Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

On April 3, Rodong Shinmun asserted in an editorial that ¡°strengthening the revolutionary army under the principle of the military-first policy is the only way to victoriously preserve the national sovereignty and dignity, as the proletariat itself cannot fully meet the military requirements in an age in which we witness the extensive abuse of military power by the imperialists.¡±

Kim Jong Il, accompanied by Kim Yong Choon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Armed Forces and Kim Il Chol, Minister of the People's Armed Forces, inspected the Kim Hyoung Jik Military Medical College on April 3 and military units 2297 and 240 on the following day. During the inspections, he instructed the troops to utilize every possible means to strengthen their combat capabilities.

Korean Central News Agency unleashed a barrage of vitriol against Japan on April 1, asserting that ¡°comments made by Japan¡¯s Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba regarding preemptive strikes against the DPRK are a serious infringement of our sovereignty and a blatant violation of the spirit of the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration.¡±

On April 5, Minju Joson claimed that ¡°the U.S. is a paragon of state terrorism and a rogue state¡± and ¡°the U.S. has adopted as its stated national policy the killing of the leader of a country and has brazenly implemented such policy in broad daylight.¡±

A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued on April 6, vehemently denounced the convening of a meeting by the U.N. Security Council, saying that ¡°we will not accept any decisions made by the Security Council¡± and ¡°if the U.N. Security Council becomes involved in a collective scheme to pressure and stifle the DPRK, we will have no choice but to exert every possible means to beef up our deterrent power.¡±

On the occasion of the 55^th anniversary of the Jeju Popular Uprising of April 3, Pyongyang Broadcasting Station propagandized on April 3 that ¡°the armed uprising of the people of Jeju was a patriotic anti-American struggle which dealt a blow to the imperialist U.S. policy of colonization and national division¡± and ¡°the people of South Korea should rise to play an active part in the death-defying struggle against the U.S.¡±

Rodong Shinmun made the unfounded accussation on April 4 that ¡°the passage of the bill authorizing the dispatch of non-combat troops to Iraq by the South Korean National Assembly is yet another illustration of South Korea¡¯s subservient and kowtowing behavior vis-à-vis the U.S. and is tantamount to criminal behavior that mirrors the shamelessly violent war campaigns of the U.S.¡±