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October 9, 2009 - No. 185

Hail the 64th Anniversary of the
Workers' Party of Korea!


Left: Comrade Kim Il Sung addresses the First Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in August 1946.
Centre: The Party Founding Monument in Pyongyang, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Party's founding (1995). The hammer, brush and sickle symbolize the unity of the workers, intellectuals and peasants, respectively.
Right: Comrade Kim Jong Il during a visit to the Korean People's Army Naval Unit 597  this past September.

Hail the 64th Anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea!
Tokyo International Korean Reunification Conference - Interview H.P. Chung, Canadian Delegate
Great Successes in 150-Day Campaign for Development of Economy
DPRK's Intention to Build Nuclear-Free World

64th Session UN General Assembly
"The Foreign Policy of the DPRK Is Committed to the Principles of Independence, Peace and Friendship" - Speech by Pak Kil Yon, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of DPRK Delegation to UN


Hail the 64th Anniversary of the
Workers' Party of Korea!

October 10 marks the 64th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). On this occasion, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) Sandra L. Smith sent revolutionary greetings to Comrade Kim Jong Il, congratulating the WPK for all its achievements.

Founded by Comrade Kim Il Sung and under the present leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Il, the WPK has led the people of the DPRK for 64 years to build an independent, self-reliant and prosperous socialist country. From the time of its founding, the WPK has faced severe tests including the brutal war of aggression launched by the United States under the banner of the United Nations from 1950-53. This aggression devastated much of Korea and resulted in the loss of some four million lives, the majority of whom were civilians. It was the WPK under the leadership of Kim Il Sung which mobilized the Korean People's Army and the people to defeat the U.S. aggressors and force them to sign the Armistice Agreement in 1953. After the war, the WPK mobilized the people to rebuild their devastated country in record time and to build a self-reliant economy despite a crippling embargo imposed by the U.S. and constant military threats which have escalated in the recent period. Ever responding to the needs of each era, the WPK is now taking the required stands against the aggression and nuclear blackmail of the U.S. imperialists and their allies to ensure peace and security on the Korean peninsula.

From its inception, the WPK took up the historic task of Korean reunification. It has provided the political leadership to mobilize the entire Korean people to realize this task under the banner of "by the nation itself." It calls on all Koreans to work together to oust the U.S. military from south Korea and to reunify their country peacefully and independently without outside interference. In recent years this leadership has given rise to significant results, including the June 15, 2000 North-South Joint Declaration and the October 4, 2007 declaration signed at the second inter-Korean summit. Each of these agreements mark the advances made by the movement for reunification and provide a framework and impetus for its further development by laying out concrete tasks in order to build trust and co-operation between Koreans on both sides of their divided country. TML expresses its confidence that this bold work will be crowned with the glorious victory of Korean reunification.

As well, in the next three years, the WPK is leading the people of the DPRK to take up bold mass initiatives on the economic, political, social and cultural fronts to "build a great, powerful and prosperous nation" by 2012, to mark the centenary of the birth Comrade Kim Il Sung, the founder and leader of the WKP and the DPRK -- so as to usher in the next level of their nation-building project and lay the foundation to guarantee the independence and prosperity of the Korean nation and people in the years to come.

Long Live the Workers' Party of Korea!
Victory to the Struggle for Independent, Peaceful Reunification!

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Tokyo International Korean
Reunification Conference

TML is posting below an interview with H.P. Chung, a delegate of the Corean Federation in Canada to the international conference on Korean Reunification taking place in Tokyo, Japan later this month.

***

TML: Tell us a about the conference of overseas Korean taking place in Tokyo, Japan on October 14-17 -- who is participating and what is the aim of the conference?

H.P. Chung: There will be about 1000 participants in all from Canada, Central and South America, China, Europe, the former Soviet Union, Oceania and U.S. and Japan. These are patriotic Koreans living outside of the Korean homeland. The purpose of this conference is to demonstrate overseas Korean people's support for the June 15, 2000 North-South Joint Declaration signed between the leaders of north and south Korea as well as the October 4, 2007 Declaration. The overseas Korean community, as well as the people of south and north Korea are all united in wanting to advance the implementation of the principles of these important historic agreements that are important achievements for the Korean reunification movement.

TML: As part of the conference preparation, from the period June 15-October 4, 2009, there were signature campaigns organized in various parts of the world including in Canada to endorse these two declarations. How did this campaign go in Canada and what was achieved?

HPC: In Canada, several hundred signatures were collected on Korean reunification flags as well as on petitions. These signatures came mostly from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver where there are good numbers of people of Korean origin resident. I should point out that about half of the signatures were from non-Koreans -- workers, students and others who support the peaceful reunification of Korea. This is very encouraging to those of us active in the movement for Korean reunification. It tells us that we are not alone and can count on the Canadian people as allies. The signature campaign helped to inform Canadians and Koreans living in Canada about these two important agreements that should be supported by everyone, because Korean reunification is the concern of not only Koreans, but everyone. Korean reunification will bring peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and this will be a positive outcome for peace in Asia and the world.

