Weekly Report on North Korea (No. 718)
ROK Ministry of Unification
1. Internal Affairs
o Chairman Kim Jong-il, accompanied by Vice Marshal Kim Young-choon and generals Li Myeong-su and Hyeon Cheol-hae visited Transportation Squad 1 266 according to a Central Broadcasting Station transmission on November 20. Chairman Kim Jong-il, accompanied by party secretaries Kim Guk-tae and Kim Gi-nam and generals Li Myeong-su and Hyeon Cheol-hae, visited the vehicle company and the Hero Kim Il-sop Company of Military Unit 109, a company that has been honored with the Oh Joong Heup Seventh Regiment Title according to a Central Broadcasting Station transmission on November 23.
o Having demonstrated its strong focus on the science and information industry by announcing “Economic Science” as one of the three major strategies for turning North Korea into one of the most powerful nations in the world this year, North Korea is aggressively striving to promote exchanges and cooperation with external parties (regarding 41 items with 21 countries) to adopt the world’s leading scientific and technical developments.
o As regards the “controversial removal of Chairman Kim Jong-il’s portraits from key venues” the newspaper Joseon Sinbo commented on November 20 that the decision to display only portrait of the late President Kim Il-sung in major places open to foreign visitors was made in accordance with Chairman Kim Jong-il’s “sublime intention to show a higher level of respect to the late President”.
o North Korea propagandized on November 21 that the Cheongjin Branch of the Fishery Science Research Institute of the Fishery Science Department under the Ministry of Science has made measurable progress in the research of rearing salmons for an industrial application.
o While emphatically cautioning against the “recent US psychological strategy and maneuvers intended for the achievement of philosophical/cultural infiltration into North Korean society, North Korea strengthened its anti-US education for its people by encouraging anti US sentiments according to its news services including the newspaper Rodong Sinmun and the Central News Agency on November 22.
o North Korea held a ceremony to celebrate the completion of County Power Plant No. 410 in Kim Hyeong-jik County in Yanggang Province on November 18 according to a Central Broadcasting Station transmission on November 19.
O While emphasizing the outstanding and independent qualities of the history and culture of Goguryeo and Balhae dynasties amid the recent Chinese attempts to distort the history of Goguryeo Dynasty (since July 2003), North Korea stressed the status of the Goguryeo Dynasty as a military power according an article in the newspaper Rodong Sinmun on November 21.
2. Relations with South Korea
o In connection to South Korea ’s recent move to ban access by South Koreans to a pro North Korean website on November 12, North Korea claimed that such a move is an antinationalistic crime that clearly goes against the spirit of the 6.15 era according to its news services on November 20. It also warned that if South Korea does not immediately put a stop to such a move, North Korea would take it as an attempt to totally destroy the relations between the two Koreas and would hold South Korea strictly responsible for such circumstances.
o North Korea denounced South Korea ’s plan to increase its defense budget for next year as preparation for waging a war. It also claimed that South Korea ’s military buildup has brought inter-Korean relations into an “abnormal state”.
3. External Affairs
o North Korea strongly denounced the recent announcement by the US to let its members of the Military Armistice Committee stay in Panmunjom , in a news conference held by a spokesman of the Committee for the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland. It claimed that such US move is intended to hinder economic cooperation between the two Koreas including the Gaesung Industrial Complex project according to a Central Broadcasting Station transmission on November 19.
o A military delegation headed by vice marshal and chief of staff of North Korea’s People’s Army, Kim Young-choon, left Pyongyang to visit Cuba with which North Korea has expanded exchanges and cooperation at various levels since it established diplomatic relations at an ambassador level in August 1960 according to the Central Broadcasting Station on November 20.
o The newspaper Rodong Simun denounced in its editorial that the six-way talks have not been held yet due to the anti North Korean policy of the US and its double standard toward nuclear issues. It also claimed that the US must “abandon its anti-North Korean policy and adopt the will for peaceful coexistence with North Korea ” in order to resume proposed talks according to the Pyongyang Broadcasting Station on physiological November 23.
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