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National Meeting Held to Mark Anniversary of Kim Jong Il's Assumption of Supreme Commandership of KPA

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

   Pyongyang, December 23 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the April 25 House of Culture Saturday to mark the 15th anniversary of Kim Jong Il's assumption of the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army. Present there were senior party, army and state officials, chairpersons of the friendly parties and others.
    KPA Vice-Marshal Kim Yong Chun, member of the DPRK National Defence Commission and chief of the KPA General Staff, made a report.
    Kim Jong Il's assumption of the supreme commandership of the revolutionary armed forces 15 years ago marked a great auspicious event of the nation as it provided a sure guarantee for carving out the destiny of our party, the homeland and the people and an epoch-making event that opened a bright prospect of winning sure victory in the Korean revolution and the building of revolutionary armed forces despite grim tempest of history, he noted, and continued:
    Since he began his Songun revolutionary leadership early in the 1960s Kim Jong Il has wisely led the cause of army building, having a firm grip on the WPK's idea of attaching importance to the army and the military affairs, thus bringing about a historic turn in building Juche-oriented revolutionary armed forces.
    With deep insight into the new situation the Korean revolution faced at home and abroad due to the imperialist reactionary forces' frantic anti-socialist offensive, he established the Songun politics as a major socialist political mode in all fields and successfully solved the issue of forming a main force of the revolution on the principle of placing the army ahead of the working class as required by the era and the developing revolution, thereby putting the Songun revolutionary cause of Juche on a new higher stage.
    Under the situation where the U.S. imperialists have become ever more undisguised in their threat of a preemptive nuclear attack and sanctions and pressure, the army and people of the DPRK have made utmost efforts to bolster the national defence capacity to defend the sovereignty and the right to existence of the country and the nation and thanks to this persevering struggle the DPRK succeeded in developing nukes and emerged a full-fledged nuclear weapons state after going through the most just and fair processes.
    Its successful nuclear test was a historic event that strikingly demonstrated the strong power and creative potential of Juche Korea advancing under the great banner of Songun. It was a shining fruition of the unshakable faith and will of the army and people of the DPRK to unfailingly achieve the ideal of independence and prosperity without allowing their national dignity and destiny to be infringed upon by any other country in the world plagued with tragic events due to the prevalence of the law of jungle.
    Referring to the tasks facing the army and people, the reporter underscored the need to defend Kim Jong Il politico-ideologically and at the cost of their lives in any adversity, thoroughly establish the trait of attaching importance to the army in the whole society and continue channeling primary efforts into developing the national defence industry, the material foundation of the military capacity.
    He called for exerting increased state efforts for the socialist economic construction to revitalize national economy and improve the standard of the people's living.
    Reiterating that it is the sacred duty the Korean people assumed before the times and history to end the tragic national division and reunify the country, the reporter continued:
    The situation on the Korean Peninsula still remains unpredictable due to the U.S. unchanged hostile policy toward the DPRK.
    The U.S. has blocked the implementation of the September 19 joint statement and put the six-party talks to a deadlock for more than a year by applying unreasonable sanctions against the DPRK. At the resumed talks it persistently schemed to force the DPRK to disarm itself unilaterally while categorically rejecting the prompt lift of the sanctions and insisting that the DPRK abandon its nuclear program first
    The U.S. and its followers including Japan have persistently kicked up anti-DPRK "human rights" racket and tightened sanctions against it in a reckless bid to impair the dignity and prestige of the DPRK and strangle it economically.
    The DPRK is closely watching with a high degree of vigilance the U.S. busy employing all sorts of tricks to wrest unilateral concession and disarmament from the DPRK, using carrot and stick and escalating sanctions under the signboard of "dialogue."
    Sanctions and pressure will never work on the DPRK. If the hostile forces continue escalating sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, it will resolutely react to them with stronger countermeasures.
    The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK want peace but they are not afraid of war. They will never allow anyone to infringe upon the sovereignty and dignity of their country even a bit.