• N.Korea holds giant memorial service
  Global Times | December 30, 2011 01:00 By Agencies Share North Korea Thursday staged a massive memorial service for Kim Jong-il to end almost two weeks of official mourning, and formally declared his untested young son Jong-un as the new supreme leader. Addressing tens of thousands of troops and civilians packing a wintry Pyongyang square, ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam praised the late leader for contributing to the "global peace and stability of the 21st century." Kim Jong-un, "the supreme leader of our party and army and people," had inherited his late father's spirit, leadership, personality, morality and fortitude, he added. A sombre Jong-un, clad in a black overcoat, presided from a balcony over the ceremony along with other members of the regime. [KJI_death] [Kim Jong Un]
• Kim’s inner circle comes into focus
  By Kim Young-jin The coterie of powerful aides surrounding North Korea’s chosen successor Kim Jong-un has come into clearer focus after they appeared in choreographed events to mourn the death of his father, the late Kim Jong-il, analysts said Thursday. Experts said the figures accompanying Kim as he walked alongside his father's hearse the day before provided hints as to who would shepherd the twenty-something leader as he launches his regime. “These are all very strong supporters of Kim Jong-un and represent his inner circle,” said Bahng Tae-seop, an analyst with the Samsung Economic Research Institute. [Intelligence] [Kim Jong Un]
• NK TV's extensive coverage of Kim's death draws attention
  North Korea's state television broadcast extensive coverage following the death of leader Kim Jong-il despite the country's chronic power shortage. The Korean Central Television aired documentary films on Kim's life and the nationwide public mourning by increasing broadcast time since Dec. 19, when the North announced Kim had died of heart failure. It also showed the North's new leader Kim Jong-un, flanked by top officials, as he paid an emotional tribute to his father at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace where the body of the senior Kim lay in state. [Electricity] [KJI_death]
• N. Koreans bid farewell to Kim Jong-il in snow-delayed funeral
  SEOUL, Dec. 28 (Yonhap) -- Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans wept and wailed as they lined the major streets of Pyongyang Wednesday despite heavy snow, as a hearse carrying the body of Kim Jong-il passed through the capital in a solemn funeral ceremony. Some North Korean women beat their breasts in grief while male soldiers bowed their heads deeply to a motorcade including a hearse decorated with white chrysanthemums, a traditional mourning flower, according to a live broadcast by the North's state television. [KJI_death]
• Kim Jong Il: The Lessons of Life and Death
  By Georgy Toloraya Kim Jong Il inspects Korean People's Army (KPA) Air Force Unit 1017. (Xinhua/KCNA, 2008) I remember my first close encounter with Kim Jong Il in July 2000 in Pyongyang, when he briskly walked into the room in Paekhwawon Guest House, where Russian President Putin and his entourage, of which I was honored to be a part, was waiting for him. He energetically shook hands with everyone without looking them in the eyes. My first real-life impression of this man whom I had seen in photos and videos (as well as from a distance) so many times was that he was more than met the eye. Having encountered several Koreans from all walks of life both in the North and South and abroad during my decades as a Koreanologist, I was impressed how this particular Korean was different: he emanated charisma and intellect, looked free and relaxed. His speech was fast and witty, he seemed to draw on enormous resources of intellect and had a remarkable memory on almost any subject (one exclusion might be modern economics, in which he, it seemed, was not so very interested, regarding it just as a tool for rich Westerners to extract profits from their fellow compatriots and poor countries). {Kim Jong Il]
• North Korean heir, Kim Jong Eun, leads funeral procession for father
  By Chico Harlan, Published: December 28 | Updated: Thursday, December 29, 4:17 AM SEOUL — With snow blanketing the wide streets of its gray capital and wailing mourners lining the sidewalks, North Korea staged an extravagant farewell Wednesday to its autocratic ruler of 17 years, Kim Jong Il. The funeral for the man known as North Korea’s “Dear Leader” marked an official junction in the nuclear-armed state’s second father-to-son power transfer, as state media assured the nation that its next leader, Kim Jong Eun, was every bit as worthy as his predecessor. [KJI_death] [Kim Jong Un]
• Kim Jong-il Laid to Rest
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's funeral started outside the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang at 2 p.m. Wednesday and was shown live on state TV. The transmission was introduced by Ri Chun-hui, who had also announced his death and that of his father Kim Il-sung 17 years ago.
• The 'Gang of 7' Behind Kim Jong-un
  During Kim Jong-il's funeral on Wednesday, seven officials apart from new leader Kim Jong-un walked alongside the hearse carrying the body, in a sign that they will form the inner core of the new regime. The seven "publicly declared their loyalty and allegiance to Kim Jong-il and his heir Jong-un. They will be the core figures of the new era," a South Korean official said. [Kim Jong Un]
• Tens of thousands mourn death of Kim Jong-il
  1:10 AM North Koreans lined the streets and wailed with grief as their Dear Leader's hearse drove past. The FT's Christian Oliver examines the reaction of North Korea's people and looks at what the future holds for Kim Jong-eun, Kim Jong-il's son and annointed successor. (3m 17sec) [Video] [Media] [KJI_death]
• Beginning of an uncertain future of N.Korea led by young Kim Jong-un
  Kim, in tears, walked alongside the hearse in the delayed funeral, in a farewell to the old regime By Son Won-je, Staff Writer Flurries of snow were falling Wednesday in Pyongyang. At about 1:57 pm, a large limousine bearing the body of Kim Jong-il departed the snow-covered Kumsusan Memorial Palace square and traveled through the city's downtown, delivering farewells to the people. The Kim Jong-il era is officially over. This came seventeen years after Kim Il-sung's death in July 1994, and 37 years after Kim Jong-il's nomination as his father's successor in 1974. [KJI_death]
• Core leadership makes debut appearance at funeral of Kim Jong-il
  Kim Jong-un’s uncle Jang is clearly displayed as second-in-command at the funeral » A scene from Kim Jong-il's funeral. By Son Won-je, Staff Writer Kim Jong-un?Jang Song-thaek?Kim Ki-nam?Choe Thae-bok?Ri Yong-ho?Kim Yong-chun?Kim Jong-gak?U Tong-chuk (presumed). This was the list of the North Korean leadership who escorted the hearse at the funeral of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday. Observers interpret this as perhaps a signal that they will form the core leadership that will lead North Korea under the post-Kim Jong-il system of Kim Jong-un. With the eyes of the North Korean people and the world on them, these major North Korean leadership figures watched over the departed Kim and his incoming successor, Kim Jong-un, the closest. [KJI_death] [Kim Jong Un]
• Solemn National Memorial Service for Kim Jong Il Held
  Pyongyang, December 29 (KCNA) -- A solemn national memorial service for Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, was held in Pyongyang Thursday. Kim Il Sung Square was wrapped in a solemn atmosphere. The dear respected Kim Jong Un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and supreme leader of the WPK, state and army, appeared on the tribune of honor. [KJI_death] [Kim Jong Un]
• Ceremony of Bidding Last Farewell to Kim Jong Il Held
  Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- A solemn ceremony of bidding last farewell to Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, took place in Pyongyang on Wednesday. The dear respected Kim Jong Un together with senior officials of the party, state and armed forces organs observed silence before the bier of Kim Jong Il, praying for his immortality, and went round the bier before the departure of a funeral procession. [KJI_death] [Kim Jong Un]
• Journalist examines life of Kim Jong-il
  Michael Breen By Kim Young-jin Seasoned journalist Michael Breen has released an updated edition of his book “Kim Jong-il: North Korea’s Dear Leader,” a timely analysis that comes in the immediate aftermath of the late Stalinist ruler’s death. A longtime reporter and commentator who has visited the isolated, nuclear-armed state several times, Breen’s in-depth examination comes as Pyongyang attempts to pass power to Kim’s untested youngest son, Kim Jong-un. Understanding the North’s current situation, the author says, is impossible without piecing together the life story of the man responsible for leaving its people impoverished and a system “dumped onto the ash heap of history.” [Agency] [Media]
• NK bids farewell to Kim Jong-il
  Global Times | December 29, 2011 01:10 By Yang Jingjie Share Yesterday's massive funeral of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il indicated a smooth power transition in the country, analysts said, but they warned that Kim Jong-un, the "great successor," still needed time to consolidate his reign. Kim Jong-un held the side of his father's hearse during the funeral as tens of thousands of people stood in snow to bid a final farewell. The young leader was accompanied by his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, senior ruling party officials Kim Ki-nam and Choe Thae-bok, military chief Ri Yong-ho, armed forces minister Kim Yong-chun, and Kim Jong-gak, who is in charge of military administration and organization. China's ambassador to Pyongyang attended the funeral "as per prior arrangements" with the North Korean government, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said yesterday in Beijing. Mourning will officially end today with a nationwide memorial service including a three-minute silence. Trains, ships and other vehicles will sound their horns. [China NK] [KJI_death] [Transition]
• The funeral: In death, as in life, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s vision will dominate
  View Photo Gallery — ?Residents of the isolated nation are in deep mourning following the death of their “Dear Leader,” who had ruled the country since the death of his father in 1994. By Associated Press, Published: December 27 | Updated: Wednesday, December 28, 4:29 PM Wailing and sobbing mourners beat their chests and dropped to their knees as North Korean President Kim Il Sung’s hearse, draped with a red flag and bedecked with white magnolias, crawled through the streets of Pyongyang in 1994. But even as they cried out on a hot summer’s day for the leader they called “Father,” they began pledging their loyalty to his son, leader-in-waiting Kim Jong Il, who cut a solemn and somber figure in a dark blue suit, a black band wrapped around his left arm. Same setting, different season: Similar shows of grief are expected when North Korea lays Kim Jong Il to rest in a winter chill during two days of funeral ceremonies on Wednesday and Thursday. As in 1994, the events will be watched closely for clues to who will gain power and who will fall out of favor under the next leader, his son Kim Jong Un. [KJI_death]
• Reform and stability in North Korea
  By Andray Abrahamian On the day following the announcement of Kim Jong-il’s death the KOSPI dropped 3.6 percent and news outlets around the world sternly talked of instability and uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula. The major worry is that political infighting behind the scenes will become uncontainable, degrading the government’s ability to maintain its control over society. This could then lead to some sort of military conflict. There are several reasons why this is unlikely in the near to medium term. [KJI_death]
• Kim Jong-Il: leadership and legacy
  Charles K Armstrong, 19 December 2011 North Korea's leader of almost two decades has died. What happens next will determine Kim Jong-Il's place in the country's history, says Charles K Armstrong. The death of Kim Jong-Il, the 69-year-old leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), on 17 December 2011, invites assessment of his role in North Korea's modern history and the legacy he has bequeathed to his successor and to North Korea. [KJI_death]
• Architects of Change
  By John Feffer, December 20, 2011 More than a decade ago, I sat down with the head of the academy of architecture in Pyongyang. The school was housed in a large, drafty building in the center of North Korea’s capital. Students were building models out of cardboard and wood. A few were in front of state-of-the-art desktops using the computer-aided design software that had become indispensible to modern architects. But there was one element missing from the architecture program. North Korean builders paid virtually no attention to energy efficiency. This seemed odd to me at the time. In 2000, North Korea was still recovering from a major food crisis, which had been precipitated by shortages of energy used to power tractors and produce fertilizer. Its manufacturing sector had also collapsed, and its energy grid was in a perilous state. North Korea didn’t even have enough energy to extract its only source of fossil fuel, coal. During the winter in Pyongyang, everyone wore warm coats inside their offices because there was no heat in the buildings.
• Reflections on “The Party as the Kingmaker”
  By James Church It has always seemed to me there wasn’t much to be gained by nitpicking someone else’s work. Especially when people are writing under pressure and the uncertainties of breaking events, minor differences over details need to be stifled, as Archie Bunker might say. This is one of those times. As of this writing, we are only about 120 hours beyond the announcement of Kim Jong Il’s death. Arguments and opinions are swirling around. Practically everyone who has ever eaten Korean food has been called on by the media to opine. [Intelligence]
• N.Korea prepares huge funeral for late leader
  Global Times | December 28, 2011 00:50 In this Tuesday screen capture from North Korean TV, Kim Jongun, son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, wipes tears away as he receives mourners at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang on Monday. Photo: AFP North Korea was Tuesday preparing a massive ceremony to bid farewell to late leader Kim Jong-il. The country has so far given no details of today's funeral for its late leader of the past 17 years and has not invited foreign delegations to the ceremony. [KJI_death]
• Purges 'Ensure Kim Jong-un's Succession'
  A series of executions and unexplained deaths since North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un was anointed heir to the throne in January 2009 were apparently meant to remove obstacles to the transition. Kim senior instituted several bloody purges to ensure his iron grip on power since he officially took over from his own father in 1994. The most prominent example is perhaps the death of Ri Je-gang, a former senior deputy director of the Organization and Guidance Department and a close aide to Kim Jong-il who oversaw key military appointments for more than two decades. Ri was a bitter rival of Jang Song-taek, Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law and guardian to Jong-un, and was killed in a mysterious car crash in late May 2010, just a few days before Jang was promoted to vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, the North's highest leadership organ. [Media] [Evidence] [Succession]
• American Doctor Recounts Changes in N.Korea
  John Linton Dr. John Linton, the director of International Health Care Center at Yonsei University's Severance Hospital in Seoul, has visited the North Korea 23 times since 1997. Also known by his adopted Korean name In Yo-han, Linton on Friday told the Chosun Ilbo striking changes are underway in Pyonyang. "When I went there recently, I found the Ryugyong Hotel, a 105-story skyscraper which had been a skeleton for the past 20 years, suddenly covered with windowpanes and construction almost complete." Linton visited the North for five days in May. "I was surprised to see many young people talking on mobile phones in the streets of Pyongyang," he said. "The streets used to be shrouded in darkness at night, but this time I saw nearly all street lights on and I even some neon signs." The reason seems to be new-found liquidity as a result of trade with China, he said [Agency] [China NK]
• Kim Jong-un to Embrace Chinese-Style Reform, Says Former Chef
  Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-il's former sushi chef, talks to TV Chosun in Seoul on Saturday. Dead North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's former chef Kenji Fujimoto says Kim's son and heir Jong-un will embrace Chinese-style reforms for the Stalinist country. Fujimoto, who was Kim's chef for 13 years from 1988, was speaking to the Chosun Ilbo on Saturday before appearing on a TV Chosun talk show [Agency] [Bizarre] [Kim Jong Un]
• N.Korea Honors Kim Jong-il's Mother But Not His Wife
  Ko Yong-hui The North Korean state media on Saturday heaped praises on dead leader Kim Jong-il's mother Kim Jong-suk, who died in 1949, to mark what would have been her 94th birthday. The official KCNA news agency praised Kim Jong-suk for her "leadership" and "revolutionary spirit" for giving birth to their leader. It hailed her "legacy" to the Workers Party and the country by raising Kim Jong-il. A South Korean government official said the article was clearly intended to boost the Kim family personality cult
• N.Korea Says Kim Jong-il Was Alive Until the Night of Dec. 16
  This photo released by the North Korean Central News Agency purports to show Pyongyang residents being given free fish on Friday. The North's official Rodong Sinmun daily reported on Sunday that Kim Jong-il's last order on Dec. 16 aimed to ease fish distribution for the New Year celebrations. /KCNA Kim Jong-il was alive signing official documents until the night of Friday, Dec. 16, North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun daily claimed Sunday. "At the late hour of 9:13 p.m., one worker received a document signed by the general." The daily added Kim foresaw problems in the distribution of herring and pollack to Pyongyang residents to celebrate the New Year and signed the document to ease obstacles. [KJI_death]
• N.Korean newspaper prepares citizens for Kim Jong-un’s official sucession
  Newspaper backs up legitimacy by stating last year’s elections named him as the “only successor” » Kim Jong-un, center, and Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of North Korea’s Supreme People's Assembly, left, visit the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, December 23. (KCNA AP Newsis) By Yi Yong-in, Staff Writer North Korea stated that on September 28 of last year, Workers' Party of Korea Central Military Commission vice chairman Kim Jong-un was elected as successor to Kim Jong-il at the party's Representatives' Conference. Meanwhile, the terms used to refer to Kim over the past view days have analysts predicting that Pyongyang plans to hasten institutional preparations for the new regime under him. [Transition]
• N.Korea’s dictatorship probably not overthrown by a coup anytime soon
  Experts credit relative seamlessness between military and WPK leadership as reason military will defend current administration “to the very end” By Lee Soon-hyuk Experts are citing the unity of North Korea's military and administrative core as the primary factor in the relative quietness of the country's military, which stands in contrast with other dictatorships like Libya and Egypt where the military moved into the foreground during periods of upheaval. A leading example of this is the inclusion of many key military figures, including vice marshal Ri Yong-ho, in the Workers' Party of Korea Central Military Commission, where Kim Jong-un serves as vice chairman. The administration leadership in the WPK and the military leadership effectively coincide, so that political involvement of the military has been institutionalized. According to this analysis, the will of the military is typically reflected in its entirety during the top decision-making processes of the state. [Transition] [Collapse]
• Kim Jong Un Visits Again Bier of Kim Jong Il
  Pyongyang, December 26 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea and sagacious leader of the party, state and army of the DPRK, together with servicepersons and people from all walks of life, Monday visited again the bier of fatherly leader Kim Jong Il and expressed profound condolences. The Kumsusan Memorial Palace was wrapped in a solemn atmosphere and the national flag was hoisted at half-mast. Kim Jong Un together with senior officials of the party, state and armed forces organs paid silent tribute, praying for the immortality of Kim Jong Il in reflection of the unanimous wishes of all the servicepersons and people of the country and the world progressives, before going round the bier in bitterest grief. [Kim Jong Un]
• NK media steps up myth-making for death of Kim Jong-il
  North Korea's propaganda machines were stepping up their efforts on Tuesday to create a mystique surrounding the abrupt death of Kim Jong-il, reporting a series of supernatural events following the demise of the "Dear Leader." The North Korean regime has built an elaborate personality cult around the late Kim and his father and predecessor
• Clues emerge from North Korea on Kim Jong Un's regime
  Los Angeles Times SEOUL, South Korea — Like the Soviet Union during the Cold War, North Korea plays out its politics out almost exclusively behind iron gates, leaving the outside world to speculate based on such evidence as a person's placement or fashions in photos of official state functions. The enduring secrecy is no small feat at a time of drone and satellite surveillance in a nation with the planet's most wired nation, South Korea, at its doorstep. [Intelligence]
• Kim Jong-un hailed by North Korean media as next leader
  Son of Kim Jong-il urged to embrace 'people's call on him to become supreme commander' by Rodong Sinmun newspaper Jasmine Coleman guardian.co.uk, Saturday 24 December 2011 16.01 GMT Article history North Korean TV footage shows Kim Jong-un, son of late leader Kim Jong-il, at a memorial for his father. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty Images North Korea's state-run media has hailed Kim Jong-il's son as "supreme commander" of the country's armed forces as the transition of power gains pace. Kim Jong-un, who is in his late 20s, has been called "the great successor" in state media since his father's death was announced on 19 December. And as the national grieving continues, Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which is run by the ruling Workers' party, said on Saturday that the country would uphold Kim Jong-un as "supreme commander" with vows made in "blood and tears" before Kim's body. [Kim Jong Un]
• NK pointing to heir's uncle playing key role
  North Korea on Sunday aired footage showing the uncle and key patron of anointed heir Kim Jong-un wearing a military uniform with a general's insignia _ a strong sign he'll play a crucial role in helping the young man take over power and uphold the ``military-first'' policy initiated by his late father, Kim Jong-il. The footage on state television shows Jang Song-thaek in uniform as he pays respects before Kim Jong-il's body lying in state at Kumsusan Memorial Palace. Seoul's Unification Ministry says it's the first time Jang, usually seen in business suits, has been shown wearing a military uniform on state TV. [Jang Song-thaek] [Kim Jong Un] [Transition]
• In North Korean Mourning, Succession Clues
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: December 25, 2011 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea broadcast television footage on Sunday of the top military brass flanking the country’s young new leader, Kim Jong-un, as they paid respects to Mr. Kim’s father, who died of a heart attack on Dec. 17, and vowed allegiance to his chosen successor. .Among the officials present was Jang Song-taek, Mr. Kim’s uncle and a vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, whose role as the young successor’s caretaker has been magnified during the transition. Mr. Jang, 65, in what was said to be his first public appearance in a military uniform on state television, wore a general’s insignia. On Saturday, the generals visited the Kumsusan mausoleum, where the senior Mr. Kim lay in a glass coffin. North Korea’s state-run media also published an entreaty to Kim Jong-un the same day to become “supreme commander” of the military. That official plea, along with the television footage of the generals and Mr. Jang’s appearance in a military uniform, signal that the military is spearheading Mr. Kim’s succession. The military’s support is considered crucial if Mr. Kim is to consolidate control after his father’s death, and a commentary by Rodong Sinmun — the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party and the primary outlet of the government’s policy statements — is part of the pattern set when Kim Jong-il took power: Entreaties are made, and the leader graciously accepts. [Succession] [Transition]
• A week after N. Korean leader’s death, signs of smooth transition
  By Chico Harlan, Updated: Monday, December 26, 1:28 PM SEOUL — In the span of one week, Kim Jong Eun became North Korea’s “Great Successor” and his political party’s “Outstanding Leader.” The country’s state-run newspaper, as if introducing the next step, urged him to become the military’s “Supreme Commander.” And, so far, there is no evidence of opposition to his ascension from within the secretive Stalinist nation. Since the announcement last Monday of the death of leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea has touted his heir with unequivocal zeal — a sign, experts say, that a tenuous power transfer is passing the first of its many tests. Outside analysts concede that they have limited insight into Pyongyang’s ruling class, but they liken the group to a pack of bulldogs in the room next door: You hear the growling if they start to fight. There are signs the young, untested Kim Jong Eun will succeed his late father as ruler of isolated North Korea. One dispatch from Pyongyang said the people and the military have pledged to uphold his leadership. (Dec. 19) .“The biggest surprise so far is just how smooth it’s going,” said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea scholar at Seoul’s Kookmin University. “Kim Jong Eun has been accepted almost immediately by the leadership. It’s clear why. It’s not because he is special. It’s because the North Korean elite understands — to use an old phrase — that either they hang together, or they will be hanged separately.” [Succession] [Transition]
• What Now for N.Korea's Grandiose Plans for 2012?
  North Korea has been trumpeting that it will become a "powerful and prosperous nation" by next year, the centenary of regime founder Kim Il-sung. But leader Kim Jong-il's death 14 days before the New Year leaves experts guessing whether the regime will stick to the pipe dream. [KJI_death] [Agency]
• NK silent on heir's biological mother
  Kim Jong-un’s mother Ko Yong-hee performs a traditional dance in this undated file photo. By Kim Rahn The biological mother of North Korean heir Kim Jong-un is Ko Yong-hee, the third wife of the late leader Kim Jong-il. After announcing Kim Jong-il’s death, the North’s authorities have been worshipping and idolizing the successor, but they are not mentioning Ko. The silence is very unusual because the communist state highly values the family line of high-ranking officials. It is also contrary to the idolization of Kim Jong-il’s mother who was promoted as “a female general of Mt. Baekdu from a family that fought for Korea’s independence from Japan.”
• Kim Jong-un’s challenge: economic or political?
  By Sunny Lee BEIJING — With the death of his father, prince Kim Jong-un now has to prematurely play the role of king. Where North Korea goes from here depends largely on what kind of challenges it faces and how the young leader handles them. The Korea Times talked to two prominent experts on North Korea, Abraham Kim, vice-president of the Korea Economic Institute in Washington, D.C., and Yang Xiyu, former director of Office for Korean Peninsula Issues at the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing. Kim in Washington believes the challenges Kim Jong-un faces are mainly political, while Yang in Beijing sees the success of Jong-un’s fledgling leadership lies in how he fixes the North’s hobbling economy. [Agency] [Kim Jong Un]
• N.Korea officially announces Kim Jong-un’s rule
  Newspapers call him great inheritor and indicate government as-per Kim Jong-il’s instructions as in 1994 » The front page of Dec. 22th edition of Rodong Shinmun By Kwon Hyuk-chul, Staff Writer The Workers' Party of Korea official newspaper Rodong Sinmun raised the curtain on the "Kim Jong-un" era Thursday, referring to the Central Military Commission vice chairman as the "great inheritor of the feats of the Juche revolution" and "a superlative leader of the party and military and people." [KJI_death] [Kim Jong Un]
• Kim Pyong-il shed tears over Kim's death: official
  Kim Pyong-il, the North Korean ambassador to Poland, is deeply grieving the death of his half brother and the socialist country's leader Kim Jong-il, an embassy official said Friday. [KJI_death]
• Kim Jong-un's Sister Surfaces
  A person believed to be the younger sister of the successor to the North Korean leadership appeared on state TV on Wednesday. The woman, clad in black traditional costume, was spotted weeping behind Kim Jong-un as he greeted mourners at Kumsusan Memorial Hall in Pyongyang where dead leader Kim Jong-il lies in state. [KJI_death]
• Power Struggle Begins in N.Korea
  Three rival factions are jockeying for position behind the new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the Daily Telegraph said Tuesday. Kim Jong-un's "inexperience has opened the way for more practised operators to increase their influence," the British daily said. According to the paper, the three factions are led by Jang Song-taek (65), Kim's uncle and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission; Kim Jong-nam (40), his half-brother; and Kim Sol-song (36), his half-sister. [Media] [KJI_death]
• Kim Jong-un Groomed to Gain Control of Military
  Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un had been groomed for the North Korean leadership for less than a year and three months when his father suddenly died on Saturday. Kim junior made his first official appearance at an extraordinary party congress on Sept. 28 last year. It has been only three years since he was tapped as the heir in January 2009. [Kim Jong Un]
• Kim Jong-un Orders Army Back to Barracks
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's successor Kim Jong-un is apparently in control of the country's all-powerful military after his father's death. Kim junior on Monday ordered all troops to stop training and immediately return to their barracks, it emerged Wednesday. It was his first order as his father's successor. "This shows that Kim Jong-un has gained full control of the military contrary to people's misgivings about his power base," a South Korean government source said Wednesday. "It also suggests that he will soon take command." South Korean intelligence agencies have come in for more criticism because they knew nothing of the order until they belatedly stumbled on it in the process of backtracking and analyzing intelligence. Another source said, "It seems Kim Jong-un issued the order almost at the same time as the official announcement of Kim Jong-il's death." The North Korean military stopped training Monday and frontline units have since been flying flags at half-mast. [Intelligence] [Kim Jong Un]
• Will Kim Jong-il's Exiled Relatives Attend the Funeral?
  Kim Pyong-il (left) and Kim Jong-nam Observers are wondering whether dead North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's estranged half-brother Pyong-il and his eldest son Jong-nam will return from overseas to attend the funeral next week. Kim Pyong-il, who looks much like his father Kim Il-sung, was once considered a rival to Jong-il for the leadership but was sidelined and has lived in virtual exile as the North's perpetual ambassador to Poland. Kim Jong-nam was believed to be the likely heir but fell from favor and was replaced by his half-brother Jong-un. He leads an itinerant existence in Hong Kong and Macau. A government official said Wednesday both, as family members, may attend the funeral but no intelligence suggests they are on their way to Pyongyang. Observers believe Pyong-il is more likely to attend the funeral than Jong-nam. Radio Free Asia on Tuesday quoted a source in Poland as saying Kim Pyong-il seems to have left Warsaw and is highly likely to attend. But given Kim Jong-nam's open criticism of the hereditary succession to the Japanese press, new leader Jong-un may want to keep his half-brother away, or Jong-nam may decide it is unsafe for him to return. [KJI_death]
• Party Military Commission Ascendant in N.Korea
  Kim Jong-un is expected to cement his position as the "great successor" through the Workers Party's Central Military Commission. The only official government post he holds is the vice chairmanship of the commission, whose chairman his father Kim Jong-il was until he died Saturday. But Kim senior ruled as chairman of the National Defense Commission, a separate body. [Kim Jong Un]
• Will eldest son attend funeral service?
  Public attention has been focusing on a probable move by Kim Jong-nam, 40, the eldest son of Kim Jong-il who died of physical and mental stress on Dec. 17. His position is well reflected in the power structure of North Korea as he has been out of his home country even in three days after the North Korean authorities officially announced the death of his father. He is not included in the funeral service committee. [KJI_death]
• NK proclaims era of new leader Kim Jong-un
  North Korea's state media referred to late leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son, Jong-un, as an outstanding leader, a proclamation of the official opening of a new era in the communist country. "We should unite around great comrade Kim Jong-un and faithfully follow his leadership," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Thursday in a lengthy editorial carried by the Korean Central News Agency. [Kim Jong Un]
• Jang orchestrates North Korea’s transition
  New North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un, front, mournfully pays respects to his late father, as Jang Song-thaek, left in the back row, his powerful uncle said to be shepherding the young man into power, looks on, Tuesday. / Yonhap By Kim Young-jin The mysterious brother-in-law of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is said to be wielding enormous influence in the aftermath of the ruler’s death, as the Stalinist state attempts to complete an unprecedented second hereditary power transfer. Jang’s face has been splashed across the media in the aftermath of Pyongyang’s bombshell announcement Monday that its “Dear Leader” had died from a heart attack and his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, would be taking the reins. [Succession][Kim Jong Un]
• Loud Weeping, Tense Silence in N.Korea
  Masses of people in Pyongyang paid their respects to dead North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Tuesday, much as they had done the previous day, while a tense regime clamped down on all other activities. China's state-run CCTV broadcast the images of thousands of Pyongyang residents paying their respects in Kim Il-sung Square and the Pyongyang Gymnasium. But the streets were almost empty and few people were seen at bus stops where they usually form long lines. Flags hung at half-mast and most restaurants and shops were closed, it said. AP said Pyongyang remained orderly even while apparently grief-stricken. [KJI_death]
• N.Korea Steps Up Propaganda for 'Great Successor'
  North Korean authorities are at work to cement Kim Jong-un's position as the heir to the North Korean leadership after the death of his father Kim Jong-il. Efforts to create a personality cult surrounding Kim junior began in 2009. A document revealed in 2009 put him on the same level as Kim Jong-il and his grandfather and regime founder Kim Il-sung. Also, a song obliquely praising Jong-un was spread among the people. On Monday, when Kim Jong-il's death was announced, the state media called Jong-un the "Great Leader" and the "Great Successor." On Tuesday, a number of appellations were released, including "our respected leader." [Kim Jong Un]
• Kim Jong-il Family's Facebook Pages Revealed
  This captured image posted on June 25 on social networking site Facebook shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's grandson Kim Han-sol with his girlfriend. The Facebook page of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's exiled eldest son Jong-nam exposes the dysfunctional inner workings of the dynasty. Kim Jong-nam expresses bitterness at being passed over as successor to the North Korean throne and posts insults of his half brother Jong-un, who was anointed heir instead. When the Facebook pages of "Kim Chol," believed to be Jong-nam, and his son Kim Han-sol (16) were exposed by the South Korean media on Saturday, Jong-nam deleted two of Han-sol's IDs among his 71 Friends, apparently to prevent others from accessing his Facebook page via his son's page
• North Korea mourns Kim Jong-il and prepares for the 'great successor'
  Country's state propaganda machine has been smoothing the way for Kim Jong-un to succeed his father as leader Tania Branigan in Beijing and Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 December 2011 18.04 GMT Article history Kim Jong-un pays his respects to his father and former leader Kim Jong-il. Photograph: Reuters Kim Jong-il's son and heir apparent has led mourners paying respects to North Korea's Dear Leader , as the country's propaganda machine sought to smooth the transition by ramping up the family personality cult. State television showed Kim Jong-un bowing before the body of his father, as it lay draped in a scarlet flag, in a glass casket at the Kumsusan memorial palace. Sombre music echoed through the gloomy, marble-lined hall.
• Kim Jong-il's down escalator shows North Korea's rising powers
  Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Jong-il's sister, and her husband, Jang Song-thaek, could hold the key to the new leadership Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 December 2011 17.55 GMT Article history Kim Jong-il, left, with his sister Kim Kyong-hui immediately behind. Photograph: AP The last photograph taken of Kim Jong-il before his death shows North Korea's former leader, wrapped up against the cold, descending an escalator in a supermarket. But the real point of interest lies not in the dimly lit shop or drab displays of canned food – this is North Korea, after all – but the party of people behind him. Standing behind him, and in front of the officials, are his son and two people who could determine the course of the country's leadership in these delicate, early days of transition. The woman is Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Jong-il's younger sister and a regular companion in the last years of his life. Behind them is her husband Jang Song-thaek, the most powerful adviser in the new leadership, who is expected to guide the "young general" during his formative days in power.
• Uncle Jang Song-thaek alleged mentor and rival of Kim Jong-un for power in N.Korea
  Experts say, although Jang is in a powerful position, he lacks a blood relation to the founder Kim Il-sung » Kim Jung-il, left, Jang Song-thaek, third left, and other North Korean leaders pose for a photo. (KCNA Yonhap) By Son Won-je, Staff Writer In the wake of Kim Jong-il's death, the attention is focusing on North Korean National Defense Commission deputy chairman Jang Song-thaek Jang is Workers' Party of Korea Central Military Commission vice chairman Kim Jong-un’s uncle. Kim Jong-un was named Kim Jong-il's designated successor as ruler of North Korea. Jang is also understood to have effectively directed the building of the succession framework for Kim Jong-un and the transmission of power under the authorization of Kim Jong-il since the late leader was struck by a cerebrovascular ailment in August 2008. Analysts said he is arguably the strongest support in the regime for the younger Kim, who suffers from a weak power base with less than three years of grooming for the North Korean leadership. [Succession]
• Kim Jong-il reportedly died on a train bound for Pyongyang left Hamhung
  Kim’s body on display for mourning, military commemorates death by suspending winter exercises By Kim Kyu-won, Staff Writer The train on which Kim Jong-il died Saturday was reported to have departed from Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province. A government official, on Tuesday, said that Kim left Hamhung before Saturday to finish his last field guidance and return to Pyongyang. "We believe that [Kim's death] happened when the train had just reached the vicinity of Pyongyang," the official added. The train is believed to have departed Hamhung Station on Friday evening or early Saturday morning, with a scheduled arrival at Pyongyang Station later in the morning. The distance from Hamhung Station to Pyongyang Station on the Pyongyang-Rason railway is about 300 km, or roughly the same distance separating Seoul and Daegu. Given the condition of North Korean rail lines, the trip is estimated to take over five hours, which would put the departure some time around 3 am.
  Kim is known to have traveled primarily by night in order to ensure his safety and avoid spy satellites. [Surveillance] [KJI_death]
• Trying not to cry
  New North Korean leader Kim Jong-un closes his mouth tightly and tries to hold back his tears as he watches father Kim Jong-il’s body displayed at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, Dec. 20. (KCTV Yonhap) [KJI_death]
• Kim Jong Il Passes Away (Urgent)
  Pyongyang, December 19 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, passed away from a great mental and physical strain at 08:30 December 17, 2011, on train during a field guidance tour. The WPK Central Committee and Central Military Commission, DPRK National Defence Commission, Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and Cabinet released a notice on Saturday informing the WPK members, servicepersons and all other people of his passing away. [KJI_death]
• Notice to All Party Members, Servicepersons and People
  Pyongyang, December 19 (KCNA) -- The Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and the Cabinet of the DPRK on Saturday announced the following notice to all party members, servicepersons and people: [KJI_death]
• Suspicions arise over cause of death
  By Kang Hyun-kyung In the wake of the announcement of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, speculation has mushroomed over the cause, mainly because of the extreme secrecy in the Stalinist state. North Korea’s Central News Agency reported Monday that Kim died of a heart attack last Saturday on a train while heading to an unidentified destination. Previously, the late North Korean leader had suffered two strokes; and his declining health had spurred speculation among those outside the North that his death was near. Given this, the announcement wasn’t unexpected. However, there are some North Korean defectors here who remain suspicious of the state-controlled media’s report on the cause of his death, raising very cautiously the possibility of Kim having been murdered. [KJI_death] [Media]
• N. Korean television discloses Kim Jong-il's body
  North Korea's successor Kim Jong-un mourned the death of his father Kim Jong-il on Tuesday as the isolated country showed the leader's body in the first public ceremony of the grieving period. Kim entered the hall of Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, where the body of his late father lies in state, to the solemn playing of funeral music, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported in a dispatch. "Kim Jong-un observed a moment's silence in the bitterest grief" together with other top officials, the dispatch said, adding that Kim's bier was seen lying among flowers, covered by a red flag. (Yonhap) [KJI_death]
• Heir’s core aides to help preserve regime
  By Kim Young-jin The fate of the new North Korean regime led by Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of late leader Kim Jong-il, lies squarely in the hands of his closest aides and their ability to curry support for the inexperienced young man, experts said Tuesday. Huge questions continued to circulate one day after Pyongyang announced the senior Kim died Saturday of a heart attack and thrust Kim Jong-un, thought to be no older than 29, into the leader’s role. Foremost among them was whether the “Great Successor” — whose leadership has been recognized by China and Russia — could stave off potential power struggles among factions of the North’s elite. Observers said the new regime needs to quickly rally support, especially from the country’s powerful military. [KJI_death] [Succession]
• Grueling days of mourning await N. Korean citizens
  North Koreans gather in front of a giant statue of North Korean founder Kim Ilsung following news of their leader Kim Jong-il’s death after 17 years in power, at Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang, Monday. / AP-Yonhap By Lee Seung-joon North Korean officials paid respects to the late leader Kim Jong-il, Monday, but the funeral proceedings for the “Dear Leader” have only just begun — especially for citizens in the impoverished Stalinist state. As was the case when Kim’s father, country founder Kim Il-sung died in 1994, the country will observe 10 days of mourning through Dec. 29. If the isolated regime holds true to form, the average citizens could be in for a long haul. [KJI_death]
• North Korea state TV says Kim Jong il has died
  (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died Saturday on a train trip, a tearful state television announcer, dressed in black, reported Monday. The announcer said that the 69-year old had died of physical and mental over-work on his way to give "field guidance." He had suffered a stroke in 2008, but appeared to have recovered. The reclusive state had begun the process of transferring power to his son Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s. (Created by David Chance; Editing by Jack Kim) [KJI_death]
• Heir-apparent's hair's apparent in North Korea capital
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (front L) and his son Kim Jong-un (R) talk as they visit Mokran Video Company in Pyongyang in this undated picture released by the North's official KCNA news agency September 11, 2011. Credit: Reuters/KCNA/Files SEOUL | Wed Dec 14, 2011 6:11am EST SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean heir-apparent Kim Jong-un's slicked-back, high-sided haircut is a fashion hit in Pyongyang where young men are apparently queuing up for a similar cut. Kim, believed to be in his late 20s and known as the "Young General," is packaged to look like his late grandfather, the secretive state's founder, Kim Il-sung. The chubby youngest son of the current leader, Kim Jong-il, slicks his hair back at the top, and has it trimmed to the scalp to about an inch above the ears. Completing the Kim Il-sung look, which experts say is designed to help win over the public's support for dynastic succession, the young Kim wears dark Mao-style suits. The young Kim's haircut is dubbed a "youth" or "ambition" hairstyle in North Korea, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper has reported. Earlier this week, North Korean state news agency KCNA quoted barber An Su-gil as saying the short-cut, medium-cut and square-cut hairstyles are now popular among young men. North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun wrote in September that neat and short hair for young people makes them "captivating." "A young man with (an) ambitious high sided haircut looks so sobering and stylish," the paper added. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said that North Korean young men prefer short hairstyle for sanitary reasons, not just because they want to look neat and ambitious. Kim Jong-un emerged as the reclusive North's leader-in-waiting last year when he was named a four-star general and given a prominent post within the ruling party. This year he has regularly been photographed alongside his father during visits by foreign officials. (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Jeremy Laurence, Elaine Lies and Nick Macfie) [Kim Jong Un] [Personalisation]
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dead
  Published: 4:11PM Monday December 19, 2011 Source: Reuters North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, revered at home by a propaganda machine that turned him into a demi-god and vilified in the West as a temperamental tyrant with a nuclear arsenal, has died, North Korean state television has reported today. [KJI_death]
• Kim Jong-il Dies
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died Saturday at the age of 70. The North's official Korean Central News Agency on Monday morning said he died of a heart attack caused by stress and overwork while on a train on his way to a field inspection. Earlier the KCNA said it would make a special announcement early Monday morning but gave no further details. There had been speculation about the reclusive dictator's failing health and impending death since he had a stroke in 2008. State media said the mourning period will last for 10 days until Dec. 29. [KJI_death]
• Kim Jong-il's Last Trip to N.Korea's 1st Supermarket
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il made his last public appearance at the country's first supermarket in Pyongyang last Thursday. The North's official Korean Central News Agency illustrated the visit on Saturday with several photos while apparently trying to decide the appropriate time to announce his death. Kim's final so-called on-the-spot guidance tour was to the Kwangbok street shopping center, where he was accompanied by Jon Il-chun, a high school classmate and chief of a special department in the Workers Party codenamed Room 39 that manages Kim's private coffers. [KJI_death]
• DPRK top leader KIM JONG IL dies -- KCNA
  Xinhua | December 19, 2011 11:17 Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), passed away last Saturday at the age of 69 "from a great mental and physical strain," the DPRK's official KCNA news agency reported on Monday. Kim died "from a great mental and physical strain at 08:30 (2330 GMT Friday) Dec. 17, 2011, on train during a field guidance tour," said the report. Kim, who had received medical treatment for his cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases for a long period, suffered "an advanced acute myocardial infarction, complicated with a serious heart shock," on the train, it added. The report said that every possible first-aid measure was taken immediately, which failed to save Kim's life, adding that an autopsy on Sunday "fully confirmed the diagnosis of his diseases." [KJI_death]
• Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader, is dead at age 69
  By Chico Harlan, Monday, December 19, 5:21 PM TOKYO — Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader who threatened the world with his nuclear weapons ambitions and suppressed his own people with imprisonment and isolation, left in the wake of his death Saturday an antiquated country with a power vacuum.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies
  View Photo Gallery — ?After years of speculation on his declining health, North Korean television has reported its leader, Kim Jong Il, has passed away. He was 69. By Adam Bernstein, Published: December 19 Kim Jong Il, the strangely antic and utterly ruthless heir to North Korea’s Stalinist dictatorship, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday, state media reported Monday. He was said to be 69. During his reign, he menaced the world with his nuclear ambitions and presided over a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of his subjects. [KJI_death][Media] [Cliché]
• N.Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies at 69
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who ruled the communist nation with an iron fist while ceaselessly pursuing nuclear weapons programs, has died of a heart attack, state media said Monday. He was 69. Kim, who took over North Korea after his father and national founder Kim Il-sung died in 1994, “passed away from a great mental and physical strain” during a train ride at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency said in an urgent dispatch. A female newscaster, clad in a black funeral dress, tearfully announced the death on state TV. [KJI_death]
• Classmates Recall Kim Jong-un's Basketball Obsession
  A picture of on North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un at the age of 16 Fellow students at Bern's German-speaking Liebefeld-Steinhölzli School recall North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un as unremarkable and obsessed with basketball, the Washington Post said Wednesday. Those who knew "Pak Un," the name he used at the Swiss school, say he was indifferent to political issues and never made any anti-American comments. He worshipped basketball players in the NBA. A friend who visited his apartment at #10, Kirchstrasse, Liebefeld, recalls that Kim had a room filled with NBA-memorabilia. "He proudly showed off photographs of himself standing with Toni Kukoc of the Chicago Bulls and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. It is unclear where the pictures were taken. On at least one occasion, a car from the North Korean Embassy drove Pak Un to Paris to watch an NBA exhibition game," the daily said. In class, Pak Un was generally shy and awkward with girls, but he became a different person on basketball court, according to his classmates. "A fiercely competitive player," said classmate Nikola Kovacevic. "He was very explosive. He could make things happen. He was the playmaker." Kim also had a collection of Nike sneakers. "We only dreamed about having such shoes. He was wearing them," recalled Kovacevic, who estimated the price of each pair at around US$200. Another friend, Marco Imhof, who used to play basketball with Kim, said two Korean women often observed their play and videotaped it at times. "It was a bit strange," Imhof said, but he thought this was just "a Korean thing." [Kim Jong Un]
• After Kim Jong-il's death, what next for the people of North Korea?
  State media said leader died of a heart attack on a train, and swiftly hailed his third son, Kim Jong-un, as the 'great successor' Tania Branigan in Beijing and Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 December 2011 20.53 GMT Article history North Koreans lament the death of Kim Jong-il, who state media said died on Saturday of ‘overwork’. Photograph: Kyodo News/AP They howled and whimpered and scrubbed raw eyes with fists. They flailed their arms in grief and marched in their thousands to the capital's landmarks. But no one, outside of North Korea, really knows what North Koreans felt at news of Kim Jong-il's death. There was shock, of course. Some perhaps wept from sorrow for their Dear Leader, some from sorrow for themselves. Some cried for fear that inadequate public anguish might damn them, and some from anxiety about what lay ahead. Kim veiled his country throughout his life and uncertainty shrouded his death. [KJI_death]
• Monitoring TV Media After Kim Jong Il’s Death
  Andray Abrahamian | Monday, December 19th, 2011 | No Comments » Waking up to a big news story is always slightly surreal. Groping for coffee and trying to come to grips with what is going on can be tough. I’m ostensibly on holiday in the UK; the one advantage from being so far from the story was that the TV setup here is solid, with 16 news channels from a variety of countries. Modern TV News has it tougher, though. It has to try to be accurate and insightful, without compromising its highest principle: speed. In this hyper-connected world, getting information out fast is key and this goal is made difficult when reporting on news from North Korea – a media shy country, to say the least – in a week where so many journalists have just gone home for Christmas and KCNA’s announcement coming during the middle of the night in Washington. [Media][KJI_death]
• N.Korea at Crossroads
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, official North Korean media reported Monday, 15 days short of his father's centenary year, when he had vowed to make the North a "prosperous and powerful nation." [KJI_death]
• Why Did N.Korea Announce Kim Autopsy?
  North Korea's official KCNA news agency on Monday said leader Kim Jong-il died of a sudden heart attack and the cause of death was confirmed in an autopsy, although it remains unclear whether the procedure was actually performed. When former leader Kim Il-sung died in July 1994 the North also performed an autopsy, and the Soviet Union also did the same amid the power struggles after the deaths of Lenin and Stalin. [KJI_death] [Media]
• Imperialist Decadence
  Western culture is seeping into North Korea with a hamburger shop (top) and Italian restaurant (bottom) newly opened in Pyongyang.[Photos][Media]
• Kim Jong Il Enjoys Performance Given by Art Squad of KPA Large Combined Unit
  Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, enjoyed a performance given by the art squad of KPA Large Combined Unit 324. Put on the stage were colorful numbers of diverse genres including female quintet "Glory to Our Great Party", male solo "Tell, the Road of Songun," guitar quintet "At a Breath," drama and chorus "They Are Looking at Us," mixed chorus "Our Army, Our People", female solo "Arirang on Jiansanfeng" and chorus "Song of Defending Country".
• Fears of Mount Paekdu eruption spreading in NK: gov't
  North Korea's adoption of a new rule on natural disasters last month indicates that experts' warnings of volcanic eruptions of Mount Paekdu have spread widely throughout the country, the South Korean government said Wednesday. Pyongyang's new law stipulates principles for observing and forecasting natural disasters, particularly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, in addition to how to minimize damage and undertake rescue activities, the Korean Central News Agency reported last month, without giving further details.
• Kim Jong Il Commands Combined Tactical Exercises
  Pyongyang, November 30 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il commanded the combined tactical exercises of KPA Large Combined Unit 630 honored with the title of the O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment. After receiving a salute Kim Jong Il mounted the commanding post where he was briefed on the exercises and commanded the combined tactical exercises of the unit

