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North Korea Weekly (Jan. 1 - Jan. 7, 2007)

ROK National Intelligence Service

o Inside North Korea

- The North Korean Central News Agency reported (Jan. 1-4), “Rodong Shinmun (North Korean ruling party’s paper), Joseon Inmingun (the Army’s paper) and Cheongnyeon Jeonwi (the youth’s daily) issued a joint editorial titled “Ushering in the Heyday of a Seon-gun (Military-first) Korea, Full of Confidence in Victory.” It further reported, “A people’s rally was held in Pyongyang City on January 4 in the Kim Il-sung Square to uphold this year’s joint editorial and to provide new momentum for building a great, prosperous and powerful nation.”

- The Central Broadcasting Station and others reported (Jan. 1-6), “On the occasion of the New Year, Kim Jeong-il, accompanied by Army Chief of Staff Kim Yeong-chun, Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Kim In-cheol and commanding officers of the Supreme Command, visited Geumsusan Memorial Palace, enjoyed a New Year’s congratulatory performance by the KPA State Merited Chorus, visited the renovated East Pyongyang Grand Theater and attended a New Year’s congratulatory performance by the Mansudae Art Troupe.”

o Outside North Korea

- The Pyongyang Broadcasting Service contended (Jan. 3), “The objective of the United States in provoking a war on the Korean peninsula through plotting with Japan lies in realizing its goal of rule. The more the US enforces hostile policy toward us [the DPRK] by an illicit union with Japan, the more we [the DPRK] will solidify our self-defensive war deterrence.”

- The Pyongyang Broadcasting Service blasted (Jan. 7), “Japan is pushing to revise the Basic Education Act to legalize militant education by cloaking it in patriotism and to create a favorable environment for retrogressively revising the Constitution.”

o Inter-Korean Issues

- In a commentary, the Rodong Shinmun contended (Jan. 4), “When we push ahead thoroughly with three major tasks of ‘placing importance on the nation, defending peace and achieving unity’ as presented in the Joint New Year Editorial, brighter prospects will lie ahead in accomplishing the grand undertaking of peace and independent reunification.”

- In an interview with a spokesperson for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, the North Korean Central News Agency referred to a report on South Korea’s presidential elections drawn up by the Yeouido Research Center of the Grand National Party (GNP), and propagandized (Jan. 6), “The GNP is attempting to seize political power by holding up the signboard of ideological confrontation. The South Korean people must launch a struggle to obstruct and ruin the GNP’s attempt to seize power and to turn society into a frozen land of independence and democracy.”