Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Here is a joint editorial entitled "Let's Make This Year Mark a Turning-point in Building a Powerful Nation," which reviewed last year's activities of the DPRK and set   new tasks for the year 1999 for the socialist construction of the country.

The editorial was published on Jan. 1, 1999 by Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun (the daily of the KPA) and Chongnyon Jonwi (the daily of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League).

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Today, we greet the hopeful New Year 1999 with the great pride of socialist victors.

It is our revolutionary tradition that at the beginning of every New Year the leader warmly encourage the people, and the people make a pledge of allegiance to the leader.

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The year 1998 is  a year of the forced march which gave a sure guarantee for the final victory and a year of struggle and progress.

Last year witnessed the buildup of the monolithic unity of the leader, the party and the masses and Korean political system and full demonstration of the national power of socialist Korea.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il was elected to the chairmanship of the National Defense Commission of the DPRK at the historic first session of the Tenth Supreme People's Assembly. A revolutionary state machinery was set up to put into practice his ideology and politics with credit. The political system of the DPRK aims to carry to completion the cause of Juche started by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and to defend socialism with credit. The establishment of the political system of eternal value which guarantees the future of the country and the nation is a historic event.

Last year is a fruitful year in which the national power of socialist Korea was demonstrated throughout the world. The first artificial satellite "Kwangmyongsong 1" was launched into orbit.

The aggression moves of the imperialists were shattered to smithereens.

The proud victory won by the party, the army and the people in the forced march of socialism last year is just the victory of the ideology, strategy, grit and will of  Kim Jong Il.

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The year  1999 is a new turning point in building our nation into a powerful one under the guidance of the great party and a year of general onward march.

The great leader Kim Jong Il said as follows,

"We have to advance vigorously flying red flag higher and higher in order to hold fast to the glorious history and achievements of our party and revolution and to glorify them with new victory."

This year's struggle is a historic march which will fully realize the great leader Kim Jong Il's grand plan to build a powerful state. It is his firm will to make our country a powerful socialist state which will have supreme power in ideology, politics, military and economy in the near future. We face a historical turning point like the days of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle when we overcame the arduous march and marched toward our fatherland. We have to open up a new age of powerful reconstruction, mobilizing all political, ideological, military and economic resources which we have earned throughout the forced march of socialism.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Kim Il Sung.

The undying exploits performed by him in state building are the eternal asset for the building of a powerful nation. As we built a socialist country, independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in national defense, on the ruins through the grand march of Chollima under his guidance, we should push ahead with a second grand march of Chollima under the guidance of the respected Kim Jong Il.

"Let's make this year mark a turning-point in building a powerful nation!" -- this is a militant slogan that our party and people must uphold.

Our country should be further exalted as an ideologically powerful socialist state.

Our powerful socialist state is a Juche-type one which is wholly based on the great Kim Jong Il's idea. The fortress of socialism which was built with ideology and was hardened by faith is impregnable.

Our leader Kim Jong Il's idea is the militant banner of the new age of our Juche revolution. Thanks to his idea, the Juche revolution will succeed and be accomplished, and we will enjoy a lasting prosperity of our country.

All the people should become absolute worshippers, resolute defenders and thorough executors of the great Kim Jong Il's idea who breath and fight as demanded only by the WPK. They should also firmly maintain and carry through his ideas and lines in the building of the party, the state and the army and in all other sectors of social life.

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The invincible military might of a powerful socialist state should be more extensively demonstrated.

Our powerful socialist state is an invincible and ever-victorious state in which Juche-oriented mass demonstration politics is realized brilliantly. The powerful rehabilitation of the fatherland and the victory of socialism have been won with the rifles of the revolutionaries.

The People's Army is the first military pillar of the powerful socialist state and the first death-defying corps of resolute defenders of the leader.

The People's Army should uphold "Defend Comrade Kim Jong Il as the revolutionary leader with our own lives" as a slogan and make all the army into today's O Jung Hup 7th Regiment. We should thoroughly establish a revolutionary commanding system and military morale as soldiers who know only the respected Supreme Commander and who carry out his order with our own lives. We should train people's army soldiers to bear a burning hatred for and an uncompromising fighting spirit against the enemies and to struggle like fierce tigers against class enemies to the last.

