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Weekly on North Korea

ROK Ministry of Unification

Internal Affairs

a. On the occasion of the 92nd birthday of the late leader Kim Il-sung that falls on April 15 and is the 'greatest festival' for North Koreans, North Korea intensified a festive environment by giving its population two day consecutive holidays and staging a variety of events to mark the so-called Day of Sun.

b. Chairman Kim Jong-il inspected a company under military unit 205, honored with Oh Jeung Heup's Seventh Regiment Title, detachments of military units 980 and 156 and companies under military units 324 and 297.

c. Even as North Korea observed the Day of Sun, it refrained from propagandizing economic construction projects, limiting to two. However, it repeatedly introduced increased output of the existing factories and enterprises.

d. King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia has been visiting North Korea since April 10 on the occasion of Kim Il-sung's birthday.

Kim Young-nam, presidium chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Gwak Beom-gi, vice premier, received Sihanouk. He attended a party thrown in his honor and was escorted to the Geumsusan Memorial Palace.

e. North Korea announced a list of 73 officers, whose promotions were decreed by order No. 00165 of the supreme commander of the Korean People's Army. The promotions cover eight lieutenant generals and 65 major generals.

f. North Korea held the 17th International Marathon for Mangyeongdae Prize on April 11. Runners from South Africa, Norway, Ethiopia, China and four other foreign countries entered the competition that started at Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung Stadium.

Relations with South Korea

a. South Korea's Korea Land Corporation and its North Korean counterpart signed a contract leasing one million pyeong (3.3 million square meters) of land in the Gaeseong Industrial Zone on April 13 in Gaeseong.

Once the contract takes effect, work in the industrial complex will be promoted in full scale, according to North Korea's Central Broadcasting Station on April 14.

b. South and North Korea held their fourth working-level meeting on the connection of railways and roads and their third working-level meeting on the prevention of flood damage along the Imjin River April 8-10 in Gaeseong and announced the agreed upon items.

c. North Korea continued to agitate South Korean voters to decide against the opposition Grand National Party and other forces seeking to impeach the president in the coming elections (held April 15), saying that voting for the right-wing, conservative elements was tantamount to supporting and approving subordination of the country to the United States and division of the country.

External Affairs

a. Gennady Fadeev, president of the Russian Railways Public Corporation, said a railway meeting of South and North Korea and Russia and related to the connection of the Trans-Korean Railway/Trans-Siberian Railway will be held in Moscow in April, according to Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency April 12.

b. North Korea and Czech Republic concluded an agreement on aviation routes April 8 in Pyongyang, according to North Korea's newspaper Joseon Sinbo on April 9.

Since the conclusion of an aviation pact in 1955 with the Soviet Union, North Korea has been maintaining aviation-transport agreements with some 40 countries. North Korea has regular flight services on six routes in three nations. They are Beijing, Macau, Shenyang in China, Vladivostok and Khabarovsk in Russia and Bangkok, Thailand.