese soy sauce for prevention of cancer and osteoporosis, Greek yogurt for enhancing immunity and Indian Lentils for high content of protein, cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber and iron.
• Intensified Veterinary and Anti-epizootic Work in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- A nation-wide veterinary and anti-epizootic campaign is being carried on in the March-April veterinary and anti-epizootic months in the DPRK. The Stockbreeding Management Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture has worked out new regulations to be abided by in the months and taken various measures to prevent epizootics. Primary attention has been directed to prophylactic treatment in the rural villages and stock-breeding and poultry fields across the country. A campaign of vaccinating newly-developed Koryo veterinary preventive medicine to the domestic animals according to their ages and of exterminating insects is going on. Activities for cleaning and disinfecting cages and pens of domestic animals and arranging environment are being conducted on a mass scale. The Central Anti-epizootic Centre under the Ministry of Agriculture has directed a special attention to taking steps to prevent bird flu. The centre has amended and supplemented a directive in a scientific way with regulations that should be adhered to in the anti-epizootic and quarantine work in connection with bird influenza. And it sent the directive and world divination materials to the inferior units and helps the relevant organs and units thoroughly carry through it.
• New Education System Established in DPRK
  A new higher education system was established in the DPRK to elevate the level of scientific education. According to a report of the KCNA on February 23, in order to bring up versatile technical personnel with two or three kinds of expert knowledge, not one kind, the government has taken the step so that students, who have finished a course of social or natural science, may continue to learn technology. Under the new higher education system, university graduates who majored in natural science will study for two years and those who majored in social science for three years at College of Mechanical Science and Technology, Automation Engineering Faculty and Material Engineering Faculty under Kim Chaek University of Technology. Officials and teachers of the Ministry of Education and the university are doing their best to give education on a high standard from the selection of subjects to working out of teaching plan and teaching method for rearing scientific and technical personnel who are possessed of science, technology, theory and practice.
• Law on Estimating Environmental Influence Adopted
  The Law on Estimating Environmental Influence has been recently adopted in the DPRK, the KCNA reported on February 21. According to the report, the law consists of 5 chapters and 33 articles. Chapter 1 Fundamentals of Law on Estimating Environmental Influence stipulates the mission of the law, various principles including those of application for and deliberation of the documents needed for the environmental influence estimation and objects of the law application. It also stipulates the investment principle. According to it, the state shall develop exchange and cooperation with other countries and international organizations in the field of environmental influence estimation.
• Notice Issued on Convocation of SPA Session
  Pyongyang, March 22 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly issued a notice on Mar. 21 informing the deputies of its decision to call the fourth session of the 11th SPA on April 11, Juche 95 (2006), in Pyongyang. Deputies to the SPA are requested to register their names at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on April 9 and 10, Juche 95 (2006), it said.
• N.K. parliament to meet amid nuclear standoff
  From news reports North Korea's parliament will meet next month, Pyongyang said yesterday, offering a glimpse into the policy priorities of the secretive state amid a stand-off with regional powers over its nuclear arms program. Last year's meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly focused on ways to produce more food in a country that battles chronic shortages and measures to boost the economy as well as the military.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Women's Sub-Unit of KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, March 21 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, inspected a women's sub-unit of KPA Unit 824. He acquainted himself with the sub-unit's performance of duty. He took deep care of its servicepersons' service and living, going round an education room, a bedroom, a mess hall, a non-staple food store, a wash-cum-bath house and other educational entertainment and supply service facilities.
• North decrees death for drug traffickers
  March 20, 2006 ? Tending to its international image, North Korea has issued an edict to strengthen its penalties against illegal drug trafficking. It warned that North Koreans involved in the protection, export or trafficking of illegal drugs would be executed. A South Korean civic group yesterday cited a North Korean government document that contained the decree. According to the group, Good Friends, North Korea's Ministry of Public Security issued the decree. The ministry is the rough equivalent of the South's National Police Agency. The North's criminal code says illegal drug manufacturing is punishable by up to five years of forced labor; trafficking is punishable by life in a prison camp. In a meeting with U.S. officials in New York on March 7, Lee Gun said that Pyongyang had strengthened its drug-related penalties. He is the director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's American affairs bureau. [Double standards]
• DPRK Celebrates Birthday of Kim Jong Il
• North Korea Has Right to Carry Out Preemptive Strike, Army Says
  March 15 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea has the right to carry out a preemptive strike in the event it is threatened, the Korean People's Army said in a statement, denouncing U.S. and South Korean military exercises this month on the Korean Peninsula. ``A preemptive strike is not the monopoly of the U.S.,'' the army said in a statement yesterday carried by the official Korea Central News Agency. North Korea ``has the right to preempt an attack as the most effective and positive act for self-defense.''
• N Koreans cleared over heroin
  The Pong Su was found carrying $50m of heroin
  A North Korean shipping company is considering suing Australia's government after its senior officers were cleared of drug trafficking. The captain and three senior officers of the Pong Su were found not guilty on Sunday of aiding heroin smuggling, by Victoria state's Supreme Court. The suggestion that senior crew were implicated in the smuggling had led to accusations of backing by Pyongyang.
  The Pong Su freighter has been impounded in Sydney since April 2003. Jack Dalziel, a lawyer representing the Pong Su shipping company and captain Man Sun Song, said on Monday he was under instructions to consider seeking compensation for loss of earnings by the ship's officers. The ship had also been worth several hundred thousand US dollars at the time of the raid, but had since deteriorated, The Age reported. Australia's chief of police Mick Keelty said that, as in other smuggling cases, the ship would be destroyed.
  Man Sun Song, along with the ship's chief mate, chief engineer and political secretary, were all acquitted of heroin smuggling on Sunday. But it was revealed after the verdict that four other men pleaded guilty to smuggling before the trial started. Two have been sentenced to 23 and 22 years in jail and the two others have yet to be sentenced. Pyongyang's role
  Mr Keelty said on Monday it was "hard to establish" whether the North Korean government had been involved in the operation, given Sunday's acquittals. "So it's a bit hard for me now to say that there's any direct evidence of the involvement of the North Korean government," he said. "But clearly an operation of that size doesn't get under way without some sort of... significant support not only to get the heroin into North Korea but to get a vessel from that side of world over to Lorne in Victoria does require significant resourcing and support." The North Korean government has denied any involvement in the case, in which more than 125kg (275 pounds) of heroin were discovered on the ship when it anchored off the southwest Victoria town of Lorne on 16 April 2003. At the time, Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer summoned North Korea's ambassador to Australia and alleged that Pyongyang was involved in the incident. The US government went on to cite the case as evidence of a link between North Korea's government and international drug trafficking, [Disinformation] [Drugs]
• Pong Su four found not guilty
  The captain and three officers from an alleged North Korean drug-running cargo ship have been found not guilty of helping to import heroin into Australia. Following more than seven months of evidence and 10 days of deliberations, a Victorian Supreme Court jury today found the men not guilty of aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of heroin. The alleged sophisticated drug-running operation has been described as the largest detected in Victoria and one of the largest in Australia. The Crown prosecution said the cargo ship Pong Su carried 150 kilograms of heroin to Australia in 2003. A man died while allegedly trying to bring the load to shore in a rubber dinghy in treacherous weather, off Lorne in Victoria's south-west, on April 16. The ship was seized off the NSW coast after a dramatic four-day pursuit involving several naval vessels. The ship's captain Man Sun Song, 65, its "political secretary" Dong Song Choi, 61, first mate Man Jin Ri and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri, both 51, pleaded not guilty to the charge that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The accused men's lawyers have said their clients were not aware heroin was on board the ship and the Crown case was built on speculation and a lack of evidence. Outside the court, the ship's chief engineer Ju Chon Ri, said he was pleased with the verdict and looking forward to going home. "I'm very happy to be free," said Ju Chon Ri. "Yes, we are going home, it's good, good," he said. He said it had been a long trial. "It has, seven months already. I'm very happy thank you." Lawyer Nick Pappas, who represented first mate Man Jin Ri, said the verdict showed that justice had been done and the jury system was working. "We're very happy with the verdict obviously and all the accused are very pleased to be freed after nearly three years in custody," Mr Pappas said. "We're all of the view that it's a good example of our jury system working and justice has been done," he said. Mr Pappas said he was looking forward to celebrating with the men by having a beer. "They've got a visa as such and they're walking down the street, so we might go and have an Australian beer with them." Defence lawyer, John O'Sullivan, said the men would not be deported, but he expected they would go home to North Korea within days. "They'll go back in the next few days I expect," said Mr O'Sullivan. He said his client, Dong Song Choi, was still trying to come to terms with the verdict, but was happy. "Clearly, he's spent three years in custody, so it's been a shock to him today," he said. "But it would be hard to believe that they (the men) wouldn't be pleased with the result." Prosecutor John Champion, SC, refused to comment on the verdict as he left court. "I don't have any comment, no comment," Earlier, Justice Murray Kellam commended the jury for their effort during what he described as one of the longest trials in Victoria. "There have been few trials in the history of Victoria as long as this," Justice Kellam said. "Few jurors have had to commit so much time in a case. I recommend you be exempt from jury duty for the remainder of your life," he said. Comment was being sought from the Australian Federal Police and Customs Minister Warren Truss. - AAP
• Heroin freighter to be destroyed
  Natalie O'Brien March 07, 2006
  THE Pong Su, the North Korean freighter that has cost taxpayers more than $2million to maintain while its crew was awaiting trial over the importation of 150kg of heroin, will be destroyed.
  Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said yesterday: "It still is a vessel that was used for the importation of heroin into Australia -- that's been proved before the courts -- and it will be destroyed just like any other vessel in that situation." It is understood that the AFP is holding talks with Customs, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and defence officials about destroying the red and black 743-tonne timber carrier. The Pong Su cost more than $2500 a day for marine engineers to maintain and prevent it from polluting Snails Bay in Sydney Harbour, where it was moored for more than three years. In 2004, A syndicate of Vietnamese businessmen offered to buy the Pong Su for $250,000 and have it scrapped. The offer was rejected. [Double standards]
• Vital evidence kept from jury on Pong Su drug run
  North Korea's links to a heroin run were not presented in court, writes Carmel Egan March 07, 2006
  ONE of the great unsolved mysteries of the Pong Su drug trafficking saga is why the smugglers chose to take their 150kg shipment of pure heroin ashore at the worst possible time -- in treacherous seas and gale-force winds off the rocky southwest Victorian coast. Federal agents admit that had the traffickers aboard the Pong Su, a cargo freighter owned by the communist government of North Korea, chosen a calmer night, the 2003 drug run might not have gone so wrong. "The spot they picked on a calm day would probably have been OK," said AFP agent Damien Appleby. But it was April 15. And for loyal North Korean citizens, that is a day that must be marked appropriately -- to honour the birthday of late president and "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung. While four men pleaded guilty to their role in the heroin mission, the captain of the ship and its political officer were among the crew members who walked free from court this week. But the jury who found them not guilty were never allowed to fully consider the ship's links to the North Korean Government, with long connections to international drug trafficking.
  On that night in 2003, Agent Appleby received a call from the Korean interpreter eavesdropping on two suspected heroin traffickers about to rendezvous with the drug ship. "They are talking about it being tonight ... it can't be cancelled." "You could see the huge surf. I turned to the driver, Steve Meagher, and said 'They're going to be killed'," Appleby said. The following morning, just as predicted, Agent Meagher found the body of one of the drug traffickers entangled in brown kelp. The Pong Su was circling offshore nearby and the dead man's partner, Ta Song Wong, was hiding in bushes as police sealed off the beach. His capture the next day gave police mobile telephone numbers, SIM cards and a global positioning device that linked Wong and his shore-based accomplices to an international drug syndicate in South East Asia -- and proved, police believed, the complicity of the North Korean Government. The breakthrough in the case was a tip-off that came eight days earlier. They were told to look out for a man named Kiam Fah Teng. Teng had arrived in Australia on March 27 from Beijing with another member of the shore-party, Yau Kim Lam. Teng was the logistics officer sent by the drug ring to hire vehicles, organise accommodation and smooth the way for the man who would distribute the drugs in Sydney and Melbourne. Lam was the communications man. Teng eventually met up with the third member of the shore party, Wee Quay Tan. Tan was an experienced international drug runner with a conviction for trafficking heroin in Europe. Teng, Tan, Lam and Wong would all eventually plead guilty to aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of heroin. Teng received a 22-year sentence, Lam got 23 years. Wong and Tan are yet to be sentenced. But the story of how the AFP busted the Pong Su was suppressed until a verdict was handed down in the seven-month trial of the ship's captain, Man Sun Song, political officer Dong Song Choi, first mate Man Jin Ri and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri. On Sunday the Supreme Court jury found all four innocent. For the AFP, the failure to convict the senior officers was a significant blow. Vital evidence exploring the North Korean Government's history of international drug smuggling was not allowed to be presented to the jury, including testimony from two North Korean defectors. And the jury heard nothing about a direct radio communication between the ship and North Korea. [Media] [Spin]
• 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 Analysis of Chairman Kim Jong-il's Public Activities in 2005
  MoU (Jan.23,2006)
• Kim kin's return just as puzzling as his 2-year exile
  January 31, 2006 ? After more than two years of political ostracism, Jang Song-thaek, the brother-in-law of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, appears to be back in the senior ranks of the communist ruling circles. Mr. Jang, 60, was once regarded as the second-ranking figure in the Worker's Party. He was the first deputy of the party's central committee until his exile from the party leadership, for reasons that are still a mystery to the outside world. But on Saturday, Mr. Jang was among a group of officials that accompanied Mr. Kim at a Lunar New Year ceremony, a signal of the leader's favor. That was his first appearance in public since October 2003, when he was still a powerful political policy and personnel management figure in Pyongyang. He had sometimes been eyed by outsiders as perhaps the most likely candidate to succeed Mr. Kim; he appeared at a dinner for Korea's president, Kim Dae-jung, when he visited Pyongyang in June 2000. He also was in Seoul in October 2002 during a fact-finding visit by an economic delegation from the North.
• Korean People Enjoy Lunar New Year' Day
  Pyongyang, January 30 (KCNA) -- Officials and working people across the country significantly and delightedly enjoyed the lunar New Year' Day (Jan. 29), a traditional holiday of the Korean nation The streets and villages of Pyongyang were in a holiday mood. Seen in the streets of Pyongyang were slogan boards carrying letters "We sincerely wish the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il good health", "New Year's greetings to you", "Congratulations on the lunar New Year's Day" and so on, national flags, red flags and celebrating lanterns. The streets were crowded with masses going and coming to make New Year's visits to their parents, relatives, teachers and predecessors. They exchanged New Year's greetings and promised to devote themselves to the country this year, too. Art performances and folk games of schoolchildren at Kim Il Sung Square, the Arch of Triumph Square, Jonsung Square and other places of Pyongyang added to the holiday mood. At factories, farms and dwelling houses working people enjoyed the holiday with pleasure.