TML: From your perspective, what is the state of affairs regarding Korean reunification at this time and what can the Canadian people do to support this important political project of the Korean people for reunification and peace?

HPC: The current south Korean government is following U.S. policy on the Korean peninsula and is not supporting reunification and going backward to the Cold War strategy. From this outlook, the current president of South Korea is trying to nullify of the June 15 Joint Declaration between the leaders of north and south Korea as well as the October 4 Declaration. But the Korean people's desire for reunification is firm and they consider that the two historic declarations are fundamental milestones to achieving reunification by the peaceful, independent political efforts of the Korean people themselves. Peace on the Korean peninsula can only be achieved as a result of the reunification of the country. The main obstacle to reunification is the presence of U.S. troops in south Korea. Peace on the Korean peninsula will contribute to peace in northeast Asia and world peace. Therefore, we appeal to everyone in Canada to support the Korean reunification movement.

TML: Thank you and we wish the reunification conference and your important ongoing work great success.

HPC: Thank you.

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Great Successes in 150-Day Campaign
to Develop the Economy


Pyongyang, Korea, August 11, 2009: Performers in the Arirang Mass Games celebrate the
DPRK's 150-day campaign for the all-sided development of its economy.

On September 25, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a report in connection with the decisive victory won by the concerted efforts of the army and people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the "150-day Campaign" for the development of the nation. According to the report, taking the country as a whole, the campaign was realized at 112 percent. According to another report by the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the campaign which lasted from April 20 to September 16 this year "was an all-party general offensive, a campaign for nationwide mobilization and an all-people decisive campaign to make this year a year of great changes which will mark a turning point in the building of a thriving nation."

Industrial production showed a 1.2-fold increase over that in the same period last year and hundreds of objects were commissioned or underwent technological updating in that period. The production of steel, rolled steel and Juche iron jumped several times as compared to the same period last year.

Workers of the Pukchang Thermal Power Complex generated 1.4 times as much electricity as compared to the same period last year while those of the East Pyongyang Thermal Power Station, the Chongchongang Thermal Power Station and the Sunchon Thermal Power Station produced more electricity than planned.

In the coal industry, production swelled 1.5 times over that in the same period last year. More than 1,200 reserve coal cutting faces were secured to contribute to the increase of coal production. In the field of railway transport the freight transport assignment was carried out at 118 percent. A intensive drive was waged at the mines in the Tanchon area to effect a surge in production.

The machine-building industry provided the necessary machines and equipment to various domains of the national economy. The quota for the production of machine tools was surpassed at 126 percent, that of generators at 114 percent, that of motors 122 percent and that of transformers at 120 percent.

The workers in the field of forestry boosted timber production 1.5 times compared to the same period last year while the construction materials industry raised cement production 1.4 times. Light industry achieved successes by directing efforts to boost the production of mass consumer goods.

By August, targets of the campaign were achieved by many industries while at least 1,000 factories and enterprises fulfilled their yearly assignments ahead of schedule.

The members of the shock brigades of scientists and technicians and technical innovation shock brigades of factories and enterprises across the country made a lot of scientific inventions and realized more than 9,000 technical innovation proposals. Scientists and technicians also launched satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 by their own efforts and with their own technology.

In the field of food production, rice-transplanting, maize-planting, weeding and so on were carried out qualitatively in the right season thanks to the efforts of agricultural workers and with the support of the whole country, bringing about a bumper crop. Meanwhile, various provinces registered successes in the efforts to build new general food processing factories equipped with modern facilities relying on their locally available raw and other materials or rebuilt the existing factories following the example set by the Samilpho Special Products Factory.

In terms of construction projects, the soldier builders carried out in a matter of a few months the amount of work that would have taken several years at an ordinary pace. The construction of the Kumyagang Power Station, the Ryesonggang Power Station, the Orangchon Power Station and the Paektusan Songun Youth Power Station also made brisk headway thanks to the dynamic drive of servicepersons, builders and members of the youth shock brigades, making it possible to complete them earlier than scheduled. Those engaged in reclaiming the tideland on Taegye Islet wound up in the main the gigantic project. Headway was also made in the construction of houses for 100,000 families in Pyongyang.

This period also saw the appearance of modern buildings with all amenities for creating art works, performances and entertainment such as the North Hwanghae Provincial Art Theatre and the Songdowon Youth Open-Air Theatre. Many buildings including Mansudae Street, the Majon Hotel and the Sohung Gymnasium were also constructed. The 150-day campaign also saw the production of such masterpieces as feature films "White Gem" (parts 1 and 2) and "The Country I Saw" (parts 2 and 3) and many other literary and art works.

