Weekly on North Korea
| Serial No. 644 (May 16 to May 22, 2003) |
Internal Affairs
(a)
Chairman Kim Jong-il on May 16 visited the Seungri Power Plant, which was
constructed by soldiers of the Impregnable Royal Guard Unit No. 841, and
exhorted the military to play a leading and pioneering role in the construction
of medium and small power plants to ease power shortages. Two days later, Kim
watched a performance given by military families of the 488th and 534th units
and encouraged them to spread the spirit of aggressive livelihood as military
families.
(b) Choi Eung-jun, who is in charge of epidemic prevention,
said not a single SARS case has broken out in North Korea as of May 18 and
attributed it to the SARS prevention measures directed by Kim Jong-il and the
superior North Korean health care system.
(c) North Korea erected an
oversized mosaic mural on a rice cooperative farm in Sariwon City, North
Hwanghae province, May 15. It portrays the late Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim
Jong-il, conducting an on-site guidance in an apparent attempt to instill
allegiance to hereditary succession through the household indoctrination of
revolutionary history and a sustained personality cult project.
(d) By
creating an Internet homepage on science and technology information, North Korea
said it made progress in the information and science area. It also asserted that
it was making progress in the nanobiology research field.
Relations with
South Korea
(a) Through the fifth meeting of the South-North Economic
Cooperation Promotion Committee held in Pyongyang May 19-23, the two Koreas
adopted a seven-point joint press statement regarding the rice assistance and a
smooth promotion of economic cooperation between them.
- Major points of
the press release include the agreement to connect the Seoul-Sinuiju and the
Donghae (East Sea) Railways and roads, the groundbreaking ceremony for the
construction of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in late June and transparent
distribution of 400,000 tons of rice from the South in the form of a
loan.
* North Korea expressed regret over the "disaster" remark it made
against the South. The remark created a snag in moving the meeting
forward.
(b) Through a comment in its Rodong Sinmun May 21, North Korea
expressed a strong dissatisfaction over the stronger expression of "Korea-U.S.
mutual assistance" in the "Korea-U.S. Joint Statement" issued at the recent
summit. It said the phrase was a "declaration of betrayal of the country" laced
with provocative words against North Korea.
* Concerning the Korea-U.S.
summit meeting, the chief North Korean delegate to the fifth meeting of the
South-North Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee claimed in a keynote speech
on May 20 that South Korea "took advantage of America's policy of suffocating
North Korea militarily and economically." He warned that the "inter-Korean
relationship will be brought to naught and the South will be in for an
unspeakable disaster if the latter were headed in a confrontational direction
with expressions like "the nuclear issue" or "additional steps."
(c)
North Korea, through its Rodong Sinmun May 21, denounced remarks by a South
Korean presidential aide for military affairs as "profanity and provocation" on
Pyongyang and asserted that the remarks ran against the June 15, 2000,
South-North Joint Declaration.
- In the meantime, through a statement of
Korean Students Committee May 21, North Korea denounced the moves in the South
to prosecute the chairman of "Hancheongryeon," an outlawed nationwide campus
organization, as well as to punish those involved in the violent demonstration
at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the May 18 pro-democracy movement in
Gwangju.
External Relations
(a) North Korea's foreign ministry
spokesman, in a statement on May 17, said that the three contingency bills
passed by a Japanese Diet were tantamount to a national mobilization law or
statutes of aggression and war that Imperialist Japan used when it waged a war
on the continent in the past.
(b) According to North Korea's Central
Broadcast May 20, the Canadian government decided to provide North Korea with
food worth $2.5 million through the World Food Programme.
(c) The Swiss
foreign minister and her party visited North Korea May 16-20 and emphasized
cooperative mutual economic relations and an international role in addressing
the Korean problem. The ABB group stationed in North Korea signed a memorandum
of understanding on the project of ultra-high voltage power transmission network
in Pyongyang May 19.
(d) North Korea signed a memorandum of understanding
with Australia on the comprehensive control of harmful insects on white
cabbage.