• Dear Leader's In-Law Reappears: Report
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Chang Song-taek, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law, has made a political comeback after a two-year absence, the secretive state's official news media reported Sunday. Chang, husband of Kim's younger sister, Kim Kyong-hee, appeared at a dinner gala hosted on Saturday by the top North Korean leader, according to the (North) Korean Central News Agency and the (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station. They reported that Kim, chairman of the National Defense Commission, attended the party with his senior officials including Chang, first deputy chief of the Workers' Party Central Committee, marking the Lunar New Year's holiday. Kim has reportedly put Chang, who had been believed to be one of the North Korean leader's closest confidants, under house arrest along with 80 other officials and their family members in early 2004 for their ``factionalism.''
• NDC of DPRK Hosts Banquet
  Pyongyang, January 28 (KCNA) -- The National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea hosted a banquet Saturday evening on the occasion of the lunar New Year. Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, was present at the banquet. Also present there were Kim Il Chol, member of the NDC of the DPRK and minister of the People's Armed Forces, Pak Pong Ju, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the C.C., the WPK, Kang Sok Ju, first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Kwang Ho, department director of the C.C., the WPK, Ro Tu Chol, vice-premier of the DPRK Cabinet, Ri Yong Chol, Jang Song Thaek and Ri Jae Il, first vice-department directors of the C.C., the WPK, Kim Yang Gon, councilor of the NDC of the DPRK, Kim Yong Il, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and Kim Thae Jong, vice-director of the International Department of the C.C., the WPK. Present there on invitation were Wu Donghe, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of the Chinese embassy and Chinese technicians and specialists active at the Taean Friendship Glass Factory. When Kim Jong Il appeared in the banquet hall, all the participants enthusiastically welcomed him with thunderous applause. A staff member of the Chinese embassy here presented him with a bunch of flowers and offered him New Year's greetings.
• North Korea: Red in tooth and claw
  By James Card
  BUSAN - The grainy, sometimes out-of-focus film opens with a warning: "This program is something you've never seen before. It is about brutal animal fights and it is all real and intensely interesting." The 52-minute video, which the opening describes as "made in North Korea as a documentary", goes on to show a variety of animals, many endangered species, either tearing one another apart or posturing for an attack. This is not your National Geographic documentary about animals in the wild kingdom battling over territorial rights, dominance or a sex partner. It's not about predators and their prey. Hanjoon Productions' animals are mostly caged, their battles initiated. Rumors about North Korean films of savage, staged fights involving endangered animals have been around for years. Now, the films are available. The video can be found at some video rental shops in South Korea, but hunting around is required. A handful of Korean online video retailers carry copies, which can be purchased for about 5,000 won (US$5). [Black]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, January 27 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, inspected KPA Unit 932. After receiving a salute, he went round the monument to the on-the-spot instructions of President Kim Il Sung and the rooms devoted to the education in the revolutionary history and to the unit's history, conducted by the commander of the unit.
• Year's First Triplets Born in DPRK
  Pyongyang, January 26 (KCNA) -- The first triplets for the year were born at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital on Jan. 23. This is the 361st one since the opening of the hospital. The newly born triplets are girls and their body-weight is normal. Mother Jong Myong Ae is in Sariwon City, North Hwanghae Province of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. She was fortunate in confinement with the help of a medical team.
• Joint Meeting Calls for Intensified Patriotic Movement for National Reunification
  Pyongyang, January 26 (KCNA) -- A joint meeting of the government, political parties and organizations of the DPRK was held at the People's Palace of Culture on Jan. 26. Present there were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea, Ro Tu Chol, vice-premier of the Cabinet, Kim Yong Dae, chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party, Ryu Mi Yong, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Chondoist Chongu Party, and other senior officials of the government, political parties and organizations of the DPRK and officials concerned. The meeting discussed its agenda item "On conducting dynamic patriotic movement for independent reunification, peace against war and the great national unity under the uplifted banner of 'By our nation itself'". Yang Hyong Sop in a report called on the Koreans to demonstrate the might of the Korean nation rallied as one under the banner of the June 15 joint declaration once again and give a fresh momentum to the cause of national reunification this year. It is necessary to put an end to the U.S. policy of aggression against the DPRK in order to remove the danger of a war growing as the days go by and defend peace on the Korean Peninsula, he said, adding: If the U.S. truly wants to improve relations with the DPRK, stop antagonizing it and co-exist with it in peace, it should make a fundamental switchover in its policy towards the DPRK and show it in practice as an assailant that has done harm to the Koreans for a historically long period.
• NK Leader's Outings Increase
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last year made the most annual public appearances since he took over from his father in 1994, the Unification Ministry said Sunday. The public appearances of the reclusive leader were, as usual, largely ones related to military affairs or meetings with officials of the communist North's traditional allies such as China and Russia, the ministry said in an analysis. ``Following the year 2003 and 2004, Kim focused more than half of his public activities on military-related affairs,'' the analysis said. ``Checking up the military's war preparedness, Kim showed his commitment to protect the system and `songun politics' both in and outside his country.'' Songun means military-first in Korean, under which the North drives its policy centering on the military. Kim has steadily increased his number of public appearances with military reference since 2002, apparently feeling threatened by the nuclear crisis in October 2002, when the United States confronted the North with allegations of secret enrichment of uranium, as well as by the Iraq War in March 2003, the ministry said. Out of 99 public appearances in 2002, 38 were military-related. In 2004, it was 60 out of 92, and last year 70 out of 131, according to the data. The ministry attributed the sudden rise in the number of public appearances last year to a variety of festivities marking the fifth anniversary of the June 15 Inter-Korean Joint Declarations and the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from the Japanese colonial rule as well as the foundation of the North's Workers' Party.
• 250-mile Journey for National Liberation
  Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Eighty-one years have elapsed since President Kim Il Sung paid a 250-mile journey for national liberation. The army and people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea take this opportunity to recollect with deep emotion the noble patriotic idea of the President associated with the historic journey. In mid January Juche 14 (1925) when he studied in Mangyongdae true to the intention of his father Kim Hyong Jik that a man born in Korea must have a good knowledge of Korea, the young President was told that his father was arrested by the Japanese police again. He felt a terrible anger and hatred for the enemy. With a determination to fight at the risk of his life for taking revenge on the enemy of his father, his family and his nation, he set out on the 250-mile journey for national liberation on January 22. The route of the journey from Mangyongdae, Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang to Badaogou, the northeastern area of China, via South and North Phyongan, Jagang and Ryanggang Provinces of Korea was a rugged one beyond imagination. He negotiated one steep pass after another through biting cold and primitive forests where beasts roared even in the daytime. Keenly witnessing the miserable lots of the ruined nation wherever he went, he made a grime resolve not to return before Korea had become independent. The journey, covered by the President in his teens, was the path of independence against imperialism and of patriotic devotion, reflecting his firm conviction and unswerving resolution to beat back the aggressors violating the sovereignty of the nation. The revolutionary activities of Kim Il Sung, who adorned the modern history of the Korean people with heroic events and undying exploits, originated from the 250-mile Journey for National Liberation. [Kim Il Sung] [Japanese colonialism]
• Analysis of North Korea's New Year Joint Editorial of the Party, the Army and the Youth Vanguard(Jan.1,2006)
  1. On January 1, 2006 (09:00-09:35 a.m.), North Korea announced through the Central Broadcasting Station, the Pyongyang Broadcasting Service and the Central TV, a Joint Editorial in the bulletin of the party, the army and the youth guard, titled "Let us make a higher leap, full of great ambition and confidence." "The bulletin of the Party, the army and the youth vanguard" is the official publication of Rodong Shinmun, the Korean People's Army and the Youth Vanguard.
  2. Evaluation The New Year's Joint Editorial released by North Korea is characterized as follows. North Korea expressed an intention to avoid irritating the United States unnecessarily, being conscious of U.S. oppression against North Korea with regard to such issues as nuclear resources and illegal transactions involving counterfeit notes. Rather than presenting a new course for policies in each sector, it focused on the continuing promotion of existing economic policies, including once again designating agriculture as the main front, and on demonstrating its determination to safeguard the system based on Seongun(Military-First) politics. The editorial is characterized by the fact that three-point patriotic movement, for independent unification, peace against war, and grand national unity, were newly outlined.
• DIU, Origin of Korean Revolution
  Pyongyang, January 11 (KCNA) -- This year will significantly mark the 80th anniversary of the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU) in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The DIU's formation was a new starting point and origin of the Korean revolution. President Kim Il Sung, shouldering the destiny of the country, started his revolutionary activities in his teens and formed the DIU on October 17, Juche 15 (1926) with young communists of the new generation. The immediate task of the DIU, a revolutionary vanguard organization, was to defeat Japanese imperialism and achieve the liberation and independence of Korea. Its ultimate goal was to build socialism and communism in Korea and, furthermore, to overthrow all the imperialisms and realize communism throughout the world. [Kim Il Sung]
• Looking for Mr. X: North Korea's Successor
  by Brent Choi
  January 10th, 2006
  Brent Choi, a North Korea Specialist at the Joongang Daily, writes "most of the reports on North Korea's successor are 99% wrong. Kim Jong-il's sons might not even make it to the list of candidates. In order to become a successor the prospective leader will have to prove oneself in enhancing both economy and ideology. The winner "Mr. X" will sooner or later emerge at the front seat of the power through generation shifts after winning the tacit approval and confirmation from political elites. That precise timing will be in accordance with the seventh Party Convention. Let's just continue to keep a close eye on the North for 2-3 years more."
• Masses Held to Pray for National Reunification
  Pyongyang, January 7 (KCNA) -- Masses praying for national reunification were held at temples in the northern half of the country to mark the day of Buddha's attainment of great wisdom. Present there were priests of the Central Committee of the Korean Buddhist Federation and its provincial, city and county committees and monks and Buddhists of respective temples. Rituals took place there to be followed by speeches and a prepared address. Speakers said that the day of Buddha's attainment of great wisdom was commemorated at a time when all the people across the country are waging a dynamic struggle to build a great prosperous powerful nation and achieve national reunification. In order to build on this land a paradise in the present world in which the idea of getting rid of pain and attaining happiness desired by Buddha is embodied, all the Buddhists in the north and the south should unite in the Dharma-minded concord and drive the U.S. forces chiefly responsible for the division of the nation out of south Korea and implement to the letter the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, they noted. All the Buddhists will join all other fellow countrymen in the dynamic patriotic movement for independent reunification, peace against war and great national unity under the banner of "By our nation itself" in the future, too, as they did last year and thus further glorify the June 15 era of reunification, they stressed. [Religion]
• Koguryo Mural Tombs, World Heritage
  Pyongyang, January 6 (KCNA) -- Korea is endowed with many tombs with mural paintings created in the period of Koguryo. Koguryo was the first feudal state of Korea, which had great influence upon the development of the Oriental culture in the Middle Ages for its prominent architecture and drawing techniques. The mural tombs vividly mirror the then developed level of science and culture of Koguryo for their various structures of stone-piled chambers and rich content of the mural paintings. The mural tombs are divided into those with figure and genre paintings, with pictures of four guardians and with figure and genre paintings and pictures of four guardians according to their themes.
• North Korea to Wait Longer for 1st Foreign Church
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The construction of North Korea's first foreigners-only church has been delayed for more than a year, a South Korean pastor working for the project said on Saturday. In an interview with the Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-sponsored radio network, Pastor Lee Sung-woo from a missionary group leading the project said that "We received permission from the North Korean authorities in 2004 for the construction of the church in Pyongyang." Named the Pyongyang International Harvest Church, the envisioned church has drawn keen attention, as it would become the third official church in North Korea following the Pongsu Church built in 1988 and Chilgol Church built in 1999. "A South Korean construction company already submitted a design for the church to the authorities," he added. "The building of the church should be completed this year under the plan." [Religion]
• Joint New Year Editorial Issued
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Papers here today carry "Make a higher leap full of great ambition and confidence", a joint editorial issued by Rodong Sinmun, the official organ of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, Josoninmingun and Chongnyonjonwi on the occasion of the New Year Juche 95 (2006).
  Last year we splendidly celebrated the 60th anniversaries of the Party and the country's liberation as a great festival of victors in the Songun revolution and fully demonstrated the political and ideological might of our revolutionary ranks. . The grandiose military parade and other celebration events and the mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" were the epical scenes showing the solidness of single-minded unity, the might of the People's Army and the dignity of our nation. . Fresh progress was made in agricultural production by concentrating and mobilizing nationwide efforts in farming. The Taean Friendship Glass Factory, the Paekma-Cholsan Waterway and other structures of lasting value in the Songun era were built in all parts of the country and a large number of projects of great importance in the economic construction and the improvement of the people's living standard were reconstructed or updated. We resolutely foiled the U.S. moves to isolate and stifle the country by maintaining a tougher stance and firmly defended our ideology, system and cause
  The habit of attaching importance to the military affairs should be thoroughly established throughout the society. Top priority should be given to ensuring everything necessary for the national defence industry as required by the line of economic construction in the Songun era. The proud traits of Songun Korea that the people assist the army and vice versa should be brought into fuller bloom. . A radical turn should be brought about in socialist economic construction and the improvement of the people's living standard. It is the intention of the Party and our fighting objective to revitalize all the economic sectors and get the people to benefit virtually from our economic foundations in the near future. .
  Agriculture should be put forward as the main front of the economic construction this year, too, and all the forces be mobilized and concentrated on farming once again.
• New Year Stamp Issued
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- The Korea Stamp Corporation has issued a stamp in celebration of the New Year, Juche 95 (2006). The stamp figures majestic peaks around Lake Chon of Mt. Paektu against the beautiful sky aglow with the rising sun on the morning of the New Year's Day. Among them is the peak inscribed with leader Kim Jong Il's autograph "Mt. Paektu, holy mountain of the revolution". The stamp also shows rhododendron opening flowers and various kinds of plants growing at the foot of the peak. Printed in the stamp are words "Juche 95 (2006)" in the upper part and "A Happy New Year" in the lower part. Its face value is 3 won.
• New Year editorial
  North Korea released a 'joint New Year's editorial' under the title of "Make a leap forward with great ambitions and confidence", which revealed that North Korea would focus on pursuing the previous policies, shown in the re-designation of agriculture as a major industrial front rather than suggesting new policies.
• Kim Jong-il Calls for Young Bloods in Cabinet
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has called for efforts to replace aging officials with young talent, a recent publication from North Korea obtained by Yonhap News Agency revealed Thursday. ''I highly valued the workers that our dear leader (Kim Il-sung) personally trained and allowed them to continue working,'' Kim said in a 2001 meeting with central committee members of the North's Workers' Party. Kim succeeded his father and founder of North Korea Kim Il-sung when the latter died of heart failure in 1994, marking the first hereditary succession power in a communist country. He has since maintained and even promoted most of his late father's colleagues, such as the country's titular head of state Kim Yong-nam, who heads the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and helped his father found the communist state. The North Korean leader, however, said, ''Most of the executive officials who served the dear leader are now old,'' according to the book, a collection of Kim's published works, letters and remarks.