The KCNA report notes that "the shining victory of the '150-day campaign' goes to clearly prove the great Songun revolutionary leadership of Kim Jong Il." Based on the success of this national campaign, the Worker's Party of Korea has called for a follow-up "100-Day Campaign" to build on the successes to date. This call of the WPK has been enthusiastically taken up by all sectors of the people.

(Korean Central News Agency)

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DPRK's Intention to Build Nuclear-Free World

A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by Korean Central News Agency on September 30 in regards to the recent summit of the UN Security Council (UNSC) member nations:

Heads of state of the UNSC member nations met in New York on September 24 to discuss the issues of nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament and adopted UNSC Resolution 1887 on building "a world without nuclear weapons."

What matters is that this resolution, too, is a double-standards document as it failed to fully reflect the desire and will of the world community as a whole.

As a matter of fact, the summit should have called into question and dealt with the U.S. nuclear threat and the reality in which peace and stability are being seriously disturbed in different regions due to the above-said threat.

It is a prerequisite to global denuclearization for the country with the biggest stockpile of nukes to reduce and eliminate them.

The recent resolution deals with the unilateral demands of the nuclear powers to be met by other countries while disregarding the important realistic issues. It is, therefore, nothing but a sinister scheme of the nuclear powers to maintain the sphere of their domination through their nuclear monopoly under the signboard of global denuclearization.

The DPRK was compelled to have access to a nuclear deterrent in order to protect the supreme interests of the country and the regional peace and security in face of the high-handed and arbitrary practices to violate the right to peaceful development of the Korean people who have been exposed to the U.S. nuclear threat for more than half a century.

It has already totally rejected the resolutions the UNSC unreasonably cooked up over its legitimate measures for self-defence.

The DPRK's dismantlement of nuclear weapons is unthinkable even in a dream as long as there exist the sources that compelled it to have access to nukes.

Moreover, it is unimaginable to expect the DPRK to return to the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] as a non-nuclear state as it failed to play any role in preventing the U.S. forward-deployment of nuclear weapons in south Korea and its growing nuclear threat to the DPRK and has been abused for serving the purpose of the U.S. policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK.

We totally reject UNSC Resolution 1887, too, as it is peppered with the hegemonic ambitions of nuclear powers and will not be bound to it at all.

President Kim Il Sung advanced an idea of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and building a world free from nuclear weapons long ago. And it is the desire of the Korean people to live in a peaceful world without nuclear weapons.

We will make efforts to denuclearize the peninsula in the context of building a world free from nuclear weapons and the U.S nuclear policy toward the DPRK in the future, too, as in the past.

(Korean Central News Agency)

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64th Session UN General Assembly

"The Foreign Policy of the DPRK Is Committed to the Principles of Independence, Peace and Friendship"


DPRK Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Kil Yon

Mr. President, at the outset, I, on behalf of the delegation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), would like to congratulate, you, Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on your election as President of the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). At the same time, I wish to express my expectation that your skilful stewardship will lead the current session to achieve success.

Mr. President, the 64th session of the UNGA will mark an end of the first decade of the new century that humankind ushered in with a great deal of anticipation and aspiration. One of the major tasks facing the UNGA this year is to take an impartial review of the first decade and set the correct path ahead. Humankind has yet to realize its long-cherished desire to achieve a peaceful and equitable world free from war, while its hopeful aspirations are confronted with a host of serious challenges one after another.

The Afghan war is in escalation whereas the Iraqi war is still at a loose end. The cold wind of the nuclear arms race is blowing even before the opening of the negotiations on nuclear disarmament. Avian influenza is not completely subdued. Yet a new strain of A/H1N1 flu is sweeping the world. This year the world is undergoing more global warming than last year and witnessing more stagnant economies and many more people out of work everywhere.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has become more arrogant, resulting in further inequality and prevalent double standards in international relations. We need to direct serious attention to this prevailing reality when we review the first decade of the new century.

Mr. President, the DPRK, under the leadership of the great General Kim Jong Il, has now entered a new phase of state-building. The great, prosperous and powerful nation as we say is a country in which national power is strong, everything is thriving and the people are living happily with nothing to envy in the world.

To build such a country was the lifetime wish of the great leader of our people, President Kim Il Sung, and to open the gate of this thriving nation by 2012 which marks the centenary of his birth is the invariable will of the DPRK government and people. The main task before us in the next 3 years is to concentrate all efforts on the building of an economic power which is the last [summit] of building a great, prosperous and powerful nation.

