North Korea Weekly (March 3-9, 2008)
ROK National Intelligence Service
【Inside North Korea】
o On March 3, North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun said, “Since the building of a great powerful nation is about reaching the apex in every area, it requires not a few special individuals but all the people to become patriots,” adding, “The era of building up a rich and strong fatherland is an era of patriotism when one’s degree of patriotism determines the role he or she plays in developing the fatherland.” The newspaper stressed, “In this IT age, whoever so desires can make a unique contribution to the building of a great and powerful nation.”
o On March 5, the North Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) said, “Having set an ambitious afforestation objective of planting more trees this spring than during the same period in previous years, People’s Committees in every corner of the country are vehemently pursuing a drive to achieve this objective The KCBS added, “Plans are also being aggressively produced to provide technological support in order to help massively plant good tree species.”
o On March 6, Rodong Sinmun stated, “The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises executed in accordance with a meticulous plan to invade North Korea vividly reveal the combative and intrusive nature of the US, which steadfastly pursues an anti-DPRK policy under the banner of dialogue and peace.” The newspaper blasted the exercises by saying, “They are a denial of the June 15 Unification Era and reckless, squawking offensives designed to quash efforts to accomplish the feat of the reunification of the fatherland.”
【Outside North Korea】
o On March 3, North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun published an editorial entitled “Inflexible, Hard-line Diplomacy Only Hurts” in which the newspaper contended, “The Democratic Party of Japan recently launched a research institute to study issues related to the Korean peninsula, but with an inflexible, hard-line policy to pressure North Korea, the stalemate in North Korean-Japanese relations will not be resolved.” The editorial called on the Japanese government to “be enlightened and form the appropriate perspective and policy on North Korea before it is too late,” saying [the current deadlock] is “an alarm bell warning of the possible repercussions the Japanese government’s rigid, continuous pressure policy toward North Korea may bring.”
o On March 4, North Korea’s Central TV reported, “A meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Terrorism opened in New York on February 25.” The media outlet said “Our [the North Korean] representative said in his speech that despite the UN’s counter-terrorism efforts, infringements on the sovereignty of countries and extreme human rights violations had not been eradicated, let alone decreased, but only justified under the pretext of counterterrorism.” According to Central TV, the North Korean representative stressed, “The DPRK government will continue to actively contribute to rooting out terrorism and building a peaceful and stable world.”
o On March 5, the North Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) said, “Comrade Kim Jeong-il paid a visit to the Chinese Embassy in our country [North Korea].” The KCBS added, “Upon his visit to the embassy, Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming delivered the best regards of Comrade Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, along with his own gift he had prepared. In response, Comrade Kim Jeong-il expressed his gratitude, sent his best regards to Comrade Hu Jintao, and had a warm and friendly conversation with the ambassador.”
o On March 8, the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, “The DPRK Measure Committee for Demanding Compensation to Comfort Women for the Japanese Army and the Victims of Forcible Drafting has acquired a list of 427,129 Korean victims forcefully abducted under Japanese rule, and a fact-finding report has been released stating that among these, 413 victims were taken to the Kobe Steel Company in Japan and exploited through slave labor.” The KCNA voiced, “Rather than build an artificial obstacle at the six-party talks by raising the kidnapping issue, the Japanese government should take responsibility and own up to its human rights breaches carried out under Japanese colonial rule in order to shed its guilty past.”
【Inter-Korean Issues】
o On March 4, North Korea’s Central TV said, “On February 24, the South Korean security authority forcefully searched the house and school of the former (2005) chair of the Gyeongnam branch of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU),” adding, “Alleging that he had produced and disseminated materials in the interest of the national enemy, the security authority stormed and scoured his house and school and even seized a great number of materials as well as computers.” Central TV blasted, “This incident is an investigation undertaken in line with the continued persecution of the KTU by [the South Korean government], which has rolled up its sleeves to extirpate the KTU as though on a witch hunt in order to stop the KTU’s unification education activities.”
o On March 6, North Korea’s Pyongyang Broadcasting Service (PBS) stated, “As the unification of the fatherland is an issue of none other than our nation and an issue related to our nation’s sovereignty, our nation should have ownership over the process to achieve unification with our nation’s power in accordance with our nation’s independent opinions and demands. No foreign forces have the right to interfere in the issue of our unification.” The PBS stressed, “Submissive yielding to foreign power and dependence on foreign forces is tantamount to walking the path toward division and destruction of the nation. The Korean nation should transcend ideological and institutional differences to be united under the banner of the reunification of the fatherland, subordinating everything to this great feat.”
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