  Pointing out the age of the first-generation leaders, most of whom are now well over 70, Kim said the country must make what he called a bold decision to train and employ new, young officials, according to the book. The North Korean leader suggested an academic background as one of the achievements for the new officials, a rare criterion for employment in a country where equality is praised before individual abilities or achievements. ''We must now stress people's academic background in all walks of life,'' Kim was quoted as saying, adding that an official's remarks can be taken seriously only when the person has enough knowledge to support the remarks or claims.
• NK Leader's 1st Public Appearance of New Year
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il made his first public appearance of the year Wednesday with a rare outing to a newly built library at a Pyongyang university. Kim came to give "field guidance to the new e-library and gymnasium at Kim Chaek University of Technology," the North's Korea Central News Agency reported Thursday. "Learning in detail about its construction, equipment and operation, he expressed great satisfaction over the successful construction of the modern library, which reflects the appearance of the ideal society desired by the Korean people," the report said.[ICT]
• Rodong Sinmun on Establishing Juche in Ideological Work
  Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today dedicates a signed article to the 50th anniversary of the publication of President Kim Il Sung's famous work "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work". Clarified in the work are the principled issues to be held fast to with all consistency by the working-class party in deepening its ideological work and leading the revolution and construction ranging from the necessity for thoroughly eliminating flunkeyism and dogmatism and establishing Juche to the ways of doing so.
• Great Care Taken for National Heritage
  Pyongyang, December 29 (KCNA) -- Great efforts have been made to excavate, preserve and introduce the national cultural heritages in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea this year. Researchers in the field of historical studies including the Archeological Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences unearthed many pieces of valuable relics in an extra-large house site in Honam-ri, Samsok District, Pyongyang on the bank of the Taedong River. They show the cultural development in the Pyongyang area in the Neolithic era. The Ryongthong Temple in Kaesong, one of the historical remains in the days of the Kingdom of Koryo, the first unified state in the Korean history, was restored to the original state. And a lot of cultural heritages were excavated or rehabilitated to the original state in different parts of the country. An exhibition of historical remains and relics newly collected was held in the Korean Central History Museum on the occasion of the 60th anniversaries of the Workers' Party of Korea and national liberation.

• Is Another Father-to-Son Transfer of Power Possible in N. Korea?
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
  This year saw rampant speculation in South Korea on when North Korea will possibly unveil plans for the succession of power from one incumbent leader Kim Jong-il to one of his three sons. There have been a number of occasions that could have been well suited to announcing such a grand vision for the communist country with a Confucian touch. In August, for example, was the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. The North has contended that its founding leader Kim Il-sung served as a leading independence fighter.
  Most bet on Kim Jong-chol, about whom little is known except that he was once educated in Bern, Switzerland, in the mid-1990s. But there have also been some skeptical voices that questioned the possibility of another power succession in North Korea 31 years after the late Kim Il-sung designated his son Kim Jong-il as his successor in the first father-to-son power transfer. ``I have met party officials, military people, artists, doctors, et cetera. They told me `please don't, they'll think you're spying on us' when I asked them about the succession issue,'' said a source who has a close connection with Pyongyang's ruling class, frequently visiting the North for business affairs. ``But when I insist, they tell me that they think Kim Jong-il is their last leader,'' the source said on condition of anonymity. ``So what North Koreans think is the reunification (of the two Koreas) must come soon.''
• Yun I Sang- His Music and Methods of Expression
  Yun I Sang (1917-1995) was a world-famous composer, who was awarded a lot of prizes such as Goethe Medal sponsored by the Goethe Institute. This year, 2005, is the 10th memorial year of his death. A concert commemorating the 10th death anniversary of Yun I Sang's death was held at the Yun I Sang Concert Hall from October 26 to 28.
• Yon Hyong Muk Dies
  Yon Hyong Muk, an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the Vice-Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission (NDC), died of an incurable disease at the age of 73 on October 22. The Central Committee of the WPK and the DPRK National Defense Commission released an obituary of Yon Hyong Muk on the same day. The Central Committee of the WPK and the NDC formed a state funeral committee with Jo Myong Rok as its chairman and Kim Yong Nam, Pak Pong Ju, Kim Yong Chun, Kim Il Chol, Jon Pyong Ho and 43 others as its members.
• Summing Up "Proud History" of WPK
  The 60th Anniversary of the WPK A national meeting was held at May Day Stadium to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
  Kim Jong Il, the General Secretary of the WPK, the Supreme Commander of Korean People's Army (KPA) and the Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission, was present at the meeting. Also present were leading cadres of the WPK, the state and the army and the chairpersons of friendly parties. Kim Yong Nam, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK and the president of the Presidium of SPA, made a report.
• Changes in North Korea for the Past Five Years
  {ROK Ministry of Unification 23 December 2005}
  Through the events, such as the June 15 Joint Declaration (June, 2000), announcement of the "new way of thinking" (January, 2001), and the '7.1 Measures' (July, 2002), North Korea has gradually maintained their level of change. The change in mentality of the citizens in North Korea occurred much faster than the changes made in the economic system of North Korea. Such changes in the mentality of the citizens are expected to create the grounds to expedite further changes in North Korea's future and simultaneously play the structural role of preventing North Korea from trying to return to its past.
  In the field of economy, North Korea has officially recognized the function of the market mechanism to be a vertebral part of the national economy and has been expanding the implementation of various factors of the market economy in its economic sectors in incremental stages. North Korea introduced various aspects of the market economy into its system through the '7.1 Measures', which includes increasing the prices of commodities, wages, and the exchange rate, demolishing the rationing system, and providing more freedom for enterprises to operate private businesses.
  In March 2003, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il directed an official recognition of the market in North Korea and to nurture the market as a distribution channel. As a result, as of September 2005, North Korea has 95 trading centers. In addition, in January 2004, North Korea had trial runs for a family-based farming system and implemented a plan on improving the operations of factories and enterprises [Economic reforms]
• Observation of Migrants Intensified
  Pyongyang, December 8 (KCNA) -- Observation of seasonal birds has been intensified in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as bird flu spreads world wide. There are more than 210 kinds of migrants that inhabit Korea or pass via it in winter. Out of them wild goose, wild duck, eagle, hawk, gull, Gruidae are the most possible birds to spread bird influenza. They move through the east and west coasts and central mountainous areas of Korea. A system for observing habitats and movement of migrants has been established with officials of the State Emergency Veterinary and Anti-epizootic Committee and prevention centers at all levels and working people and necessary steps are being taken one after another. The National Epizootic Prevention Centre under the Ministry of Agriculture is conducting activities to grasp the passing routes of migrants that are regarded as vehicle of avian flu and to prevent them from coming into contact with poultry.
• North seen as wary over next 'dear leader'
  December 12, 2005 ? North Korean leader Kim Jong- il has issued a special instruction barring any discussion about who might succeed him, informed sources in Seoul said yesterday. According to the sources, Mr. Kim gave the instruction during a recent meeting with ranking officials including Kim Ki-nam, secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party and military generals Hyun Chol-hae and Park Jae-gyong. "Our enemies are backbiting us by speculating about our [country's] future leadership and a father-to-son succession," Kim was quoted by one source as saying in the meeting. "I ask party and military leaders to strictly crack down on any public discussion on the [issue of our] next leader." Mr. Kim reportedly noted that any talk of his inherited power would defame him and his late father, making the North an "international laughingstock."
• Pyongyang Picks Hospital for Bird Flu
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ North Korea has designated a hospital for treatment of possible bird flu patients as it is stepping up efforts to prevent an outbreak of the potentially deadly disease, a World Health Organization official said Saturday. The North authorities have picked a hospital in Pyongyang for possible outbreak of the bird flu, said Eigil Sorensen, the WHO's representative in the North, in an interview with Radio Free Asia. Radio Free Asia is funded by the United States for its Korean-language broadcasting. Without specifying the name of the hospital, he said he had inspected the hospital himself, which the WHO and the North authorities are expanding. As far as he knows, there has been no outbreak of the bird flu yet in the country, the official said.
• Succession talk worrying N.K. leader
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly ordered a crackdown on rumors about the future leadership of the country amid speculation that his second son, Kim Jong-chol, may become the next leader. Kim expressed concern recently that talk of a second hereditary succession could damage the image of the communist state and could invite derision from the international community, Seoul sources said. They said Kim issued the special instruction during a recent meeting with top officials from the government, the military and the ruling Workers' Party. Kim was quoted as saying, "Our enemies are slandering us citing a father-to-son succession."
  He reportedly ordered the government and the party to stop any discussion of a power succession and step up monitoring of rumors about his successor and ordered rumormongers to be harshly punished. During the meeting, according to sources, Kim said that if he transfers power to one of his sons, it would damage his and his father's image and would be mocked in the international community.
• World Day of AIDS Observed
  Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- Dec. 1 is World Day of AIDS. The day was instituted for the purpose of increasing public concern on the danger of AIDS known as the pest of the 20th century and prevention of its spread. Minju Joson today carries data that AIDS is now spreading all over the world and its infection has reached a very serious stage. It goes on: Seriousness of AIDS drawing world-wide attention is its harmful affection on the growth of children.
• Anti-avian Flu Campaign Intensified in DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 18 (KCNA) -- The anti-bird flu campaign has been intensified in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The State Veterinary and Anti-epizootic Emergency Commission has recently worked out regulations of anti-avian influenza work, emergency rules of action at the bird flu outbreak and a strategy for successfully preventing it. A preventive campaign is being dynamically conducted in accordance with them. The regulations specify the working system between the central organ and local ones and make it possible to ensure cooperation and uniformity in the anti-epidemic work. And the related units shall take steps to prevent people and domestic animals from being afflicted with bird flu and take counter- measures at the outbreak of such cases according to the established system and orders.
• Kim Jong Il Sends Birthday Table to Former Unconverted Long-Term Prisoner
  Pyongyang, November 16 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il sent a birthday table to former unconverted long-term prisoner Ri Kyong Chan, indomitable pro-reunification patriotic fighter, on his 70th birthday. Born in a tenant family in Jangphung County on Nov. 15, Juche 24 (1935), Ri underwent bitter sufferings as member of a stateless nation. He could enjoy a new worthwhile life under the care of President Kim Il Sung. He turned out in a sacred struggle for national reunification and was unfortunately arrested by the enemy while courageously fighting against him. However, he remained true to his revolutionary principle to the last despite the enemy's all sorts of cruel torture for several decades
• Origin of Six Famous Mountains in Korea
  Pyongyang, November 15 (KCNA) -- There are six famous mountains in Korea for their grandeur, mysterious rocks and cliffs and scenery beyond description. Working people from all walks of life are now enjoying their holidays in these mountains tinted with autumn foliage. From olden times, Koreans say that there are four famous mountains in Korea, Mt. Kumgang in the east, Mt. Myohyang in the north, Mt. Kuwol in the west and Mt. Jiri in the south. They had not included Mt. Paektu in the famous mountains, calling it an ancestral mountain. Later it has been included in the list of the famous mountains in the meaning that there can not be famous mountains without the ancestral mountain as if children are unthinkable apart from parents. Buddhist saint Sosan well-known in Korea said that the country has five famous mountains, the first of which is Mt. Paektu, the second Mt. Kumgang, the third Mt. Myohyang, the fourth Mt. Kuwol and the fifth Mt. Jiri.
• Who's next in North Korea?
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2005
  SEOUL Kim Jong Il, the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, is pushing an age - 63 - when he is widely expected to designate a successor who will carry the mantle of power he inherited from his own father in the Communist world's first and only dynasty. But he has problems. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 34, has not been home for years, wandering in self-imposed exile overseas and reportedly on the run from hit men hired by supporters of his stepbrothers. His second son, Kim Jong Chol, is only 24 and was reportedly dismissed once by his father as too "girlish" to be a leader. His youngest son, Kim Jong Un, 22, remains a mystery; in fact no one in the outside world is known to have ever seen his photograph.
• CNN shows North Korean executions, prisons
  November 15, 2005 ? Gory images of public executions and life inside political prisons in North Korea were aired by CNN on Sunday prime time, with the documentary producer saying the shocking depictions were only a part of North Koreans' experiences. The U.S. cable news network aired an hour-long documentary entitled "Undercover in the Secret State." The public executions shown had already been aired in Korea in March and some footage was from seven years ago. CNN said the images were from video recordings shot by dissidents and smuggled out of North Korea. In the documentary, a dissident claimed there is a growing movement in North Korea opposing the Kim Jong-il regime. The program showed a North Korean man being publicly shot by three policemen in Hoeryong, North Hamkyong province. It also showed a child being viciously bitten after he attempted to steal food at a farmer's market. Sarah McDonald, the documentary's producer and director, said her crew interviewed a man who had been in a political prison shown in the movie, but his story was too depressing to air. "What he described, we didn't put it in the film," she was quoted by CNN. "It is so appalling, you just can't imagine. He said that 95 percent of people who go into that prison die in the prison. Their whole motivation is to kill these people, but they won't let them die easily. They ? they torture them to death over a very long period of time." According to CNN, the North Korean government did not immediately respond to the U.S. broadcaster's request for a comment on the documentary. Human Rights Watch, an international rights group, estimated that 200,000 political prisoners exist in the North, while Pyongyang denies the accusation. [Black]
• NK Food Ration System Forces People to Work
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter The newly introduced food ration system in North Korea offers different rates to workers and those who do not work in order to encourage people to return to their workplaces, reports said. According to the reports, the new ration system that has been implemented in urban areas in the North, provides the staple foods _ rice, corn, wheat and potato _ at two different prices to the public in the impoverished communist country. One kilogram of A-class rice is supplied to laborers at 46 North Korean won (around 2 cents), but provided at 627 won to people belonging to the group called ``No. 26'', a North Korean term used to describe those who do not work. Under the current exchange rate, one U.S. dollar equals approximately 2,500 North Korean won. A cob of corn was sold at 24 won to laborers while being supplied at 420 won to the other group. ``Under the new system, the working population can buy rice and other food at cheaper prices. But if you don't work, the price increases quite sharply,'' said a Chinese-Korean merchant, who returned from his trip to the North, on condition of anonymity.
• DPRK Efforts for Prevention of Bird Flu
  Pyongyang, November 6 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is directing big efforts to preventing the bird flu which is rapidly spreading the world over. Leader Kim Jong Il recently spoke of bird flu several times and took concrete measures. All the officials and the working people across the country including those of the Cabinet Secretariat, ministries and national institutions and the field of the veterinary and anti-epizootic and public health have turned out as one in the prevention of bird flu.