• Hardship Changes Marriage Patterns in N.Korea
  More and more North Korean women are marrying younger men as their superior earning power makes them increasingly eligible. Park Young-ja of Ewha Womans University's Institute of Unification Studies told a seminar Thursday more women are becoming breadwinners as the North's economic hardship deepens. "Young women are avoiding marriage or opt for informal cohabitation. And an increasing number of women are choosing younger men so that they can have more control in the relationship." One female North Korean defector in her 30s said, "Even if the authorities tell people not to, men are living with women who are five or six years older, because these women have experience making ends meet." The number of divorces initiated by women is on the rise as well. The regime is threatening to expel divorcees, but to no avail. "North Koreans don't take warnings from the regime seriously because they believe that there is no need to report marriage or divorce to the government," Park said. "Recently an increasing number of people don't bother to register their partnership and just go their separate ways after a few months or years if they want."
• North Korea's ventriloquist media
  By Aidan Foster-Carter It ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it - or don't say it. Or better yet, get someone else to say it. Then you can say they said it, not you. Say what? (Fear not, I shall explain all.) It's now 30 years since one of the best-ever articles appeared on what I'm tempted to call the art and science of Kimistry. Younger readers, can you imagine what it was like trying to study North Korea back in 1981? No Internet, for starters. This was a very obscure field, and a slightly dodgy one. Data were even scarcer than now. There was just less of everything.
• N.Korean Regime Throws Saps to Pyongyang Elite
  The North Korean regime is apparently determined to encourage conspicuous consumption ahead of founder Kim Il-sung's 100th birthday next year. In February, a department store selling only imported goods opened in Pyongyang, which stocks Armani and Chanel clothes imported via China as well as luxury furniture and foreign food products. And in August, a huge water park capable of accommodating 4,000 people and featuring artificial waves and giant water slides opened in the North Korean capital.
• Old Hardliner Returns to N.Korean General Staff
  Kim Kyok-sik (file photo) The septuagenarian hardliner Gen. Kim Kyok-sik, who is believed to have supervised the North Korean military's deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November last year, appears to have regained the favor of the regime. Kim (71) was fired as chief of General Staff in 2009 and since headed the Fourth Army Corps.
• NK shuts down residents’ computer printers
  By Lee Seung-joon Even the North Korean elite have become enraged against tight control on the use of their computer printers. Open Radio for North Korea (ORNK) reported on Nov. 14 that North Korea authorities have shut down private computer printers amid the rampant printing and distribution of confidential documents of ranking officials and trade contracts of businesses. ORNK is a Seoul-based, short-wave radio broadcaster airing programs to listeners in North Korea.