Our People's Army is a strong force with ideology and faith, which will win struggles against the enemies with a spirit of Mt. Paekdu's Three Great Generals. The courage of the People's Army to look down upon even the world's only superpower, its spirit of attack which does not know the impossible, and its implacability with which it does not end its struggle until the enemies are decisively beaten -- these are our military's true character and struggle spirit that they inherit from the tradition of the Paekdu partisans. No one can stop the attack of our revolutionary forces on this planet. Our People's Army will frustrate the aggressors resolutely with our iron fists, should they dare to pounce upon us, and will turn any enemies' bulwark into a sea of fire.

The People's Army should be fully combat-ready wherever the wind may blow and strengthen its combat and political training in every way.

Fortifying the whole country and arming all the people are the proud features of our powerful military state. All the people should love rifles, earnestly learn military affairs and turn the whole country into an impregnable fortress. We should farther strengthen our defense industry which we have constructed by girding up our loins.

Unity between the army and the people is the foundation of our society. We should firmly guarantee the unity of ideology and struggle spirit between the army and the people, which is based on the revolutionary soldier spirit, and should bring into full bloom the people's traditional spirit of defending the army and the army's traditional spirit of loving the people.

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We should build our country into an economically powerful socialist state.

The economic construction is the most important task to be fulfilled in building a powerful nation. Our country will emerge in name and reality as a powerful nation if our political and ideological, and military strength are supported by our economic power.

The general onward march of this year is a continuation of the forced march and the last charge for seeing out the '90s with success. A new breakthrough should be made in the building of a powerful nation in a whole-hearted response to the slogan "Follow up the 'arduous march' with a cheerful advance."

To put production on a steady footing in all domains of the national economy, put the economy as a whole on the right track of development and provide the people with stable and better living conditions is the cardinal task facing us in economic construction this year.

Nationwide efforts should be directed to agriculture to solve the food problem. A revolution should be brought into potato farming, and the agricultural structure be improved on the principle of the right crop on the right soil and the right crop in the right time. A double-cropping should be largely developed, and a seed revolution be continuously and vigorously promoted. A land readjustment project should be advanced as a massive campaign in various parts of the country including Kangwon Province.

Efforts should be channeled into bringing the production potentials of the key industries into full play.

Electricity and coal are the lifeline of the people's economy. Nationwide efforts should be directed toward starting operation of large-size water-power plants, as early as possible which are under construction, and to continuously promote the construction of medium-size plants, following the example of Jagang Province. In the coal industrial field, tunneling and pit construction should be given priority, coal fields be provided further, and coal output be increased. Independence of the metal industry should be intensified, iron and steel production be increased to solve the railroad transportation problem. Natural resources of the country should be exploited on a large scale to serve as an asset for our economic prosperity.

Major projects including the Pyongyang-Nampo express highway should be promoted.

In the light industrial field, a struggle to sufficiently produce and provide people's consumption goods should be actively developed, the reserves and potentials latent in the local areas be exploited, and all the local industrial factories be put in full operation.

In accordance with the demand for the new state structural system, centralized and unified guidance on economy should be intensified, and in the economic activities, actual profit be guaranteed and discipline and order be thoroughly established.

Science and technology are a prime mover in building a powerful nation. The prosperity and development of the fatherland depend on scientists and technical experts. They should raise the country's general scientific and technological level to that of the world, with their true merits they demonstrated by successfully launching the first home-made satellite. Traits which weigh much in science, should be acquired, and technical innovation be promoted in all parts of the country.

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In order to ensure a new advance in the building of a powerful nation this year, it is imperative to thoroughly apply the Korean-style of revolution.

The Korean style of revolution means to solve all problems by ourselves by exercising might of a single-hearted unity of the party, the military and the masses, as well as our political and ideological might.

We should consolidate our single-hearted unity around the leader steel-strong and should carry out socialist construction with the united might. In all sections and all units, party ranks should strengthen their organizational ideology to enhance the leading role of the party to the maximum. It is imperative to break through the present difficulty with the might of ideology, radically improving the party political work.

It is necessary to fill the whole country with the revolutionary fighting spirit suited to new circumstances.

The spirit of Kanggye created through a period of a socialist forced march is the driving force for the all party and nation in building a powerful nation. (Kanggye is a city in Jagang Province which symbolizes a self-reliant work method.)