• Activist mother lauds hospital care in North
  November 07, 2005 ? ? Hwang Sun, 31, while she was confined at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital in the North Korean capital last month. Her daughter, Gyeore, is the first known South Korean baby born in the North. Provided by Hwang Sun "If I talk about my feelings about North Korea's medical system frankly, it probably would break the National Security Law ? the articles that ban praising or sympathizing with North Korea," Hwang Sun, told the Joong-Ang Daily at her home in eastern Seoul on Friday. She is a well-known South Korean activist and a mother of two children. Ms. Hwang gave birth to her second daughter on Oct. 10 during her tour to the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang ? the first known South Korean baby to be born on the other side of the inter-Korean border. She was in the North as a tourist to watch the Arirang Festival performance there. While she was watching the performance at the May 1 Stadium, Ms. Hwang said she felt the first labor pains. "I looked at my watch so often to time how frequently the contractions were coming that the North Korean medical team at the stadium with me suspected that the baby was coming soon," Ms. Hwang said. "I thought I would be all right, but they hurriedly moved me to the hospital." Ms. Hwang delivered a 3.36-kilogram (7.4 pounds) healthy baby girl, whom she named Gyeore, by Caesarean section at North Korea's Pyongyang Maternity Hospital. After 15 days of recovery at the hospital, she and her daughter returned to South Korea on Oct. 25. "North Korea is very proud that it began a state policy of special attention to maternity issues from the 1970s," Ms. Hwang said. Pyongyang Maternity Hospital is located in the Taedonggang district of the North's capital city, and has 2,000 patient rooms. Built in 1979, it is the largest women's hospital in North Korea.
• Anti-Bird Flu Work Intensified in DPRK
  Pyongyang, October 24 (KCNA) -- A nation-wide campaign to prevent bird flu epidemic has been intensified in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under the unified guidance of the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Committee as it has spread to different parts of the world. The Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Public Health, State Bureau for Quality Control, Pyongyang City Poultry Guidance Bureau and other related units are enhancing their role in this campaign. In an interview with KCNA, Vice- Minister of Agriculture Mun Ung Jo said that as the bird influenza has rapidly spread to different parts of the world with the south-east Asian region as the center, the government has taken necessary steps to prevent the bird flu virus from affecting the country. The government, based on the experience gained in the anti-bird flu epidemic work, has established a system of quickly and correctly reporting an outbreak of the case to the central guidance office while making all material and technical preparations so as to remove any slight symptoms in time. Information activities are also brisk to prevent bird influenza. Materials related to the outbreak of the case and its damage in foreign countries and materials on technology needed for preventing it have been sent to the provinces, cities and counties. Such anti-epidemic measures as medical check-up of the workers, thorough sterilization and quarantine at poultry farms have also been taken. In particular, the movement of migrants is under regular observation, their excretion being examined and families and special farms are required to breed poultry in pens. Various kinds of poultry and their products imported from abroad and travelers are thoroughly quarantined at ports and frontier stations. Meanwhile, scientific researches into separating and identifying bird flu viruses are being made on the basis of successfully making vaccine against the bird flu virus which was found in the country
• Yon Hyong Muk Dies
  Pyongyang, October 23 (KCNA) -- Yon Hyong Muk, alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and vice-chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, died of an incurable disease to our sorrow at the age of 73 on Oct. 22. Yon Hyong Muk was born in the family of a revolutionary in Kyongwon County, North Hamgyong Province on November 3, Juche 20 (1931). After the liberation of Korea he grew up to be an able official under the benevolent care of the Party and the leader and held important posts of the Party and the state for years.
• North Korean Leader's Top Aide Dies
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Yon Hyong-muk, one of the closest confidants of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday. He was 73. ``It is a great loss to our party and people to have lost comrade Yon who has long contributed to the party's great achievements with his firm loyalty and high capability,'' the KCNA said in its obituary. Yon cuts a rather familiar figure in the South as he led the North Korean delegation to Seoul for a number of high-level inter-Korean talks during the early 1990s. It was Yon who signed the six-point joint declaration for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in February 1992, with his South Korean counterpart Chung Won-shik, then prime minister. In addition, Yon attended the farewell dinner and farewell ceremony at the airport during the inter-Korean summit held between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June 2000 in Pyongyang.
• Top Aide to N. Korea's Kim Jong Il Dies of `Incurable Disease'
  Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Yon Hyong Muk, a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, died yesterday of an `incurable disease,' the North's official Korea Central News Agency said today. He was 73.
• Roast Chestnuts and Sweet Potatoes Popular in Pyongyang
  Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- Stalls along streets in Pyongyang are drawing customers for roast chestnuts and sweet potatoes these days. According to Kim Sung Thaek, a department director of the Ministry of Commerce, the commercial and catering service networks under the Pyongyang City Bureau for the Guidance of Public Service and the Pyongyang City People's Committee started serving roast chestnuts and sweat potatoes on the occasion of the 60th birthday of the Workers' Party of Korea. There are more than 310 roast chestnut and sweat potato stalls only in the main streets of the city, he added. President Kim Il Sung instructed officials concerned to take measures for providing Pyongyang citizens with roast chestnuts and sweet potatoes. In order to carry it into practice leader Kim Jong Il saw to it that roast chestnut and sweat potato stalls have been set up in streets and chestnuts and sweat potatoes preferentially supplied to the city. Amid such care, stalls never ceased to serve roast chestnuts and sweat potatoes even in the period of the "Arduous March" and the forced march. The odor of roast chestnuts and sweat potatoes is a unique flavor in Korea during autumn.
• NK to Keep Military-1st Policy
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea celebrated Sunday the 60th anniversary of the founding of its Workers' Party with a vow to stick to its policy of ``songun,'' or military first, saying the policy of giving priority to reinforcing military power is essential to build a self-reliant country
• N. Korea Leader Said Considers Successor
  The Associated Press Saturday, October 8, 2005; 10:14 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's spy agency believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Il leans toward having his second son succeed him as head of the communist country, a news report said Saturday. Kim likes 24-year-old Jong Chol because of his circumspect character, the newspaper Chosun Ilbo said, citing unidentified lawmakers who were briefed Friday by the National Intelligence Service.
  The eldest son, Jong Nam, 34, who reportedly angered his father in 2001 by trying to enter Japan on a fake passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland, is out of favor and the third son, Jong Un, 21, is considered too young, the paper said. There was no comment from the intelligence agency.
• Rodong Sinmun Calls for Frustrating Imperialist Psychological Warfare
  Pyongyang, October 7 (KCNA) -- The peoples of all countries aspiring after independence should heighten vigilance against the imperialists' psychological warfare and shatter their moves with a revolutionary ideological and cultural offensive, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. The tragedies that resulted from the psychological warfare of the imperialists in recent years go to prove that countering their psychological warfare with a powerful revolutionary offensive is an important way of shattering their moves for aggression and domination and defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation, the article notes, and goes on: [Softpower]
• Sixty Year of Victory and Glory for the WPK
  October 10 this year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party of socialist Korea. The foundation of the WPK was a historic event that effected a radical change in shaping the destiny of the Korean people. All the victories, successes and wonderful realities of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are related with the founding day.
  people and the cause of socialism to shining victory! Songun. means giving top national priority to military affairs and making the Korean People's Army the backbone of revolution, so as to beef up the driving force of revolution and vigorously promote national defence and socialist construction as a whole.
• Kim Jong Il's Candid Talk Caught on Tape
  "I told them to say things in order to get more foreign aids", Kim Jong Il
  Wolgan Chosun: This is a transcript of Kim Jong Il's conversation with Huh Jong Man and Suh Man Sul, two top leaders of the General Association of the Koreans Resident in Japan (Chongryon), a pro-North organization. The conversation took place in the evening of April 25, 1998 at Kim Jong Il's villa. We obtained this document from a Japanese intelligence agency concerned with North Korea. On the surface, Kim is critical of the United States, Japan, and South Korea and praises the socialist system of North Korea, but deep in his heart, he is envious of capitalism and wants to learn from it. Kim is candid about the difficulties in North Korea and unintentionally points out some of the weaknesses of the North Korean system. Some of the highlights of Kim's conversation are: Kim Dae Jung is unusually mean-spirited. Kim Young Sam is a dirt-bag. Kim Ja Jung is the evilest of all South Korean capitalists. We need superior seeds for our crops. Bring here Japanese factories when they are closed down. The United States is our mortal enemy and at the same time, our teacher. We sent in the army to save the Hwanghae Steel Mills from the thieves who ran it. I admire the capitalist legal systems. The law exams in Japan and South Korea are exemplary.
• Disclosed stills show soldiers beating defector
  September 27, 2005 ? Stills from video footage allegedly showing North Korean border guards beating a female defector were disclosed yesterday by Free North Korea, on its Web site, www.freenk.net. The civic group that promotes North Korean issues posted 14 photos they said were from a video taken Aug. 17 near the border of China and North Korea at the Yalu River. The woman was said to have lived in China for eight years but had crossed the border into the North in order to sell goods. The sequence of photos show two soldiers in what appear to be North Korean uniforms, inside a guard post beating a woman with sticks until one stick breaks. As the female collapses to the ground, a soldier kicks the woman in the head. This is the first time photos alleged to be of North Korean soldiers beating a defector have become public. A source said yesterday the tape in question was obtained by a North Korean defector in China and will be aired soon on Japanese TV. Some observers speculated other soldiers may have taken the video as only the attackers' backs could be seen. [human rights] [media]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Company and Power Station
  Pyongyang, September 21 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, inspected a company of KPA Unit 916 and a power station built by KPA Unit 966. He acquainted himself with the company's performance of duty and watched its servicepersons' training. He expressed satisfaction over the fact that all the servicepersons have been trained as a-match- for-a-hundred fighters and set forth tasks to be fulfilled to increase the combat capability of the company.
  He was greatly satisfied to learn that the unit has realized electrification at a high level by use of electricity produced by itself and built all modern facilities for entertainment and supply service to the convenience of the servicepersons. It is very good to use electricity in doing everything including room- heating, cooking and operation of saunas, he said, underscoring the need for all units to realize electrification to provide the servicepersons with highly civilized and affluent living conditions.
  The next leg of his inspection was a new power station built by KPA Unit 966. He learned in detail about the construction of the power station and the production of electricity there, going round a generator-room, power-distribution room and a big man-made reservoir. He highly praised the feats performed by the servicepersons of the unit, saying it is a great success that in recent years they have built several modern power stations one after another by widely using the latent reserves to produce a lot of electricity for the successful electrification in the unit. [Military economy]
• Kim Jong IL stresses need to strengthen the company
  Kim Jong IL, general secretary of the Workers¨ Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People¨s Army, inspected a company under KPA Unit 228. He was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong. He was saluted by the commanding officers of the unit and the company. He learned about the company¨s performance of duty before seeing the servicepersons under training. He expressed satisfaction over the fact that the commanding officers and soldiers of the company were fully capable of undertaking any combat duty as a-match-for-a-hundred combatants. He stressed the need to implement the WPK¨s policy of training thoroughly. Making the rounds of education room, bedroom, mess hall, kitchen, non-staple food store, bathroom, barns and power station, he showed the paternal care of the living of the soldiers. The company is breeding many farm animals such as goat, chicken and duck so as to supply the soldiers with a plenty of nutritive foodstuff including milk, meat and vegetables and enjoying much benefits from the power station built by their own efforts. After feasting his eyes on the barns swarming with farm animals and the fields covered with vegetables, he highly appreciated the achievements made by the soldiers. He called for concentrating sustained efforts on building up the company, noting that it is very important to strengthen the company, a main combat unit of the KPA. He gave a pair of binoculars and an automatic rifle to the servicepersons of the company as gifts and had a photo session with them. [military economy]
• Kim Jong Il Sees "Arirang" Mass Gymnastic Display
  In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula and the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea, "Arirang," a large-scale mass gymnastic display and art performances, was staged on August 16 at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang with General Secretary Kim Jong Il attending. Kim Jong Il saw the performance with senior officials of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the state and the army. Russian guest Konstantin Pulikovski, presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia, also enjoyed the performance.
• N. Korea Upgrades Travel Permits
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter
  North Korea has introduced a new "high-tech" travel permit for citizens traveling abroad in an apparent bid to prevent forgery by would-be defectors. NK Auction, an Internet site dealing in North Korea-related products, unveiled Tuesday the new type of passport with a scanned photograph and typed personal details. The pass was issued in June 2004 with a valid period of one month. Until now, North Korean travel passes have had pasted photos and handwritten details. Pyongyang watchers said the communist state seemed to have upgraded the travel permit in order to fight forgery by North Koreans attempting to flee their country. A growing number of North Koreans are forging travel permits to seek refuge in China instead of risking their lives by swimming across the river on the border, experts said. The new travel pass was introduced as a follow-up measure to Pyongyang's computerization of its identification system of civilians and soldiers. [Media] [Double standards]
• Heavy Rainfall in DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- A torrential rain fell in Pyongyang, South Phyongan, South and North Hwanghae Provinces. According to observations from 6 p.m. on August 3 to 6 a.m. on the 4th, Maengsan witnessed 142 mm of rainfall, Phyongsong 139 mm, Sariwon 138 mm, Pyongyang 134 mm, Songchon 96 mm, Pukchang 95 mm, Jangyon 92 mm and Hwangju 91 mm. In particular, for an hour from 3 a.m. on Thursday, there was as much rainfall as 66 mm in Pyongyang and 40 mm in Kangnam. The heavy rain mainly hit cities situated along the River Taedong such as Pyongyang, Phyongsong and Sariwon.
• A dip in the Yalu
  [Photo] August 05, 2005 ?
  North Korean children cooling off yesterday in the Yalu River,on the border between North Korea and China. The photo was taken near Shinuiju, North Korea, from a cruise boat which departed from Dandung, China
• Songbul Temple in DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 3 (KCNA) -- Songbul Temple built in 898 is located in the fort on Mt. Jongbang in Sariwon city, North Hwanghae Province, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It consists of 6 buildings--Ungjin, Kukrak, Myongbu and Unha halls and Chongphung and Sansin pavilions with a five-storied pagoda in the centre. The Ungjin hall is one of the oldest remaining wooden buildings in the country. It, belonging to the period of Koryo (918-1392), was rebuilt in 1327 Though nearly 700 years has passed since its reconstruction, its colorful painting remains unchanged. The Kukrak hall, which was built in 898 and rebuilt in 1376, was burnt out by the U.S. imperialist aggressors' bombing during the Fatherland Liberation War. The present one was constructed as it was in Juche 45 (1956).
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Command of Large Combined Unit of KPA and Its Unit
  Pyongyang, August 2 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, inspected the command of the large combined unit and Unit 615 honored with the title of Kum Song Lifeguard of the KPA situated in the forefront area in the central sector of the front. He was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong
  Then he moved on to the duck farm built by the unit. He put forward the tasks to be fulfilled to boost the duck production, saying that the farm should operate at its fullest capacity to pay off profusely. He had a photo session with the servicepersons of the unit.