• Kim Jong-un Now Simply Known as 'General'
  North Korea's state-controlled media on Tuesday unanimously started referring to leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un as "general." [North] Korean Central News Agency and Central Television and Pyongyang TV used the title when they released a list of top officials who attended a meeting [Succession]
• Official Data Shed New Light on Pyongyang Population
  The Weekly Chosun has obtained detailed official records of some 2 million adult residents of the North Korean capital Pyongyang from a source in the North Korea-China border area. The data, which contains the names, date of birth and home addresses of 2,108,032 Pyongyang residents, was compiled by the North's State Security Department in 2005. The data does not include children up to age of 17 or an estimated 10,000 members of the elite including relatives of leader Kim Jong-il, or of soldiers stationed in Pyongyang from provincial areas, according to the source. But it does include people in four districts that were excluded from the Pyongyang administrative area last year. According to official data published by South Korea's Unification ministry based on the North's Central Yearbook in February, Pyongyang's population shrank by about 500,000 as a result of administrative restructuring. But the list shows only about 197,000 adults living in those four districts in 2005. [Demographics]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit 4304
  Pyongyang, October 19 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, inspected KPA unit 4304. He dropped in at the room devoted to the history of the unit where he was briefed on the militant path covered by the unit.
  After watching the training of the stalwart fighters, he expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the soldiers of the unit are getting ready to creditably perform their duties under any unexpected circumstances by using training apparatuses manufactured by the unit itself. [KPA]
• Kim Jong-il's Grandson Braves Media Storm
  A security guard pulls North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's grandson Han-sol (right) past a posse of reporters as he leaves his dormitory at the United World College in Mostar, Bosnia. /Yonhap North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's grandson Kim Han-sol was mobbed by reporters on campus at the United World College in Mostar, Bosnia on Saturday but had no comment. Han-sol arrived at the school on Thursday, over a month and a half after it reopened for the new semester.
• 90% of N. Koreans take leader’s word as law: survey
  By Kim Young-jin The vast majority of North Koreans still regard every utterance by leader Kim Jong-il as law, a recent survey of defectors indicated, in a sign the Stalinist regime is maintaining its iron-fisted rule. The survey conducted on 80 North Korean defectors, commissioned by the Ministry of Unification, showed 90.5 percent of them took Kim's remarks as law while in the North. Nearly a quarter of them reported being instructed to so do during public lectures. The poll of defectors also indicated rampant corruption in their homeland, with nearly half believing that bribes regularly influenced court rulings. Interest in citizen loyalty to the regime has been high given recent popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Many analysts say the probability of such a revolt in the North remains low due to its clampdown on outside information and a system of harsh punishment for dissenters. Others argue that an increased amount of goods smuggled in from China, including South Korean DVDs, is helping to breed disillusionment. Experts say the regime’s ability to curry public support will have a bearing on its process of transferring power from Kim to his youngest son, Jong-un. [Support]
• NK leader's grandson shares room with Libyan student
  MOSTAR, Bosnia (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's grandson is sharing a dormitory room with a Libyan student at an international school here, one of the school's students said Monday, an encounter that could give him a glimpse of pro-democracy movements spreading from the Middle East and northern Africa. Kim Han-sol, 16, began studying at the United World College's branch in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar last week after spending years in the Chinese territory of Macao. "The roommate of Kim Han-sol is a senior Libyan student," one of the students said on the condition of anonymity, adding the Libyan student returned the dormitory last weekend from a study trip.
• Kim Jong-il's Grandson Arrives at School in Bosnia
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's grandson Han-sol on Thursday started school at the United World College in Mostar, southern Bosnia, over a month and a half after it reopened for the new semester. A screen capture from Japan's Fuji TV report shows Kim Han-sol arriving at Vienna International Airport on Wednesday (left); A picture of from Han-sol'd Facebook page Kim Han-sol (17) received his student visa only recently. He arrived in Sarajevo on Austrian Airlines flight 757 from Vienna the previous day and traveled to Mostar by car, the local press reported.
• Kim Han-sol: harbinger of NK change?
  Kim Han-sol By Kim Young-jin When it comes to Kim Han-sol, the grandson of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il who recently went viral on the Internet, most agree ­? at least by appearances ? that the child seems normal. The question, however, looms: Does this signal any inkling of hope for the rigid regime’s future? South Korean media tracked down Kim’s apparent Facebook account last week after reports he had enrolled at an international school in Bosnia, sparking huge interest in his embrace of Western culture
• Kim Jong-il Looked After by S'pore-Trained Medical Staff
  Two North Korean medical teams in charge of looking after leader Kim Jong-il's health were secretly trained in brain disease-related rehabilitation in Singapore last year, the Kyodo news agency reported Monday. The teams "consisted mostly of women who looked about 30 years old. The Singaporean government accepted the North's request for their training and let them enter Singapore," it quoted a source as saying. The two North Korean medical teams received a month of intensive training at the internal medicine and surgery departments of a Singaporean hospital. The North chose Singapore because healthcare is considered the best in Southeast Asia, the news agency added. The North has an embassy in Singapore. Kim had surgery after a stroke in August 2008. He lost weight dramatically and has had trouble using his left hand since. He missed a military parade on the 60th anniversary of the regime on Sept. 9 that year. This year, two French doctors reportedly visited the North and examined Kim. [health]
• N.Korean Chief Economic Planner Sacked
  Hong Sok-hyong Hong Sok-hyong, the North Korean regime's chief economic planner, has been purged, it emerged Wednesday. Hong (75) is a grandson of former North Korean deputy premier Hong Myong-hui, who wrote the novel "Im Kkok-jong" based on the life of a rebel in the 16th century. A South Korean security official said, "Hong Sok-hyong's whereabouts are unknown since he was suddenly dismissed from all posts in June." A source familiar with internal North Korean affairs said rumors are circulating in Pyongyang that Hong was purged in June on charges of spying for the Chinese.
• Promotions Reveal Lineup of Kim Jong-un Regime
  The North Korean regime conducted a reshuffle of top posts in the Workers Party at an extraordinary party congress last week, bringing to the fore several people who are expected to assist leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un when he takes over the reins.
• Bosnia Gives Visa to Kim Jong-il's Grandson
  Bosnia has granted a student visa to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's grandson Han-sol, the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted a local Bosnia-Herzegovina newspaper last Saturday as reporting. Kim Han-sol (16), who has been admitted by the United World College in Mostar in southern Bosnia, is expected to travel to Mostar as soon as he gets his visa, the daily said. Mostar is about 72 km southwest of the capital Sarajevo. Han-sol will live at a dormitory and study alongside other students at the UWCiM for two years, the daily added. The school was founded in 2006. The new semester already started on Sept. 1 with a total of 74 students from 29 countries on the list of new admissions. Han-sol is the son of Kim Jong-il's eldest son Jong-nam. He had originally planned to enroll at sister school Li Po Chun UWC in Hong Kong last month but was denied a visa. Kim Jong-nam reportedly plans to move from Macau to Europe next year and the school is close to where his family will live.
• Decadent cultures of sex spread in NK
  Sexual promiscuity has spread in North Korea involving prostitution, adultery, and the making and selling of pornography, according to a news report Sunday. Although the North regime had thoroughly controlled people’s private lives until the 1990s, this social phenomenon has been rampant with the regime’s power decreasing due to economic difficulties.
• Hong Kong Denies Visa to Kim Jong-il's Grandson
  Kim Jong-nam (left) and Kim Han-sol North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest grandson Han-sol is going to school in Bosnia because he was denied a visa in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday.
• North Korea’s ‘Dear Young General’ Has Made His Mark
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: September 30, 2011 SEOUL, South Korea — It is a telling sign of who is the rising star in North Korea: state-run television showing octogenarian party secretaries bowing to a man their grandchildren’s age before accepting the smiling man’s handshake or kowtowing to his instructions. A year after Kim Jong-un made his public debut as North Korea’s leader-in-waiting, scenes like that — the old party elite groveling — have become a staple of North Korea’s propagandist media, a crucial tool for the country’s leader, Kim Jong-il, to elevate his son as his successor. [Succession]
• A Confusing Legacy for Kim Jong-il's Grandson
  When North Korean leader Kim Jong-il followed his father Kim Il-sung to Moscow in 1959 at the age of 17, the elder Kim recommended that his son study in the Soviet capital. But Kim Jong-il apparently turned down his father's suggestion and said the North too had excellent universities like Kim Il-sung University. Or so North Korean textbooks claim, teaching that the younger Kim already realized that he had to learn about his own country in order to become its next leader and using the incident to boost the personality cult. But experts believe the younger Kim turned down the offer because his Russian was poor.
• Internet Reveals More Tidbits About Kim Jong-il's Grandson
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest grandson Han-sol wears an accessory presumed to be a crucifix in his Facebook profile photo. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's grandson Han-sol identifies his religion as "Christian-other" on his MySpace profile page. The "Christian-other" category is normally used to refer to the Greek Orthodox Church, small Protestant denominations, or non-denominational Christians. In his Facebook profile photo, Kim Han-sol wears a necklace with a pendant that looks like a crucifix. And on his YouTube channel, he identified himself as "Pro-Religious Rights." But when he subscribed to AsiaFind, an online dating site for Asians, in October last year, he introduced himself as an agnostic.

• N.Korean Leader, Heir Apparent Appear at Military Parade
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il appeared to be in relatively good health as he looked down on a massive military parade Friday in central Pyongyang. His son and heir apparent was also on the reviewing stand as the reclusive state celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its founding.
• Photo of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Kim Kyong Hui
  NK leader’s family photo: Kim Jong-il, left, leader of North Korea, sits on a bench with his late father Kim Il-sung and younger sister Kim Kyong-hui in this picture posted on Nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com. The blog claims that this rare color picture of Kim’s family was taken in 1966.

• First peek into Kim Jong-il’s train
  September 01, 2011 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, right, is seen talking with Russian officials inside his armored train during a trip to Russia to meet President Dmitry Medvedev late last month. The photo was provided by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday. This is the first time the North has released pictures showing the inside of Kim’s personal train car. [YONHAP] Kim Jong-il’s train, including one of his personal cars, made a rare appearance on North Korea’s official broadcast station Tuesday night. Korean Central Television aired a 28-minute-long documentary on the North Korean leader’s latest trip to Russia. It went on to show the train car in which Kim greets guests and issues instructions to his subordinates while travelling. Inside Kim’s train car was a desk, a map of the Korean Peninsula and plush chairs lining one of the walls. In the documentary, Kim was pictured in a compartment receiving flowers from Russian officials such as presidential envoy Viktor Ishayev after he arrived in the Russian urban settlement of Khasan on Aug. 20. The footage also showed Kim talking with Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn, president of the Russian Republic of Buryatia, inside the train on Friday. Experts claimed Kim’s train car was the same as that depicted in a book by Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary who traveled with Kim during a previous trip to Russia in 2001. Pulikovsky said in his book that the car was a special gift from Joseph Stalin to Kim Il Sung and that the car is equipped with a satellite navigation system, satellite TV and a telephone. The floor is reportedly made of bulletproof material. By Christine Kim [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr] [Russia1108]
• Kim Jong-il enjoys luxurious leave amid flood woes
  By Kim Young-jin North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is resting at a coastal villa this month, cruising on a luxury yacht as his country reels from severe flooding, a source said Thursday. The 69-year-old leader has been vacationing on the country’s east coast since the beginning of August, the source familiar with North Korean affairs told Yonhap News. [Media]

• N.Korea Turns to Making Money from Overseas Missions
  Cash-strapped North Korea is leasing out parts of its overseas missions buildings to earn hard currency. A South Korean official on Sunday said the North Korean Embassy to Germany made illegal profits by turning an annex into a youth hostel and renting out its gymnasium for social functions. The North Korean Embassy to Poland was criticized in the local press for leasing out part of its compound to local firms.
• North Koreans pay respects to late President Kim Il Sung on anniversary of his death
  By Associated Press, Published: July 8SEOUL, South Korea — Streams of North Koreans are paying their respects to late President Kim Il Sung, the country’s founder, on the 17th anniversary of his death. Footage from Associated Press Television News shows citizens and soldiers laying bouquets and bowing deeply Friday before a statue of Kim in Pyongyang, the capital. .Kim, the father of current leader Kim Jong Il, died of heart failure in 1994 but is still deeply revered as the country’s “eternal president.” A giant statue of Kim in Pyongyang is temporarily off limits because it is in an area under renovation ahead of the centenary of Kim Il Sung’s birth in April 2012. North Korea has promoted 2012 as a significant milestone in its history.

• NK's heir apparent received plastic surgery six times
  06-28-2011 13:35 LONDON (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent son, Kim Jong-un, has undergone plastic surgery six times to look more like his late grandfather and the nation's founder, the chief of a radio station specializing in North Korean affairs claimed Tuesday. Ha Tae-kyung, head of Open Radio for North Korea, cited unidentified senior North Korean officials and claimed that the North's leader-in-waiting had the surgery operations between 2007 and 2010 before he officially debuted as successor in September last year.
• Kim Jong-il Pulls Costume Drama Off Air After Dismal Ratings
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has apparently pulled a historical TV drama produced at his orders off the air before it finished its run. North Korean officials wanted to put on a drama that could compete with South Korean soaps but failed to lure viewers in the North. North Korean Central TV recently broadcast the drama, called "Kye Wol-hyang," which was epically produced with a cast of the top actors. Kye Wol-hyang was famous gisaeng or female entertainer in Pyongyang in the 16th century. During the Japanese invasion, Kye seduced and deceived the Japanese general Konishi Yukinaga to kill him. Kye then committed suicide. The series started amid high expectations but quickly tanked due to poor ratings. [Propaganda]
• Will N. Korea see severe floods this year?
  By Kim Young-jin Concern is rising over the possibility of flooding in North Korea amid r 06-24-2011 18:18 eports that this year’s seasonal rain front could be more intense, the head of a coalition of local aid groups said. Torrential summer rainfall a year ago caused rivers along the border with China to flood over, causing massive agricultural damage and leaving thousands homeless
• N.Korea Imports Chinese Riot Gear
  North Korea has imported large amounts of tear gas, shields, and helmets from China, apparently with the aim to suppress any uprisings inspired by the so-called Jasmine Revolutions in the Arab world.
• Sexual assault on the rise in North Korea
  The number of sexual assaults against female students in North Korea is rapidly increasing, according to a report released by Open Radio for North Korea, a watchdog organization for the isolated nation. According to the report which was released on June 15, the rapid increase correlates with the rise in the number of families breaking up due to economic difficulties. The number of housewives leaving home has increased, Open Radio said, leading to an increasing number of single men with "nothing to do." [Sanctions] [Media] [Destabilisation]
• N.Korean portrait of Buddhism
  A prop of the ceiling of Taeung Hall, Hall of Great Enlightenment, in Anguk Temple, a Korean Buddhist temple located in Pyongsong, South Pyongan Province, North Korea. A bird of paradise with two heads is painted on the prop. There is no temple with the same decoration. This photo is included the photo books “Traditional Temples of North Korea” recently published by the headquarters for promoting national community under Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The ten-volume picture books have about 3,500 color pictures of 59 temples, 6 temple sites and statues of the Buddha. North Korea’s agency reportedly took the pictures over one year at the behest of the headquarters. Anguk Temple, founded in 503 under the Koryo dynasty, was reconstructed in 1419 and again renovated in 1785.
• Kim Jong-il fosters spy ring of 3,000 mixed blood girls
  North Korea selected “3,000 court maids” among 16-year-old attractive girls who had graduated from middle school, of whom top class maids were assigned to guest houses of its leader Kim Jong-il or other top class hotels, next in line in beauty were named as agents for anti-South Korean espionage activities in both party and administration. The remainder have been set to work at guest houses under the Workers’ Party, the military or the foreign ministry. [Bizarre]
• Jang Song-taek's Uneasy Grip on Power
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law Jang Song-taek attended a ground-breaking ceremony for the Hwanggumpyong Island development project on Wednesday, a pregnant symbol of North Korea-China economic cooperation. Jang, who is widely seen as the regime's grey eminence, was the highest-ranking North Korean official at the ceremony. An intelligence official said Jang has recently been overseeing not only the transfer of power but major state projects including economic cooperation with China and the modernization of Pyongyang. The official added Seoul is "paying close attention to his role."
• Report on Enlarged Meeting of Political Bureau of WPK
  Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) -- An enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea was held Monday. The meeting discussed the results of the unofficial visit to the People's Republic of China paid by Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK. Its participants were informed of his historic visit to China. He paid an unofficial visit to the PRC from May 20 to 26 at the invitation of Hu Jintao, general secretary of the C.C., the Communist Party of China and president of the PRC. The meeting highly appreciated the fact that his visit to China proved successful thanks to the particular attention and expectation of the two parties and two governments and expressed great satisfaction over it. It expressed deep thanks to the collective leadership including the members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the C.C., the CPC for attaching special significance to his visit to the PRC and according him very cordial hospitality with utmost sincerity. It said that his visit to China took place at a very appropriate time and yielded good fruits. [China NK]
• Jittery N.Korean Regime Forms Special Riot Police
  North Korea apparently formed a special riot control force late last year to quell public demonstrations. The troops are armed with pistols and batons and trained in crowd control at train stations, town plazas, schools and parks. A North Korean source said the regime is jittery. "Officials who are deemed an obstacle to the succession" from leader Kim Jong-il to his son Jong-un “are being purged, and fears are mounting among high-level officials that they will be replaced by supporters of Kim Jong-un." [Collapse] [Buildup] [Media]
• N.Korea Says It's the 2nd Happiest Country on Earth
  North Korea's Central TV recently invented its own politically expedient global happiness index, claiming China is the world's happiest country, followed by North Korea, NBC reported Tuesday. China topped the list as the happiest country on earth with 100 points out of 100, trailed by North Korea with 98. Other thorns in the U.S.' side were next, with Cuba scoring 93 points, Iran 88 points and Venezuela 85 points. South Korea came 152nd with 18 points and the U.S. finished 203rd with a mere 2 points. NBC was unable to find a full list of countries on any Chinese website, where the "findings" have been gleefully embraced. It was also unable to find the survey criteria and sources of data. Chinese Netizens were amused because Beijing has been conducting its own massive "happiness campaign" since March, NBC said, and posters suggested the North must have learned the art of bluffing from China.
• New photo of Kim Jong-il's 3rd wife revealed to public
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s third wife and biological mother of heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, was unveiled in an old photo by the Daily NK, which deals with North Korea news, on Monday. Ko Young-hee, whose earlier name was Ko Young-ja, was captured dancing gracefully to the Korean fan dance in the photo, according to the media. Ko is presumed to have died in 2004.

• Kim Jong-il 'Still Frail'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had to be assisted by Yangzhou Mayor Wang Yanwen as he walked through a shopping mall in the city, suggesting he is still suffering the after-effects of his 2008 stroke. Last Monday, the fourth day of his China trip, Kim visited a food corner on the second floor accompanied by around 70 officials and had to be helped by Wang, according to mall staff. Kim toured the mall for about 20 minutes. In the grounds of the Yangzhou State Guesthouse, where he stayed, he apparently used a golf cart for VIPs. A hotel staffer said Kim "limped" when he walked from the entrance to his room and looked "very uncomfortable." Meanwhile, Kim reportedly met with former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin not at the hotel but somewhere else in the city. [Kim Jong Il] [Health]
• Statewide prostitution at bars of NK deluxe hotels
  In the seemingly destitute lands of North Korea, Southeast Asian women have been involved in prostitution in deluxe hotel clubs in Pyongyang. Seoul-based shortwave radio channel, Open Radio for North Korea, reported the underground hostess scene last Saturday. Due to the increasing number of mixed children, foreign women, especially from Southeast Asian countries, are employed, instead of local women, to host and entertain the guests at basement bars of hotels. [Media] [Propaganda]
• N.Korea Cracks Down on Female Defectors
  The North Korean regime has reportedly ordered border guards to stop all women from traveling on railways and roads to the North Korea-China border. The order, which targets all girls and women between 10 and 60, came recently from the powerful National Defense Commission.
• How Statistics About N.Korea Are Compiled
  Each year, Statistics Korea publishes population figures for North Korea in a booklet based on surveys conducted by international organizations like the UN and data released by the Education Center for Unification under the Unification Ministry. Most of these statistics were compiled based on a census the North took in 2008 with the UN's help. [Statistics] [Media]
• N.Korea Purges Deputy Spy Chief
  Ryu Kyong, a deputy director of North Korea's State Security Department and formerly one of the closest aides to leader Kim Jong-il, was purged early this year in a power struggle in Pyongyang, according to a source. The source in North Korea said Ryu Kyong was summoned by Kim Jong-il in early January and on his way to Kim's residence, was arrested by members of the General Guard Bureau. He was interrogated and secretly executed. [Media]
• Kim Jong-il Looks Healthier
  Kim Jong-il's health appears to have improved significantly since he suffered a massive stroke in 2008, the latest photographs of the reclusive North Korean leader suggest. Reuters on Wednesday compared photos of Kim taken in August 2009, when former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang, and pictures of him meeting with Russian external liaison officials on Tuesday. Both sets were published by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency. In the older pictures, Kim looks gaunt, but in the latest ones he has regained his characteristic podginess. "Kim Jong-il is looking healthier by the day," Reuters wrote. A combination photo shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il posing with former U.S. President Bill Clinton (not pictured) on Aug. 4, 2009 (left) and again with a Russian delegation on May 17, 2011 in these images released by the North Korean official news agency KCNA. /Reuters-Newsis At one time, U.S. intelligence projected that Kim had only about three years left to live, based on the observations of a doctor who accompanied Clinton to Pyongyang. Even at a Workers Party gathering in September last year, Kim was seen being held by the arm by an assistant. But Kim has been very busy recently, greeting visiting foreign officials. [Health]
• N.Korea Pushes Generational Change in Parliament
  North Korea's Workers Party has started a generational shakeup in the Supreme People's Assembly by appointing large numbers of young delegates in their 20s and 30s. The rubber-stamp parliament consists of delegates with a five-year term from various organizations including the party and the military. A North Korean source said the Workers Party recently ordered municipal, provincial, and county party committees to force elderly members to quit for health reasons and fill the vacancies with people under 40. "The North Korean leadership is seeking to replace a larger number of elderly members with younger people next year," which it has declared as the year when the country becomes a "powerful and prosperous" nation, the source said. The regime "also ordered officials to lower the educational level of the delegates, but raise the ratio of female delegates to more than 30 percent." The average age of the 687 SPA delegates is 57. Those with college or higher degrees account for 92.8 percent, and women for 19.3 percent, according to the source.
• Disabled newborns in Pyongyang killed with wet towels
  It was reported on Tuesday that the North Korean authorities would take disabled babies to a clinic and suffocate them using wet towels. An unnamed source to the Free North Korea Radio introduced the story of a trade ship’s captain living in Port Nampo of the hermit country. [Media]
• Lofty health indicator
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s shoes appear to change according to his health status. In the left photo taken during the inter-Korean summit with late South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun in October 2007, Kim wears elevated shoes for a taller appearance. In the middle, Kim puts on more comfortable platform shoes resembling sneakers while watching a North Korean Army soccer game in November 2008. The right photo taken on May 14, 2011 shows Kim wearing 2 to 3 centimeter heels during his field inspection at a fish farm. Observers say that Kim Jong-il’s health has improved since he reportedly fell ill from a stroke in August 2008 in the light of the change of his shoes. [Kim Jong Il] [Health]
• Kim Jong-il's unrequited singer executed with IV still in her arm
  There was a woman who taught a lesson to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il that even a dictator with strong political power is unable to possess “love” at his will. She is singer Yun Hye-yeong, a member of the Bocheonbo Electronic Band, a North Korean artistic company, who had been most beloved by the North Korean leader since 2000. Yun, who graduated from Geumgseong First High School in 1999, was famous for her song “Junma (speedy horse) Virgin.” It is reported on the Internet that Yun was executed as she loved another man, rejecting Kim’s persistent efforts to win her heart. Earlier, he instructed the band to insert her song “Junma Virgin” in the music used for massive collective gymnastics, Arirang. He also enjoyed the performance on his birthday with the singer. There has been no woman like Yun Hye-yeong to become the favorite of Kim, sitting next to him at a public event. Kim had loved her enough to send a messenger to Europe to buy stage costumes and accessories for Yun. But, Yun loved a pianist with whom she performed with in the same band. Their love was disclosed by close aides of Kim who eavesdropped on them. Yun jumped from the roof of the Mongnangwan down to the ground with the pianist. Mongranggwan is a banquet hall for state guests of North Korea in Pyongyang. The man was killed instantly but Yun survived. Kim ordered the authorities concerned to “kill her after reviving her at any cost.” In 2003, Yun was shot while unconscious and still on an IV drip, the website said. “Thereafter, Kim completely turned his back to the performances conducted by Bocheonbo Electronic Band,” it said. [Propaganda]
• Prostitution in N.Korea 'on the Rise'
  A growing number of women in North Korea are reportedly turning to prostitution due to chronic food shortages in the wake of a botched currency reform. The chairman of a human rights NGO Good Friends, the Ven. Pomnyun Sunim, in a seminar on North Korea in Washington DC on Thursday said an increasing number of North Korean women are soliciting sex for food. According to him, abortion and divorce rates are also rising, causing family break-ups. He added the current food crisis in North Korea is worse than in 2008, but better than in the mid-1990s, when millions starved to death, and he criticized the South Korean government for not providing aid to the North. [Sanctions] [Aid weapon] [Agency]
• NK entertains guests by giving away drugs
  A new custom of offering houseguests heroin—instead of alcohol—has popped up in North Korea. This new trend started to appear last fall, reported Open Radio for North Korea, a South Korean radio station transmitting programs to the communist country, on Sunday. A source from North Hamgyeong Province said that a growing number of people are serving visitors drugs as a snack. [Media] [Propaganda]

