Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

North Korea's armed forces held a convention of company political officers in Pyongyang on Feb. 26 and 27, with Chief of the KPA politburo Cho Myung-rok and Gen. Hyun Chul-ho attending. In his report to the convention, Hyun called on the KPA to become a `vanguard of war armed with the spirit of suicide human bombs', to `protect the leader unto death'. The convention was concluded following the adoption of `The Pledge of Loyalty' to Kim Jong-il.

The spokesperson for North Korea's foreign ministry, speaking at a press interview, claimed `the expansion of US military power in South Korea is evidence of American double standard, of talking peace while actually trying to crush us to death', following up the statements with diatribe against the Japanese, who he said were `using the north Korean threat as a pretense for modernization of its missile forces and military expansion, aimed at military supremacy in the Asia-Pacific and competition for world hegemony'.

North Korea also dismissed the ROK's engagement policy as `daydreaming', and vowed that the North Korean system will never change. In addition, the spokesperson for the Central Committee of the North Korean Women's League called the Feb. 19 murder of a Korean barmaid by an American serviceman `an act of butchery that revealed the true nature of the American warmongers, who takes pleasure in killing people'.