• Control of Smoking Developed to Stage of Active Practice
  "World No-Tobacco Day" Event in Pyongyang
  On the occasion of "World No-Tobacco Day (WNTD)" (May 31), an event to encourage "no smoking" was held on May 30 at the Koryo Academy of Medical Sciences in Pyongyang. While no smoking events had been held annually, before the Ministry of Public Health of the DPRK attached a special meaning to the recent event. The "Framework Agreement on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization (WHO)" was adopted in 2003 and 168 countries, including the DPRK, signed it as of June 29, 2004. Choe Chang Sik, Vice Minister of Public Health, made a speech at the opening ceremony of the event. He said, "With each country's signature of this framework agreement, WNTD has been given a new meaning and the tobacco control movement has entered its stage of active practice."
• DPRK Establishes Civilian Fund for Children's Education
  The Korea Education Fund (KEF) was established, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on June 7. The fund is a legal non-governmental organization for public interests. Its mission is to regulate and strengthen financial and material support necessary to develop education in accordance with the requirement of the times. According to the KCNA, many Koreans at home and abroad and famous political, public and educational figures and organizations have rendered a lot of material and financial backing to the DPRK in its educational work, proceeding from the lofty humanitarianism of loving peace and valuing the future. It has made a contribution to the improvement of educational conditions and the balanced development of education. And many figures have advanced a proposal to establish an organization in the form of humanitarian fund for the purpose of strengthening the support to the educational work and have exerted efforts to realize it. Their efforts have resulted in founding the Fund in January last through an agreement and working procedure with parties concerned. The Fund does not fix the regional limit in general activities such as raising fund and performing support. And it decides personnel selection according to relevant program and the agreed plan on specific objects, transcending the differences in political view, religious belief, race, nationality and sex. The KEF welcomes all donators at home and abroad who are based on good intentions and voluntary principle. [Economic reform]
• Anniversary of Promulgation of Law on Sex Equality Marked
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- Papers Saturday editorially observe the 59th anniversary of the promulgation of the Law on Sex Equality. An editorial of Rodong Sinmun says that President Kim Il Sung promulgated the historic law on July 30, Juche 35 (1946), thus bringing about a fundamental turn in improving the social status of the Korean women and carving out their destiny.
• Pulled paper sparks row
  A doctoral student at Stockholm University's department of Oriental languages claims to have been barred from a conference because of his controversial research, although conference organisers said it was because his paper lacked academic merit.
  He argues that "what drives (Western man's) fetishism with Asian women is quite simply paedophile tendencies". He also says that interracial marriage and the adoption of East Asian babies are part of a long tradition of colonial oppression.
  The external examiner for Mr. Huebinette's doctoral thesis, Keun de Ceuster, is a member of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe. Mr. Hubinette argues that the association excluded him from its biennial conference held last week at Sheffield University.
• Re-depiction of Grand Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Performance "Arirang" Brisk
  Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- Re-depiction of the grand mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" is brisk in the run-up to the 60th anniversaries of the Workers' Party of Korea and Korea's liberation. Participating in it are at least 100,000 famous creators and artistes of the DPRK including winners of international and national concours, youths and students. They have worked heart and soul to revise and supplement some scenes of the work as required by the times and perfect the representation, performing skill, costumes, stage decor and lighting on a higher level in a matter of a few months. As a result, they successfully held the first rehearsal of the extravaganza on July 26. Completed under the energetic guidance and care of leader Kim Jong Il, it was premiered in April, Juche 91 (2002), on the occasion of the 90th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. It caused a great sensation all over the world as it was rated as the greatest monumental masterpiece not only in terms of its content, style and scale but in the level of ideological value and artistic representation. [Bluster]
• Individual Art Show Held in DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- A show of art works presented by People's Artist Ri Kyong Nam and Choe Ung Gwon of the Mansudae Art Studio took place at the Pyongyang International House of Culture from July 14 to 28. On display there were over 60 Korean paintings and 80 porcelains. Ri and Choe are famous at home and abroad as talented artists of Korean painting and ceramic workmanship.
• 52nd Anniversary of Victory in War Commemorated
  Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- The 52nd anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War was commemorated on July 26. A loyal meeting of servicepersons of the three services of the Korean People's Army was held at the education ground of the Monument to Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War to vow to glorify the Songun revolutionary leadership feats of Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il for all ages. Kim Yong Chun, chief of the KPA General Staff, in his report said that the historic victory in the Fatherland Liberation War which excited the world as a "military miracle in the 20th century" was a brilliant fruition of the wise leadership of Generalissimo Kim Il Sung. He referred to the fact that Kim Il Sung gave a shameful defeat to the U.S. imperialist aggressors who boasted of being "the strongest" in the world with his matchless pluck and will, outstanding strategy and tactics and extraordinary commanding art and brought about the beginning of decline for them.
• Functions Held to Celebrate Day of Victory in War
  Pyongyang, July 26 (KCNA) -- A presentation of wartime songs "Eternal Song of Victory of Songun" was made by war veterans from across the country in Pyongyang on July 25 to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War (July 27, 1953). It was appreciated by Kim Yong Nam, Kim Il Chol, Kim Jung Rin and other senior officials and working people. [Korean War]
• DPRK Violinist Emerges Winner at International Concours
  Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- Violinist Mun Kyong Jin of the Mansudae Art Troupe emerged winner at the Kaneti International Violin Concours held in Hungary from July 15 to 20. The concours drew 60 excellent violinists from seven countries including the DPRK, Russia, China and Hungary. Its jury included renowned professors and doctors who are violin experts from Russia, Britain, Greece, Mexico and other countries. The concours involved the first- and second- phase elimination contests and the final. In the final competition qualifiers performed solos for Mozart violin concerto played by the Hungarian symphony orchestra.
• Korea Has Longest History of University
  Pyongyang, July 7 (KCNA) -- Korea is one of the countries with the longest history of university in the world. Historical documents say that Koguryo (B.C. 277-A.D. 668), an old kingdom in Korea, established "Thaehak" (university) for the purpose of strengthening the feudal rule. At that time, Koguryo had a well-regulated nationwide education system with schools in local areas and "Thaehak" in the capital. According to Prof. and Dr. Pak Yong Hae who is a candidate academician, "Thaehak" gave students literary and military education. It greatly contributed to the prosperity of Koguryo, which existed for a millennium as a strong nation. "Thaehak" furnished itself with the features befitting a higher educational institution in 372. The kingdom of Koryo (918-1392) carried forward the educational tradition of Koguryo to found "Songgyungwan", the highest seat of education in the country, in 992. Koryo Songgyungwan, a university of light industry, in Kaesong City, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the heir to "Songgyungwan".
• Kim Jong-il changes travel companions
  July 05, 2005 ? For the last six months, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, at least in his public duties, appears to have changed his traveling companions. According to an analysis by the JoongAng Ilbo's Unification Research Institute on North Korean media reports, Mr. Kim now prefers the company of government technocrats more often than his once usual coterie of military officials. The research institute said yesterday it has analyzed the state-run newspaper Rodong Shinmun's coverage of Mr. Kim's public appearances during the first half of this year. While Mr. Kim's activities mainly include visits to military bases as they have done in previous years, Pyongyang's cabinet members and Workers' Party officials are accompanying him more often than military leaders.[ role of NK military]
• Historic Relics, Remains Preserved in DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 4 (KCNA) -- More and more historic relics and remains showing the brilliant history and splendid culture of the Korean nation have been discovered and preserved well in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the Songun era. Over the last decade a lot of relics and several thousand pieces of remains have been unearthed in the country. Among them are relics in Richon-ri, Sungho District and Phyodae relics in Honam-ri, Samsok District, Pyongyang and a brick tomb in Saenal- ri, Sinchon County, South Hwanghae Province. In particular, 63 mural tombs belonging to the period of Koguryo including the mural tomb in Tokhung-ri, three tombs in Kangso and Tomb No.3 in Anak were inscribed on the world heritage list. Leader Kim Jong Il, on his way to army units, made time to go round time-honored relics and said that they should be restored to the original state on the basis of historical facts and education in patriotism conducted well through them. [Koguryo]
• North Korea: A rare peek at daily life
  July 04, 2005 ? That the majority North Koreans suffer from hunger and a declining standard of living is no secret. But because of the country's isolation, what life is like for the 22 million people living under the rule of Kim Jong-il and a few thousand of his fellow elites has for decades been something of a mystery. In recent months, the flow of photographs and video footage to outside world showing how common North Koreans are living and coping has increased. Taking photos is often barred by authorities. Documentary images are smuggled out of the country often at great personal risk.
  More positive are the expressions on the faces of children cared for by the charities. The full faces of primary school students in Rakwon County in South Hamgyong province betray no sign of the misery believed commonplace in North Korea. The toddlers at a daycare center in Pongson seem anything but hopeless. [Media]
• Society for Rallying Comrades, First Party Organization in Korea
  Pyongyang, July 2 (KCNA) -- Seventy-five years have elapsed since the first party organization in Korea -- the Society for Rallying Comrades -- was formed. After advancing a proper and realistic policy for founding a party at the historic Kalun Meeting (June 30-July 2, 1930) President Kim Il Sung formed the first party organization at Jinmyong School in Kalun on July 3, Juche 19 (1930). The first party organization was the embryo and seed of the Workers' Party of Korea. From then on, the Korean revolution could advance with a true vanguard of revolutionaries of a new generation under the leadership of the President.
• Joint Slogans of CC. and CMC of WPK Issued
  Pyongyang, July 2 (KCNA) -- Joint slogans of the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea were made public Saturday on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the WPK. The full text of the slogans reads: �@We greet the 60th anniversary of the glorious Workers' Party of Korea on the road of the sacred Songun revolution.
• Kalun Meeting, Cradle of Songun Politics
  Pyongyang, June 30 (KCNA) -- The Korean people have won victory after victory, attaching importance to the military from the beginning of the revolution. The idea that a counterrevolutionary force should be countered by a revolutionary force was put forward at the historic Kalun Meeting (from June 30 to July 2) 75 years ago. At that time the Japanese imperialists with huge armed forces were intensifying their colonial repression and plunder of Korea than ever before while making preparations to invade the Asian Continent. The situation compelled the Korean people to wage an organized armed struggle against the imperialists. Reflecting the situation, the Kalun Meeting advanced the issue of launching an all-out anti- Japanese war as the basic line of the anti- Japanese national liberation struggle and the first and foremost task of the Korean communists. It also stressed that the Koreans should defeat the invaders with arms in their hands in order to achieve the liberation of the country. It was a significant meeting which provided a foundation of the Songun politics, the ever- victorious sword.
• Socialist Patriotism Displayed in Building Prosperous Country
  Pyongyang, June 29 (KCNA) -- Socialist patriotism is an idea and sentiments of loving the socialist motherland where there are a great party, a genuine people's government and a superior socialist system, says Rodong Sinmun in an article Wednesday. Socialist patriotism displayed by the Koreans is manifested in that they turn out as one man in the struggle to defend socialism with firm resolution to share destiny with it, the author of the article says, and goes on: Socialist patriotism is the spirit of ardent love for the socialist motherland and the unrelenting spirit to fight the enemies attempting to do harm to it. No one can have hatred for the class enemies without ardent love for the country.
• Conservation Center of Koguryo Mural Tombs Under Construction
  Photo shows the conceptual drawing of the preservation center of Koguryo mural tombs. The construction of the preservation center of Koguryo Mural Tombs is making steady progress in the DPRK. The "Koguryo Mural Tombs" are formally registered as UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage at the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee held in China on July 2004. The "Koguryo Mural Tombs" which are located mainly in suburban Pyongyang, Nampo and Anak District, South Hwaghae Province, were created in the Koguryo period of Korean History(100 BC-668 AD).
• Maintenance of Principle of Collectivism Called for
  Pyongyang, May 18 (KCNA) -- The principle of collectivism should be firmly maintained in all fabrics of social life in order to shatter the U.S. imperialists' frantic moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and defend and advance Korean socialism to victory, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. Collectivism is what keeps socialism alive, the article notes, and goes on: The principle of collectivism was not observed in socialist construction in a number of erstwhile socialist countries. This caused individualism to prevail in all sectors of the state and social management, including politics, economy and culture, and led to the collapse of socialism.
• A Gallery Peers Into the Closed World of North Korean Art
  By CRAIG SIMONS Published: May 18, 2005 BEIJING - You probably have never heard of Han Song Chol or Son U Bong. But their ink-wash paintings provide a rare glimpse into artistic expression in modern North Korea. Mr. Han's near-photographic "Break Time at the Ironworks" shows muscular men dripping with sweat and drinking water from tin cups at a sweltering foundry. Mr. Son's "Peak Chonnyo of Mount Kumgang" is a classical Korean landscape of towering cliffs shrouded by mists.
  Together they essentially represent the two creative outlets for artists in North Korea today: Soviet-influenced socialist realist depictions of industrial workers, and traditional studies of nature. In neighboring China, where many young artists have gravitated toward more globalized, contemporary styles, those genres have largely gone the way of socialism. But in North Korea, one of the world's most isolated countries, it seems that they are still rigorously maintained.
• Efforts Made for Preventive Work against Bird Flu in DPRK
  The Korean Central News Agency of the DPRK (KCNA) reported on April 8 that the DPRK is making efforts to prevent bird flu. Ro Tu Chol, chairman of the State Emergency Veterinary and Anti-Epizootic Committee, said that about 200 emergency committees have been formed and emergency vaccinations against bird flu have been applied to all poultry farms
• North Korea: The worstest, baddest, evilist Persecutor of Christians in the World
  For the third year in a row, North Korea has been named the worst persecutor of Christians, according to the Open Doors International "World Watch List."
  A sceptical commentary by Berkeley geographer Judy Han
• Health Food Made in DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 29 (KCNA) -- Compound nutrient powder and jelly have been made in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to improve people's health. Contained in them are 17 kinds of amino acids and natural ferments, various vitamins, 7 sorts of microelements, etc. They are popular among miners and coal-miners and those with other labor-consuming jobs. They are also efficacious for preventing and curing digestive disorder, tuberculosis in early stage, arteriosclerosis and aging. They, made in consideration of the daily average amount of vitamins, salt, microelements and dextrose needed for recovery from physical and mental fatigue, were registered as state inventions in the 7th national exhibition of inventions and new technologies.
• Children's Camps Reopen in DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 27 (KCNA) -- Schoolchildren are enjoying themselves at children's camps which reopened the door on the occasion of the Day of the Sun, the birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung (April 15). The authorities of the camps across the country are organizing varied activities suitable to children's ages and feelings so that they may spend pleasant days during their camping. The activities include art contests, craft show, evening of culture, sports and amusement contests, sightseeing aboard ship, boating and swimming. Meanwhile, the campers climb mountains to get knowledge of nature and collect plants, cooking by themselves, and thus train their body and mind and deepen what they have learned. They also visit revolutionary battle sites and time-honored cultural relics. The camping period is from April to October. During the period, schoolchildren enjoy a 3-day, 5-day and 7-day camping. Jo Chun Gil, a department director of the Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, told KCNA that this year over 140,000 pupils will camp in scenic spots throughout the country.
