Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

North Korea Weekly (February 23 - March 1, 2009)

ROK National Intelligence Service

[Inside North Korea]

o On February 23, North Korea held the National Agricultural Fervent Workers Meeting at the People’s Cultural Palace, in which it stressed the need to "contribute to building a strong and prosperous nation by achieving significant innovation in agricultural production.”

o On February 26, the opening ceremony of the fourth national propagandists’ rally was held at the April 25 Cultural Hall. Participants in the ceremony made presentations on outcomes of and experience with public political enterprises and discussed future tasks to be assigned to propagandists as well as propaganda workers, each of whom is in charge of five households.

[Outside North Korea]

o On February 24, a spokesperson for North Korea’s Korean Committee of Space Technology announced, "Preparatory works are underway in full swing at the Donghae Satellite Launch Site in Hwadae-gun, North Hamgyeong Province in order to launch the Kwangmyeongseong II, an experimental communications satellite, by means of the Eunha II, a carrier rocket.”

o On February 24, the North Korean government signed the Cultural Exchange Plan for 2009 – 2011 with the Chinese government.