• N.Korea 'Has Far More Prisons Than Previously Believed'
  At least 480 prisons and detention facilities are scattered around North Korea, an NGO claimed Tuesday. Based on testimony of about 13,000 North Korean defectors, North Korean Human Rights Archives said the regime operates 210 detention centers and 210 labor camps, 23 prisons, 5 indoctrination camps, 27 holding facilities, and 6 political prison camps including in Yodok, Pukchang and Hoeryong. [Propaganda] [Defector report] [Prisoners]
• North Korea’s Digital Underground
  To smuggle facts into or out of North Korea is to risk imprisonment and even execution. Yet today, aided by a half-dozen stealthy media organizations outside the country, citizen-journalists are using technologies new and old to break the regime’s iron grip on information. Will the truth set a nation free? By Robert S. Boynton Image credit: Tomas van Houtryve/VII Network The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the very archetype of a “closed society.” It ranks dead last—196th out of 196 countries—in Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press index. Unlike the citizens of, say, Tunisia or Egypt, to name two countries whose populations recently tapped the power of social media to help upend the existing political order, few North Koreans have access to Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. In fact, except for a tiny elite, the DPRK’s 25 million inhabitants are not connected to the Internet. Televisions are set to receive only government stations. International radio signals are routinely jammed, and electricity is unreliable. Freestanding radios are illegal. But every North Korean household and business is outfitted with a government-controlled radio hardwired to a central station. The speaker comes with a volume control, but no off switch. In a new media age awash in universally shared information—an age of planet-wide instant messaging and texted manifestos—the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea remains a stubborn holdout, a regime almost totally in control of its national narrative. [MISCOM][Context] [Espionage]
• N.Korea 'Building New Airbase Near Wonsan'
  North Korea may be building a military airport that cuts across a mountain near the eastern city of Wonsan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday (local time). Citing satellite pictures from Google Earth analyzed by Curtis Melvin of North Korean Economy Watch, the daily says construction of the airbase, with a runway stretching from one side of the mountain to the other, probably began in 2002.
• Forest fires 'gift from the heaven' to N. Koreans?
  A recent NASA satellite photo showed a number of forest fires along North Korea's east coast, most notably around the newest missile launch facility in North Pyeongan Province. Clustered along the east coast, many of the fires were re-producing thick smoke, blanketing the East Sea with haze. However, North Koreans are not afraid of these fires nor are they worried about the possible damages. “This year, there are many reports of forest fires in North Korea. Residents here are waiting for it to stop spreading by itself. They are also criticizing those who are trying to put out the fires,” reported a radio broadcast. According to the media, residents are happy about these fires because the land will be cleared for farming and firewood will be readily available to them. [Bizarre]
• N.Korea's Brat Pack Lead Life of Luxury
  When Kim Jong-chol, the second son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, spent 10 leisurely days in Singapore in February going on a luxury shopping spree and attending an Eric Clapton concert, he was apparently [Media]
• Embalmed body of Kim Il-sung becoming smaller: defectors
  Rumors circulating among North Korean people have it that the embalmed body of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung is dwindling, the Daily NK reported Friday. The communist North has sought to mummify Kim’s body for permanent preservation of the remains. A North Korean defector said he visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, which was renovated and transformed into Kim’s final resting place, five or six times, when he lived in Pyongyang, and felt that Kim’s embalmed body is becoming smaller. [Media] [Bizarre]
• N. Koreans fete founder’s 99th birthday
  Anti-N. Korean regime leaflets: Park Sang-hak, head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, Friday releases balloons containing anti-North Korean regime leaflets and one dollar bills to be flown to North Korea in the border pavilion of Imjingak. North Korea celebrated the 99th birth date of its late founder Kim Il-sung Friday. / Yonhap By Kim Young-jin North Korea held massive rallies and cultural events Friday as it observed the 99th anniversary of the birth of its late founder Kim Il-sung. Pyongyang was adorned with posters and an “endless stream” of people laid flowers at a giant statue of Kim to observe the holiday dubbed “The Day of the Sun,” its state-run media reported.
• How 'the Sun' Shines on N.Korea
  President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 32 years, established an organization dedicated to commemorating Kim Il-sung when the North Korean leader died in 1994. Chaired by the vice president, the organization holds memorial events and a seminar every year. Zimbabwean public servants are instructed to read a collection of Kim Il-sung's speeches and writings.
• Nothing's Too Good for Kim Jong-il's Pet Dogs
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il spends hundreds of thousands of dollars importing and looking after his pedigree dogs while the country is making increasingly desperate requests for food aid to feed its starving people. A source on Tuesday said the regime imports dozens of German Shepherds, Shi Tzus and other pet dogs from France and Switzerland every year as well as expensive pet shampoo and veterinary equipment and supplies. It "frequently flies in a veterinarian from France to check up on the dogs," the source added, paying altogether US$10,000 for the air fare and fees. [Evidence] [Media]
• N.Korea Promotes Power Elite Ahead of Anniversary
  The North Korean regime has promoted two military officers to colonel generals, five to lieutenant generals, and 38 to major generals as founder Kim Il-sung's birthday approaches. The official KCNA news agency on Wednesday said one of the two new colonel generals is O Il-jong (57), the director of the Workers Party's Military Affairs Department and a son of leader Kim Il-sung's closest aide O Jin-u, the former minister of the People's Armed Forces
• Kim Jong-il's Son 'Effectively Control Security Forces'
  Kim Jong-un North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un was appointed director of the State Security Department, the regime's chief spy agency, in late 2009. "Signals intelligence we've obtained suggests Kim Jong-un is being called 'director' of the security department," a South Korean government official said. "It seems he has already gained control of the security agency."
• North Korea Gets English Boost
  2011-04-10 Foreigners are sought to teach the language in schools. AFP North Korea may face Western sanctions over its illicit nuclear weapons program, but nothing seems to stand in the way of efforts to boost the English language in the reclusive state. What is clear is that Pyongyang is drawing more foreigners to teach English, and that the English level of North Korean students appears to be improving. [Education]
• Independence and President Kim Il Sung
  President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea led the Korean revolution vigorously for nearly seven decades in the last century. His career was rum through with the idea of independence. Holding high banner of independence Embarking on the road of the struggle to liberate Korea from the military occupation of the Japanese imperialists (1905-1945), Kim Il Sung groped for a path to be followed by the Korean revolution. He found out two truths: The first one is that the masters of the revolution are the masses of the people and that one can emerge victorious in the revolution when believing in their strength and organizing and mobilizing them. Another one is that one should make a revolution on his own responsibility in accordance with his own faith and solve for himself all problems arising in the revolution in conformity with specific conditions and interests of his country.
• N.Korea Reshuffles Top Officials
  North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly has appointed four-star general Ri Myong-su to the vacant post of minister of people's security. Ri is a confidant of North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un, whom he accompanied on an inspection trip to a military base in January 2010, and appeared in the inter-Korean summit in 2007. The North also sacked Jon Byong-ho, a member of the National Defense Commission who had overseen the arms industry since the 1980s, and replaced him with Workers Party secretary Pak To-chun. Jon (85) led the development of nuclear weapons and missiles and has been blacklisted by the U.S. A source said Jon seems to have been fired due to his age.
• Kim Jong-il, son absent from annual assembly
  Source: Global Times [08:41 April 08 2011] Comments By Li Qian North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his youngest son, Jong-un, did not attend Thursday's parliamentary session, shattering speculations that Jong-un could be handed a key military post at the gathering. During the fourth session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), North Korean officials vowed to modernize the economy and to boost living standards.
• Supreme People's Assembly Meets
  Pyongyang, April 7 (KCNA) -- The Fourth Session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK was held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Thursday. Present there were deputies to the SPA. Also attending it as observers were officials of party, armed forces and power organs, public organizations, ministries and national institutions and those in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and media. The Session discussed the following agenda items: 1. On the work of the DPRK Cabinet in Juche 99 (2010) and its tasks for Juche 100 (2011) 2. On the results of the implementation of the DPRK state budget for Juche 99 (2010) and its state budget for Juche 100 (2011) 3. Organizational matter Deputy Choe Yong Rim, premier of the DPRK, made a report on the first agenda item.
• Report on Work of the Cabinet 2010 and Its Tasks for 2011
  Pyongyang, April 7 (KCNA) -- Deputy Choe Yong Rim, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, made a report on its work last year and its tasks for this year at the Fourth Session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK held Thursday. He said that the most important achievement gained in the nation's economic development last year was that signal progress was made in putting the national economy on a Juche-basis.
• 2 Senior N.Korean Apparatchiks Executed
  Kim Yong-sam (lefy) and Mun Il-bong The North Korean regime in June last year executed the ex-minister of railways Kim Yong-sam on espionage charges and ex-finance minister Mun Il-bong over a botched currency reform in late 2009, it has belatedly emerged. A South Korean government official confirmed Kim's execution but was not clear about Mun's, saying, "We have relevant intelligence, which we are checking." According to a North Korean source, Kim, who was minister of railways between 1998 and 2008, was executed for involvement in a massive explosion at Yongchon Station in North Pyongan Province in April 2004 that allegedly targeted a special train carrying leader Kim Jong-il. [Defector report]
• Generation Change in N.Korean Army
  Commanders in the North Korean Army are getting younger as the old guard is being replaced in basic combat units, Radio Free Asia reported last week. The U.S.-funded station quoted a source as saying that one officer in his mid-30s who graduated from Kim Il Sung Military University has already been promoted to commander of an Army battalion. According to the source, officers in different age brackets are given different ranks and positions. Detailed guidelines stipulates that division or brigade commanders should be replaced by officers in their 40s, battalion commanders by officers in their 30s, and company commanders and political commissars by those in their 20s. [NK military]

• As other authoritarian leaders fall, N. Korea pushes ahead with succession plan
  By Chico Harlan Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, March 12, 2011; 10:12 PM TOKYO - Last Sunday, a crowd of young North Koreans marched through a square in their capital city. They brandished red flags and called for a higher standard of living. But they also carried placards glorifying leader Kim Jong Il, and only a day earlier, they had attended an ideology seminar at which they pledged their loyalty to the current social order. As leaders in other authoritarian countries fall, flee or fight to stay in power, the Kim family has retained its unequivocal control, including taking quiet steps to broaden the power of heir apparent Kim Jong Eun. Though some experts note public disenchantment over food shortages and inflation, the Kims - backed by the military, deified by propagandists, enriched by what little money flows into the country - still exercise muscular authority in the places that matter. "Let's unite around the General Kim with loud steps," read a front-page editorial in last week's state-run newspaper, in an apparent reference to Kim Jong Eun. "Victory is ours." [Media] [Succession]
• NORTH KOREA: University opens students to the world
  Yojana Sharma 09 May 2010 Issue: 123 James Kim is still trying to understand what led to the unusual invitation from the North Korean government to establish the country's first foreign-funded university. "Since the Eastern bloc collapsed 20 years ago, North Korea does not have many 'brothers' any more to send their students. There is a big vacuum in their faculty demographic," Kim told a GoogleTech Talk in February, referring to now-departed Soviet-era staff. "Probably they figured that, rather than sending their students abroad over which they do not have any control... they asked us to come in. Inside this fence they have a better control of us and the students," Kim said. Although he is now the founding President of the Pyongyang university, Kim is also a US citizen who was founding President of the Yanbian University of Science and Technology which was the model for the North Korean institution. [Education] [Opening]
• More Tanks in the Streets of Pyongyang
  The North Korean regime has deployed more tanks in Pyongyang, apparently for fear that the "Jasmine Revolutions" in the Middle East could spread to the Stalinist country. A government source said on Sunday that the National Intelligence Service reported to the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee on Friday that more tanks were deployed in downtown Pyongyang. They were reinforcements of tanks already parked in several underground locations in the North Korean capital. [Media] [Intelligence]
• Tanks deployed to fortify NK leader's residences: source
  North Korea has deployed tanks and other weapons around its leader Kim Jong-il's residences in Pyongyang to fortify them against a possible revolt spurred by the ongoing anti-government protests in the Middle East, a Seoul source said Sunday. During a closed-door meeting with lawmakers on Friday, a senior official of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed reports of such activity, according to the lawmaker who sits on the parliamentary intelligence committee. [Black] [Media]
• Kim Jong-il Makes 1st Appearance in Days
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reappeared in public on Sunday after vanishing from view since Feb. 17. Until then he had undertaken 27 of his so-called on-the-spot guidance trips this year, one every 1.92 days on average.

• Can N.Korean Protests Grow into a Revolution?
  Small pockets of resistance have been springing up in North Korea since last year, with protests sometimes turning violent, sources in the North say. On the night of Feb. 14, two days before leader Kim Jong-il's birthday, scores of people in Jongju, Yongchon and Sonchon in North Pyongan Province gathered and shouted, "Give us fire [electricity] and rice." But North Korea experts say these protests are largely motivated by immediate material concerns like food shortages, rather than by any desire to overthrow the regime. [Collapse] [Destabilisation]
• Why N.Koreans Are Starving
  North Korea has been knocking on the doors of practically every country except for the poorest African nations since last year asking for food aid, yet according to a senior South Korean official, last year's harvest in the North was among the best in two decades. North Korea watchers say the main reason for the food shortage in the North is hoarding by the government and military. [Diversion] [Spin] [Takeover]
• Hardships Fail to Loosen Regime's Grip in North Korea
  By MARK McDONALD Published: February 24, 2011 SEOUL — It was 1992 when a new wave of economic reform in China reminded the Chinese people that getting rich was glorious. Meanwhile, in neighboring North Korea, citizens were being exhorted to take part in a nationwide campaign of their own: “Let’s Eat Two Meals Per Day!” In the two decades since, even as its Asian neighbors have succeeded at market-style transformations, North Korea has stuck with its command economy — resolutely socialist, centrally planned, stubbornly self-reliant. “And grindingly poor,” in the words of John Everard, the former British ambassador to North Korea. As the envoy from 2006 to 2008, Mr. Everard saw firsthand that the North was on a “precipitous descent into levels of poverty we more normally associate with sub-Saharan Africa.” [Media] [Inversion] [Collapse]
• What Next for N.Korea's Hungry People?
  Two days before North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's birthday, scores of residents in Jongju, Yongchon and Sonchon in North Pyongyang Province protested demanding food and electricity. At first, a few people began shouting, but soon many more joined them.
• N.Korean Forces Crack Down on Protesters in Border Town
  Hundreds of people clashed with security forces in the North Korean town of Sinuiju on the border with China on Friday, a source in the Stalinist country said Wednesday. The military was deployed to quell the demonstration, leaving some protesters wounded.
• N.Korea on Alert for Signs of Resistance
  The North Korean regime is on alert after signs of public unrest mainly in North Pyongyan Province, the chief conduit of information from the outside world into North Korea. On Feb. 14, dozens staged nighttime protests in Jongju and Yongchon in the province demanding electricity and food, while on Feb. 18, hundreds in Sinuiju clashed with security forces to protest a crackdown on open-air markets.
• 'Anti-defection forces search even feminine hygiene products'
  North Korean discontent has reached critical levels, with citizens comparing the country's power élite to the police officers who, during the Japanese colonial rule, were notoriously cruel to Koreans, Free North Korea Radio reported Feb. 22. The aristocratic class has always played a pivotal role in North Korean society. But following the country's worst ever economic hardship in recent times, people have come to regard them as “the looters,” according to the Seoul-based radio station which broadcasts news to North Korean residents. [Collapse]
• N.Korea 'Reeling from Foot-and-Mouth Disease'
  Foot-and-mouth disease is sweeping North Korea, Radio Free Asia quoted Saturday a North Korean source. The U.S.-funded radio station said the regime has stopped issuing travel permits to Pyongyang from provinces since the highly contagious animal disease broke out there. A guard post between Pyongyang and Pyongsong is preventing vehicles from entering the capital, it added. Pyongyang was the first location where the disease broke out.
• Kim Jong-il 's Sons 'Had Kids Last Year'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's sons Jong-un and Jong-chol became fathers last year, Asahi TV reported on Thursday citing a source. Whether the babies are boys or girls is not known.
• Who Was the Woman with Kim Jong-il's Son?
  The picture on the left shows a woman believed to be Kim Jong-chol’s wife, who went to an Eric Clapton concert with him in Singapore; the one on the right is his younger sister Yeo-jong as a child. Speculation is mounting over the identity of a woman who was spotted with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's second son Jong-chol at an Eric Clapton concert in Singapore on Monday.
• The Losers in N.Korea's Ruling Family
  The members of North Korea's first family who have been sidelined in the race for the leadership appear to be sharing the same fate, spending their lives in slightly unmoored luxury and sometimes behaving erratically.
• N.Korean Princeling 'Well Looked-After' in Singapore
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's middle son spent a week in Singapore under escort by North Korean Embassy staff.
• North Korea's Kim Jong-il turns 69
  Source: Global Times [08:21 February 17 2011] Comments A picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency Wednesday and taken Tuesday shows synchronized swimmers performing at the Changgwang Health Complex swimming pool in Pyongyang to celebrate the birthday of leader Kim Jong-il. Photo: AFP North Korea was in festive mood as leader Kim Jong-il turned 69 Wednesday, state media reported, but a defector group said birthday handouts were cut back as the regime struggles to feed its people. "The whole country is pervaded with great pride and joy," the official news agency KCNA reported late Tuesday, on the eve of one of the most important holidays in the nation. Artistic performances, a film show, a synchronized swimming performance and a festival of Kimjongilia - a hybrid begonia - were among the events being staged, as streets were adorned with lanterns and goodwill messages.
• Kim Jong-un Gets Promoted
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un has been promoted to vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission. The commission is the militarist country's top decision-making body, and the promotion makes Kim junior the de facto No. 2 in the regime just five months after he was first publicly paraded at a rare party congress in September last year. The regime appears to be speeding up the handover of power a few days ahead of the ailing leader's 70th birthday.
• N.Korean Princeling on Luxury Holiday in Singapore
  The middle son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il recently spent 10 leisurely days in Singapore, going on luxury shopping sprees and attending an Eric Clapton concert. Kim Jong-chol, like his older brother Jong-nam, was passed over for the succession to the North Korean leadership in favor of their younger brother Jong-un. [Media] [Double standards]
• Tanks 'Ready to Be Used Against Uprising in Pyongyang'
  The North Korean Army's Guard Command, a military unit tasked with protecting leader Kim Jong-il, is hiding scores of tanks in Pyongyang to quell any popular uprising, Radio Free Asia claimed Tuesday. A spot behind Munhung Middle and High School (in red circle) in Pyongyang's Taedong River area where a defector says the North Korean Army's Guard Command has hidden tanks. /Courtesy of Google The U.S.-funded radio station quoted a defector from Pyongyang as saying, "There is a battalion of about 50 tanks from the Guard Command in the Taedong River area in eastern Pyongyang. They stage a field exercise about once a year (sic)." [Media]
• Pyongyang Downsized
  North Korea has halved the size of the Pyongyang administrative area and handed some southern parts over to a provincial government, the Unification Ministry said on Monday. With the areas incorporated into North Hwanghae Province, the capital has shrunk to about half its size of 2,630 sq. km and lost some 500,000 of its 3 million population. Nampo has been turned into a special city. Administrative areas increased from 11 to 12, with Pyongyang under the direct control of the central government, two special cities (Rajin-Songbong and Nampo) and nine provinces, according to the ministry.
• Precautions Stepped Up as N.Korea Reports Foot-and-Mouth Disease
  South Korea has stepped up health and safety measures for vehicles and personnel returning from North Korea along the Gyeongui railway line and road from Seoul to Sinuiju and the Donghae or east coast routes after North Korea reported the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Officials are disinfecting vehicles on both lines, as well as the luggage and shoes of South Koreans returning from the North. Kaesong, where most of them work at a joint Korean industrial complex, has so far been spared the disease. Last week the North's official KCNA news agency reported foot-and-mouth disease has broken out across the country, infecting about 10,000 heads of cattle and pigs and prompting a nationwide state of emergency to be declared.
• Kim Jong-il Turns 70 Amid Uncertainty Over Future
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il turns 70 on Feb. 16. Born in 1941, he was given the official birth year of 1942 when nation founder Kim Il-sung established him as his heir to create a neat 30-year age difference between father and son. A South Korean intelligence officer said it was an attempt to set a 10-year plan timeframe for a smooth transition of power and apparently also to establish Kim Jong-il as the "next generation" of the leadership. A generation is said to last roughly 30 years.
• 'Bad Habits' Blamed for Kim Jong-il's Failing Health
  Kim Il-sung (left) and Kim Jong-il North Korean regime founder Kim Il-sung was hale and hearty until he was felled by a sudden heart attack at 82, but his son Jong-il looks on his last legs although he only turns 70 this week, and doctors blame bad habits. Doctors point to the different environments the two men grew up in and the self-control they exercised. Kim senior underwent military training in Manchuria in his youth and continued to enjoy sports. Despite obesity, physical exercise delayed the onset of chronic diseases. But Kim Jong-il has been drinking, smoking and eating immoderately since his cosseted childhood, and as a result he is obese and his muscle mass has dwindled, leading to diabetes. Diabetes is mainly caused by a calorie surplus in the body that is not burned off through exercise. If he had drastically changed his lifestyle once he was diagnosed with diabetes, Kim Jong-il could have minimized the complications, but he did not. Diabetes led to chronic kidney failure, which in turn led to a stroke. Today he looks old and feeble, probably because diabetes has sapped his energy and sped up ageing. [Health]
• Doctors Identify Kim Jong-il's 3 Main Health Problems
  As North Korean leader Kim Jong-il turns 70 on Feb. 16, speculation over his ill health is causing growing concern for the future of his impoverished country. But what is the prognosis for the leader? Doctors say he mainly suffers from health problems in three areas.
• Foot-and-mouth outbreak hits North Korea
  By Song Jung-a in Seoul Published: February 11 2011 11:32 | Last updated: February 11 2011 11:32 North Korea has confirmed a large-scale outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that is expected to exacerbate food shortages in the impoverished communist state. The country’s official KCNA news agency said on Friday that the highly contagious livestock disease had broken out in the capital Pyongyang late last year and had spread to eight provinces since then, killing thousands of animals. The KCNA said more than 10,000 oxen, cattle and pigs had been infected. .
• Kim Jong-il 'Has 7-Year-Old Son'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has a seven-year-old son with his live-in paramour, the Liberty Forward Party lawmaker Park Sun-young of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee claimed Thursday. Kim Jong-il (left) and Kim Ok "I heard from a senior Chinese official that Kim Jong-il has a seven-year-old son with Kim Ok (47), and that they got officially married about two years ago," the hard-right lawmaker claimed.
• N.Korea 'Preparing for Eruption of Mt. Baekdu'
  North Korea has started preparing for a possible eruption of Mt. Baekdu, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday. Quoting sources in Ryanggang Province, North Korea, the station said two geography professors of Kim Jung-suk University of Education involved in a Mt. Baekdu expedition team have recently been to Pyongyang to attend a seminar on Mt. Baekdu volcanic activity. They said there were two evacuation drills in Samjiyon, Taehongdan and Pochon, Ryanggang Province since last fall. /Newsis The radio station said fears of an eruption were also behind the sudden suspension of the Mt. Baekdu tourism railroad project, slated for completion by 2012, and that of a mammoth tourism and athletics facility for winter sports nearby, to be completed the same year. "Concerned about a possible eruption of Mt. Baekdu, the North Korean regime is pushing ahead with negotiations with China on the development of underground resources and urban buildings in Ryanggang and North Hamgyong Provinces," RFA said quoting a research institute official in Ryanggang Province. "The North apparently plans to secure Chinese help in reconstruction in case Mt. Baekdu erupts."
• Foot-And-Mouth Disease Strikes N.Korea
  North Korea on Wednesday reported cases of foot-and-mouth disease to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Radio Free Asia says an FAO official told them that the North avoided mentioning the exact number of livestock that have been affected by the highly-contagious animal disease. According to the official, the FAO has begun preparing countermeasures to help stem the potential spread of the disease there and is planning to send a group of experts to the country. This marks the third time in four years that the North has reported outbreaks of FMD. [Kim Jong Il]
• N.Korean Regime's 'Gift Politics' Starts to Lose Its Luster
  The most important dates for North Koreans born since the 1970s are the birthdays of former leader Kim Il-sung on April 15 and present leader Kim Jong-il on Feb. 16. North Koreans may forget their parents' birthdays but they always remember the leaders', because that is when gifts of food and other daily necessities are doled out and a festive mood prevails throughout the country.
• Furry Hat Offers Clues to Progress of N.Korean Succession
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un is already being treated with the same level of protocol as his father. A senior South Korean government official last Friday said Kim Jong-un seems to have moved up to the same rank as his father. "The most conspicuous sign is that Kim Jong-un has started wearing a top-quality furry hat that only Kim Jong-il has been wearing so far," the official added. [Succession] [Bizarre] [Media]
• Kim Jong-il's Oldest Son Slams Hawks in the N.Korean Regime
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son says the North should abandon the "Songun" or military first doctrine and pursue reforms and open up. Kim Jong-nam (39), who was passed over for the succession in favor of his 20-something brother, made the remarks in an interview with the Tokyo Shimbun. He also commented on the North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island, referring to the waters surrounding the South Korean island as a "battle zone," and said there are "forces" in the North Korean regime who are trying to use the attack to justify the Songun doctrine and nuclear weapons. It is unclear whether his father is part of those "forces," but Kim Jong-nam's comments read like a denunciation of the retrograde hawks taking over key positions within the North Korean regime. [Media]
• Winds of change in Arab world unlikely to affect N. Korea
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Observers here played down the possibility that the social media-driven winds of change currently sweeping the Arab world will affect North Korea, Monday. They noted that access to information is critical for an eruption of protests against the government. Experts predicted that as the Stalinist state does not allow its people access to the Internet it’s unlikely that such revolutionary change will occur in the North.