The Korean peninsula remains as ever in a state of armistice. But now that we possess a dependable nuclear deterrent, we can possibly prevent war and defend peace. For over half a century our country was compelled to produce bullets first rather than sweets while suffering from nuclear threats and danger of war posed by hostile forces, but today we have settled down to channel our main efforts into the building of a great, prosperous and powerful nation. For all intents and purposes, this is completely attributable to the Songun-based politics unfolded by the great General Kim Jong Il. When our country turns into an economic power, it will create a new impetus to the economic development of the region. Our striving for economic development will constitute a significant element in the efforts of the international community to attain the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Mr. President, we have never denied the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world. Denuclearization is the behest of President Kim Il Sung and a nuclear-free world is a long-cherished desire of humankind. The Korean people are holding the sovereignty and peace of the country dearer than any other people and nation in the world, proceeding from the characteristics of its historical development.

The DPRK has done everything it can to realize the peaceful reunification of the country, to remove nuclear threats and the source of war and secure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. We initiated the denuclearization of Northeast Asia and the Korean peninsula and advanced the proposal of replacing the Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement and the proposal of adopting a DPRK-U.S. non-aggression treaty. However, our efforts have not received due response from the United States. The U.S. considers the Korean issue only in light of its Asian strategy and does not want to see the entire Korean peninsula denuclearized. Thus it has increased nuclear threats against the DPRK. The arbitrariness of the U.S. finds expression in arguing that the DPRK must not launch even a peaceful satellite. The UNSC is being abused by this arbitrariness.

We came to the conclusion that as long as the U.S. does not change it nuclear policy at the present time, we have no other option but to rely on our dependable nuclear possession to ensure nuclear balance of the region, if we are to preserve peace and stability in North East Asia. The denuclearization of the Korean peninsula depends on whether or not the U.S. changes its nuclear policy towards Korea. In order to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, the U.S. administration must discard the old concept of confrontation and show "change" in practice, as it recently stated on several occasions.

Mr. President, we do not pursue the nuclear arms race. The purpose of our nuclear weapon is to deter a war. We will only possess a nuclear deterrent to such an extent as to deter military attacks and its threat against our country. The deterrence will be directly proportional to the threat on the Korean peninsula, as in Europe and elsewhere. The DPRK, while in possession of nuclear weapons, will act in a responsible manner in management, use and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons as well as in nuclear disarmament.

We share the position of all peace loving countries including the non-aligned countries in opposing nuclear war, the nuclear arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. "Sanctions" are now imposed on us in the name of the United Nations on the grounds that we possess a nuclear deterrent. It may be recalled that the UN was born in the country which produced the first nuclear weapon and all five permanent members states of the UNSC are nuclear powers. Had these countries shown sincerity in nuclear disarmament a long time ago and refrained from arbitrary acts of selectively taking issue with the peaceful satellite launch of another country, the nuclear-related situation of the world may have evolved differently.

The DPRK attaches importance to sovereignty and equality enshrined in the UN Charter. The principle of sovereignty and equality is also the reason that we joined the UN as a member. Unfair and unequal sanctions will never be recognised nor accepted. It is the stand of the DPRK government to react to dialogue with dialogue and respond to "sanctions" by strengthening our nuclear deterrence. If the U.S. comes to dialogue with "sanctions," we will also participate in the dialogue with bolstered nuclear deterrence.

In order to strengthen the role of the UN in conformity with the requirements of the times and the changed situation, it is important to thoroughly democratize the UNSC and decisively raise the authority of the General Assembly. In restructuring the UNSC, we should debate first on the feasible issues such as expansion of non-permanent members of the UNSC on the principle of fully ensuring the representation of the non-aligned and other developing countries which account for the majority of the UN member states. In enhancing the authority of the General Assembly, we need to discuss the issue of submitting to the UNGA for approval the decisions of the UNSC and, in particular, all the decisions related to the principle of sovereign equality under the UN Charter.

The UN is required to have proper criteria and principles for debating human rights issues. The UN Charter recognizes the rights of national self-determination and choice, the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs, and all international human rights instruments being set on the basis of the non-politicization of human rights as their elementary principles. But now in the UN, some debates are running counter to this.

Any attempt to make an issue of systems of specific countries and to interfere in their internal affairs under the guise of the "protection of human rights" is, in itself, a violation of human rights denying the rights of the people of those countries to choose their own system. The UN should pay attention to the fact that on its human rights agenda there are only "problems" of small countries without mentioning about big countries, the West and European countries. Due attention should also be given to the reality in which the role of non-aligned and other developing countries is enhanced on the international arena.

International efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals and address the central issues of the UN like the global economic crisis and climate change urgently call for active participation of a broad spectrum of developing countries including the non-aligned movement.

Mr. President, the foreign policy of the DPRK, as in the past, and now, and also in the future, will be committed to the principles of independence, peace and friendship. The DPRK government will make active efforts to further strengthen and develop friendly and cooperative relations with all UN member states under these principles and discharge its full responsibility in defending peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world.

Thank you.

(DPRK Permanent Mission to the United Nations)

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