Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Kim Jong-il went on an inspection tour of fish and poultry farms constructed by soldiers of the KPA with party secretaries Kim Kuk-tae and Kim Yong-soon, chairman of the party censor committee Pak Yong-suk, and deputy directors of the party central committee Chang Sung-taek and Choi Chun-hwang, and ordered massive expansion of aquaculture and animal husbandry.

A spokesperson for the North Korean ministry of defense condemned American and Japanese demands that North cease its development of ballistic missiles as `undue pressure,' stating that the North will continue development of `satellite rockets,' but simultaneously expressing willingness to compromise on the missile issue.

The ROK government's policy of openness towards North Korea was the topic of a severe diatribe, as North Korea stated that the ROK was being repudiated on all sides for its `attempt at absorption.' The North reiterated its demand for the abolition of the National Security Law and the National Intelligence Agency, along with unification under the Koryo Confederal Republic plan.

The North wasted no time in calling the ROK's military exercise a `field test for a northward invasion' through an additional foreign ministry statement and an editorial in the organ Worker's Daily, and said that the North will resort to `appropriate countermeasures.'

North Korea also dismissed president Kim Dae-jung's calls for strengthening the ROK-US defense posture, continuation of the policy of openness, and official dialogue between respective authorities in the North and South in the ROK president's Liberation Day speech, as expressions of a `colonial slave mentality' and `ideology for confrontation.'