Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

On the occasion of the ninth anniversary of death of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, accompanied by Chief of Staff of Korean People's Army (KPA) Kim Yong Chun, Defense Minister Kim Il Chol, and other high-ranking military officials, visited Geumsusan Palace and paid tribute to the late Kim Il Sung. On July 7, a day before the anniversary, Kim Jong Il visited the military unit 654 of the KPA and ordered the troops to effectively implement indoctrination programs so that all servicemen may become fully armed ideologically."

On July 7, Choe Eung Jun, director of the National Hygiene and Epidemic Prevention Center, announced on the North Korean Central Television Network that "nationwide emergency control measures, which had been in effect since April 29 in order to fight SARS, were lifted." 

The North Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported on July 13 that "Kim Jong Il has registered at the constituency no. 649 as a candidate for deputy to the11th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA). 

The North Korean Central Broadcasting Station condemned the U.S., saying that "the U.S. position of 'renouncement of nuclear program before talks' and the multilateral negotiations track is a vicious attempt to stifle us" and that "the remarks made by John Bolton, the U.S. under secretary of state for arms control and international security, on the possibility of U.S. taking measures to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction at sea, in the air or on land is an explicit manifestation of such attempt."

Pyongyang Broadcasting Station criticized Japanese authorities' decision to dispatch transport planes of the Self Defense Forces to Iraq, commenting that "such decision is a vivid display of how Japan's expansionist ambitions are evolving into sheer recklessness."  

In an editorial entitled "An Anti-Nation, Anti-Peace and Anti-Reunification Political Entity," Rodong Shinmun made groundless accusations that "the description of our regime and our army as 'main enemy' by the South Korean Defense Ministry is an absurd act which will lead to disaster and catastrophe in terms of inter-Korean relations" and that "the South Korean military will be the entity responsible for igniting war on the Korean Peninsula and bringing destruction and calamity to the Korean people."

The North Korean Central Broadcasting Station stressed that "the 11th round of inter-Korean ministerial talks which ended on July 12 in Seoul demonstrated that the two Koreas can achieve national reconciliation, unity and reunification" and that "the talks were especially significant in that it provided an opportunity for the two countries to enter the phase of safeguarding peace through mutual cooperation and of achieving autonomous reunification."