• Army Full of Spirit of Guarding Leader
  Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- "Let us defend the headquarters of the revolution headed by the great Comrade Kim Jong Il with our lives!" is a slogan reflecting all the Korean servicemen's unswerving oath. The slogan is based on their belief that they will always emerge victorious under the command of Kim Jong Il. The servicemen, who regard guarding the leader as their life and soul, carry this slogan into practice. It was proved by what eleven servicepersons belonging to Kim Ji Song unit of the Korean People's Army did some time ago.
• Three Koryo Medical Books
  Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- Hyangyakjibsongbang (a medical encyclopedia), Uibangryuchi and Tonguibogam (the complete collection of traditional Korean medicine) are famous medical classics of Korea. Hyangyakjibsongbang, which consists of 85 volumes, was published in 1433 by Ro Jung Rye and others. Compiled in the book is experience in treating diseases with traditional medicines. It gives 10,700 prescriptions and 1,476 methods of acupuncture and moxibustion for 959 kinds of diseases in a systematic way -- introduction, causes, pathology, symptoms, and acupuncture and moxibustion methods for each disease. It also writes about production places, features and efficacy, collecting methods and indication of nearly 700 kinds of medicinal materials in Korea. Uibangryuchi, published in 1445, is a medical encyclopedia which is made up of 365 volumes.
• North Korea beats avian flu, UN says
  April 27, 2005 ? North Korea has successfully overcome an outbreak of bird flu, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In a report posted on the agency's Web site, the FAO said that an H7 strain of bird flu virus, which had been detected in three poultry farms near the capital of Pyongyang, had been eliminated by local veterinary authorities. About 218,000 infected chickens were culled in the process, and sales of poultry, meat and eggs were banned. The FAO said that it sent three experts to assist authorities in diagnosis and disease management, and that North Korean authorities were cooperative in providing essential information. The H7 virus is not directly related to the H5N1 avian influenza virus in other parts of Asia, which has killed 52 people since late 2003.
• Giving Top Priority to People's Health
  Actual Situation of Environmental Protection in DPRK Interview with Kim Gwang Ho, Director of Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection
• Juche-based Idea on Public Health Proves Successful
  Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- Twenty years have elapsed since leader Kim Jong Il sent his letter "On the Further Improvement of the Health Service" to the participants in the national conference of medical workers on April 21, Juche 74 (1985). In his historic letter, he gives answers to questions of principle arising in the health service of the country in a comprehensive way. They range from the essence, mission and role of the health service to issues of thoroughly implementing the prophylactic line of the Workers' Party of Korea, improving medical service, developing medical science and technology, strengthening the training of medical workers and fully ensuring material supply to the health sector. The correctness and great vitality of the Juche- based idea on public health advanced in the letter, which should be taken as guidelines in the socialist health service, have been fully manifested through practice.
• North Korea: Allow Access for U.N. Rights Monitor
  China Must Stop Sending Back North Koreans at Risk of Persecution (New York, April 15, 2005) ·The North Korean authorities should immediately and fully cooperate with U.N. human rights experts to improve the country's abysmal human rights conditions, Human Rights Watch said today
• COMMISSION ADOPTS SIX TEXTS ON VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS AROUND THE WORLD
  Commission on Human Rights AFTERNOON 14 April 2005
  In a resolution on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, adopted by a roll-call vote of 30 in favour to nine against, with 14 abstentions, the Commission expressed its deep concern about continuing reports of systemic, widespread and grave violations of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention; and sanctions on citizens had been repatriated from abroad. The Commission decided to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for a further year.
  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea categorically rejected the draft resolution which it said had been fabricated by hostile forces and their followers, with the aim of stifling the country. The draft represented an extreme manifestation of the politicization, selectivity and double standards that had constantly been rejected in the human rights sphere.
• NK Develops `Neo Viagra'
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea recently named a newly developed antioxidant as ``Neo Viagra-Y.R.,'' a picture book published in Pyongyang reported in its April edition. The drug's name is similar to Pfizer's best- selling product. But the monthly Choson clarified that North Korea's ``authoritative'' pharmacologist Ryu Il-nam developed it. The magazine did not spell out what Y.R. stands for in English, but it is supposed to be ``Youth Restoration,'' given the bracketed Korean phrase ``Chongchunbuhwal.'' The report did not say the new drug is a cure- all. But it reported that Y.R. could treat obesity, hepatitis, cerebral arteriosclerosis as well as ``incurable'' back, shoulder and joint pains. As the name implies, it is also effective in treating impotence, the magazine said.
• Korea Affected by First Storm of Yellow Sand
  Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) -- The first dust storm this year was observed in Korea on March 17. The mild storm, churned up by winds in Gobi Desert of Mongolia and some Inner Mongolian areas of China on Wednesday, moved southeastward and reached the central part of the West Sea of Korea next morning. Affected by the sand storm were Pyongyang and South Phyongan, North and South Hwanghae Provinces including Phyongsong, Sariwon, Haeju, Ongjin, Jangyon and Kaesong in the afternoon and at night. The sand sedimentation amount was 150kg/km2 in Pyongyang.
• Brisk Campaign against Yellow Sand Damage in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 17 (KCNA) -- With the advent of spring, activities to prevent possible yellow sand damage are being conducted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Members of the Feb. 17 Shock Brigade of Scientists and Technicians are engaged in observing sand storm and its movement and finding out its physical and chemical components. As the effect of dust storm on environment, industry and agriculture including vehicles, precision machines, crops, livestock and sericulture has been clarified, measures to prevent its damage are being taken. Through TV and radios, scientists explain every day such common sense as harmful effects of yellow sand on human body including eyes, respiratory organs and skin and measures necessary to avoid damage. Public health officials and medical workers conduct hygienic information activities with visual aids at institutions, factories and residential quarters. Newspapers and magazines come out with articles related to dust storms.
• Video shows executions in North
  March 17, 2005 ? Video footage of the brutal execution of three North Koreans was scheduled to be shown on Japanese TV yesterday, according to a human rights group that released captured images of the footage. The footage, recently obtained by Japan's N-TV, shows the brief trials of 11 North Koreans. Three were given death sentences, and the other eight were ordered to serve 15 years hard labor. After a judge handed down the death sentences, a voice in the video is heard saying,"Carry out immediately." The accused are then tied to stakes. [media]
• NK Execution Video Released
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Japan's Nippon Television Network on Wednesday broadcast what it said were video clips of two public executions which took place in North Korea earlier this month. It is the first time to witness the firing squad shooting people to death in front of crowds, including the victims' family members, a civic group leader in Seoul said. North Korea has denied it committed the executions. ``Even though the video clip quality is poor, it is evidence that North Korea is still conducting public executions,'' Han Ki-hong, president of the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, told The Korea Times.
  It is not known who provided the video clips to the Japanese broadcaster. Han said he thinks ``brokers'' might have engaged themselves in a ``deal'' with the television station in Japan. [media]
• Pupils Make 250-mile Journey in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 14 (KCNA) -- Schoolchildren's "250-mile journey for learning" has continued in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. This year more than 3,500 pupils from over 70 schools have participated in the march. This march has been organized regularly every year from March Juche 63 (1974) when the first march was made by chairmen of the youth league and children's union organizations of middle school and model members of the children's union from throughout the country, over 5,000 in all. On March 16, 1923, President Kim Il Sung, at the age of 11, made the journey after his father told him that he should have a good knowledge of Korea. He left Badaogou, China, crossed the River Amnok and walked from Phophyong to Mangyongdae, his native hometown. Schoolchildren's march is a token of their willingness to learn from his lofty intention. Each group consists of 50 pupils with school as a unit and the marching period is 21 days. The march continues all the year round except May and October. Every day a group leaves Phophyong and tour Pyongyang for a week after its arrival in Mangyongdae. During the march, they conduct colorful political and cultural activities and inspection through which they get a deep knowledge of the President's revolutionary history and exploits. More than 12,500 pupils have participated in the march every year over the last three decades since the first march took place.
• Measures for Protecting Rare Animals Taken in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 10 (KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has directed great efforts to protecting and increasing animals which are rare and in danger of becoming extinct. In recent years the government has taken various measures to reset reserves in the country and set up new reserves for the animals in danger of extinction. Good conditions have been provided so as to protect and propagate some 200 species of rare animals including Korean tiger, sable, deer, moose, bear, Tadorna cristata, white-bellied black woodpecker, Eumeces coreensis, Salamandrella keyserlingii and Salvelinus malma m. chonjiensis.
• National Meeting Marks World Women's Day
  Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the People's Palace of Culture today to mark the 95th World Women's Day. Pak Sun Hui, chairwoman of the C.C., the Korean Democratic Women's Union, made a report at the meeting. She noted that international unity and solidarity of women have been strengthened in the efforts to liquidate imperialism and colonialism and achieve national independence and build socialism and great progress has been made in the development of the world women's movement in nearly one century after the world progressive women set March 8 as an international holiday of the working women the world over
• Preventive Measures against Bird Flu in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 7 (KCNA) -- An energetic work to prevent bird flu is going on in the DPRK. It is taking thorough-going preventive measures and setting up a watch system to bar bird flu from infiltrating into the country. A rigorous hygienic and veterinary quarantine has been instituted on the borderline and at harbors and airports. The foreign poultry and its products and those who cross the borders are subject to strict control at all the border posts.
• From North Korea, a new puzzle
  Saturday, March 5, 2005 SEOUL North Korea has postponed a regular session of its Parliament, its official news agency said Friday, in an unprecedented move that puzzled watchers of the secretive state. .
  The presidium of the Communist country's Supreme People's Assembly made the decision Thursday, the official KCNA news agency said. The session had been scheduled to begin next Wednesday. "The date of the session will be set and announced publicly," the news agency said. The move to postpone the assembly meeting was probably not directly related to the state of Kim's hold on power, the official said, but the postponement is likely to fuel the arguments of North Korean watchers who believe Kim has a tenuous grip.
  The spring session of the assembly is held to settle the previous year's spending and to approve a new budget. Major economic policy measures are also adopted at the session. Noriyuki Suzuki, chief analyst at the Tokyo-based Radiopress news agency, said the postponement might be a sign that a decision on a major economic policy move was delayed. "I think this is the most reasonable interpretation," he said. Radiopress specializes in monitoring events in the North.
• North delays session of its Assembly
  March 05, 2005 ? Against the background of intensifying diplomacy over North Korea's nuclear arms programs, Pyeongyang media issued an unusual announcement yesterday, saying the communist state's highest legislative body had postponed its regular session in what is believed to be the first occurrence of its kind. The reports offered no explanation for the delay. Through its state-run media, North Korea said a meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, which was scheduled to take place Wednesday in Pyeongyang, had been postponed. Since the communist regime's creation in 1948, the Assembly has met annually, largely to rubber- stamp decisions by the North's leaders. The reports said the meeting was adjourned at the request of Assembly deputies, and that a new date would be fixed and announced later. "This is unprecedented development, and we are gathering information," a ranking member of South Korea's National Security Council said yesterday. "But we do not have a clear idea of what it means."
• SPA Session to Be Postponed
  Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK Thursday announced a decision on postponing the third session of the 11th SPA. According to it, the Presidium of the DPRK SPA will postpone the session originally slated for March 9, Juche 94 (2005), at the requests made by deputies to the SPA in all domains of the socialist construction. The date of the session will be set and announced publicly.
• 2 Human Traffickers Executed in Public in NK
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea put two human traffickers to death in public in late February for smuggling North Korean women into China, a South Korean online radio service reported Thursday
• Kim Jong Il's 63rd Birthday Celebrated at Various Events Held at Home and Abroad
• 100,000 Pyongyangites Hold Mass Rally to Accomplish Tasks for "General March for Songun"
• Lunar New Year in Pyongyang
  Pyongyangites Have Happy Time at Home Children Enjoy National Traditional Games February 9 was the lunar New Year. In the DPRK, national tradition and culture have been very highly regarded by people for a long time and the Bon festival and New Year's Day according to the lunar calendar are grandly celebrated. This year, people in the DPRK enjoyed three straight holidays from Feb. 9 to 11 for the lunar New Year. How did Pyongyangites spend their time during the holiday season? On February 9, children gathered at Kim Il Sung Square, Pyongyang gymnasium and other places and enjoyed traditional games such as flying kites, top-spinning and Chegichagi (shuttlecock). At the Kim Il Sung Square, children gave a shout of joy playing top-spinning game. There was a national game store in one corner of the square. The store was thronged with children who have a well-filled purse because of the New Year's gift. Kites were the most popular and next were tops and Chegi (shuttlecock) in the store.
• Turdus Merula Found in DPRK
  Pyongyang, February 28 (KCNA) -- Turdus merula, a summer migrant, has been found in the Mt. Taesong area, Pyongyang, and other places of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for the first time. Various species of winter migrants belonging to Turdidae have inhabited in the northern part of the country. Originally, turdus merula propagated itself mainly in Europe. But it has gradually expanded its inhabitation to east Asia. After it was proved that the bird began to inhabit in Korea, it has been formally registered as an inhabitant in the country.
• Faith in Socialism and Scientific World Outlook
  Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- It is the steadfast conviction of the Korean army and people that nothing can block the advance of history to independence and socialism and socialism will surely win victory. Rodong Sinmun Sunday says this in a signed article. The true features of the Korean people forming integrity with socialism are the brilliant fruition of the outstanding ideological and theoretical activities of leader Kim Jong Il and his wise leadership, the article notes, and goes on: Socialism is a society in which the independent nature of man, the popular masses, is embodied. This is a Juche-oriented theory on the inevitability of victory which was uniquely clarified by Kim Jong Il.
• Wreaths Laid before Bust of O Jin U
  Pyongyang, February 25 (KCNA) -- Wreaths were laid before the bust of revolutionary fighter O Jin U at the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery on Mt. Taesong on Friday on the occasion of his 10th death anniversary. Seen standing there was a wreath sent by Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army. Present at the wreath-laying ceremony were Pak Pong Ju, Kim Il Chol, Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop and other officials, servicepersons and his bereaved family.
• Kim Jong-il Heads Intelligence Agency
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il may head the country's all-powerful intelligence agency alone, according to a diagram of North Korea's power structure released by the Ministry of Unification on Wednesday. The State Security Agency might be under the direct control of the National Defense Commission, which is chaired by the ``Dear Leader,'' Seoul officials said.
• Selection of University Students in DPRK
  Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- The selection of students for the new academic year is under way at all universities and colleges in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Public attention has been directed to the selection of the university students which is an important issue related with the future of the country, nation and the revolution. Anyone who received the universal eleven-year compulsory education is qualified to advance to universities or join the study-while-working system (factory, farm and fishermen's colleges and correspondence courses). In the DPRK, the universities open the door for graduates from middle schools so that they may realize their hope and develop their talents. And young people who work in economic sectors can apply for an examination at universities they want to study at. Among the examinees are discharged soldiers. Each university can select those with distinguished ability and talent for preparatory course. Under the study-while-working system, working people can study at universities or colleges commensurate with their occupation. The selection of students will be completed throughout the country before the start of the new academic year on April 1.