• [News Briefing] Kim Jong-il opposed 3rd generation succession, eldest son says
  » Kim Jong-nam North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was opposed to the third-generation succession, but had no other option in order to stabilize the impoverished communist state, Japanese Tokyo Shimbun quoted Kim’s eldest son as saying in its Friday edition. According to the paper’s exclusive interview in a southern Chinese city earlier this month, Kim Jong-nam, elder brother of North Korea’s heir apparent Kim Jong-un, said, “Even Chairman Mao Zedong of China did not carry out hereditary succession. (It) doesn’t fit with socialism and my father was also against it.” “North Korea’s national power stems from nuclear weapons. As long as the confrontational situation with the U.S. continues, the possibility is low,” he said. Kim Jong-nam, who has apparently fallen out of his father’s favor, denied the rumor that he is facing the threat of being assassinated, saying it is “groundless.” [Succession]
• Son says North Korean leader opposed succession
  The Associated Press Friday, January 28, 2011; 1:47 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's eldest son said in an interview published Friday that his father opposed continuing the family dynasty into a third generation but ended up naming his youngest son as heir to keep the country stable. The comments by Kim Jong Nam, portrayed in the media as a casino-loving playboy, were published in a Japanese newspaper just as North Korea proposed holding parliamentary talks with South Korea - its latest diplomatic overture after months of animosity. A senior U.S. envoy also held high-level talks in China on Friday on ways to deal with North Korea, and Russian and South Korean nuclear envoys held discussions in Seoul. Kim Jong Il is preparing his country for a leadership change, apparently to his youngest son Kim Jong Un, and some analysts have linked two violent incidents last year to an attempt to display the younger Kim's bravery to North Korea's military and bolster his legitimacy as the next leader. Hereditary succession "does not fit with socialism, and my father was against it as well," the Tokyo Shimbun quoted Kim Jong Nam as saying in an interview in a southern Chinese city in mid-January. "My understanding is that (succession) was to stabilize the internal system. An unstable North Korea leads to instability in the region." Kim Jong Nam is believed to have fallen out of favor after embarrassing the North Korean government in 2001 when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland. He favors newsboy caps and Ferragamo loafers, frequents five-star hotels and expensive restaurants and spends much of his time in mainland China or Macau - the center of Asian gambling. He said he wants his half brother "to become a leader who is respected by people." "I want him to take over the great works my father has done. I want him to enrich people's lives," he said in the interview. "Those are my honest wishes for my brother. They did not mean to challenge or criticize him." He declined to comment on the health of his father, who reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, but said he keeps in touch with family members. He also said that North Korea's strength comes from nuclear weapons, and that as long as North Korea confronts the United States, it is very unlikely to give up its atomic programs. Meanwhile, the North's Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea proposed Friday that lawmakers from the two Koreas talk to overcome the "grave situation" on the divided peninsula. It did not elaborate. South Korea quickly dismissed the idea, saying that the two sides were already discussing a meeting to plan high-level defense talks. Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung called the proposal "a routine offensive that lacks sincerity." The Koreas have been in a standoff following the North's shelling of a South Korean island in November and its alleged attack on a South Korean warship last March. "Dialogue and negotiations are the only way for averting a war," North Korea said in a statement carried by its official Korean Central News Agency. South Korea has recently pressed North Korea to agree to separate talks to verify its commitment to abandoning its nuclear programs. The North has yet to respond. In Seoul, Russia's North Korean nuclear envoy, Alexey Borodavkin, was to meet with his South Korean counterpart, Wi Sung-lac. The United States also has been working to cool tensions on the peninsula. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg met Friday with China's top foreign policy official, Dai Bingguo, in Beijing. Washington has been pressing China to use its influence to persuade North Korea to end recent provocations and return to disarmament talks. Inter-Korean tensions were a main topic of discussion when Chinese President Hu Jintao met with President Barack Obama in Washington earlier this month, but the talks yielded no apparent commitment from Beijing to pressure North Korea. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank warned in a report that China's reluctance to openly criticize North Korea over the provocations was undermining attempts to tamp down tensions and renew dialogue. "China's refusal to hold Pyongyang to account for its deadly attacks on South Korea prevents a unified international response," Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, the group's North East Asia Project Director, said in a statement. "It invites further North Korean military and nuclear provocations and the increased militarization of North East Asia." --- AP writers Kim Kwang-tae in Seoul, Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo contributed to this report. [Succession] [Buildup]
• Korea Elderly Care Fund Established
  Pyongyang, January 25 (KCNA) -- The Korea Elderly Care Fund (KECF) was newly established in the DPRK. It is a non-profit, non-governmental organization registered as its legal body in the DPRK with a mission of giving cooperation and support to the old people so that they may live a healthy and worthwhile life. It will be operated by the funds created by the institution for protecting the aged and those donated by international organizations, charity organizations and overseas compatriots and others. The funds will be used for repairing and renovating comprehensive service facilities for the aged and old people's homes and building welfare facilities for them. They will be also used for producing and distributing various kinds of publications necessary for the management and protection of the old people's health, setting up apparatuses for their physical training and rehabilitation and producing tonic, etc. A national computer network will be established in different parts of the country to care for the old people. Ri Chol Hui, vice-chairperson of the Central Committee of the Korean Federation of Protecting Aged Persons, 63, noted that KECF would reenergize the exchange and cooperation with different countries and international organizations. [Ageing society] [Opening]
• N.Korea's Brave Underground Journalists Make Headlines
  Rimjingang, "the only publication written by North Koreans, about North Korea, for consumption by the outside world" is "emblematic of the challenges to the regime of Kim Jong-il posed by technology, the Economist wrote Sunday.
• Wonsan
  Introduction Wonsan (???), the capital of Kangwon province, sits on North Korea’s southeast coast. It is a small city in world terms, only 363,000 people, but is still the fourth largest in North Korea after Chongjin, Hamhung, and Nampo. When the sun shines and the sea air sparkles, Wonsan may be the prettiest city in the country; it certainly has a friendlier mien and a more welcoming atmosphere and manners than its larger cousins.
• Christian Movie Being Shot inside North Korea
  By Park In Ho [2011-01-17 17:22 ] ? The bust of Baek Sun Haeng North Korea has apparently agreed to accept foreign funding to produce a movie which shows Christians in a positive light. It will be the first movie made in North Korea to show the life story of a Christian. An activist working in New Zealand for “Team and Team International”, a South Korean NGO working on international disaster relief, reported today, “A North Korean movie import-export company (Chosun Movie Company) has decided to produce a movie, ‘Paek Sun Haeng’, with the support of an organization from New Zealand,” and added, “They are at the last stage of working on the scenario and plan to start filming this coming September.” A budget production, it will cost a reported $1.5 million. The activist said that the two sides have agreed to show the movie in movie theaters across the country and on Chosun Central TV. The purpose behind the investment is apparently to depict the positive side of Christianity and Christians to the North Korean people. [Religion]
• N.Korea 'Maintains 6 Political Prison Camps'
  North Korea has six concentration camps for political prisoners with about 154,000 inmates, a South Korean government source said Tuesday. The number of inmates is a little smaller than the 200,000 estimated by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in January last year. "The North once operated 10 such camps," the source added. "But it seems to have closed four near the Chinese border around 1990, when international human rights organizations made an issue of its prison camps and called for a fact-finding mission." [Prisoners] [Intelligence]
• N.Korean Regime Intensifies 'Reign of Terror'
  Kim Jong-un The North Korean regime appears to have started a new reign of terror to consolidate the succession of leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un. The South Korean government and a North Korean source on Wednesday said public executions more than tripled last year. And increasing numbers of North Koreans have been killed trying to cross the Apnok (or Yalu) or Duman (or Tumen) River after the regime gave a shoot-to-kill order. The party and military, meanwhile, are engulfed in a whirlwind of purges, observers believe.
• How Statistics About N.Korea Are Compiled
  Each year, Statistics Korea publishes population figures for North Korea in a booklet based on surveys conducted by international organizations like the UN and data released by the Education Center for Unification under the Unification Ministry. Most of these statistics were compiled based on a census the North took in 2008 with the UN's help.
  According to the census, the North's population was 24,062,000, up 2.85 million from 1993. Average life expectancy was 69.3 years, and infant mortality was 19.3 per 1,000. But these data are quite different from UN estimates, which put life expectancy at 67.3 years and infant mortality at 48 per 1,000. The credibility of the North's census data has not been verified. [Statistics] [Media] [Intelligence]
• North Korea’s Succession May Go Smoothly After All
  By Brent Choi and Mi Jeong Hibbitts January 12th, 2011 Brent Choi and Mi Jeong Hibbitts, Washington-based specialists in North Korean issues, write, “It is possible that we will see the young Kim emerge as the next leader of North Korea. This possibility may drive Washington and Seoul to ponder new political options rather than continue current policy toward North Korea…The two allies should prepare for a scenario in which Kim Jong Un will indeed make it as regime leader, as much as for the contingencies in the case that he fails.” [Succession]
• Pyongyang University of Science and Technology
  A GLOBAL UNIVERSITY BEYOND IMAGINATION! That's the bold vision for the newly established Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) that opened on October 25, 2010. CONTRIBUTING TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PROSPERITY AND PEACE ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA: Prof. PARK Chan-Mo is the former president of POSTECH that became South Korea's leading science and technology university and one of Asia's best universities (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pohang_University_of_Science_and_Te... ) under his leadership. Until October 2010 Prof. Park was president of The National Research Foundation of Korea which is South Korea's national top entity specialized in research funding and management. [Education]
• N.Korean Military Uses 270,000 Tons of Food a Year
  The South Korean government estimates the North Korean military's annual food consumption at 270,000 tons. The Unification Ministry submitted the figures on Monday to Democratic Party lawmaker Song Min-soon of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee. The ministry arrived at them by multiplying the daily ration of soldiers of 624 g by their numbers (1.19 million) by 365 days of the year. Earlier on Sept. 27, the National Intelligence Service backed Grand National Party floor leader Kim Moo-sung's claim that the North Korean military has 1 million tons of rice in storage, enough to feed all its soldiers for three years and eight months without additional food supply. englishnews@chosun.com / Oct. 05, 2010 11:45 KST [Intelligence] [Spin]
• Low Profile of an Heir Reinforces a Mystery
  Kyodo News, via Associated Press The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, left, with his son Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang in last October. By MARK McDONALD Published: January 7, 2011 SEOUL, South Korea — When he was introduced to the public in September, Kim Jong-un appeared destined to succeed his father, Kim Jong-il, as the leader of North Korea, an irascible, destitute and nuclear-armed nation. But a growing number of experts in Seoul are beginning to question whether he has been fully certified, despite his elevation to a high military rank and the urgency created by his father’s poor health. “There are some minor but real reasons to ask if we are rushing our judgment about Kim Jong-un,” said Andrei Lankov, a professor and North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul. [Succession] [MISCOM]
• Joint New Year Editorial
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi, leading newspapers of the DPRK, on Saturday carried a joint New Year editorial titled "Bring about a Decisive Turn in the Improvement of the People's Standard of Living and the Building of a Great, Prosperous and Powerful Country by Accelerating the Development of Light Industry Once Again This Year". Following is the full text of the joint editorial: Today we are greeting the year 2011, a year filled with hope, a year of new prosperity, after glorifying the stirring first decade of the 21st century as a decade full of great victories. The last was a decade when we invariably defended the ideas and cause of President Kim Il Sung, a decade full of creations and miracles when we built a solid springboard for achieving the status of a great, prosperous and powerful country. In the crucible of the complicated 21st century, our country has always stood in the limelight of the world, at the forefront of anti-imperialist independence.
• N.Korea Revamps Party Rules to Easy Hereditary Succession
  North Korea revamped major regulations governing the Workers Party to support the hereditary transfer of power from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to his son Jong-un. South Korean government sources say the revisions officially turned the Workers Party into a "shrine" for the Kim dynasty. In the North, party regulations rank above the country's constitution.
• Kim Jong-il Had His Busiest Schedule Last Year
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was seen at a total of 161 public events last year, the most ever, the Unification Ministry disclosed Tuesday. In 2009, Kim attended 159 public events and in 2008, when he suffered a stroke, only 63. Most of the events were inspections of factories and businesses with 63, followed by 38 so-called on-the-spot guidance tours of military units. In addition, he attended artistic performances 28 times, conducted 12 diplomatic activities including China visits and made 20 appearances at universities and political events. [Kim Jong Il]
• NK to step up power transfer, seek foreign aid
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, right, casts a glance toward his youngest son and heir, Kim Jong-un, from their perch above a massive military parade to mark the 65th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party, on Oct. 10. Analysts expect the regime to elevate the younger Kim to higher posts this year in a bid to secure his succession. / Korea Times file By Kim Young-jin With only a year to go before North Korea has pledged to become a powerful nation, the communist regime in 2011 will undergo a significant power transfer and look to secure outside aid through multilateral talks, analysts say. The outlook comes after a turbulent year that saw the North raise tensions with two deadly attacks against the South as well as the rise of Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of leader Kim Jong-il who earlier this year made his public debut as heir apparent. Pyongyang’s moves, analysts say, will be efforts to inch towards its goal of emerging as a “strong and prosperous” country by 2012, the centennial of the birth of its founder, Kim Il-sung. “Kim Jong-il will maintain control over foreign affairs and the nuclear program in 2011, but Kim Jong-un will become the center of power,” Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, told The Korea Times. [Succession]

• N.Korea replaces key diplomats
  Experts say the changes simultaneously mark a continuation and change in overseas strategy » North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is pictured comfortably opening a closet with his left hand, despite reports that he had difficulty using his left hand after a stroke, in video footage released by the Korean Central Television, Dec. 29. On this day during a formal visit to a construction site along the Daedong River of apartments for artists in Pyongyang, Oct. 8, Kim examined their closets. (Yonhap News Agency) Lee Je-hoon, Staff Writers North Korean authorities reportedly recently adjusted the roles of the country’s diplomatic line regarding major nations such as the United States, China, Russia, and Japan. A foreign affairs source familiar with the internal situation in North Korea reported Thursday that Kang Sok-ju, following his promotion to the position of vice-premier of the cabinet, is handling China and Russia, while Kim Kye-kwan, who has become first vice foreign minister, is responsible for the designated hostile nations of the United States and Japan.
• Kim Jong-il attends WPK gathering with son in several years
  Observers say the banquet may have been an event scheduled to enhance Kim Jong-un’s prestige By Son Won-je, Staff Writer A memorial banquet organized by the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Military Commission (CMC) and the North Korean National Defense Commission (NDC) was held Friday, with Kim Jong-il in attendance, to mark the 19th anniversary of Kim’s election as supreme military commander of the armed forces, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday. Also attending the banquet was Kim’s successor and son, CMC Vice Chairman Kim Jong-un.
• Chinese Movie 'Embodies Kim Jong-un's Great-Nation Dream'
  North Korean heir-apparent Kim Jong-un has hailed the Chinese film "The Rise of the Great Nations," saying it embodied his own dreams, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday. Kim was quoted as saying he could watch the movie over and over again. "The Rise of the Great Nations" is a 12-part documentary broadcast in 2006 by China's state-run CCTV and depicts the rise of nine advanced countries including France, Japan, the U.K, and the U.S. The documentary was aired dubbed by South Korea's EBS in 2007, while a re-edited pirated version is apparently being distributed in North Korea.
• Elusive Manager of Kim Jong-il's Slush Funds Pops Up
  Again South Korean intelligence officials breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday. They had finally located Jon Il-chun, the head of a special department in North Korea's Workers Party that manages Kim Jong-il's slush fund. Jon, who had eluded intelligence officials for the past six months, was finally spotted on a North Korean TV broadcast featuring one of leader Kim Jong-il's so-called on-the-spot guidance tours in Pyongyang. [Personalisation]
• Harbinger or Hoax: A First Painting of Kim Jong Un?
  By Ruediger Frank Ever since Kim Jong Un was introduced to the public in late September 2010—when he was first promoted to the rank of general and then received a number of important posts in the ruling Korean Workers’ Party—we have been waiting to get the first insights into how the youngest son of Kim Jong Il will be fitted into the ideological system of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). To most North Koreans, he emerged almost out of nowhere; hence the DPRK’s propaganda apparatus now needs to present a convincing story to solidify his legitimacy as the next top leader. Much more than a purely academic question for Pyongyang watchers or another expression of a bizarre Stalinist cult of personality, this is one of the key issues that will determine political faith in Kim Jong Un. More importantly, it will be a major factor in determining the future of North Korea, which is of course of great concern to its neighbors, the United States, and the international community. Accordingly, even the slightest development regarding the role of Kim Jong Un has to be taken very seriously. However, due care must be taken also that we do not only see what we want to see
• Kim Jong-un Adopts Grandfather's Old Slogan
  As part of an ongoing propaganda drive to establish North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un as his father's successor, the podgy youth has apparently adopted the old slogan "feed the people with rice and meat soup," according to the Yomiuri Shimbun on Monday.
• Understanding North Korea: Rimjin-gang Citizen Journalists out to cure the “Sick Man of Asia”?
  Suzy Kim Back in 2008, a small but significant piece of news circulated in South Korea about a magazine “secretly published by North Korean journalists” as one headline read. But this it hardly covered in the Western media, and it seems the news has finally reached across the Pacific with the publication of the magazine’s first English edition in October 2010. On the evening of October 18, 2010 Ishimaru Jiro – editor and publisher of Rimjin-gang magazine1 – was invited to speak at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU in “a discussion about journalism in and about North Korea” (according to the event flyer). The Nation published an article on November 15, 2010, seductively titled “North Korea’s Citizen Journalism” featuring the publication.
• N.Korea's Youth Population Dwindles Due to Food Shortage
  The demographic graph of a normal country has a pyramid or bell shape. But that of North Korea reportedly has an abnormal gourd-shaped curve. The narrow part in the middle of the curve accounts for the key age group between 20 and 34 of the economically active population in the North. It is believed that is because many of those born in the 1990s in the midst of economic difficulties and food shortages died of malnutrition or diseases when they grow up. This was revealed on Monday by Hwang Na-mi, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, in the outcome of her analysis of a 2008 census report the North's Central Statistics Bureau submitted to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). The North's demographic graph shows that the "population between 20 and 34 years of age remarkably dwindled compared to teens or those in their 40s," she said. Lee Ae-ran, a professor of food, nutrition and cuisine at Kyungin Women's College, said,  "As economic problems worsened in the 1990s, many young North Koreans avoided marriage and childbirth and illegal abortions were rampant. Especially in the late 90s, many children and youths starved to death in urban areas, as well as in rural regions." She is the first female North Korean defector to obtain a doctoral degree in the South. The North's 2008 census was conducted according to international standards with the help of the UNFPA, and thus it is regarded as reliable statistics on the status of North Korean population. The North conducted its first-ever census in December 1993. But the categories did not conform to international standards, nor were the results consistent. The North's infant mortality rate, which is considered a yardstick for gauging a country's socio-economic level and health, was 19.3 per 1,000 infants younger than 1 year, up 5.2 from 14.1 in 1993. However, some experts speculate that such a rate in the North is not as serious as it has been known so far. According to the "2010 World Population Report" published by the UNFPA last month, the North's infant mortality rate is 47 per 1,000, pushing the country to 51st place among 181 countries. The North's maternal mortality rate, the rate of mothers who die during pregnancy or childbirth, was 77.2 per 100,000, far up from 54 in 1993. The Stalinist country's average life expectancy was 69.3 years in 2008, down from 72.7 years in 1993. englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 06, 2010 07:44 KST [Sanctions] [Famine] [Demographics] [Casualties]

• Young general has got what it takes
  By Kim Myong Chol The population of North Korea has been in a state of euphoria since the "young general" Kim Jong-eun was anointed as heir apparent to legendary peerless leader Kim Jong-il. His anointment guarantees a bright and rosy future for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). It means that Kim Jong-il - who the people have entrusted with their destiny - will see his most faithful lieutenant take charge. It also guarantees that the population will see an uninterrupted continuity of seasoned statesmen at the helm, as the country continues on its path towards enhanced national security and economic prosperity despite the adamantly hostile policy behavior of the US. Kim Jong-eun was anointed as heir apparent to Kim Jong-il neither because he is the ruler's son nor because he bears a close resemblance to legendary founding father Kim Il-sung. The foremost reason is the unanimous agreement by people in all walks of life that Kim Jong-eun has what it takes to be a benevolent, virtuous leader in the same class as Kim Il-sung, with total revolutionary dedication to Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il, limitless love for the people and irresistible magnetic charm, charisma and personal appeal. [Succession]
• North Korea's military aging but sizable
  By Tim Lister, CNN STORY HIGHLIGHTS / • A massive military parade in October gave a rare window on North Korea's hardware • Its nuclear capability and ballistic missile technology are its trump card • Most analysts doubt North Korea would want to launch a direct assault on the South • But recent developments show it has enough in its arsenal to cause damage and death (CNN) -- It's a bit like train-spotting but rather more serious. On October 10, Korea-watchers pored over live televised coverage of a massive military parade in Pyongyang, held to mark the 65th anniversary of North Korea's ruling party. Just like the Soviet parades of yore, it was a chance to see what military hardware the North might be showing off. The official news agency said the parade showed "the will and might of Songun Korea to wipe out the enemy." The hardware was accompanied by slogans such as "Defeat the U.S. Military. U.S. soldiers are the Korean People's Army's enemy." And besides the incredible synchronized goose-stepping, there were tanks and new missiles. Analysts paid special attention to the first public appearance of a road-mobile ballistic missile with a projected range of between 3,000 and 4,000 kilometers (roughly 1,900 to 2,400 miles), though reports of its existence had circulated for several years. There was also a new version of the No-dong ballistic missile, with a tri-conic nosecone, on show. That led Aviation Weekly and others to observe design similarities to Iran's Shahab missiles, suggesting further military cooperation between the two governments. North Korea's nuclear capability and ballistic missile technology are its trump card, to make up for its aging conventional forces and as a bargaining chip in negotiations. So that's what receives the bulk of funding and expertise. But despite economic stagnation, technological limitations and international sanctions, its conventional forces can't be discounted, if only because of their size. According to South Korean analysts, the North scraped together what little foreign exchange it had to buy $65 million of weapons from China, Russia and eastern Europe between 2002 and 2008. One example: It appears to have bought Chinese-made ZM-87 anti-personnel lasers, using one to "illuminate" two U.S. Army Apache helicopters flying along the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone in 2003. None of the crew members was injured. [Military balance]
• 1993~2055 population projection of North Korea
  from [ROK} Statistics Korea Published 22 November 2010
  in Korean
• Over 600,000 N. Koreans starve from 1995-2005
  More than 600 thousand North Koreans were estimated to have died of food deficiency from 1995 to 2005, Statistics Korea said in a report Monday. In particular, an estimated 435 thousand North Koreans died during the the March of Tribulation from 1996-2000, the report stated. Life expectancy in North Korea was an estimated 11 years lower than South Korea mainly due to malnutrition. Based on data from the United Nations and censuses conducted in North Korea, the report stated that the estimated life expectancy for men stands at 64.1 and 71 for women, levels seen during the early 1980s in South Korea. [Famine] [Omission]
• Is Kim Jong-un Purging the Party?
  The North Korean regime has been investigating senior officials for corruption since early November in what appears to be a purge led by Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un, a defector organization said Tuesday.
• Medical Properties of Kimchi
  Pyongyang, November 13 (KCNA) -- Kimchi, one of the Korean nation's traditional dishes, has been publicly recognized as health food for its peculiar flavor, nutritive substances and medical properties. The large amount of polysaccharide and lignin contained in kimchi promotes the function of stomach and intestines to help digestion. It is also efficacious for hypertension, hyperlipemia and other diseases as it makes viscous solution in intestines to lower cholesterol. Kimchi includes vitamin A and C conducive to preventing aging and cancer and removing pathogenic microorganisms. Such medicinal materials as fruit of Crataegus pinnatifida can be used in preparation of kimchi
• New Distance Lecture System Established
  Pyongyang, November 14 (CKAN) -- A new distance lecture system was established to help the people in the DPRK in their study. The Grand People's Study House made it possible for people to receive distance lectures through people's study houses, libraries and scientific and educational institutions in provinces, cities and counties. Officials and researchers of the Grand People's Study House and the Joint Information Institute of the State Academy of Sciences developed a Korean-style distance lecture system and developed and introduced a two-way distance lecture system which can be operated under any computer operation system in a short span of time. [Education]
• Pyongyang University and NK: Just Do IT!
  By Richard Stone The curtain is rising on a bold experiment to engage North Korea’s academic community—and possibly shape the country’s future. On October 25, 2010, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST, opened its doors to 160 elite North Korean students. By improving North Korea’s technical prowess, PUST might nudge the country’s tattered manufacturing-based economy toward an information-based economy. [IT] [Education] [Sanctions] [PUST]

