InternalAffairs
Internal Affairs
o Chairman Kim Jong-il, accompanied by generals Li Myeong-su, Hyeon Cheol-hae, and Pak Jae-gyeong and Li Yong-cheol, the first vice director of the party's central committee, visited military unit 252, which was honored with Oh Jung Hup's Seventh Regiment Title. The unit's squad was awarded with the Three Revolutionary Red Flag belonging to Company B, according to Central Broadcasting Station news on March 3.
- So far this year (March 3), Kim's military-related activities number 10, accounting for 77 percent of his public functions totaling 13. The remaining three activities concern two external affairs and one economic.
o Through its political essay aired by the Central Broadcasting Station February 27, North Korea said, "Our political ideological front is an impregnable fortress," a reference intended to highlight justifications for the ideology-centered policy line as well as Kim Jong-il's greatness.
o The 19th National Festival for Science and Technology was in progress amid greater social interest than last year, according to an Internet service called "Between Our People" February 25.
o Between Our People reported March 1 that North Korea was tightening quarantine by taking a weeklong medical monitoring step for people coming from regions infected with avian flu.
o Aspirants to the science and engineering sector in North Korea have been falling below 40 percent of the past applicants, but now the rate has recovered to more than 70 percent, according to the March edition of Joguk (Fatherland) magazine. It said the increase was attributed to the government's policy of preferential treatment to technicians, which resulted in spreading the popularity of science and technology.
o On the occasion of Springtime Tree Planting Months (March and April) that begins from Arbor Day on March 2, North Korea held related events like tree-planting rallies and commemorative tree- planting projects in many places.
o As the third capital of Goguryeo, which was the strongest dynasty in Korean history, Pyongyang is proud of its long history and the fact that the June 15, 2000, South-North Joint Declaration and the Pyongyang Declaration were adopted there, according to the Pyongyang Broadcasting Station February 29.
Relations with South Korea
o On the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the March 1 (1919) Uprising for Independence, the spokesman of North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland issued a statement agitating South Koreans for "anti-American, anti-Japanese holy wars . It further asked South Koreans to crush war-mongering as well as domination and interference by the U.S. and Japanese invaders through mutual assistance between the Korean people," according to the Pyongyang Broadcasting Station February 23.
o A North Korean delegation, led by Choi Young-gheon, vice minister of construction and construction material industry, left Pyongyang March 2 to attend the eighth meeting of the inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Promotion, according to the Pyongyang Broadcasting Station.
o Through a commentary in the Rodong Sinmun and a statement by the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland, North Korea condemned South Korea's opposition Grand National Party for allegedly aborting a special bill on identifying pro-Japanese collaborators during the colonial period in the National Assembly on February 27, calling the move "deliberate, pro-Japanese quisling behavior."
External Affairs
o North Korea attended the second round of the six-party meeting on its nuclear program held in Beijing February 25-28.
In a press conference immediately after the close of the meeting on February 29, a spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry called for America's shift in policy toward Pyongyang. While expressing disappointment on the outcome of the talks, he emphasized the determination for a peaceful resolution through dialogue.
o Through a commentary in the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea denounced the approval by Japan's Liberal Democratic Party of the "Draft Outline on the Bill Banning Entry into Port of Specific Foreign Vessels" and threatened to "counter with a super-strong retaliatory measure" if the measure prompts economic sanctions" against it.
o In response to U.S. State Department's report on the human rights situation in North Korea, 2003, a spokesman of the foreign ministry denounced the United States February 28 for attempting to internationally isolate and strangulate North Korea by taking up human rights in addition to the nuclear issue.
- The spokesman also accused the Bush administration, which had invaded Iraq on the basis of fabricated intelligence, of being the most inhuman regime in the world.
