Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

North Korea's ruler Kim Jong-il visited KPA Unit 380 and the power plant and `automation college' built by the unit's soldiers.

North Korea's prime minister Hong Sungnam presided over the Convention of Fruit Authorities in Pyongyang, for discussions concerning the means to the advancement of the North Korean fruit industry for this year and next.

On the diplomatic front, North Korean foreign minister Paek Nam-soon visited the PRC, Laos, and Vietnam in succession from eighteenth to twenty-seventh of March. The minister was back in Pyongyang for the signing of a with his Italian counterpart on March 29.

Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly dispatched an official message congratulating Russia's president-elect Vladimir Putin on his election victory.

President Kim Dae-jung's special announcement urging ROK citizens for a fair election process and active participation on March 27 became a target for North Korean political diatribe, deriding the announcement as a `scheme for repression and shallow appeasement of the Southern populace'.

North Korea stated that it would `respond without warning against such declarations of war', in response to ROK Defense Minister's announcement of a `swift response' to any provocation by North Korea in the five South Korean islands along the maritime DMZ.