• Yang Hyong Sop Meets APTN Delegation
  Pyongyang, October 8 (KCNA) -- Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a talk with the delegation of the Associated Press Television News of United Kingdom headed by Executive Director Nigel Baker on a visit to the DPRK to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Friday.
• Foreigners Here
  Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- Delegations and delegates of China, Germany, Russia, Singapore, Austria and Taipei of China arrived here by air on Saturday to participate in the 6th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair. Earlier, delegations of Malaysia and Italy arrived.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Newly Built Okryu Restaurant
  Pyongyang, October 17 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, provided on-site guidance to the newly built Special Dish House of Okryu Restaurant. The special dish house is another gift presented by Kim Jong Il to the Pyongyangites and all other people with his loving care as he always thinks of how to improve the people's diet. With the appearance of the house which has a total floor space of more than 6 000 square meters and is capable of accommodating thousands of visitors, the area of Okryu Restaurant has turned into a street of catering facilities built in a peculiar Korean architectural style to be proud of.
• Kim Jong-un Says N.Korea Needs Food, Not Bullets
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir says the impoverished country needs food more than bullets. "In the past, it was all right to have bullets and no food, but now we must have food even though we don't have bullets," Kim junior, who was recently promoted to vice chairman of the Workers Party's powerful Central Military Commission, was quoted by sources(sic) on Monday as saying. [Media]
• 'North Korea will collapse soon'
  By Kim Young-jin Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, apparently believes the Stalinist regime could collapse amid a power transfer to his younger brother, a South Korean official said Tuesday. Lee Gi-taek, the head of Seoul’s National Unification Advisory Council, spoke with a close friend of the 38-year-old Kim during a recent trip to Macau, where Kim lives. During a lecture in Berlin on North Korea policy, Lee said the friend had asked Kim whether he would visit the North to see his father whose health is reportedly flagging after suffering a stroke in 2008. “Why should I go there? I’m not interested in the succession,” Lee quoted him as saying. “North Korea will collapse soon. How long can this regime last?” [Collapse] [Media] [Disinformation]
• N.Korean Regime in Rare Show of Generosity
  North Koreans were given the most extra supplies on Oct. 10, the 65th founding day of the Workers Party, since nation founder Kim Il-sung's death in 1994, Radio Free Asia in the U.S. claimed last Friday. The so-called "holiday supplies" are various daily necessities sold at state prices or about 1/100 of market prices on major holidays such as Kim Il-sung's and current leader Kim Jong-il's birthdays. On the day, two days' supply of food and daily necessities were supplied at state prices, a senior party official in Daehongdan-gun in Yanggang Province was quoted by RFA as saying. Each of about 9,500 homes in the county received two bottles of liquor, 1 kg of potato noodles, 1 kg of potato starch syrup, a bottle of vinegar, a bottle of soybean oil, 1 kg of pork, a cake of soap, a pair of shoes, toothbrushes and toothpaste, the official said. Another North Korean source said the sudden bounty led to drunken accidents and an inebriated gang fight between youngsters, several of whom were taken to hospital. The source said a tractor carrying potatoes keeled over, killing four people.
• N.Korean Official Confirms Kim Jong-un's Succession
  A senior North Korean official has officially confirmed that leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un is in line to succeed his father to the leadership. "Comrade Kim Jong-il succeeded to the Workers Party founded by president Kim Il-sung. The future party and the revolutionary work will be inherited by Comrade Kim Jong-un," said Yang Hyong-sop, the vice president of the North's rubberstamp Supreme People's Assembly last Friday. Yang was speaking during a meeting in Pyongyang with a Chinese women's delegation led by Song Xiuyan of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. [Succession]
• [Column] North Korea's successor Kim Jong-un and Jang Song-taek
  By Selig S. Harrison
  The spotlight is on Kim Jong-Eun, but it should also be on his uncle, Jang Song Taek, who has emerged from the recent Workers Party Congress in Pyongyang with increased clout both in the powerful National Defense Commission and the party high command. With Kim Jong-Il still active, it may be too soon to call Jang a regent, as many observers are doing, but he is certainly the “regent in waiting.” Another little-noticed development of special importance to Seoul and Washington was the promotion of First Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju to the key position of Deputy Prime Minister. Kang was the architect of the 1994 nuclear freeze agreement with the United States. He has long been the principal voice for accommodation with Washington in the Pyongyang regime and now, in his new role, is in a position to untangle bureaucratic obstacles to promoting domestic reform and diplomatic overtures to the United States. [Succession] [Economic reforms] [Agency]
• 200,000 political prisoners estimated in NK
  An estimated 150,000-200,000 North Koreans are locked up in their communist country as political prisoners, a senior South Korean official said Friday. Unification Minister Hyun In-taek did not cite sources, but he said during a parliamentary audit in Seoul that the number is "what we understand currently." North Korea is operating six political prison camps, Gu Sang-chan, a lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party, said during the audit as he asked Hyun about the number of inmates. People incarcerated in such camps are believed to be political dissidents or those who have been captured and repatriated after fleeing the impoverished communist state. [Prisoners] [Evidence]
• Power, lies and secrecy in North Korea
  October 13th, 2010 Author: John Hemmings, RUSI It is often said that North Korea is the world’s only communist monarchy. But is it yet a true monarchy? The care with which Kim Jong-il has taken over the last 18 months in manoeuvring his third son, Kim Jong-un, into position to succeed him suggests that the dictator has some limits on his power in the North Korean system. The reality of where power lies in Pyongyang is not as obvious as it might seem and there are indications that even Kim Jong-il must approach this transition carefully.
  According to an article in the South Korean newspaper Chungang Ilbo, South Korean officials have confirmed that they and their American counter-parts are updating CONPLAN, a contingency plan for dealing with sudden changes on the Korean Peninsula. The changes are allegedly updates to reflect ‘growing uncertainty’ in the North. But where would the challenge to the Kim family come from? [MISCOM] [Succession]
• Kim Jong-un's Chances of Success 'Less Than 10%'
  The chances of Kim Jong-un, the heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, succeeding as the next leader are "less than 10 percent," a journalist claimed. Kim Young-hwan, the editor of Zeitgeist magazine, made the claim on Tuesday in a keynote speech at a seminar sponsored by the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights. "The chances of a smooth succession by Kim Jong-un are less than 10 percent," he said, while the odds of confusion or a fatal crisis after the death of Kim Jong-il are "60-70 percent." [Succession] [Collapse][Defector report]
• N.Korean News Agency Launches New Website
  North Korea's state-run news agency launched a new website on the anniversary of the country's Workers Party, Radio Free Asia said Thursday. The website features a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il watching a military parade on the occasion of the anniversary on its front page. The Korea Central News Agency website is also available in English and Spanish, and has menu buttons such as politics, economy, culture, and media. Each section features propaganda praising the revolutionary achievement of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Information on North Korean society such as economic rebuilding and cooperation, scientific technology, films and performances is available.
  Access from South Korea is restricted. [Human rights]
• Will Kim Jong-nam defect to a third country?
  The bold public comment by Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of Kim Jong-il, against the recent family power transfer in North Korea, may serve as a trigger for Jong-nam’s defection to a third country due to concerns over his safety, a report said Saturday. [Succession] [Media]
• Sons of Freedom Fighters 'Led Kim Jong-un's Campaign'
  The sons of Korean freedom fighters spearheaded the campaign to anoint North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son Jung-un as his father's successor, a source claimed Thursday. The source said Choe Ryong-hae, O Kum-chol and O Il-jong initiated the campaign to make Kim Jung-un the successor in a secret meeting with the two Kims in mid June. Choe Ryong-hae (60) is the son of Choe Hyon, an erstwhile fighter against the Japanese occupation of Korea and later minister of the People's Armed Forces. O Kum-chol (63) is the son of O Baek-yong, a one-time head of state security. O Il-jong (66) is the son of O Jin-u, a former People's Armed Forces minister. Their fathers were guerrillas together, and they supported Kim Jong-il in the 1970s, when he was in competition with his uncle Kim Yong-ju to succeed North Korea founder Kim Il-sung. [Succession]
• Kim Jong-il’s Heir Attends Parade
  By MARK McDONALD Published: October 9, 2010 SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, attended a massive military parade with his youngest son and designated successor on Sunday as the ruling Communist regime celebrated the 65th founding of its Workers’ Party. Related Senior North Korean Defector Dies (October 10, 2010) The son, Kim Jong-un, wearing a dark suit despite his recent promotion to four-star general, watched the festivities and reviewed squads of goose-stepping troops with his 68-year-old father and other senior politicians and generals. The event was held in Kim Il-sung Square, named for Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, the founder of the North Korean state. [Succession]
• Nowadays North Koreans hardly brainwashed
  By Kang Hyun-kyung North Korea kicked off its state-sponsored initiative to brainwash their people to believe that heir Kim Jong-un was born to be a great leader. The propaganda, however, is apparently becoming ineffective, given the sarcastic reaction from grass-roots North Koreans. People there are no longer what they used to be with an increasing number of North Koreans secretly tuning in to radio broadcasts late at night to listen to uncensored news from the outside world, according to North Korean defectors living in Seoul. They added some North Koreans hardened their attitude toward the regime after the suspension of the public food distribution system following massive floods in the mid-1990s and this dented the effectiveness of propaganda.
• Reclusive N.Korea Left Out of Global Corruption Index
  North Korea has again been excluded from the Corruption Perceptions Index by Berlin-based Transparency International. According to Radio Free Asia on Thursday, Juanita Riano of TI said it had to exclude the North due to lack of assessment data, receiving information from only two international organizations.
  This year's index will be released on Oct. 26. Last year, New Zealand topped the list of 180 countries surveyed. South Korea ranked 39th, China 79th, Vietnam 120th, and Burma 178th. [Corruption]
• Workers' Party of Korea’s conference: summing up the historical meeting
  12.10.2010 Alexander Vorontsov Head Korea Department Institute for Oriental studies of the Russian Academy of Science Oleg Revenko Political analyst
  The meeting of North Korea’s ruling party (Workers' Party of Korea - WPK) on September 28, the first one since the party’s congress of 1980, is the most important event in country’s domestic policy. Note, that the gatherings of the ruling party are rather exceptional events which are not held on a regular basis. They are held only when the most crucial issues must be considered. The previous conference was held way back 44 years ago – 1966. Then the party set the course for simultaneous implementation of military and civil construction and as a result the national economy became military oriented. The recent conference was focused not on ideological and political issues, but on internal party affairs namely the election of the new leadership of the interior affairs within the party in particular — the elections of the ruling bodies of WPK, members of the Central Committee, political bureau and it’s the presidium. The importance of the party’s leadership legitimization was predetermined by the fact that since the death of the founder of North Korea Kim Il-sung in 1994 no more Congresses and plenums of the Central Committee had been held. The party officials were lobbied by the narrow circle of people. It is quite predictable that Kim Jong-il who attended the conference but did not speak at it was reelected (or according the North Korean terminology “nominated”) as WPK’s Secretary General. However despite wide expectations of western analysts, his younger son Kim Jong-un has not been officially named and even mentioned as the future North Korean leader and the successor of his aged father whose health continues to degenerate. [Succession]
• Eldest Son 'Told Kim Jong-il to Rein in Jong-un'
  The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met his father in Beijing in late August this year and protested against his younger brother Kim Jong-un's orchestration of an attack against the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan, KBS reported Thursday. The broadcaster cited a close associate of Kim Jong-nam's in China as saying when Kim Jong-il visited China, Kim Jong-nam went to his hotel room and told him Jong-un was behind the Cheonan incident to make up for a botched currency reform late last year he had also pushed. "Why are you condoning this when nobody even knows who Jong-un is?" the associate quoted Kim Jong-nam as saying. [Media]
• N.Korean official 'confirms heir's succession'
  SEOUL (AFP) – A senior North Korean official has given the first public confirmation that the youngest son of veteran leader Kim Jong-Il will succeed his father, it was reported on Friday. Yang Hyong-Sop confirmed the eventual ascent to power of Kim Jong-Un in an interview in Pyongyang with AP's television affiliate APTN, the US news agency reported. The reported remarks by Yang, a leading ruling party member, marked the first time that a North Korean official has spoken openly about what will be the nuclear-armed nation's second dynastic succession. "Our people take pride in the fact that they are blessed with great leaders from generation to generation," The Associated Press quoted Yang as saying in the interview. "Our people are honoured to serve the great President Kim Il-Sung and the great leader Kim Jong-Il," he added. "Now we also have the honour of serving young General Kim Jong-Un." [Succession]
• NK's successor confirmed
  Source: Global Times [03:43 October 09 2010] Comments Kim Jong-un A top North Korean official has given the first confirmation that leader Kim Jong-il's son, Kim Jong-un, will succeed him as head of the country, the AP reported Friday. Senior ruling party official Yang Hyong-sop confirmed the eventual ascent to power of the younger Kim in an interview in Pyongyang with the AP's television affiliate, APTN, the US news agency reported in a brief dispatch. The reported remarks by Yang, who is a vice president of the presidium of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, marked the first time that a North Korean official has spoken openly about Kim Jong-un's eventual succession. [Succession]
• Hu Jintao, Deng Xiaoping or Another Mao Zedong? Power Restructuring in North Korea
  By Ruediger Frank Kim Jong Un (front row, 2nd R), third song of Kim Jong Il, claps during the recent delegates meeting of the Worker's Party Korea on September 30, 2010. Photo: Reuters “Finally,” one is tempted to say. The years of speculation and half-baked news from dubious sources are over. The leadership issue in North Korea has been officially resolved. Or has it? The third delegate’s meeting[1] of the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK) on September 28, 2010 answered a few questions. Still, it left some unanswered and posed quite a few new ones as well. In the end, Kim Jong Il emerged the undisputed leader. But has his legitimacy become more independent of his father than it used to be? Kim Jong Un has been introduced to the people. Does this mean he is going to succeed Kim Jong Il? Or will he succeed Kim Il Sung? Kim Jong Il’s sister Kim Kyong Hui has been promoted to the rank of general and is part of the party leadership. Is she supposed to support her nephew, or is this part of a strategy to more broadly enhance the family’s power? Her husband Jang Song Thaek is also on board. Will he share the caretaking job with his wife? Are there any other members of the extended Kim family on the team? [Succession]
• Kim and Son Appear at N. Korean Military Exercise
  By MARK McDONALD Published: October 5, 2010 SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, watched a live-fire military exercise with his youngest son and heir apparent in what was believed to be the first public appearance of Kim Jong-un since he was given the rank of four-star general last week. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday that the two Kims were joined by other members of their family and senior officials in the new North Korean leadership. The location and date of the drill were not specified. But it was significant, analysts in Seoul said, that the younger Mr. Kim’s first public event was a military exercise, as the government tries to create the image of him as a capable military man. The event also was likely to reinforce his father’s guiding “military first” philosophy. [Succession]
• How N.Koreans Feel About Their 3 Generations of Leaders
  As the third generation of the Kim dynasty prepares to take over power in North Korea, defectors from the reclusive country say the opinion of North Koreans about the family is getting worse with each passing generation. Many see Kim Il-sung as a father figure who enjoyed widespread respect, but his son Kim Jong-il is seen as a dictator and tyrant and his grandson Kim Jong-un as a nobody without experience As the third generation of the Kim dynasty prepares to take over power in North Korea, defectors from the reclusive country say the opinion of North Koreans about the family is getting worse with each passing generation. Many see Kim Il-sung as a father figure who enjoyed widespread respect, but his son Kim Jong-il is seen as a dictator and tyrant and his grandson Kim Jong-un as a nobody without experience. Many defectors say North Koreans have only good feelings about Kim Il-sung, due to his endearing, fatherly image as well as the relatively better economic situation under his leadership. "Kim Il-sung was called the 'benevolent father of the people' and many shed genuine tears of sadness when he died," one defector said. "The older generation, whose lives became more difficult under Kim Jong-il, used to say things were better under the Kim Il-sung." Experiencing widespread starvation and economic hardship after Kim Il-sung's death in 1994, "people realized that the heyday of communism had passed and yearned for the bygone days of Kim Il-sung," he added. [Media] [Agency] [Public opinion] [Defector report][Kim Il Sung]
• NK Stages Elaborate Propaganda Plot for Successor
  OCTOBER 01, 2010 22:59 North Korea is known to have meticulously planned a long-term propaganda operation before releasing photos containing Kim Jong Un, the heir apparent to leader Kim Jong Il. Pyongyang’s idea is to produce political effects from the reincarnation of the North’s late founder Kim Il Sung. ? Reincarnation drama planned for a long time It was learned Friday that the North Korean leadership since last year has strategically shown Kim Jong Un’s face in various photos of Kim Jong Il giving guidance at industrial or military sites. Pyongyang skillfully used its media to give its people the impression that they had seen the junior Kim somewhere last year. [Succession]
• N.Korea Releases 1st Photo of Kim Jong-un
  North Korea's state-run media have released the first photograph of Kim Jong-un, the son and heir of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Thursday morning's edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the Workers Party, was the first to show the picture of the chubby 27-year old seated between his father and other high-ranking officials and clad in a dark communist-style suit, followed by the Korean Central News Agency and state television.
• What Group Photo Says About New N.Korean Power Elite
  The official North Korean media on Thursday published a group photograph showing the faces of its new leadership, including heir apparent Kim Jong-un, formed at the latest extraordinary congress of the Workers Party. "A look at the group photo gives a clear picture of the power structure in the era of Kim Jong-un," a South Korean intelligence official said. "The closer one is to the Kim dynasty, the higher one rises through the ranks."
• N.Korean Journalists Hail Kim Jong-un
  North Korean reporters dutifully hailed and praised leader Kim Jong-il's 20-something son and heir Jong-un, who was abruptly promoted to a four-star general, as a "leader well-versed in all fields." They made the remarks at the truce village of Panmunjom, where they covered inter-Korean military talks on Thursday. [Succession]
• NK to Maintain Oppression Policy Until Succession Complete
  OCTOBER 01, 2010 12:02 North Korea`s heir apparent Kim Jong Un is expected to implement a policy of strong oppression of the North Korean elite and people until his power succession is firmly established. In Tuesday`s conference of the North Korean Workers’ Party, the communist country`s leadership appointed leading officials of state power apparatuses to the party`s newly established Central Military Commission. The move is interpreted as Pyongyang`s intent to effectively cope with an emergency situation, including popular unrest, that might arise in the process of the father-to-son succession.
• Kim Jong-il and Son's Different Roads to Power
  North Korean heir Kim Jong-un is likely to follow a widely different path to power from his father Kim Jong-il, reflecting the shifting priorities of the reclusive state. His rise to power is expected to begin in the military, while his father first had to dominate the Workers Party, according to a senior government official.
• Reshuffle Bolsters Kim Jong-un's Role in N.Korean Hierarchy
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un was appointed vice chairman of the Workers Party's Central Military Commission, a specially created post, and party rules were revised to strengthen the commission. Kim senior was reelected chairman.
• DPRK's ruling party inaugurates new era with reelection of top leader
  Source: Xinhua [08:58 September 30 2010] Comments The ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has made significant decisions regarding leadership following a landmark conference on Tuesday. Top leader Kim Jong Il, who had served as general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since October 1997, was reelected to the supreme post in the 65-year-old party, which has been leading the DPRK since the Northeastern Asian country was founded in 1948.
• Kim Jong-il’s health considered a major variable for succession
  Analysts say the current succession framework will require time to build a foundation for power transfer to Kim Jong-un By Son Won-je and Lee Je-hoon, Staff writers The lifespan of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is the major variable in the third-generation succession of the North Korean leadership. At the third Workers’ Party of Korea(WPK) meeting of party representatives Tuesday, Kim was reelected general secretary, solidifying his standing as the country’s absolute ruler. If he remains healthy for some time into the future, the current dynamic structure in North Korea is such that no one is likely to challenge the establishment of the system for transferring power to son Kim Jong-un. [Health] [Succession]
• Amid leadership reshuffle, role of Central Military Commission strengthens in N.Korea
  Observers say it could become a ‘command tower’ for Kim Jong-un’s succession through control of the military By Son Won-je and Kwon Hyuk-chul, Staff writers The most noteworthy event to take place during the third congress of North Korea’s ruling Workers Party of Korea (WPK) was the ascendancy of Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il’s third son, to the vice chairmanship of the party’s Central Military Commission. The Central Military Commission is chaired by Kim Jong-il, and had a new vice-chairmanship position created practically for Kim Jong-un. The younger Kim is vice chairman along with Ri Yong-ho, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army(KPA), but Kim’s name was called before his. It is clear Kim has become the No. 2 man in the commission behind his father.
• Heir apparent Kim Jong-un receives powerful political posts
  Experts say Kim has simultaneously received military and political positions as a part of a power succession By Park Jung-eon, Senior staff writer North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s heir apparent and youngest son Kim Jong-un was given powerful political posts during the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) meeting of party representatives Tuesday, after he debuted as a four-star general the day prior.
• 'Kim Jong-un was a good guy in high school'
  By Kim Young-jin Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the country’s heir apparent, was a “normal guy” when he attended high school overseas, a classmate said in a report issued Wednesday. The younger Kim, thought to be 27, was formalized as successor during the rare meeting of the Workers’ Party that opened Tuesday. Still, he remains veiled in secrecy — no current image of him emerged from the meeting, as some analysts had predicted. It is widely believed that he attended school in Switzerland as a teenager. In an interview with CNN, a former classmate who once considered Jong-un his best friend said he wasn’t very different from the other students at their school located outside of Bern. “He was a normal guy like me,” interested in movies and computers, Joao Micaelo said. “He was competitive at sports. He didn’t like to lose, like any of us. For him, basketball was everything.” Micaelo said his friend was known as “Pak Un” and was introduced to the class as the son of the ambassador of North Korea. The two remained friends from 1998 to 2001 and spoke in English, though Jong-un also spoke German well, he said. “He was very quiet and he didn’t speak with anyone. Maybe it was because most of the people did not take the time to understand him,” he said, adding that Jong-un was a “good guy.” Though Jong-un rarely spoke about North Korea, Micaelo carefully expressed hope that a Kim Jong-un regime could bode well for North Korea. “I can just say what I know: Un, when he was 16, he was a good guy,” Micaelo said. “So, I don’t think he would do something bad. But I don’t know what he’s been like in the last nine years.” Michaelo said he would like to see his old friend again, but that he didn’t know whether he would be willing to visit North Korea. The report said local government officials in the town of the Liebefeld School confirmed that a student named Pak-un attended at the same time as Micaelo.