• DPRK SPA to Meet
  Pyongyang, February 17 (KCNA) -- A decision of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK on convening a session of the SPA was promulgated on Feb.7. According to it, the third session of the 11th SPA will be convened in Pyongyang on March 9, Juche 94 (2005).
• Concert Given to Celebrate Kim Jong Il's Birthday
  Pyongyang, February 16 (KCNA) -- A concert was given by the State Symphony Orchestra and the Mansudae Art Troupe at the People's Palace of Culture Tuesday to celebrate the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il, the nation's greatest holiday. It was appreciated by Party and state senior officials, chairpersons of friendly parties, officials of the Party and power organs, working people's organizations, commissions of the cabinet, ministries and national institutions, servicepersons of the Korean People's Army and working people in the city.
• Crisis or no, dictator's party goes on
  February 17, 2005 ? Despite the geopolitical imbroglio over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the extravagant state-ordered public celebrations of Kim Jong-il's birthday went on as usual yesterday, as state propaganda organs urged citizens to unite against what it called external threats. In an editorial commemorating the 63rd birthday of the "Dear Leader," the North Korean Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said that Mr. Kim's policy had forestalled invasion attempts by the United States and other enemies of the North.
• North Korea Celebrates Kim Jong-il's Birthday
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - Despite the growing tension over North Korea's acknowledged nuclear capability, Pyongyang is in a festive mood as people prepare to celebrate the birthday of the country's leader Kim Jong-il, according to the communist state's news media.
• N Korea wages war on long hair
  Men's hairstyles reflect their 'ideological spirit' North Korea has launched an intensive media assault on its latest arch enemy - the wrong haircut. A campaign exhorting men to get a proper short-back-and-sides has been aired by state-run Pyongyang television. The series is entitled Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle. While the campaign has been carried out primarily on television, reports have appeared in North Korean press and radio, urging tidy hairstyles and proper attire.
• Let the Whole Party and Army and All the People Unite as One in Mind and More Strikingly Demonstrate the Might of Songun!
  New Year Joint Editorial of "Rodong Sinmun," "Josoninmingun" and "Chongnyonjonwi"
  Rodong Sinmun, organ of the Workers' Party of Korea, Josoninmingun, organ of the Korean People's Army, and Chongnyonjonwi, organ of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, issued on January 1 a New Year joint editorial titled, "Let the Whole Party and Army and All the People Unite as One in Mind and More Strikingly Demonstrate the Might of Songun!" The following is excerpts of the joint editorial. (Original in Korean, translation is ours- ed.) Last year Juche 93 (2004) was a year of worthwhile struggle in which a revolutionary offensive was conducted on the three fronts- politics and ideology, anti-imperialism and military affairs and economy and science- to make a breakthrough toward fresh success in the efforts to build a great prosperous powerful nation.
• Early in New Year, People Vow to Accomplish State Tasks to Build "Powerful Nation"
• NK Leader Yon Appears in Public
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter Yon Hyong-muk, 74, vice chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission, appeared in public Feb. 2 for the first time since receiving medical treatment in Russia late last year. North Korea's Central Television broadcast Yon sitting with other national leaders in the front row of a rally at the April 25 Culture Center in Pyongyang.

• Rodong Sinmun on Revolutionary Optimism of Army and People
  Pyongyang, December 26 (KCNA) -- The revolutionary optimism of the army and people in the DPRK has provided a sure guarantee for having brought today's victory despite all sorts of difficulties, says Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a signed article. It goes on: The period of the "Arduous March", the forced march, was a proud one in which the army and people of the DPRK highly displayed revolutionary optimism, rallied close around leader Kim Jong Il. Their revolutionary optimism and conviction of victory represent the revolutionary optimism peculiar to the revolutionary people who absolutely trust and follow their leader and share their destiny with him in any adversity.
• Kim Jong Il Enjoys Art Performance of State Symphony Orchestra
  General Secretary Kim Jong Il talking in a relax mood with officials those who accompany with him, at outside the hall presenting the performance of the State Symphony Orchestra. Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission, enjoyed an art performance given by the State Symphony Orchestra. Also appreciating it were Secretaries of the WPK Central Committee Kim Kuk Thae and Kim Ki Nam, Chairman of the Radio and TV Broadcasting Committee of the DPRK Cha Sung Su, Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Ri Kwang Ho and First Vice Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Ri Jae Il. Put on the stage were the newly created symphonic suite "Long Journey of Songun," orchestral music "Rich Harvest Comes to the Chongsan Plain" and "Arirang."
• Hwang Jang-yop Warns of Hasty Conclusion on North Korea
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranked Pyongyang official to defect to South Korea, advised media not to jump to hasty conclusions over recent developments in North Korea such as Kim Jong-il's portraits being pulled down from public places in Pyongyang, the Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Monday. ``You should not interpret those actions, including removal of the portraits and distribution of anti-regime handouts, as a big change (in North Korea),'' Hwang told the RFA during a Sunday interview. The 81-year-old said Kim was showing to the world his confidence in controlling the communist regime without depending on such ``formalities'' because he believes his power has been stabilized enough.
• Kang Po, Mathematician of Koryo
  Pyongyang, December 17 (KCNA) -- Mathematics has been developed on a high level in Korea from olden times. Kang Po, a mathematician and astronomer of Koryo (918~1392), found out an interpolation of higher degree already in the 14th century and thus made a great contribution to the development of mathematics and astronomy. He introduced into the observation of the celestial sphere movement the interpolation for calculating the deviation between its average angle movement and its actual angle movement. It made it possible to ensure the accuracy in measuring the positions of the sun and planets at any date (time) with already observed materials.
• Abnormal Winter Weather in Korea
  Pyongyang, December 16 (KCNA) -- Korea has been affected by abnormal weather in winter in recent years. The cycle of three cold days and four warm days, the inherent feature of the winter in Korea, has been rare to be seen. On the contrary, warm days continue and it often rains much. It is the result of the high temperature which has continued in winter season for several consecutive years. The high temperature makes snow fall like rain. This year there was much rainfall around the beginning of winter as compared with other years. Jong Ryong U, vice director of the Central Meteorological Institute under the Hydro- meteorological Service, told KCNA that such abnormal weather will continue until December 20 or more. The lowest temperature in the morning is expected to be 5-8 degrees centigrade below zero in most areas of Korea except the northern inland in this period, he said, and went on: This means that the lowest temperature in the morning in the Pyongyang area is 3 degrees centigrade higher than the usual temperature which recorded 11 degrees centigrade below zero. This abnormal phenomenon has been caused by the atmospheric circulation changed by the global mild climate. It makes it impossible to form the Siberian continental high pressure.
• Astronomy of Koguryo
  Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- Historic relics of Korea show the developed astronomy in the period of Koguryo. On display at the Korean Central History Museum in Pyongyang are historic relics including data concerning astronomical observation and government meteorological observation office recorded in the Koguryo part of "The Chronicles of Three Kingdoms", an observatory model, a picture of constellations painted on murals of a Koguryo tomb and a picture of stars engraved on the ceiling lid stone of Tomb No. 4 in Jinpha-ri.
• North Korea denies defection of generals
  December 14, 2004 ? A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman has denied an International Herald Tribune report that hundreds of the country's generals defected to China. Talking to the state-run news agency, KCNA, the spokesman dismissed the report as an attempt by the United States to achieve regime change and instability in North Korea. "Nevermind the generals, not even a single button of their uniforms has crossed the border," the official was quoted as saying. International media recently reported the disappearance of portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il inside North Korea, while a South Korean intelligence official claimed the North's officials overseas no longer wear badges of the communist country's leader. Both Beijing and Seoul have issued official denials of political trouble in Pyeongyang.
• For North Korea, Openness Proves a Two-Way Street
  As Increased Trade and Communication Bring Outside World In, More Citizens Are Spurred to Leave By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, December 13, 2004; Page A12 SEOUL -- Before his defection 11 months ago, Kim, a 35-year-old with round-rimmed glasses and a self-assured air, enjoyed the relatively blessed life of the North Korean elite. The son of a ranking military officer in a nation where millions died of starvation during the 1990s, Kim owned a television, a refrigerator and larders brimming with savory white rice. His life improved even more after July 2002, when the North Korean government decreed a landmark series of free-market reforms. As a result of those initiatives, Kim had increasing contact with the world outside North Korea, where information is strictly controlled. When trade with neighboring China began to boom, he took advantage of his high position in a state trading company to start a private business selling antiques to Chinese and South Korean buyers.
  "From my Chinese and South Korean clients, I heard about just how rich South Korea really was," said Kim, who in January joined the growing ranks of North Korean defectors when he sought asylum inside South Korea's consulate in Beijing, later resettling in Seoul. He asked that only his last name be used to protect his family, still in North Korea.
• World Day of Human Rights Observed
  Pyongyang, December 10 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today dedicates a signed article to the world day of human rights. Recalling that not a few successes have been made in the field of human rights since this day was set, the article notes that under the Korean-style socialist system centered on the popular masses the Korean people enjoy genuine human rights and are guaranteed all rights.
• Rodong Sinmun on Songun Policy
  Pyongyang, December 10 (KCNA) -- The Songun policy serves as a symbol of dignity and pride of the Korean nation and a banner of victory, says Rodong Sinmun Friday in a signed article. It says: The Songun policy is one for national independence as it makes it possible to defend the national sovereignty and dignity with arms of justice and independently accomplish the cause of national reunification. It also serves as a treasured sword for defending the Korean nation and peace as it makes it possible to avert the aggression and war of outside forces and achieve the security and peace of the country and peaceful reunification with the might of the invincible army.
• Koguryo Porcelain Mirrors Resourcefulness of Korean Nation
  Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- Among the cultural heritage of Korea with a 5,000-year- long history is porcelain reflecting the talent and resourcefulness of the Koguryo people. Paek Sun Nam, a researcher of the Archaeological Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with KCNA that Koguryo porcelain shows the developed pottery culture of Korea in the middle ages.
• North Korea reportedly revises criminal codes
  December 09, 2004 ? Though North Korea is generally regarded as a dictatorial state, the country does have a long-standing criminal code, and now Pyeongyang is undertaking a number legal reforms to adapt laws to be more market friendly. According to the National Intelligence Service of South Korea, the North revised its criminal code last spring in an effort to extend rights to private property. North Korea also adopted new clauses protecting intellectual property, copyrights and trademarks, reflecting an intention to attract foreign investment. "Until now, orders from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and other leadership members were the law in the North," an intelligence official said. "But with these revised codes, law enforcement authorities are able to punish its citizens on reinforced legal grounds." [Economic reform]
• NK Adopts Market-Friendly Criminal Law
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea has strengthened legal measures to protect private property in a recent revision of its criminal law, while stiffening penalties for anti-state crimes, according to a copy obtained by a local broadcaster. [media] [economic reform]
• North Korea toughens laws on dissenters
  By Andrew Salmon International Herald Tribune Thursday, December 9, 2004 Seoul North Korea has revised its criminal code, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said Wednesday, in what appeared to be an effort to deter antistate activities. . The revisions also reduced sanctions against North Koreans who left the country for economic reasons. . South Korea's Ministry of Unification had no comment on the significance of the legal changes. [media] .
• Sources say North's political base gets a makeover
  December 08, 2004 ? The North Korea's Workers' Party, a key power center in the communist nation, has undergone a major shake-up, sources familiar with the internal affairs of the country said yesterday. The country's leader, Kim Jong-il, has directed a broad reshuffling of the party, the sources said. A source who closely follows political affairs in North Korea said the changes in the Workers' Party reflect an effort by Mr. Kim to assert greater power over the country's military. Known as "Dear Leader," Mr. Kim already heads the military as chairman of the National Defense Commission and controls the country's politics as general-secretary of the party. According to North Korea's constitution, the party commands the nation's judiciary, administration and military. The members of the party's Central Committee exercise power equivalent to that of a deputy prime minister in South Korea. The sources said the party's restructuring was carried out between September and November. The purge of Jang Song-thaek, Mr. Kim's brother-in- law and the second highest official of the party after Mr. Kim, triggered the shake-up, the sources noted. Mr. Jang was removed as the party's first deputy director in February after an apparent conflict with Pak Pong-ju, prime minister and the head of the North Korean cabinet in charge of economic reform measures. [Economic reform]
• Historic Relics Discovered in Kaesong Area
  Pyongyang, December 7 (KCNA) -- Historic relics and remains have been unearthed in twelve spots of the first stage construction site of the Kaesong industrial zone, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Among them are rude stone implements in the Paleolithic Age, earthenware fragments in the Neolithic Age and iron scissors, porcelains and broken roof-tiles in the periods of Koryo (918-1392) and Ri Dynasty (1392-1910). Forty historic relics were also excavated. They include a ruined house in the early period of the Middle Ages and four ruined buildings, 19 cellar tombs, 11 limestone tombs, two cremation tombs and one stone tomb belonging to the period of Koryo.
• Ex-South Korean Pastor Works for N. Korean Christian Federation
  DANDONG, China (Yonhap) - A South Korean pastor said to have been kidnapped by North Korea nearly a decade ago is active in the country's cloistered Christian community, a source in the Chinese border city said last weekend. Rev. Ahn Seung-un, 60, disappeared in 1995 in Yanji, a city in China's border province of Jilin, where he was helping North Koreans defect to South Korea after escaping hunger and suppression in their communist homeland. Citing various circumstantial evidence, South Korea accused North Korea of kidnapping the missionary from Seoul's Full Gospel Church, but the North insisted he defected voluntarily. Outside visitors later reported seeing Ahn attend Sunday church services in Pyongyang, the North's capital, but said they could not confirm he was there of his own free will because North Korean officials were always with him. For years, there was no word or report of Ahn in North Korea although Pyongyang officials said privately he was around in the Christian community. ``I saw him on North Korean television in 1999, when a public ceremony on Dangun aired," a frequent traveler to North Korea said, after Ahn's picture was shown to him by Yonhap News Agency. He identified Ahn as the vice chairman of the North's Christian Federation.
