Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DOMESTIC ISSUES

The first deputy director of the Worker's Party military production department Park Song-bong (aged 69) and 94-year-old chairman of the Confederation of (Pro-Pyongyang) Koreans in Japan Han Dok-soo passed away on the 20th and the 21st of February, respectively.

North Korea's Central Broadcasting defended the government's policy on Feb, 21st, stating that the country would have collapsed and would not exist if they had pursued economic growth and `produced sugar instead of arms', and that they owe their present status as a `socialist superpower' to `the military-first leadership' by North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

	North Korea denounced on Feb. 21st calls for `absolute reciprocity' by the new US administration in its relations with the socialist country, and its explicitly hard-line rhetoric, saying that the US had `bared its true colors of aggression and villainy in an attempt to break our indomitable will'.
	Pyongyang Broadcasting, referring to Worker's Daily's Feb. 24th column entitled 'The Unstoppable Trend', announced that normalization of relations between North Korea and a number of western countries was 'a fruition of diplomatic policies of self-reliance of the Korean Worker's Party'.

INTER KOREAN NEWS

	In an editorial issued on Feb. 20th, the Korea Central News Agency decried what it described as `foul slander perpetrated by certain elements' in South Korea, referring to verbal protests against the North Korean leader's Kim Jong-il's proposed visit to Seoul, and stated that `smooth progression of North-South relations' were impossible amidst such goings-on.
	KCNA reported on Feb. 24th on the proceedings of the First Meeting of the `North-South' Subcommittee for Prevention of Flooding on the Imjin River, held in Pyongyang from Feb. 21st to the 24th, adding the two Koreas would continue to communicate and discuss in writings any and all issues left unresolved during the four-day meeting.