1.InternalAffairs
1. Internal Affairs
o Chairman Kim Jong-il visited military unit 163, then the headquarters company under military unit 851 and a squadron under military unit 821 according to the Central Broadcasting Station from July 28-30.
o On the occasion of the 51st anniversary (July 27) of the Korean Armistice Agreement, North Korea held various events to celebrate the so-called "Victory Day for Fatherland Liberation War" with the Rodong Sinmun carrying an editorial vowing to inherit the victorious legacies of the war.
o North Korea held an "expanded plenary cabinet session," evaluated the performance of the first half of this year and discussed implementation measures for plans in the third quarter, according to the Minju Joseon on July 17. The expanded cabinet session was based on Articles 121 and 122 of the Socialist Constitution.
o North Korea opened the eighth National Exhibition of Inventions and New Skills at the Three Revolution Exhibition on July 22.
- On display were some 1,000 items of inventions and skills shown in the form of real things, dummies, video tape recordings and photographs.
o Evaluating "military-first policy" as the driving force that will lead North Korea to win in its confrontation with the United States, North Korea described the policy as a ''shield of iron.''
o Warning against a recent ideological laxity among youths and students, North Korea emphasized the need of sound ideological education, according to the March edition of the publication People's Education.
o North Korea's Cheongjin Railroad Bureau constructed a concrete rail tie factory that is equipped with raw material mixers, mixed compound distributors and reinforced steel processors.
o A carbonic soda factory was in operation after being constructed in the Namheung Youth Chemical Yonhap Enterprise. Carbonic soda is a chemical industrial product widely used in manufacturing glass, paper, soaps, dyeing agents, medicines and foodstuffs.
o On the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the Korean Armistice, North Korea highlighted and replayed nationwide various wartime songs (widely sung in North Korea during the Korean War).
2. Relations with South Korea
o Through a statement issued by a spokesman of its Committee for the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland, North Korea denounced South Korea for an anti-nationalistic act of "mass kidnapping." North Korea was referring to a recent South Korean decision to accept a group of North Korean defectors who fled from North Korea and were staying in a third country in Southeast Asia.
- By accepting the defectors, North Korea warned, the South Korean government has placed serious obstacles in inter-Korean relations and should be ready to pay commensurate costs for the decision, and that other collaborating elements in the scheme will also have to pay dearly.
o North Korea said that 2005 should be the "first year of unification of the fatherland," noting that the year marks the fifth anniversary of the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration, the 60th anniversary of liberation of the country and the 60th anniversary of the division of the Korean people.
3. External Affairs
o Regarding the North Korean nuclear arms program, a spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry expressed Pyongyang's rejection of the Libyan formula of renouncing the nuclear program first and insisted that the U.S. participation in the compensation package in return for nuclear freeze was the key to solving the nuclear issue, according to the (North) Korean Central News Agency July 24.
o In a reaction to the passage of the "North Korean Human Rights Bill" in US Congress on July 21, a spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry denounced the United States for using the nuclear and human rights issues as tools to isolate and suppress Pyongyang, according to a KNCA report July 27.
- The spokesman said that the various conditions for humanitarian assistance contained in the bill, such as information on abductions, transparency in the distribution of assistance materials and freedom of religion, were part of pre-arranged plans to castrate the North Korean system.
o General Li Chan-bok, representative to North Korea's military mission to Panmunjom, said July 22 that a touch-and-go situation was brewing on the Korean peninsula due to U.S. maneuvers to reinforce arms in South Korea.
- North Korea sent a letter to the U.N. secretary general on July 27, urging the implementation of the 30th U.N. General Assembly resolution (November 8, 1975) concerning the disbandment of the United Nations Command and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea.