• Rodong Sinmun Calls for Struggling On, Guided by WPK's Idea and Line
  Pyongyang, December 2 (KCNA) -- The DPRK has won one victory after another despite the constant moves of the U.S. imperialists against it because the Korean people have been guided by the idea and line set out by leader Kim Jong Il. Their faith in the idea and line is unbreakable as it is growing stronger with the passage of time. Rodong Sinmun Thursday says this in an editorial. Pointing out that the validity, scientific accuracy, truth and tremendous vitality of his idea and line including the policy of building the Party, the state and the army and the policy of building economy and culture have been clearly testified to during the scores of years-long arduous struggle, the editorial continues
• DPRK Preserves Historic Relics Well
  Pyongyang, December 2 (KCNA) -- The historic relics have been preserved through a nation-wide campaign in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In November, a month for preserving cultural relics, many historic relics were repaired with the advent of winter through a mass campaign across the country. In Pyongyang, the Rakrang Earthen Wall was reinforced and a stone monument, explanatory board and caution sign were set up. A resting place for visitors has been built near the Komunmoru relics, the country's oldest primitive one, in Sangwon County, Pyongyang
• Production of Makkolli Put on Scientific Basis
  Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- Scientists of the Fermentation Institute under the Branch Academy of Light Industrial Science of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, have succeeded in putting the production of makkolli (crude liquor), a traditional drink of the Korean people, on a scientific and industrial basis
• Kim Jong-il Aide Gets Medical Treatment
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Cho Myung-rok, often described as the ``No. 3 man'' in North Korea's hierarchy, arrived in China last Monday to get medical treatment for a chronic illness, according to sources in Seoul Thursday. Cho, director of the General Political Department and once one of the closest military advisors to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, is said to suffer from renal failure, already having one kidney removed and the other transplanted in 2001. His health has deteriorated so much that renal dialysis is no longer effective for him, sources said. ``Cho arrived in Beijing on an extra flight from Pyongyang and is reportedly staying in the People's Liberation Army 301 Hospital, which the most upper-class Chinese frequent, '' a source in Seoul said, adding that ``close aides to Kim Jong-il often go abroad to get medical treatment.''
• Kim Jong Il's Boundless Respect for Kim Il Sung Disclosed by Portrait Story
  At an international meeting, there is only a portrait of the Late President Kim Il Sung. Photo shows a panel meeting of the 2nd World Congress of Korean Studies held at the People's Palace of Culture on August 4 and 5. Recently, ill-intentioned stories about problem of our leader's portrait were swirling around the world. Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reported on November 16 that only the late President Kim Il Sung's portrait was hung in the People's Palace of Culture according to foreign diplomats in Pyongyang. Since this report, mass media of the Western world, especially in South Korea, made various conjectures, such as the possibility of a power sift in the DPRK. It is fact that only Kim Il Sung's portrait is now hung on the wall of public buildings for foreigners in the DPRK. This measure means Kim Jong Il's intention to respect only Kim Il Sung. According to persons concerned with the People's Palace of Culture, a measure to hang only Kim Il Sung's portrait on the walls was taken, recently. Meanwhile, two portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are still hanging in every home and public institution. "It was, however, determined to hang only late president's portrait in conference and banquet halls for foreigners," a person concerned with the People's Palace of Culture said. In the DPRK, the problem of portraits was argued in the past and the problem also concerned Kim Jong Il's respect for Kim Il Sung then. When Kim Jong Il was appointed as the successor of the president in the middle of the 1970s, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea took a measure to hang Kim Jong Il's portrait with his father's one, but Kim Jong Il didn't approve it. Kim Jong Il firmly said that they should respect only Kim Il Sung and "I am just a follower of our leader Kim Il Sung. I can't approve of hanging his follower's portrait with the leader." "Now, Kim Jong Il is the supreme leader of the DPRK in name and in reality. However, he thinks that he is an eternal follower of Kim Il Sung as much as before," the person concerned with the People's Palace of Culture said. His words suggests that Korean people recognize the reason why the measure to remove Kim Jong Il's portraits from public buildings for foreigners were removed. Kim Jong Il amended the constitution so as to respect Kim Il Sung as the only Chairman and eternal leader of the DPRK when Kim Il Sung died. The portrait problem showed Kim Jong Il's boundless respect for Kim Il Sung.
• Sanctuary in Mt. Kuwol Registered as International Sanctuary
  The sanctuary in Mt. Kuwol in South Hwanghae Province of the DPRK was registered as an international sanctuary. It was decided at the 18th meeting of the International Coordinating Council for Man and Biosphere Programme of the UNESCO held in Paris on October 29.
• Measures to Prevent Bird Flu in Full Swing in DPRK
  The DPRK is directing great efforts to the prevention of bird flu after the recent recurrence of the epidemic in various Nordic and Asian countries. Kim Hyok Jin, vice-minister of Agriculture, who is also vice-chairman of the National Emergency Epizootic Prevention Committee, told the KCNA as follows. Even a case of bird flu has not been reported in the country. Basing itself on this success, the committee has started the anti-epidemic work again.
• `No AIDS Victim in North Korea'
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter A Pyongyang official has claimed that North Korea has no AIDS victims, a pro-Pyongyang Web site said Tuesday. ``Even though the world is suffering from the rising number of AIDS patients, we don't have a single victim from the disease,'' Choi Ung-jun, a health care official in the North, said during a recent interview with Korea Today, an English magazine in Pyongyang. The interview story, marking World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, was presented by the North's portal Internet site ``My Country'' at www.kcckp.net.
• Koryo, First Unified State That Succeeded to Koguryo
  Pyongyang, November 26 (KCNA) -- Candidate academician, Prof. and Dr. Pak Yong Hae who is working at the History Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences in an article contributed to Rodong Sinmun Friday cites historical facts to prove that Koryo, the first unified state in the history of Korea, succeeded to Koguryo which was a powerful state in the East. Koryo was a feudal state that was founded by its ancestral King Wang Kon in 918 and lasted for nearly 500 years till 1392 with Kaegyong (Kaesong at present) as its capital, the article says, and goes on:
• New mystery: missing badges
  November 25, 2004 ? As Seoul continued to issue official denials of political trouble in Pyeongyang, a senior South Korean intelligence official said yesterday that North Korean officials overseas are no longer wearing badges portraying the communist country's leader, Kim Jong-il. The significance of the change was unclear, but it follows unusual developments in the North, including the removal of portraits of Mr. Kim from public display. "We learned recently that North Koreans at the country's foreign missions and trading companies as well as those guiding foreigners inside the North are not wearing the Kim Jong-il badges," the intelligence official told the JoongAng Ilbo. North Koreans usually wear two badges, honoring the country's present and past leaders, Mr. Kim and his father, Kim Il Sung. North Korea ordered the Mansudae Art Studio, the largest art-producing facility in the country, to stop manufacturing the Kim Jong-il badges late last year, the official said
• Missing portraits said less than meets the eye
  November 22, 2004 ? A pro-Pyeongyang daily published in Japan denied that any change in North Korea's political scene has occurred amid recent reports that portraits of the regime's leader, Kim Jong-il, have been removed from public view. The Chosun Shinbo, a daily owned by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, said on Nov. 20, "It is true that the portrait of Chairman Kim Jong-il was taken down from an international conference site in North Korea, but in ordinary homes and public places, the portraits of both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il continue to be displayed." The paper added, "Speculation by the Western press that [the absence of Kim Jong-il's portrait] is due to internal power struggles is ridiculous."
• North denies portrait reports
  November 20, 2004 ? A senior North Korean official denied yesterday that portraits of the country's leader, Kim Jong-il, had been taken down in public places. In an interview with the China's Xinhua News Agency, Ri Gyong-son, the North Korean Foreign Ministry's public affairs official, said, "It didn't happen before and will never happen." Calling international media reports about the portraits "groundless fabrications," Mr. Ri said "the words are part of a plot by the United States and its allies who want to overthrow the DPRK."
• What's Happening in the North?
  Changes in Personality Cult for Kim Jong-il Draw Concern It seems that something is taking place or might have already happened in North Korea concerning its Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. The International Herald Tribune reported on Thursday that ``Tokyo analysts are debating the significance of an apparent downsizing of the personality cult'' for the North Korean leader. Their explanations range from a demotion of the Stalinist regime's absolute ruler to an official effort by Pyongyang to lower his profile at a time when the North is increasingly in Washington's sights for its nuclear program and human rights abuses, the IHI said.
• North Korea's Kim cult begins to fade from view
  Jonathan Watts, east asia correspondent Friday November 19, 2004 The Guardian The world's last major political personality cult could be fading, according to reports from North Korea. Portraits of the country's "Great General", Kim Jong-il, have been removed from several prominent locations in Pyongyang, including some hotels and the People's Cultural Palace, say news agencies and foreign observers. Pictures of the North Korean leader normally hang alongside images of his father, Kim Il- sung, on every major building, in every home, and on every train carriage. "Only a light rectangular spot on the yellow whitewashed wall and a nail have remained in the place where [one] portrait used to be," said a source quoted by Russia's Itar-Tass agency, the only foreign media organisation to have a correspondent in the reclusive communist state. The order to remove the pictures was issued several months ago, the agency said. The empty spaces have prompted much speculation, ranging from suggestions that Mr Kim may have lost his grip on power to the possibility that the frames are simply being refitted. A more convincing explanation is that he may be trying to remarket himself. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the leader recently sent out a directive ordering the removal of some pictures on the grounds that his image had been "lifted too high". Mr Kim is said to be an avid surfer of the internet, and will be aware that the semi- religious devotion he is supposed to inspire in his people is anachronistic and a feature of North Korea widely ridiculed elsewhere in north- east Asia.
• [Photo]Where is 'Dear Leader'?
  Photos from North Korea's state-run magazine Chosun of the People's Palace of Culture in Pyeongyang. In the photo on the left, taken in May, a portrait of the North leader, Kim Jong-il appears, but not in an August photo at right.
• Now you see Kim, now you don't
  November 19, 2004 ? As a guessing game goes on as to why portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il have disappeared from public display, North Korea analysts and foreign diplomats in Pyeongyang suggested yesterday that Mr. Kim appears to be toning down the personality cult surrounding him.
• Rumors Swirl Over Missing Portraits
  By Park Song-wu, Reuben Staines Staff Reporters Speculation surrounding the reported removal of portraits of ``Dear Leader'' Kim Jong-il from some public buildings and homes in North Korea continued to swirl Thursday but government officials, experts and defectors in Seoul dismissed suggestions of a underlying hierarchy shift in Pyongyang's leadership. Evidence has mounted since an initial report on Tuesday of the ubiquitous paintings of Kim being taken down from their usual position alongside those of his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung. In the latest development, a North Korean diplomat who defected to the South last year said Thursday that Kim himself ordered the portraits' removal as early as last year. ``It was a direct order from Kim Jong-il, but no one, not even high ranking officials, had the nerve to follow the order, so the portraits continued to hang,'' he said on condition of anonymity, adding that the removal of the portraits, which diplomats and aid workers in Pyongyang say began in August, may be the result of the order being reissued.
• Kim Jong-il Orders Removal of His Portraits: Source
  By Kim Kwang-tae SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is quietly taking down the portraits of leader Kim Jong-il at all public places and homes in what could signal a major change in the policy of the tightly controlled communist country, a source in Seoul said Wednesday. The order to remove Kim's portraits was issued three weeks ago by the leader himself, who is concerned that he "has been lifted too high," said the source who claims to have "good connections" in North Korea. A spokesman for the National Intelligence Service said his agency was trying to confirm the reported change in North Korea. Just like his father and president Kim Il-sung who died of heart failure in 1994, Kim Jong-il enjoys the status of a demi-God in North Korea. Until now, the portraits of the two Kims were hung side by side on the walls of all public buildings and homes. Based on a telephone conversation with his contact, a North Korean official, the source said that now, only the portraits of the senior Kim are seen at all public buildings and homes. "It's nothing to do with any problem such as incapacitation of (Kim Jong-il)," the source quoted his contact in North Korea as telling him.
• Kim Jong-il portraits reportedly disappear
  November 17, 2004 ? MOSCOW ? Portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il have been removed from public display in the North, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said yesterday from Beijing. In a telephone interview with Tass, an unnamed foreign diplomat in North Korea said guests at receptions hosted by North Korea's Foreign Ministry have been noticing that Mr. Kim's portraits have been missing from event venues, including the People's Palace of Culture in Pyeongyang. The report said portraits of Kim Il Sung, the current leader's father, still remained. The diplomat said a secret order had been issued to remove the portraits of Mr. Kim with no explanation. A South Korean government official said Seoul is trying to confirm the report. "We have begun intelligence analyses to see what this means ? if true," he said.
• Buddhists Enjoy Free Religious Activities in DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 11 (KCNA) -- The Buddhists are enjoying the freedom of religious activities in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. After the liberation of Korea President Kim Il Sung saw to it that the Buddhists found their genuine democratic organization representing their interests to lead a patriotic religious life. Visiting the Pohyon Temple in Mt. Myohyang in May Juche 36 (1947) and October 1949, he indicated the road to be taken by the Buddhists in the liberated country. When temples were destroyed and the believers' living was deteriorated during the three-year- long Korean War started by the U.S. imperialists, the President took steps to restore the ruined temples and stabilize their life even though the country's economic situation was difficult.
• New Books Off Press in DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 10 (KCNA) -- The Literature and Art Publishing House of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has brought out new novels titled "Blessing" and "the Way to the North" along with the book "Korean Music Selection for Piano" (Vols.3 and 4). "Blessing" and "The Way to the North" are based on the activities of unconverted long-term prisoners Ri Jae Ryong and Kim Yong Thae respectively. They show how the heroes kept to the revolutionary principle defying mediaeval torture and persistent appeasement by south Korean fascists. The novels raise as their ideological theme what is the secret for the unconverted long-term prisoners to overcome terrible sufferings and trials beyond human imagination. And the books expound in a profound way that it is their revolutionary conviction, obligation, conscience and ardent love for the country and the nation. They also stress that it is thanks to the trust in and love for them of the fatherland and nation, kith and kin and the deep care of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il.
• Winter Kimchi Prepared in Korea
  Pyongyang, November 9 (KCNA) -- November is a season of preparing kimchi for winter in Korea. Kimchi has been favorite food of the Korean people since ancient times. Kimchi is made in an industrial way in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. But most of the families still like to make it by themselves. Nowadays lorries loaded with vegetables are seen everywhere in streets and villages.
• Rodong Sinmun Calls for Victoriously Winding Up This Year's Work
  Pyongyang, November 8 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun Monday editorially calls for energetically striving to victoriously wind up the work of this year. This year is a significant year which has recorded events to be always remembered in the noble chronicle of the Juche revolution, declares the editorial, and continues: The army and the people of the DPRK boundlessly faithful to the party's leadership launched a vehement offensive from the beginning of this year's work
• Koguryo Tomb Murals in N. Korea Require Moisture Control
  [Yonhap,Oct.25th] North Korea's conservation of wall paintings in ancient tombs are "not bad," but require assistance from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and South Korea to combat humidity problems, a top UNESCO official said Monday. Mounir Bouchenaki, the UNESCO assistant director-general for culture, briefed reporters in Seoul about his five-day trip to the communist state.
• Historic Relics in Kaesong
  Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- Kaesong was the capital of Koryo (918-1392), the first united state of Korea. There are more than 100 historic relics and remains in Kaesong, which played an important role in the middle ages of Korea. They have been preserved in their original state for hundred of decades.
• Sanctuary in Mt. Kuwol Registered as International Sanctuary
  Pyongyang, Novem