Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Kim Jong-il was accompanied by KPA generals Hyun Chul-hae and Park Jaekyung on his inspection of KPA Unit 488, where he emphasized its smooth and proper management. The inspection was followed the next day with attendance at a performance by the KPA Merit Choir with Cho Myung-rok and Kim Young-choon.

North Korea also attempted to encourage continued loyalty to Kim Jong-il with grand report sessions, ceremonies and conventions aimed at idolization of the Kim family, organized to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Kim Jong-il's inauguration as supreme commander of the KPA and his mother Kim Jung-sook's eighty-second birthday.

North Korea agreed to permit Japanese women currently living in North Korea to visit their homes in Japan, in addition to investigation into missing (Japanese) persons cases upon pending formal request from the Japanese, according to a joint press release with the Japanese at the preliminary session to the normalization talks held in Beijing from Dec. 19th to the 22nd.

The 62-member basketball delegation under the auspices of the North Korean Asia-Pacific Committee returned to the north after their four-day visit to Seoul, including two-days of joint-squad games. North Korea's media delayed broadcasting the delegation's arrival in Seoul, broadcasting a recorded and heavily edited version of the games at a later date.

The Central Committee of the North Korean League of Professions issued a statement expressing `active support', for South Korea's CKTU and FKU assemblies and strikes currently in progress.