Pyongyang international conference opens
Korean Central News Agency
Release Date: 7/25/2003
Pyongyang, July 24 (KCNA) -- The International Conference for Peace on the Korean Peninsula was opened here Wednesday with splendour amid the great expectation and concern of the peace-loving progressives of the world on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Korean people's victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War. It is a grand international gathering convened in response to an appeal released at a joint meeting of international democratic organizations and Asian regional organizations for friendship and solidarity with the Korean people in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in February.
Under the dangerous situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula where a war may break out any moment owing to the moves of the U.S. imperialists to provoke a war to stifle the DPRK by force the conference will discuss issues arising in eradicating the root cause of this danger.
Present there were president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers Jitendra Sharma, secretary general of the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization Nouri Abdel Razzak Hussein, president of the World Federation of Democratic Youth Miguel Madeira, president of the Women's International Democratic Federation Marcia de Campos Pereira, honorary chairman of the International Liaison Committee for Reunification and Peace in Korea Paulette Pierson, and other delegations and delegates, foreign diplomats and correspondents here.
Also present there were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, Mun Jae Chol, acting chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries who is chairman of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People, a delegation of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People, a delegation of the Korean Democratic Lawyers Association, a delegation of the Korean National Peace Committee, a delegation of the Korean Afro-Asia Solidarity Committee and other officials concerned.
At the conference Jitendra Sharma made an opening speech.
He expressed the belief that the conference would contribute to building up international public opinion demanding the defusing of the tensions and the guarantee of peace on the Korean Peninsula and give strong support and encouragement to the Korean people in their heroic struggle to meet the blatant challenge and pressure of the outside forces and champion peace.
Yang Hyong Sop in his congratulatory speech wished the conference success, expressing the belief that the conference would provide an important occasion of building up international public opinion denouncing the U.S. for imposing unspeakable pain and misfortune upon the Korean nation and demanding peace on the Korean Peninsula.
A plenary meeting for peace and reunification of the Korean Peninsula was held.
Rashed Khan Menon, chairman of the central committee of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, made a keynote report.
Mun Jae Chol, chairman of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People, in a supplementary report said it is the invariable stand of the DPRK that dialogue and pressure can not go together and the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula should be settled in a reasonable way in view of the circumstances of its emergence and the responsibility for spawning it.
If the U.S. infringes upon the sovereignty and security of the DPRK even a bit, the DPRK will wipe out the aggressors and provocateurs on this land to the last man and usher in a new era in which the Korean nation would always be able to live in peace free from any interference of outside forces, he warned.
Speeches were made by the chairman of the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Committee of Nepal, the president of the Korean Friendship Association in Spain and the Arab Regional Representative for investigation into the Truth behind GIS' Atrocities.
They accused the U.S. of perpetrating unilateral practices, interference and arbitrary practices in a bid to dominate the world in disregard of the UN charter and international law and imposing the pain of division upon the Korean nation and working hard to bring the scourge of war to it.
The chairman of the Sri Lanka-people's Korea Friendship Association, the vice-chairman of the Turkey-Korea Friendship Association, the deputy general secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions, a member of the delegation of the U.S. Veterans' Organization for the Peace and the Representative of the International Action Centre in their speeches said that the key to the settlement of the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. lies in the U.S. response to the bilateral talks with the DPRK with the will to make a switchover in its hostile policy toward the DPRK, and urged the U.S. to respond to the DPRK-U.S. talks, well aware of the nature and peculiarities of the nuclear issue and the reality.
The chairman of the People's Front of Workers, Peasants and Students of Peru, the president of the World Federation of Democratic Youth and the representative of the British Friendship Society with Korea in their speeches said that leader Kim Jong Il's Songun Policy serves as a practical factor of guaranteeing peace on the Korean Peninsula.
The vice-chairman of the Russian Association for Friendship and Cultural Cooperation with the DPRK said the reality clearly shows that the implementation of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration and the reunification of Korea are hardly possible unless the U.S. troops quit South Korea and the U.S. gives up its wild ambition to dominate the whole of Korea, noting that the U.S. chiefly responsible for the division of Korea should not hamstring the implementation of the joint declaration any longer.
Prior to the opening, the participants looked round the photos showing the history of aggression committed by the U.S. imperialists against the Korean people and saw a Korean documentary film gAnswer of Koreah at Yanggakdo International Hotel.
The conference continues.
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