• N.Korean Succession Is Like Nothing Else in the World
  North Korea's third-generation hereditary succession is unprecedented in the 20th and the 21st centuries and flies in the face of political theory. In most cases, a two-generation hereditary dictatorship has led to outbursts of democratic fervor and dismantling of the powerbase, but North Korea is the only country calling itself a "republic" where the power is now to be handed over to a third generation.
• N.Korea's 1st Family Cement Hold on Power
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Tuesday appointed his younger sister Kim Kyong-hui (64), his only sibling from the same mother, a four-star Army general alongside his son and heir Jong-un. In June, Kim already promoted his sister's husband Jang Song-taek (64) to vice chairman of the top decision-making body National Defense Commission.
• North Korea Officially Opens `Kim Jong Un` Era
  SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 16:04 North Korea has officially publicized the handover of power to the third generation of the Kim Jong Il family by introducing his youngest son Jong Un as successor and general of the (North) Korean People`s Army. The North`s official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that Kim Jong Il named Jong Un a major general. The ruling Workers` Party opened Tuesday its third party convention, its biggest political meeting in 30 years since the sixth party assembly in 1980, and reappointed Kim Jong Il as the party`s general secretary.
• Heir apparent Kim Jong-un receives powerful political posts
  Experts say Kim has simultaneously received military and political positions as a part of a power succession By Park Jung-eon, Senior staff writer North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s heir apparent and youngest son Kim Jong-un was given powerful political posts during the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) meeting of party representatives Tuesday, after he debuted as a four-star general the day prior. Kim Jong-un was named vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and a WPK Central Committee member, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in reports monitored in Seoul. North Korea seemed to have created the post of vice chairman in the WPK Central Military Commission, as it was reportedly not included in the previous official organization.
• Following promotions, succession in N.Korea appears underway
  Experts predict Kim Jong-un will assume more leadership responsibilities By Son Won-je, Staff writer The establishment of North Korea’s succession framework appears to be rapidly under way. The prevailing analysis among experts and government officials has been that the recent announcement of Kim Jong-un being named a general and to high posts in North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party means the transfer of North Korean leadership from father to son has entered the stage of being made official.
• Kim Jong-un emerges from shroud of secrecy
  Despite reports during his childhood, KCNA’s announcement of his appointment as general was the first public mention of his name By Kwon Hyuk-chul, Staff writer It was around January 2009 when it first became known that Kim Jong-un, the third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, had been unofficially selected as his father’s successor. One year and eight months later, North Korea seems to have begun the process of making his succession official, with the younger Kim receiving the title of general of the Korean People’s Army. However, North Korea has essentially never made any information public about Kim Jong-un to the outside world. Kim Jong-un is the second son of Kim Jong-il with his third wife Ko Yong-hui, who died in 2004. It has been confirmed by various sources that his birthday is Jan. 8, but his precise date of birth is not known. With different sources reporting 1981, 1982, 1983, or 1984 as his year of birth, experts and intelligence authorities consider 1983 to be the most likely.
• Kim Jong Il Reelected as General Secretary
  Pyongyang, September 28 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il was reelected as general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea at the conference of the WPK convened at a historic time when a signal turn is being effected in carrying out the revolutionary cause of Juche, the cause of building a thriving socialist nation. The conference solemnly declared internally and externally that Kim Jong Il was reelected as general secretary of the WPK with unanimous will and wishes of all the party members, servicepersons and people of the DPRK as he performed the immortal exploits to shine long in the history of the country and developed the WPK into the party of President Kim Il Sung, ever-victorious Juche-type revolutionary party by wisely leading the revolutionary cause of Juche to victories only with his outstanding idea and uncommon revolutionary practices for half a century since he embarked upon the road of the revolution in his early years. His reelection to the supreme post of the WPK, organizer and guide of all victories of the Korean people, is the highest glory and happiness of millions of party members and servicepersons and people of the DPRK and a great auspicious event of the country and the nation. His reelection is an expression of absolute support and trust of all the party members, the servicepersons and the people in Kim Jong Il who provided the great guiding idea indicating the path to be followed by the Party, the revolution and the era of independence by comprehensively developing and enriching the immortal Juche idea, converted the DPRK into invincible politico-ideological power, military power and scientific and technological power and consolidated the single-minded unity of the leader, the Party, the army and the people as firm as a rock by successfully embodying the idea, opened a new era of prosperity unprecedented in the nation's history spanning 5,000 years with his Songun revolutionary leadership and has made undying contribution to carrying out the cause of independence against imperialism. It marked a great political event that strikingly demonstrated the unshakable faith and will of the army and people of the DPRK to resolutely defend and glorify the undying revolutionary feats performed by Kim Il Sung and accomplish the Songun revolutionary cause under the tested and seasoned leadership of Kim Jong Il.
• WPK Conference Held
  Pyongyang, September 28 (KCNA) -- The Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea was held with success in Pyongyang on Sept. 28. Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the WPK and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, was present at the Conference. Present there were delegates elected at the meeting of WPK delegates of the Korean People's Army and provincial and political bureaus' meetings of delegates of the WPK.
• N. Korea's heir-apparent given political posts
  09-28-2010 19:34 Kim Jong-il renamed party leader at rare meeting By Kim Se-jeong North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son was appointed as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party, the North's state media reported early Wednesday, in a clear sign that the succession is underway. The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of the top leader, was also named as member of the party's Central Committee.
• N.Korean Press Stresses the Old Ideologies
  The North Korean Workers Party's official Rodong Sinmun daily on Monday stressed the "Songun" or "military-first" and "Juche" or "self-reliance" ideologies on Monday, one day before the opening of an extraordinary congress, calling the party the "political general staff for a military-first revolution." N.Korean Press Stresses the Old IdeologiesThe North Korean Workers Party's official Rodong Sinmun daily on Monday stressed the "Songun" or "military-first" and "Juche" or "self-reliance" ideologies on Monday, one day before the opening of an extraordinary congress, calling the party the "political general staff for a military-first revolution."
• Arrival at Pyongyang Station
  SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 13:06 Representatives from North Korea`s provincial regions are seen arriving at Pyongyang Station to attend the Workers` Party convention Sunday. Originally scheduled for early September, the event has been delayed for an undisclosed reason. The North announced that the convention will open Tuesday.
• Kim to name successor
  By Guo Qiang North Korea's ruling party delegates will convene a crucial congress Tuesday, the biggest in 30 years, and clues of a major power transfer are likely to be unveiled as speculation mounts on who will become the nation's next leader. Despite varied versions of the successor choice and to which post the figure will be elevated to at the meeting, some analysts are dismissing the possibility of political chaos as a result of such a transition, saying the country won't undergo any significant policy change that could pose downsides on the security situation of the Korean Peninsula and northeast Asia. A stable North Korea is in China's national interests, regardless of who will be the next leader, experts say. [Succession] [China NK]
• Kim Jong-il’s youngest son named general
  September 28, 2010 Delegates arrive in Pyongyang for a major conference of the Workers’ Party on Sunday in this picture released by the North’s official KCNA news agency yesterday. The conference, which will be held today, is expected to elect the party’s highest leading body. [YONHAP] North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s youngest son, Jong-un has been promoted to military general ahead of the long-awaited Workers’ Party convention to be held today. The report made by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency has shown this to be a clear sign that Kim Jong-il is pushing his son in line to become his successor. In KCNA’s brief dispatch, which was released around 1 a.m. last night, it stated the son as well as five others had been named four-star generals in the Korea People’s Army, including Kim Jong-il’s sister, Kim Kyong-hui. Choe Ryong-hae, a long-time aide to the Kim dynasty, was also named a four-star general. Choe is said to be in close alliance with Jang Song-thaek, Kim Kyong-hui’s husband as well as the widely-seen No.2 in the communist state. Kim Jong-un’s name had not been seen prior to today’s announcement in any official North Korean media. [Succession]
• North Korean leader names son as general
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 68, was reappointed as secretary general of the North's ruling Workers’ Party at a convention of party representatives in Pyongyang on Tuesday, the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. Kim was appointed as secretary general of the party in 1997. He is also chairman of the North Korean National Defense Commission. The reappointment came a day after the North Korean leader named his youngest son as a four-star general, the communist state's official media said in its first mention of the young man widely seen as heir apparent. The conference, the biggest ruling party meeting in 44 years, was expected to anoint the son, Jong-un, as eventual successor to the ailing leader. It marks the first time that Jong-un's name has appeared in official media. [Succession]
• Delegates to WPK Conference Arrive Here
  Pyongyang, September 26 (KCNA) -- Delegates to the conference of the Workers' Party of Korea arrived here on Sunday. They were greeted by the officials of the preparatory committee of the WPK conference.
• North Korea: the hermit emerges
  The world's most secretive state faces turmoil if Kim Jong-il hands over control to his son. Will it spiral out of control, or could Chinese-style capitalism save it? Malcolm Moore reports. Published: 8:32AM BST 22 Sep 2010 10 Comments A North Korean soldier waves to a Chinese tourist boat Photo: Reuters The 28,000 American troops stationed near the 38th parallel use a simple acronym to refer to North Korea: KFR, the Kim Family Regime. For nearly 60 years now, North Korea has distinguished itself as the only centrally planned Marxist state ruled over by a hereditary imperial family. There has been just one transition of power, from Kim Il-sung, the guerrilla hero and "Great Leader", to his son, Kim Jong-il. [Media] [Succession]
• N.Korea 'Gets Ready for Massive Show of Military Strength'
  The North Korean military is reportedly preparing for a massive parade featuring some 10,000 troops, new ballistic missiles, tanks and long-range artillery guns. A senior South Korean government source on Sunday said intelligence suggests the North has been preparing for the parade since July 12, when it gathered a large number of troops and a lot of equipment at Mirim Airport near Pyongyang. The parade is expected to be the biggest ever, with more than double the number of troops in the past, and mark the 65th anniversary of the Workers Party on Oct. 10, the source added. The weapons the North is preparing to display include various missiles, such as new intermediate-range ballistic missiles with a range of 3,000 to 4,000 km capable of reaching Guam, Rodong missiles with a range of 1,300 km, Scud missiles with a range of 300 to 500 km and new KN-02 surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 120 km. Long-range artillery installed at areas near the demilitarized zone, including 240 mm multiple rocket launchers, which pose a threat to the Seoul metropolitan region, various kinds of tanks, and armored vehicles are also slated to take part. The aim is apparently to show off the regime's power as ailing leader Kim Jong-il tries to establish his son Jong-un as his heir in time with an extraordinary party congress slated for Tuesday and the 65th party anniversary. [Military balance] [Takeover]
• A historic moment for N. Korea watchers
  By Chico Harlan Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 26, 2010; 11:30 PM SEOUL - They're called the North Korea watchers: a group of men who devote their lives to studying every satellite image for traces of nuclear activity, every photo for clues about Kim Jong Il's precarious health and every official disclosure for hints of a changing of the guard in Pyongyang. But North Korea is the nation that refuses to be watched, and its secrecy shows. A Seoul-based expert, Park Hyeong-jung, decided this year to examine 10 years of North Korea-related analysis. He will soon publish a paper about "just how terrible our research and predictions are." Nonetheless, weeks like this one - when Pyongyang promises something historic - leave outside analysts with the mandateto make bold pronouncements about North Korea's future, even if they're only making educated guesses. [Media] [Paradigm]
• North Korean elite secretly jostle for the reins of power
  Kim Jong-il has chosen his son to succeed him, but other figures may set the state's course (10)Tweet this (7)Peter Beaumont and Michael Rank in Rason, North Korea The Observer, Sunday 26 September 2010 Article history The Conference poster depicts a united nation, but North Korea's political cadres are vying for influence. The poster for the first conference of the (North) Korean Workers' party to be held since 1966 depicts four striving, heroic figures. A rifle-bearing soldier leads the way, but only by the tiniest of margins, followed by an engineer in a hard hat. Behind them stride a technocrat clutching a rolled-up blueprint and a female farmer with a sheaf of wheat. [Media]
• 'Low profile of heir at N Korea’s conference will be a bad sign'
  Despite Kim Jong-il’s effort to veil his heir-apparent from the outside curiosity in next week’s rare Workers’ Party Conference, the meeting held in 44 years will be an inevitable occasion for the world to know who takes the helm of the world’s most impoverished country, a British publication predicted. However, the report also warned that if the North chooses to give the matter a low profile, it would be a bad sign for the outside world, as it would mean uncertainty of leadership in the regime. “Whatever (Kim Jong-il) does, the issue of succession is likely to escape the secrecy in which it has been wrapped for decades,” the Economist said on Saturday. [Succession] [Media]
• 3 key N. Korean diplomats promoted
  Kang Sok-ju, 71, North Korea’s first vice foreign minister, has been promoted as vice premier of the communist country’s Cabinet. Kim Gye-gwan, 72, a vice foreign minister the North’s chief nuclear negotiator, has succeeded Kang, the (North) Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday in a set of promotions of three key foreign ministry officials. Ri Yong-ho, also deputy chief of the nuclear negotiations with the United States, has been elevated to vice foreign minister.
• The appeal of dynastic rule: North Korea, Egypt, Libya
  This autumn, closing the 21st century's first decade, may shed some light on the looming changes of government in North Korea and Egypt. Both in the "Land of the Morning Calm," as the Koreans affectionately call their country, and in the Land of the Pyramids, the incumbent rulers are in poor health and are looking for potential successors. In Pyongyang the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, has allegedly designated his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as his heir apparent. And Hosni Mubarak's youngest son, Gamal, is tipped as the most likely successor to the 82-year-old Egyptian president. RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin [Succession]
• N.Korean Party to Take Up Leadership Issues
  North Korea's ruling communist party says it will hold a major conference next week to elect a new leadership. North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, announced Tuesday that a conference of delegates of the ruling Workers' Party will open on Sept. 28.
• North Korea ready to start party congress
  By Christian Oliver in Seoul Published: September 21 2010 06:16 | Last updated: September 21 2010 06:16 North Korea’s ruling party will meet next week to elect a “supreme leadership body” amid growing questions about who will succeed Kim Jong-il, the country’s dictator, Pyongyang has announced.
• North Korean leader goes about usual business
  By Kim Se-jeong 09-20-2010 17:31 With the supposedly planned Workers Party Conference not taking place last week, Kim Jong-il made his first public appearance since Sept. 12 at a concert hall in Pyongyang where he watched a performance by a female police unit.
• Disabled People under Good Care
  Pyongyang, September 17 (KCNA) -- Various activities have been conducted to take care of the disabled in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The DPRK law on the Protection of the Person with Disability, adopted in June Juche 92 (2003), stipulates that the State shall respect their personality and guarantee their socio-political rights, freedom and interests equal to the healthy persons. The Korean Federation for the Protection of the Disabled carries on assistance, protection and information activities in line with the government's popular policies to encourage the disabled to play their role for the collective and society. The federation has directed much effort to updating sanatoriums and supplying medical institutions with up-to-date appliances and technologies for recuperation and treatment. It has built a prosthetic appliances factory to provide disabled people with necessary instruments including walking staffs and chairs, and consolidated material and technical foundations of their education and amusements. It has also provided them with conditions for taking part in social labor. Meanwhile, the federation has a wide-ranging exchange and cooperation with international organizations and relevant organizations of other countries.
• North Korea: Significance of the postponement of the KWP conference
  September 16th, 2010 Author: Andrei Lankov, Kookmin University and ANU By its nature, media is supposed to report on important or unusual events. When elections are held, terrorists bomb an airliner or an UFO is spotted over New York, it will make the news. Media outlets usually remain silent when an airliner arrives safely and no Martians are seen walking in Central Park. But sometimes it is very important when an event does not happen – especially when the reasons for this breach of pattern are not clear. Last week we all were witnesses to such a non-event. The international media eagerly awaited news from Pyongyang where a conference of the ruling Korean Workers Party (KWP) was scheduled to take place. Indeed, in July the North Korean media officially informed the world that the KWP would soon have a party conference – the first party conference in 44 years and the first formal gathering of the KWP representatives in 30 years. [Succession]
• Speculation on N. Korea mushrooms
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Fresh second-guessing over the possibility of a power struggle in North Korea was raised in the latest media reports. In the wake of North Korea’s rescheduling of the Workers’ Party Meeting last week, speculation erupted as to the significance of the postponement regarding an upcoming power transfer in the reclusive communist country. Former Japanese defense minister Yuriko Koike wrote in an op-ed piece published in South China Morning Post, about the possibility of an overly ambitious aunt of the North’s heir apparent posing a formidable challenge to Kim Jong-un’s rise to replace the Dear Leader. “Kim Kyong-hui’s intent to exercise power after her brother (Kim Jong-il)’s death is supported by rumors she helped arrange a traffic accident in June that killed Ri Je-gang, a senior party official and perceived guardian of Kim Jong-un who reportedly attempted to oust Kim Kyong-hui and her allies from power,” Koike said. The former Japan’s defense minister went on to say that the sister of the North Korean leader may have plans to become the successor herself. Cheong Seong-chang, senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, disagreed with Koike on the prospect of a power struggle in the North. [Succession] [Media]
• When Dynastic Successions Work: North Korea Takes Cues from the Middle EastBy
  Barbara Slavin Backdropped by a poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father Hafez al-Assad (L), Syrian fans waved their country's flag during their national team's World Cup 2010 qualifying match against the Emirati team in Damascus on March 26, 2008. Photo: Getty Images. North Korea is in the throes of a generational triple play: passing power to the son of the son of founder Kim Il Sung. How successful that transition will be remains to be seen. In seeking to enthrone Kim Jong Un, the third son of Kim Jong Il, North Korea may benefit from several factors it has in common with Middle Eastern states that have also managed to keep leadership a family affair. [Succession]
• Has N.Korea's Party Congress Been Delayed?
  There were no reports in the official North Korean media of the opening of an extraordinary party congress by Wednesday afternoon, the last day that could reasonably be described as "early September," when earlier reports said it would be held. The Unification Ministry is trying to confirm information that North Korean officials have told staffers of international organizations in Pyongyang that the party congress has been delayed because of devastating floods last month, a ministry official said.
• N.Korea Workers’ Party meeting delay fuels speculation
  Attention has focused on whether Kim Jong-il will designate his successor at the meeting By Son Won-je, Staff writer The third Workers’ Party of Korea meeting of party representatives, which had been expected to convene in the sangsun (the first half) of September, had reportedly not convened as of Sept. 15. In North Korea, the term sangsun means the first 10 or first 15 days of the month, so its failure to convene thus far constitutes a delay. Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, “It appears that the meeting of party representatives did not take place today, and that could have been because of the floods or for various other reasons, but they do seem to be dealing with an internal situation.”
• The Rapid Rise of Kim Jong-un
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il appointed his third son Jong-un as his successor in January of 2009 and apparently informed his closest aides of his decision first. The selection came just five months after he suffered a massive stroke in August 2008, and North Korean officials got to work immediately to cement Jong-un's position [Succession]
• Possibility of DPRK "succession crisis" could be excluded: experts
  English.news.cn 2010-09-13 20:25:40 TIANJIN, Sept. 13 (Xing) -- The possibility of the so called "succession crisis" in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) could be ruled out, leading experts on the Korean Peninsula said at the fourth Summer Davos on Monday. During a session open to international media on what if there is a "succession crisis" in DPRK, leading experts on the Korean Peninsula from China, South Korea and Japan agreed that the hypothetical question raised by some people from the international community is "inconceivable." It's not about a new leader, but "a new leadership structure," said Yang Xiyu, a senior fellow at China Institute of International Studies. By a decision announced by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in June, the WPK will hold a conference to elect its highest leading body.h According to the charter of the WPK, delegates will discuss and decide the policies and personnel changes of the party during the WPK conference. Kim Jong Il, top leader of the party, was unanimously elected a delegate at a meeting of the Korean People's Army and WPK on Aug. 25. Yang also said that the DPRK leadership is full of confidence, adding that the country has recently expressed its willingness to return to the six-party talks. On the unification of the Korean Peninsula, they believed that the DPRK and South Korea should play a major part in this process, while other parties concerned should support their integration. However, they agreed the integration of the Korean Peninsula still has a long way to go. The way in which West and East Germany unified might not work in this case, said Moon Chung-In, a professor of Political Science at South Korea's Yonsei University. The World Economic Forum's (WEF) Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010, also known as the fourth Summer Davos Forum, is being held on Sept. 13-15 in north China's Tianjin city. Forum topics not only include hot fields in world economic development and business trends, but also cover wider issues of global importance on politics, military affairs, security and social development, among others. [Succession] [China NK]
• Party Congress to Start, but Where Is Kim Jong-il?
  Most provincial party leaders have arrived in Pyongyang for an extraordinary congress of the Workers Party this month, and preparations for the event are almost complete, a South Korean government source said Sunday. Since the congress was announced for the first half of September, Seoul expects it to start around Monday
• Start of Party Congress 'Depends on Kim Jong-il's Health'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health will determine when the third extraordinary congress of the North Korean Workers Party finally starts, a North Korea expert speculates. The congress is the first of its kind in 44 years. [Health]
• DPRK marks 62nd anniversary of nation's founding
  Source: Xinhua [17:26 September 09 2010] Comments The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) holds a meeting to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of its founding at the 4.25 Cultural Hall in the capital of Pyongyang, Sept. 8, 2010, in this picture released by the country's KCNA news agency on Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday celebrated the 62nd anniversary of its founding as world attention continues to focus on a major conference of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the first of its kind in 44 years. State broadcasters were airing patriotic songs in the day while the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper ran an editorial urging the country's civilians and servicemen to be closely united around the WPK led by top leader Kim Jong Il. A state banquet will be held at People's Palace of Culture on the night to mark the special occasion.
• Chinese Book Casts New Light on Kim Il-sung's Death
  Ye Yonglie North Korea founder Kim Il-sung died of heart disease, a new Chinese book claims. Ye Yonglie, who also wrote a biography of Mao Zedong, makes the claim in a book titled "The Real North Korea" which also recounts the final moments of Kim's life. In 1994, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang to defuse the North Korean nuclear standoff and Kim was busy preparing for a summit he promised to hold in Seoul with the South Korean president. At the age of 82, Kim apparently still had a punishing work schedule, working more than 10 hours a day to prepare for the summit and to resolve North Korea's chronic food shortage. His son and heir Kim Jong-il was physically far less resilient and was resting in a provincial town, according to the book. [Kim Il Sung]
• Party Leaders Gather in Pyongyang
  Party leaders are arriving in Pyongyang to attend an extraordinary congress of the Workers Party, North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun daily reported Monday. It is the first extraordinary party congress since 1966, and that year it opened two days after the official media reported that the deputies were arriving. [Succession]
• N.Korean Regime Gears Up for Party Congress
  The North Korean Workers Party leadership convenes an extraordinary congress on Tuesday or Wednesday that is widely expected to anoint leader Kim Jong-il's son as his successor by giving him a senior post. [Succession]
• N.Korea Must Choose Between Reform or Collapse
  All eyes are on an extraordinary gathering this week of senior representatives of North Korea's Workers Party, the first one to be held in 44 years. According to regulations, such a gathering takes place between annual conventions only to handle emergency issues, such as policies and strategic planning. Until now, only two such congresses have taken place, one in 1958 and the other in 1966. [Agency] [Collapse]
• N. Korea's party members gathering for meeting
  Looking ahead at North Korea's leadership A career politician named Jang Song Taek recently became the second most powerful man in North Korea, injecting a dose of unpredictability to the power handoff playing out in Pyongyang between a father too sick and a son too young to manage the transition alone. By HYUNG-JIN KIM The Associated Press Monday, September 6, 2010; 1:19 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's ruling communist party members gathered in Pyongyang ahead of their largest political conference in 30 years, state media reported Monday, amid predictions that leader Kim Jong Il would use the meeting to give a key ruling party position to one of his sons. [Succession]
• N. Korea's leader set to begin power shift to son, experts say
  By Chico Harlan Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, September 5, 2010 TOKYO - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will probably use an upcoming meeting of party elites to introduce his heir apparent, initiating the Stalinist dictatorship's second hereditary power transfer, U.S. and South Korean experts and officials say. [Succession]
• North Korea Takes Steps to Extend Dynastic Rule
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: September 2, 2010 SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, is expected to convene a rare congress of the ruling Workers’ Party in coming days to pave the way for his son to succeed him, a feat of political engineering that would be a first in the Communist world: extending dynastic rule to a third generation. [Succession] [Media]

