Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Kim Jong-il paid a visit to KPA Unit 963 with KPA politburo head Cho Myung-rok, presidential guards corps commander Lee Ul-sul, party secretary Chun Byung-ho, and other ranking members of the party and government to commemorate the fifty-first anniversary of the founding of the North Korean regime, ordering strengthening of combat proficiency after inspecting troops in training, and viewing a performance by a military choir afterwards.

Kim Jong-il also convened a Grand Report Session in Pyongyang at the April 25th Cultural Center with Kim Young-nam and other high-ranking officials of the government and party participating, encouraging `loyalty across generations.' The session was followed by several commemorative events including a visit to the Keumsusan Memorial Hall.

The National Medal of Honor and the title of National Hero and People's Athlete were conferred on the winner of the women's marathon at the World Track and Field Championship, Chung Sung-ok, by North Korea. The state also organized a massive welcoming parade at Pyongyang for the marathoner. Chung's victory has become propaganda fodder for the North Korean regime, which claims that Chung was `thinking only of Kim Jong-il' while she was running, and demands that every North Korean should take the `Chung Sung-ok' spirit as a model.

On the foreign policy front, North Korea demanded a `timetable for withdrawal' of the USFK on the fifty-fourth anniversary of the basing of American troops in South Korea, and blasted Japan's allotment of five trillion yen for its defense budget for this fiscal year as `an attempt at imperialist aggression.'

Twenty-three North Korean organizations including the ruling Worker's Party, along with the Social Democrats, the Chondoist Chungwoo Party, the National Front, and the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, issued a joint statement in support of the nullification of the Northern Limit Line, a maritime border on Korea's West Sea, to provide nominal justification for the government position as well as to dilute critical international opinion, while increasing tension on the Korean peninsula.