1. Domestic Affairs
Various events were held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the
(April 25, 1932) foundation of the North Korean People's Army (KPA). Chairman of
the National Defense Commission Kim Jong-il, senior party and government
officials and KPA generals inspected the Worker and Peasant Red Guard marching
on the Kim Il-sung Square April 25. Representatives from the Guard visited the
Kumsusan Memorial Palace, while young students attended an evening gala and
marched with torches on the square.
Chairman Kim watched a performance by a music and dance
troupe of the Chinese People's Liberation Army at the Ponghwa Art Theater (April
23).
On the occasion of the 90th birthday of the late leader
Kim Il-sung, North Korea built revolutionary monuments of "three Mt. Paektu
generals (Kim Jong-il, and his parents, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-suk), Central
Broadcasting Station reported (April 21).
The 30th anniversary of the opening of the Korean
Revolution Museum was held, Central and Pyongyang broadcasting stations reported
(April 23 and 24).
2. South Korean Relations
On the occasion of the 54th anniversary of the joint South and
North Korean meeting of social groups, North Korea called for efforts to realize
Kim Jong-il's desire for the national reunification, Pyongyang Broadcasting
Station said (April 21). "We should strive to reunify Korea under the five
principles, adopted at the meeting," the station said. North Korea denounced the Grand National Party of South
Korea and its former head, Lee Hoi-chang, for "serving the U.S. and Japanese
imperialists as their pawns and casting a dark cloud of war over the Korean
nation."
3. External affairs
Konstantin Borisovich Pulikovski, plenipotentiary representative
of the Russian president to the Far East Federal District, visited North Korea
(April 24). He met Chairman of the National Defense Commission Kim Jong-il
(April 24) and Jo Chang-dok, vice premier of the cabinet, (April 25), and
attended the banquet hosted by the National Defense commission.
Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper issued by the Workers' Party,
criticized the U.S. policy toward North Korea (April 21). "The United States
threatens to seize or sink any vessel carrying weapons of mass destruction,
including missiles, while proposing resumption of dialogue with North Korea," it
commented. "It is a double-face policy."
A spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry issued
a statement (April 23), denouncing the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to
Yasukuni Shrine to worship Japanese soldiers killed in action during the World
War II. "The incumbent Prime Minister's visit to the shrine can never be
tolerated, regardless of its timing and form, because it justifies Japan's past
war crimes," the statement said.
Central Broadcasting Station accused Japan on April 22 of
its efforts to legislate laws to dispatch its troops overseas "in case of
emergency." It branded the laws as a measure to justify Japan's possible
invasion. |
