Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DOMESTIC ISSUES

Chairman of the North Korean Defense Commission Kim Jong-il visited the Kusong Construction Equipments Plant and the Taechon No. 2 Power Plant, both located in North Pyongan province, on Feb. 14th accompanied by party secretary Kim Kuk-tae, and deputy ministers Pak Song-bong, Lee Yong-chol, and Chang Song-taek.

Cho Myong-rok, Kim Yong-nam, Hong Song-taek, and other ranking officials from the KPA, the Worker's Party, and the government were in attendance at the Central Reporting Session held in the capital on Feb. 15th, one day before Chairman Kim's birthday, presumably aimed at building up the `festive atmosphere' for a day designated the communist state's greatest holiday. * The session was broadcast live by the official Korea Central Broadcasting and Central Television

FOREIGN POLICY

	North Korea's trade representatives departed from Pyongyang on Feb. 13th for official visits to Brunei and Australia.
	North Korea's Central Broadcasting responded on Feb. 14th to statements made by Japan's minister of education & science at the main assembly of Japan's House of Peers to fly the Rising Sun flag and sing the Japanese national anthem during the upcoming parliamentary inauguration with the usual fierce rhetoric, calling it `a convulsive and frenzied attempt at creating an ideological base for renewal of militarism'.

INTER KOREAN NEWS

Lastly, North Korea's Central Broadcasting announced on Feb. 18th that `the unification of our fatherland should proceed in accordance with the spirit of the North-South Joint Declaration, transcending ideological, institutional, and religious differences; to eventually achieve unification under a confederate system based on a common national heritage'.