Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Kim Jong-il made another inspection tour, this time to a land reclamation site in North Pyongan province with Worker's Party Secretary Kim Kuk-tae and Deputy Chairman of the National Defense Commission Lee Yong-mu, and urged speedy completion of the project. In addition, Korea Central Broadcasting called upon the North Korean populace to bolster their 'defensive capabilities' by lending support to Kim Jong-il's policy.

A spokesperson for North Korea's Foreign Ministry justified their recent 'satellite launch' as 'a sovereign right retained by a sovereign nation which can be exercised as they see fit and necessary,' thus hinting at North Korean intentions for a second missile launch on the premise of satellite testing.

North Korea's Red Cross Society and 'families' of recently-released North Korean spies in South Korea issued letters to South Korean and international human right organizations requesting their repatriation, and rebuffed ROK demands for exchange of said agents with ROK prisoners of war and ROK citizens detained in North Korea.

North Korea's Council for National Reconciliation described the death of cattle sent last year by the Hyundai Business Group and a Korean-American civic organization, along with an incident involving detention of an ROK tourist at Mt. Kumgang, as 'anti-North provocation orchestrated by the NIS,' in a public interview.