Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Anniversary of Association for Restoration of Fatherland Marked

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

    Pyongyang, May 4 (KCNA) -- A national meeting to mark the 70th anniversary of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland (ARF) was held at the People's Palace of Culture Thursday. Attending the meeting were Kim Yong Nam, Pak Pong Ju, Kim Yong Chun, Ri Yong Mu, Jon Pyong Ho, Yang Hyong Sop, Choe Yong Rim, Kim Kuk Thae, Kim Ki Nam, Kim Jung Rin, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party Kim Yong Dae, Chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Chondoist Chongu Party Ryu Mi Yong, Cabinet members, officials of the party, armed forces and power organs, public organizations, ministries and national institutions, officers and men of the Korean People's Army, officials in the field of science, education, culture and arts, public health and the press, persons of merit and working people in the city. Choe Thae Bok, alternate member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, in a report delivered there said that the ARF, the first anti-Japanese national united front body in Korea founded by President Kim Il Sung at the historic Donggang meeting on May 5, Juche 25 (1936), was a brilliant embodiment of his Juche-based idea of the national united front and a result of the outstanding leadership he provided for rallying broad masses of all social standings as organized forces for the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle in the idea of national independence and the great national unity. The foundation of the ARF made it possible to closely combine the anti-Japanese national united front movement with the anti-Japanese armed struggle in Korea, rapidly develop it in an organized and systematic way on a nationwide scale and closely rally all anti-Japanese patriotic forces around the President and secure reliable driving revolutionary forces for the liberation of the country, the reporter said, and continued: The noble revolutionary exploits the President performed and the traditions he established by leading the struggle of the Korean people for independence and socialism along the road of a sure victory in reliance upon the united strength of broad patriotic forces have been carried forward by leader Kim Jong Il at a new higher level, recording a brilliant chapter in the proud history of the Korean revolution. Thanks to Kim Jong Il's history of great Songun leadership the unity and cohesion of our revolutionary ranks have been put on a higher stage and its might has grown stronger than ever before and the DPRK has become a country based on the single-minded unity where the headquarters of the revolution and all the servicepersons and people have formed a community linked with the same destiny. The Koreans in the north and the south and abroad have turned out in a nationwide movement to materialize the idea of "By our nation itself," thereby bringing about a new phase of the movement for national reunification as Kim Jong Il took a bold patriotic decision and provided the historic June 15 joint declaration based on the Juche-based view on the nation and wisely led the Koreans to pool their efforts on the principle of national independence to reunify the country.
    Underscoring the need to build a great prosperous powerful socialist nation, reunify the country and win the final victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche through a dynamic struggle under the uplifted banner of Songun, the reporter said: We should uphold and follow Kim Jong Il with transparent idea and faith and the noble sense of comradely obligation and defend him politically and ideologically and at the cost of our lives in any adversity just as the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners and ARF members remained intensely loyal to the President in the past. It is necessary to put spurs to the general march for Songun revolution while directing primary efforts to bolstering the People's Army and thus effect a fresh surge on all fronts of building socialism so as to make a leap forward in the drive to reach the eminence of a great prosperous powerful nation and bring about the greatest prosperity under Korean-style socialism. We should conduct a dynamic patriotic movement for national reunification, peace against war and the great national unity under the banner of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration and bring about a turning phase in the movement to accomplish the cause of national reunification without fail, bearing deep in mind the precious historical truth of our revolution that independence and unity serve as a treasured sword for winning a victory in the struggle to carve out the destiny of the nation, he stressed.