Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Kim Jong-il sent congratulatory messages on March 15 to Hu Jintao, elected as new president of China, and Jiang Zemin, re-elected as chairman of the Central Military Commission at the 10th National People¡¯s Congress on March 15.

The Central Report Session on the 80^th anniversary of the ¡°250-Mile Journey for Learning¡± was held in the People¡¯s Palace of Culture on March 15, in commemoration of Kim Il-sung¡¯s alleged walking journey from China to Pyongyang in March 16, 1923, when he was 12. Among the audience were Choi Tae-bok and Kim Jung-lin, secretaries of the Worker¡¯s Party of Korea (WPK), and Yang Hyun-sup, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People¡¯s Assembly.

Rodong Sinmun, official newspaper of the WPK, stressed on March 11 that ¡°the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula will be resolved not by multilateral talks but by direct dialogue between the DPRK and the U.S.¡±

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) denounced Japanese Foreign Minister Yorico Kawaguchi on March 11, saying ¡°hinging normalization of the DPRK-Japan relations on the settlement of the nuclear problem and the abducted Japanese issue is such a foul move.¡±

Rodong Sinmun on March 19 criticized South Korean Defense Ministry¡¯s statement on the DPRK launch of an anti-ship missile into the East Sea, arguing ¡°the test was a lawful exercise of our self-defense right against the provocative U.S. spy flights, and by condemning it as a reckless military action threatening to harm the regional security, the South is risking reversing inter-Korean relations to those of confrontation.¡±

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on March 12, ¡°the 4th working level contact for the project of reconnecting inter-Korean railways and road links was held in Gaesung from March 10 to 12. The North and the South agreed to perform an opening ceremony for the east and west coastal railways near the Military Demarcation Line at the end of March.¡±

A spokesman for the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee accused the Grand National Party of South Korea of ¡°flatly denying its dispatch of secret envoys to the North and wrongfully blaming the committee,¡± in a statement issued on March 14.