InternalAffairs
Internal Affairs
o Chairman Kim Jong-il, accompanied by generals Li Myeong-su and Hyeon Cheol-hae and Li Yong-cheol, first deputy director of the party's central committee, visited air force unit 344, reported the Central Broadcasting Station on April 17. Kim also attended a performance by the air force command's song and dance ensemble, according to the Central and Pyongyang Broadcasting stations three days later.
o North Korea has constructed oversize mosaic murals showing the late leader Kim Il-sung and his son Jong-il in Nampo, Cheongjin and two other cities this year, according to the Central Television Broadcasting Station on April 19.
o Naenara Information Center, a North Korean organ devoted to manufacturing websites under the control of the (North) Korean Computer Center, plans to set up and run an online shopping mall, according to the May edition of Fatherland, a monthly magazine of Jochongryeon, a pro-Pyongyang organization of Korean residents in Japan.
o North Korea recently told workers of the ruling party to know and act in compliance with the demands of the times and to stand in the vanguard of carrying out the party's agricultural policy on grain production and mechanization of the rural community as well as of the struggle for the party's ideological indoctrination, according to the Central Broadcasting Station on April 18.
o On the occasion of the Day of the Sun(April 15, the birthday of the late leader Kim Il Sung), Kim Jong-tae Electric Locomotive Factory propagandized that it met the target of producing 600 coaches by 2004 as suggested by chairman Kim Jong-il, when he conducted an on-site guidance in January 2002, according to the Central Broadcasting Station on April 16.
o The Rodong Sinmun reported on April 12 that "sirikat" (phonetic) brick factories in North Korea were actively promoting modernization of their production processes. Sirikat bricks are produced by blending sand and lime under high pressure and baking them in a high-temperature steam kiln.
o After the New Year Joint Editorial emphasized the development of fruit cultivation industries, North Koreans were encouraged to plant fruit trees around their homes. There was also stress on planting fruit trees of superior species through specially cultivated seeds, according to the Rodong Sinmun on April 11.
o North Korea held ceremonies on opening camping sites on April 15 for Mangyeongdae and other Boy Scouts across the country, according to broadcasting services on April 16.
Relations with South Korea
o Through the Rodong Sinmun and its other media outlets, North Korea instigated South Koreans to engage in active anti-U.S. and self-reliance struggles, arguing that the outcome of the April 15 general elections in the South constituted a victory of the June 15, 2000 summit meeting, South-North Joint Declaration as well as that of the struggle against anti-democratic forces.
o Through the report of the Secretariat of the Committee for Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland, North Korea denounced the South Korean foreign minister's stand on a complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear program. It said he was serving as the spokesman of the United States and that its stand ran counter to an agreement for a peaceful resolution of the issue made in the inter-Korean ministerial meeting, according to the Central Broadcasting Station on April 22.
External Affairs
o Chairman Kim Jong-il made an unofficial visit to China on April 19-21 at the invitation of Hu Jin Tao, General Secretary of China's Communist Party, according to North Korea's broadcasting services on April 22.
o North Korea denounced Japan's issuance of postage stamps bearing Dokdo. It said the stamps revealed Tokyo's flagrant desire for re-invasion of Korea. North Korea recently issued stamps with a lighthouse on the island and a map of the Korean peninsula manufactured in the first half of the 18th century, according to the Central Broadcasting Station on April 18.
o The spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry condemned as a "product of political scheming" the human rights resolution on North Korea adopted at the initiative of the European Union during the 60th UN Human Rights Commission meeting held in Geneva on April 15, according to the Pyongyang Broadcasting service on April 19.
o North Korea and Egypt signed a plan for the implementation of the agreement on cultural cooperation for a period of 2004-2005 on April 19 in Pyongyang.
o North Korea held an exhibition of books and handicrafts at the Indonesian Culture and Tourism Board on April 14, according to its Korean central News Agency on April 20.
