【Internal Affairs】
From July 16 to July 22, the North Korean media reported Kim Jong Un’s public activities as follows: Kim 1) saw a performance by the artistic groups that passed the sixth round of the second KPA contest of the artistic groups of officers' wives and 2) provided field guidance on a ballistic rocket fire drill by the Hwasong artillery units of the KPA Strategic Force.
On July 18, the North Korean media reported that the completion ceremony for Pyongyang Orphans’ Secondary School was held.
【Inter-Korean Affairs】
On July 19, the North Korean media reported that the North Side Preparatory Committee for the Joint Conference of Political Parties, Organizations, and Individual Personages of the North and the South and Abroad for Peace and Independent Reunification of the Korean Peninsula, in a press release, reported the progress of the conference preparations and called on the South Korean government to respond to it.
On July 21, the North Korean media reported that a spokesperson for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, in a statement, criticized the ROK President by name regarding her remarks on North Korea at the ASEM meeting and continued to denounce the decision to deploy the THAAD system in South Korea.
On July 21, the North Korean media reported that a spokesman for the DPRK Emergency Measure Committee for Rescuing Abducted Persons, in a Q&A session with KCNA reporters, condemned the South Korean government for turning down international human rights groups’ request for interviews with the defected North Korean restaurant workers and called for their immediate repatriation.
On July 22, the North Korean media reported that a spokesperson for the Korean Peace Advocacy National Committee, in a statement, denounced the deployment of THAAD on the Korean Peninsula and instigated an anti-government campaign.
【Foreign Affairs】
On July 20, the North Korean media reported that a spokesperson for the Panmunjom mission of the Korean People's Army (KPA), in a statement, condemned South Korea and the United States for delaying the transfer of wartime operational control and argued for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula.