We should give full play to the do-or-die spirit of making the impossible possible in carrying through the party's intention and to the morale of self-reliance to make our living with our own efforts. The harder the difficulty we face, the more optimistically we should live and work to firmly establish cultured ways of production and life.

Functionaries shoulder a heavy burden in constructing a powerful state. They should bring about a radical improvement in the method and manner of work, to suit new circumstances. Boldness and practical ability to prepare well for tasks and carrying them out at a stretch, attitude of setting practical examples always taking the lead, holding the banner afloat, and the popular traits of being messmate of the masses - they are what functionaries are required to have today as their fighting sprit and ways of work.

Functionaries should make more strenuous efforts to show the mettle of the commanding staff of the revolution who grew up under the care of the party, by working with the spirit of Taehongdan. (Taehongdan is the name of place, people of which played a model role of self-reliance in their way of life and carrying through party's task.)

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Last year was a historical year in which the people made great progress for national reunification under the unfurled banner of the "Five Point Program for Great National Unity" laid down by the great leader Kim Jong Il.

Last year, we also witnessed the separatists' unprecedented manoeuvers to foil national reunification.

Although a "change of regime" was made in south Korea, inter-Korean relations remain unchanged, and the situation of the south Korean people became more miserable and difficult.

The economy resulted in national bankruptcy since the nation was put on the trusteeship by the International Monetary Fund. The nationwide jobless and poverty have come to represent the reality of south Korea in which corruption holds sway.

After a-year-long test period following the start of the "people's regime" last year, south Korean people realized that the independence, democracy and reunification were unthinkable under the U.S. colonial regime.

The year1999 is a crucial year in which an epoch-making change should be made in the efforts of the Korean people for reunification of the country.

If the cherished desire of the Korean people for national reunification is to be realized, above all, south Korea should become independent.

South Korean people will no longer bear to live in dependency now that they have undergone the half-a-century-long colonial rule.

The U.S.-led outside forces are the target foes against which south Korean people should struggle.

Anti-foreign, anti-imperialist and anti-puppet struggles should be waged vigorously nationwide. The south Korean people's nationwide anti-foreign struggle for independence is sure to break out in south Korea this year.

"Great national unity" is fundamental to reunification of the fatherland.The only way out for south Korea is to drive out the outside-dependent forces from its territory and join forces with the fellow brethren.

If one truly wants reunified fatherland, one should not choose the way of dependency but the way to live as trailblazer of one's own nation. South Korean people should keep fighting to put an end to all sorts of anti-nation machines such as, the "National Security Law," the "Unification Ministry" and the "Agency for National Security Planning," all of which block contacts and exchange between the north and the south.

All the Koreans at home and abroad should be united under the uplifted banner of national reunification irrespective of difference in ideology, ideal, religious belief, political view and class and social stratum.

The prospect for reunification is bright as the great leader Kim Jong Il leads the "grand march for national reunification" at the frontline.

With fresh confidence and courage, the entire Koreans in the north, south and overseas will spur reunification movement to the victory, and build a prosperous powerful state in the near future.

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Due to aggressive maneuvers by the imperialist forces, dangerous touch-and-go state was created worldwide last year. This shows that it is impossible to protect the national sovereignty of peoples and maintain world peace without smashing all kinds of high-handed provocations by the U.S.

Our foreign policy is the most righteous and principled one for the causes of socialism, which is also aimed at achieving independence for all humankind.

We will further strengthen unity and solidarity with the progressive people of the world desirous of socialism and with anti-imperialist, independent force in the idea of independence, peace and friendship, and will smash the aggression and war moves of the imperialists and build a new world, peaceful and independent.

We will see the start of the 2000s before long. The coming decade is hopeful years when socialist Korea built by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung will demonstrate its might as a powerful nation under the guidance of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Il.

Great efforts are required to create a bright future. There will be no impregnable fortress we cannot occupy, once we stand up and stir ourselves with the spirit trained during the arduous march.

We should make a general onward march to significantly celebrate the 55th anniversary of the foundation the WPK which will fall in 2000.

Our advance toward a new century under the banner of building a powerful nation is the noblest patriotic way and the most correct way of shaping a bright future of humankind. On this way, the Workers' Party and people of Korea will certainly become the final victors.