Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

North Korea is moving towards creation of a Ministry of Electronics to coordinate development of its backward electronics industry. In other news, Party Secretary Kim Joong-ryn was on hand for the convention of the Women's League in Pyongyang to preside over the `Assembly for the Pledge of Allegiance and Piety for Kim Jong-il'.

North Korea criticized Japan for 'acts of hypocrisy', concerning Japan's recent attempt and failure to launch the H-2 rocket, stating that the Japanese attempted the launch without prior notification, in direct contradiction of previous Japanese criticism of North Korea's launch without notification as a `threat against Japan'

The Farmer's and Worker's League and the Women's League reacted to a Nov. 14th New York Times article concerning the ROK's plans to develop ballistic missiles with range up to 500 km with caustic rhetoric, labeling it `a crime against the nation that will only serve to increase tensions and the likelihood of a nuclear holocaust', and threatened `strong reciprocal measures'.

Usual political rhetoric reached a crescendo as the National Front, The League of Industries, and fourteen other front organizations in North Korea blasted the Americans for `criminal action beyond redemption' for its use of herbicides in the demilitarized zone in a joint statement, and called on the South Koreans to struggle `to reclaim their due in blood'.

The North again raised its criticism of the ROK and the US to a fever pitch concerning the Annual Security Conference in Washington D.C on Nov. 24th, claiming that 'American imperialists' and the South Koreans are once again rampaging to initiate a second conflict on the Korean peninsula'.