• Kim Jong-il is "healthy"
  North Korea’s aged leader may be healthier than what the outside world suspects him to be, eyewitness accounts of people who saw him during the leader’s China visit, showed. Kim Jong-il who has been making a secretive trip to China, has been very successful in being elusive. There has been no confirmed photo of him, taken by an enthusiastic pack of international journalists who have been tailing him. But the Chosun Ilbo newspaper was able to interview some employees of a Chinese hotel where Kim had stayed. [Health]
• INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS IN NORTH KOREA:SUCCESSION
  AUGUST27,2010 SPECIALREPORT6 38NORTH
  On July 15, 38 North held a workshop in Seoul, South Korea, which gathered together experts from the U.S., South Korea, Europe, China and Japan, to discuss the latest developments regarding North Korea, both internal and external, with the goal of identifying future research priorities. 38 North is pleased [Succession]
• N.Korea struck by heavy flooding
  A S.Korean Korean NGO council plans to meet with N.Korean officials in China to discuss humanitarian aid » Houses and farmland are submerged in water in Sinuiju after the Amnok (Yalu) River overflowed its banks, Aug. 21. (Korean Central News Agency of North Korea and Yonhap News Agency) By Kwon Hyeok-cheol The North Korean city of Sinuiju was struck by severe flood damage when the lower course of the Amnok (Yalu) River overflowed due to heavy rainfall on the border region between North Korea and China. In a report Sunday, North Korea’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) stated, “Road traffic was paralyzed and many individuals suffered damages when heavy rainfall in Northeast China on Thursday and Friday (reaching a maximum of 597mm) led to rapidly rising water levels on the Amnok River, causing water to instantaneously top the levee and rush toward downtown Sinuiju.”
• Flood Victims Rescued by Servicepersons
  Pyongyang, August 22 (KCNA) -- Planes of the air force and warships of the navy of the Korean People's Army rushed to the area of Sinuiju, North Phyongan Province, hit by sudden torrential rain and successfully conducted an emergency operation on August 21 to rescue the inhabitants who were at the crossroads of life and death. Unprecedented downpour hit the northeastern area of China on August 19 and 20, causing flooding in rivers. This also adversely affected the northwestern area of Korea. 5,300 cubic meters of water rushed into the River Amnok per second from a river of China, causing the water level of the river to rise suddenly from 0:00 on August 21. As a result, the river swelled in a minute, leaving even Sinuiju City inundated. This paralyzed traffic and did damage to many objects. Hardest hit by flooding were Sangdan-ri, Hadan-ri, Taji-ri, Soho-ri in Uiju County, Ojok Islet and Maksa Islet in Sinuiju City. They were completely submerged and single-story houses went under water. The flood victims were at a loss on the roof tops of buildings and hills. The institutions concerned took emergency measures to rescue the victims but the damage was so serious that they proved unsuccessful. Upon hearing this, General Secretary Kim Jong Il ordered KPA units to immediately launch rescue operations. Air force units sent dozens of planes and navy units warships and various types of means and succeeded in evacuating at least 5,150 flood victims to safe areas in close touch with officials of party and power organs and people's security organs in the flood-hit areas. The inhabitants in the flood-ravaged areas and servicepersons who were mobilized for the rescue operations noted in excited tone that the socialist system in the DPRK is the most advantageous and benevolent one as the life and properties of people are protected by servicepersons and Kim Jong Il is the greatest father as he provided this land of bliss for the people.
• Report: NKorean ex-premier returns to power
  The Associated Press Saturday, August 21, 2010; 4:15 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- A news report says a former North Korean premier who was apparently sacked for proposing a wage system deemed too similar to U.S.-style capitalism has returned to power after being demoted to being manager of a chemical plant. Yonhap news agency said Saturday that a North Korean radio report introduced Pak Pong Ju as the first deputy director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party. Yonhap reported Pak had been chief administrative manager of the Sunchon Vinalon Complex after being fired as premier in April 2007. Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported in 2007 that Pak was dismissed because he suggested an incentive-based wage system for workers. South Korea said it is not unusual for demoted officials in North Korea to return to power. [Spin] [Media]
• Kim Jong Il’s “Flowers for Kim Il Sung”
  By Kenneth B. Dekleva M.D. A cultural event in Vienna has given the Western world a peek, however small, into North Korea’s cultural and political life. An exhibition of art and architecture from the North, “Flowers for Kim Il Sung,” is currently showing at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) and offers a rare glimpse into North Korean public life (as wonderfully highlighted in Barbara Demick’s Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea and Andrei Lankov’s North of the DMZ, as well as in James Church’s ‘Inspector O’ mysteries). But beyond this, the exhibit’s themes may also proffer a hint at how the DPRK wants to be perceived by the West, and what may be important to Kim Jong Il as his country begins the process of succession.
• Kim Jong Il Enjoys Light Comedy "Echo of Mountain"
  Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il enjoyed light comedy "Echo of Mountain", Kim Il Sung Prize Laureate, now being put on local stages, at the Hamhung Grand Theatre together with servicepersons of the KPA. The light comedy is such masterpiece of the era that the more one watches it, the more profound truth of life one grasps, he said, adding that it has such outstanding influence and attraction as gripping the hearts of audience and giving full play to their mental power. This comedy, therefore, serves as a close companion and a textbook for our army and people in their life, he stressed.
• The Trouble with Kim Jong-il's Succession
  Kang Chol-hwan The North Korean party elite have recently felt the country is at something of a historic turning point, with regime change just around the corner. Leader Kim Jong-il believes that the only way for him to maintain his power is to establish the hereditary succession of his son, but it is doubtful whether the entire party agrees. [Succession]
• Society in Disarray: Crime, Corruption and Deepening Cognitive Dissonance in North Korea
  By Chung Young Chul North Korea’s current political and economic system is unsustainable. Its experiment with market forces in 2002 ironically unleashed social behavior that threatens to weaken the government’s control. South Korean scholar Chung Young Chul examines the history of those changes and prospects for further transformation in North Korea.
• Flooding Devastates Cities in China, N.Korea
  Heavy rains have caused serious flooding in China and North Korea after the river that marks their border breached banks on both sides Saturday. China's official news agency Xinhua said about 51,000 people had to be evacuated from Chinese communities along the Yalu River and that three people were reported missing. Reports say the swollen river punctured a dike near an economic development zone in China's port city of Dandong. North Korean official news agency KCNA reported heavy damage in the city of Sinuiju, across the river from Dandong. It said the city and surrounding farm communities were "severely affected," and that the military and civilians were involved in rescue efforts. In this photo released by Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service, houses and farmland are inundated by floodwaters in the North Koran city of Sinuiju on Aug. 21, 2010. /AP North Korean state media did not report how many people were affected. Nearly 4,000 people have been killed or left missing this year in flood-related incidents in China. Chinese emergency officials say the death toll from the massive mudslides in Zhouqu County, in northwest China's Gansu Province on August 8, has risen to 1,434 as of Saturday, with 331 people still missing. The National Meteorological Center has forecast torrential rains for China's northeastern, central and southwestern regions throughout the day.
• 65th anniversary of the Fatherland Liberation of the Korean people
  Dear friends, Warm greetings from the Korean Committee of Solidarity with the World People! We will soon greet the 65th anniversary of the Fatherland Liberation of the Korean people. August 15 is the day of national resurrection which has enabled the Korean people to free themselves from the Japanese colonial enslavement and a historic turning -point toward the new path of development. However, the outside forces deprived them from enjoying no longer the status of a liberated country and the Korean people had to face the tragic consequences of territorial division and national separation.
• Experts Predict Power Struggle When Kim Jong-il Dies
  Kim Jong-il's death will result in a power struggle among various factions of the ruling clique in North Korea rather than a smooth succession for his designated heir Kim Jong-un, experts predict. The experts were responding to a survey by a group calling itself the World Futures Forum on prospects for North Korea and reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Some 52.3 percent of respondents predicted a power struggle if Kim dies in the near future. A mere 30 percent said his third son and heir apparent Jong-un will succeed his father, while 18.2 percent predicted that a third powerful person will take power. The experts believed even if he succeeds his father, Kim junior will find it difficult to concentrate all the power in his hands. Some 71.7 percent said he will share power with other figures, and 23.9 percent said he will be overthrown as the power struggle intensifies. "Kim Jong-un's associates will eventually hold more power as he will have to rely on them because he is young and lacking in political and government experience," the group said. As for reunification, half of the respondents predicted the nation will not be reunified in the next 20 years. Some 36.4 percent said reunification is possible within a decade, and 9.1 percent within five or even three years. Most or 62.2 percent of respondents said the North will collapse and be absorbed by the South. A whopping 87 percent even believed that the reunification will benefit South Korea to a great extent. A total of 46 North Korean affairs and unification experts from 23 universities, think tanks and media companies took part in the survey. [Succession] [Collapse] [Takeover]

• Kim Jong-il's Decisions Get More Erratic
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered the demolition and rebuilding of a theater that was in perfect condition, adding to suspicions that his judgment is becoming severely impaired as a result of a stroke in 2008. Citing North Korean sources, Radio Free Asia reported on Monday that a national theater in Pyongyang was demolished in May and is being reconstructed. People there "seem to wonder why a building that was just renovated in 2003 is being rebuilt." The theater was torn down on May 9 just after Kim watched a play there, making his first public appearance since his visit to China early that month. Kim had apparently watched another performance of the same play there on April 27 and after his second visit had enough and ordered it rebuilt. [Kim Jong Il] [Media] [Health]
• North Korea Updates: Succession No Longer a Hush Topic
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org) As the Cheonan aftermath continues to drag on without closure, June has made one thing certain: the sinking of the Cheonan was directly tied to the leadership succession process currently under way in the North [Succession]
• The North Korean Worker’s Party Meeting of September 2010: Perpetuation of the Living Leader System or Transformation to the Enshrined Leader System?
  By Ruediger Frank July 8th, 2010 Ruediger Frank, Professor of East Asian Economy and Society art the University of Vienna, writes, “the wording of the announcement, formal issues, the short-term problem of creating legitimacy for a yet widely unknown grandson of Kim Il-sung, and a more systematic long-term analytical perspective suggest that the Party meeting in September will likely not announce a successor for Kim Jong-il, but rather create or upgrade a collective. This might or might not include Kim Jong-un; but it is hard to imagine that such a collective will not be headed by Kim Jong-il.” [Succession]
• North Korea: Unhappy Anniversaries
  By Aidan Foster-Carter July 6th, 2010 Aidan Foster-Carter, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea at Leeds University, writes, “Hence while the precise nature of September’s [WPK] meeting remains vague, like its exact date, it looks like a long overdue effort to restore a measure of due process to the Party. If this is in fact a full formal WPK congress, it would be the first since the Sixth Congress thirty years ago in October 1980. It was then that Kim Jong-il, hitherto veiled behind coded references to a mysterious ‘Party Centre’, was finally revealed in the flesh. The speculation is that this new meeting similarly will finally give the world a glimpse of the enigmatic Kim Jong-eun.” [Succession]
• NKorean killed for spreading Gospel: report
  2010-07-05 10:25 Text NKorean killed for spreading Gospel: report Choi Na-yeon wins LPGA title in playoff Won, rupee fall most among Asian currencies P.M. Chung expected to offer resignation Minimum wage set at 4,320 won per hour Bad loans drag savings banks into red Ronaldo becomes father Donga TV, Herald present concert Top 30 firms’ debts twice cash assets Factional strife to highlight GNP race A news report said Monday that a North Korean was killed for spreading Gospel. The Associated Press said Son Jong-nam was reportedly tortured to death for spreading the Gospel with 20 bibles and 10 cassette tapes in the reclusive state in 2009, 11 years after living in the neighboring area of China in 1998. [Religion]
• [century] Sudden death of N. Korean leader Kim Il-sung in 1994
  This undated file photo shows North Korean leader Kim Il-sung waving. The founder of the communist country died on July 8, 1994. / Korea Times This is the 27th in a 60-part series featuring 60 major events in Korea's modern history from 1884 till now. The project is part of the 60th anniversary of The Korea Times, which falls on Nov. 1. By Michael Breen Korea Times columnist The unexpected death of Kim Il-sung on July 8, 1994, was a milestone in the modern history of North Korea but one that, in retrospect, brought no significant change to the lives of the people on either side of the border. [Kim Il Sung]
• Another Code Word Hints at N.Korean Succession
  The byword "Party Center" used to describe Kim Jong-il when he was the heir to the North Korean leadership, has reappeared in the North Korean press. In an editorial on Wednesday about a Politburo meeting in September, the paper said, "We must defend with our lives the party's Politburo meeting attended by our Great Comrade Kim Jong-il and rally in support around the Party Center." The Politburo meets in September for the first time in 44 years. [Succession]
• Why the DPRK cannot survive three years
  By Jeremy Paltiel, Carleton University, 28 June 2010
  My professional research life began with the comparative study of the impact of successions on Leninist regimes. The recent news of an impending succession in the DPRK in combination with media images of a gaunt and frail Kim Jong-il, with rumours of pancreatic cancer, make it imperative to assess the impact of a succession there in the context of renewed DPRK nuclear defiance of the international community. Commentators, including well informed Chinese analysts are nearly unanimous that the latest nuclear provocations are intimately connected to Kim Jong-il’s plans for succession. A 16 June 2009 article in China’s authoritative Shijie Zhishi, makes it clear that Kim’s nuclear option is not a ’card’ to be negotiated away but a permanent bid to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state. Such a candid admission by the state that initially sponsored and hosted the Six-Party Talks deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness. [Collapse] [Succession] [Prediction]

• Kim Jong-il's Son 'Set Up as Figurehead of Military Regime'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir apparent Kim Jong-un was elected as a deputy to the 12th Supreme People's Assembly in March last year, a North Korean source in a Western country said on Monday. He has not so far been known to have been given any official post as the regime maneuvers him into position to succeed his father. The source quoted a North Korean official as saying that Kim Jong-un was nominally elected from Constituency No. 216. At the time, his name was not on the list of new deputies because the North tried to conceal his election, the source added. [Succession]
• A North Korean leadership car crash
  June 21st, 2010 Author: Aidan Foster-Carter, Leeds University Succession is the Achilles’ heel of dictatorships, for obvious reasons. In extreme cases, such as North Korea, even contemplating the mortality of the leader is seen as lese-majeste, as if this somehow threatens the quasi-monarch’s vaunted omnipotence and implicit immortality. [Succession]
• N. Korea may formalize power transfer from Kim Jong Il to 3rd son, analysts say
  By Chico Harlan and John Pomfret Sunday, June 27, 2010 TOKYO -- North Korea announced Saturday that it would hold a rare meeting that analysts predicted would herald the rise of Kim Jong Un, a son of ruler Kim Jong Il, as the new leader of the isolated Stalinist dictatorship. Official state news media reported that delegates from the ruling Korean Workers' Party would meet in September to select a new party leadership. Analysts said the gathering had all the hallmarks of a similar meeting in 1980 when Kim Jong Il was elevated to the Politburo to replace his father, Kim Il Sung. The planned handoff of power, a topic of speculation since Kim Jong Il, 68, suffered an apparent stroke in August 2008, comes as nuclear-armed North Korea must deal with a crumbling economy, famine and the international response to its recent deadly sinking of a South Korean warship. Tensions have skyrocketed in the region since a North Korean mini-submarine fired a torpedo into the Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 sailors. [Succession] [Media]
• N.Korea Boosts Propaganda for Kim Jong-il's Son
  North Korea's ailing leader Kim Jong-il is speeding up the transfer of power to his son Jong-un, intelligence suggests. "There is intelligence information indicating Kim Jong-un accompanied Kim Jong-il on an inspection tour last week to North Pyongan Province," a South Korean government official said Thursday. "One thing that is certain is that posters lauding Jong-un were hung in the factory Kim Jong-il toured." [Succession]
• Kim Jong-il Lights Up Again
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has apparently taken up smoking again after kicking the habit following a massive stroke in August 2008, South Korean government sources say. An ashtray sits at Kim's right hand in a Korean Central News Agency photograph showing the dictator at a football stadium in North Pyongan Province on Saturday. "If a stroke patient smokes again, the chances of a relapse increase," said one neurologist. And for diabetics like Kim "smoking can cause heart disease by damaging blood vessels," he added. Kim apparently underwent heart surgery around May 2007. [Media] [Opportunity]
• NK leader makes robust outings
  In one of his most energetic public outings this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il inspected a training base for military officers and a string of industrial facilities, the communist state's official media reported Sunday. Kim "inspected the training center for commanding officers of KPA Unit 593" while visiting a mine, an electronics factory, a co-operative farm and a machine complex in northwestern North Korea, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in reports datelined Saturday. Pyongyang's media usually report on Kim's activities a day late.
  Since apparently suffering a stroke 2008, 68-year-old Kim has stepped up his public activities. The number of his outings reached an all-time high last year, coming in at about 200. [Health] [Kim Jong Il] [Intelligence]
• Kim being duped by subordinates
  Power may be shifting to son, or aides are too fearful to tell the truth June 21, 2010 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il inspects chicken eggs during a trip last October to a poultry farm located in the communist state’s North Pyongan Province. [YONHAP] Kim Jong-il’s subordinates are duping their leader with false or deliberately incomplete reports on national affairs, according to sources in Seoul informed of North Korean politics, a possible indication that his grip on power may be weakening. The sources said there are two possible reasons why Kim is being cut out of the information loop. First, power may be shifting to his son Jong-un, perhaps faster than the North Korean leader desires. Other sources say the situation in the North, in particular its economy, is simply too bad for Kim’s subordinates to admit. In either case, Kim is being prevented from grasping the full reality of what’s going on in North Korea. [Kim Jong Il] [Succession] [Media] [Takeover]
• DPRK shakes up elite in order to meet 2012 ‘strong and prosperous’ goal
  Posted Date : 2010-06-14 (NK Brief No. 10-06-14-2) During the third session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly, convened on June 7, Kim Jong Il promoted his brother-in-law Jang Sung Thaek to vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission (NDC), named a new premier, and replaced several department heads and ministers. This appears to be an attempt to shore up the regime as it seeks to “open the door to a strong and prosperous nation” by 2012, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Il made a personal appearance at this latest assembly meeting, unlike the SPA meeting held in April. The leader’s presence hints at the importance of the latest gathering. This promotion of Jang Sung Thaek and shake up of Cabinet positions appears to be part of efforts to realize the quickly approaching goal of establishing a ‘strong and prosperous nation’ by 2012, assigning those most able to positions of responsibility, regardless of age or experience. Most notably, Jang, widely thought to be second-in-command in North Korea, was promoted to vice-chairman of the NDC. He was first appointed to the NDC at the first meeting of the 12th SPA in April 2009, making his climb to vice-chairman in a mere 14 months.
• Kim Jong-il’s aides dupe the frail leader
  When North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited a chicken farm in Pyongan Bukdo province last October, the local officials showed the leader a farm, full of chickens and eggs to please him. What Kim probably didn’t know was that the local officials brought chickens and eggs from other nearby farms when they realized that the farm didn’t have enough of its own. As North Korea is allegedly speeding up its process of power transfer, Kim Jong-il’s grip on power is “decreasing greatly,” the local JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unnamed government source. The government official told the newspaper that there have been especially an increase of inaccurate, usually exaggerated, economic reports to Kim recently, and the leader is clueless. Since Kim suffered a stroke in the summer of 2008, officials surrounding Kim have been withdrawing reports that might negatively influence Kim’s health, it said. “Kim Jong-un (the heir-apparent) sometimes screens reports coming from the military and the security apparatus and makes judgments on which to be reported to Kim Jong-ill,” the official said. Kim Jong-il recently found out about the situation and ordered all the reports to arrive directly at his secretary’s office, it said [Kim Jong Il] [Media] [Health] [Intelligence]
• Most Young Defectors Watched S.Korean Films in N.Korea
  The majority of teenage North Korean defectors encountered South Korean media in the North, a survey shows. Yoon Sun-hee, a professor at Hanyang University who conducted the survey of 140 middle and high-schoolers said some 80 of them had seen media content from the South, mostly films on DVD and video. Asked to how often they came in contact with them, half of the respondents said whenever they wanted -- a testament to the high penetration level and dissemination of South Korean media in the North. The majority responded positively to the materials but said that they had to watch them secretly as they would have been arrested if caught. Most Young Defectors Watched S.Korean Films in N.KoreaThe majority of teenage North Korean defectors encountered South Korean media in the North, a survey shows. Yoon Sun-hee, a professor at Hanyang University who conducted the survey of 140 middle and high-schoolers said some 80 of them had seen media content from the South, mostly films on DVD and video. Asked to how often they came in contact with them, half of the respondents said whenever they wanted -- a testament to the high penetration level and dissemination of South Korean media in the North. The majority responded positively to the materials but said that they had to watch them secretly as they would have been arrested if caught. [Culture war]
• N Korea reshuffle gives clues to Kim succession
  By Song Jung-a in Seoul Published: June 7 2010 10:29 | Last updated: June 7 2010 22:16 The brother-in-law of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il was promoted on Monday by the country’s parliament to a key defence role as part of a leadership reshuffle that analysts said appeared to be aimed at ensuring a smooth transition of power from Mr Kim to his third son, Kim Jong-eun [Succession]
• N.Korean Reshuffle 'Aimed at Cementing Succession'
  Hwang Jang-yop North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law Jang Song-taek was appointed vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission on Monday to pave the way for a smooth transfer of power from Kim to his son, according to a senior defector from the Stalinist country. Hwang Jang-yop, a former secretary of the North Korean Workers' Party and the highest-ranking official from the North to defect, said Tuesday, "Jang Song-taek was thrust into the forefront because Kim Jong-il believes he is the best candidate in assisting the handover of power and raising the image of the National Defense Commission." [Succession]
• Rare photos of the North Korean leader’s family
  12345678© AFP/ Joongang Sungday Via Joongang Ilbo North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s eldest son, based in China, dismissed reports that he had contemplated applying for political asylum in Europe. According to the site newsru.com, in an interview with the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, the 39-year-old Kim Jong-Nam said he had no plans to leave Macau. And he allowed the South Korean reporters who were visiting him in Macau to take a few pictures. In the photo: Kim Jong-Nam, June 2010 [Kim Jong Il]
• Kim Jong-il's Bloody Purges
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is apparently conducting another purge of senior officials to cement his hold on power, the latest in a series of such maneuvers since he came to power in the 1990s. Some 100 senior officials were ousted in the latest purge, including Pak Nam-gi, the director of the Workers Party's Planning and Finance Department, who was executed by firing squad over the botched currency reform late last year. That was Kim's fifth massive purge. [Media]
• N.Korea's Rule of 4
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law Jang Song-taek was appointed vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission on Monday, making him the effective No.2 in the Stalinist country, South Korean media reported on Tuesday. But defectors who were high-ranking officials in North Korea said Jang was promoted to join a core quartet centering around O Kuk-ryol, also a vice chairman of the NDC, along with Kim Yong-chun and U Dong-chuk.
• N.Korea Gets New Premier
  North Korea in a rare extra parliamentary session on Monday promoted leader Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law Jang Song-taek to vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, the top policy-making body. Prime Minister Kim Yong-il was fired over a botched currency reform late last year and replaced with Choe Yong-rim (81), the chief secretary of the Pyongyang branch of the Workers Party. Kim Jong-il made a rare appearance at the session and personally proposed Jang's appointment. Vice premiers Kwak Bom-gi, O Su-yong and Pak Myong-son were also fired and replaced with Kang Nung-su, a Workers Party director, Kim Rak-hee, a party secretary in South Hwanghae Province, Ri Tae-nam, a party secretary from South Pyongan Province, and Jon Ha-chol, a former politburo member. The minister of machinery production Jo Byong-ju and minister of the electronics industry Han Kwang-bok were also appointed as vice premiers. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attends the third session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on Monday. /[North] Korean Central News Agency-Newsis Experts say the appointment of Jang to the North's effective No. 2 post and the promotion of Culture Minister Kang Neung-soo to vice premier are part of preparations for the dynastic succession from Kim Jong-il to his third son Jong-un. Jang is apparently Jong-un's strongest champion. The regime used the word "recall" to refer to the sacking of the premier, vice premier and other ministers. A South Korean intelligence official said the usage of that word was meant to hold those officials
• Kim Jong-il's Brother-in-Law Cements Favored Position
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visits the Victorious Battle of Pochonbo Memorial Tower in Hyesan, Yanggang Province. Accompanying him are Jang Song-taek, his brother-in-law and administration director of the North Korean Workers Party (left) and Ri Je-gang, the first deputy director of the Workers Party's Organization and Guidance Department, who died in a mysterious car accident last week. /[North] Korean Central News Agency-Yonhap North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law Jang Song-taek was appointed vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission on Monday, rising to the effective No. 2 post in the Stalinist country.
• N.Korean Regime Tries to Regain Grip on Power
  The North Korean Cabinet was subjected to a sweeping reshuffle on Monday that saw the prime minister sacked to take the fall for a disastrous currency reform late last year. Pundits guess the reshuffle was aimed at placating public opinion over the dismal economic situation. "The North Korean regime has started to notice public sentiment of the public," said one South Korean intelligence official.
• New childhood photos of N. Korea's heir apparent unveiled
  2010-06-08 10:09 Voiceware Text N. Korea promotes Kim’s brother-in-law N. Korea promotes Kim’s brother-in-law Sprinter breaks 31-year-old 100m record Naro space rocket ready for launch Israeli president’s visit downgraded to ‘working-level’ [Countdown to kick-off (6)] Can Korea reach the second round? Europe concerns cloud KOSPI outlook World Cup safety concerns triggered by a stampede Markets tumble on Hungary concerns LG Display to expand iPad panel shipments New childhood photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's third son became public on Tuesday, as chances of the mysterious young man inheriting the communist state with nuclear ambitions heightened after a string of parliamentary promotions earlier this week, Yonhap News reported. (Yonhap) The photos of Kim Jong-un, believed to be now in his late 20s, include one where he is standing among children posing for a group shot against what looks to be a schoolyard. Kim purportedly spent much of his childhood studying in Berne, Switzerland. One of the photos showed a grinning Kim with his arms around who appeared to his classmate. [Succession]
• Kim Il-sung Audio Among 'Treasures' of N.Korean Encyclopedia
  An electronic version of the "Korean Encyclopedia" published in North Korea contains ample multimedia resources such as voice recording of leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. The 30-volume printed encyclopedia was turned into electronic format in 2005, and Free North Korea Radio recently obtained a copy. Out of over 100,000 items listed in the encyclopedia, some 100 contain video clips, 300 music files, and 15,000 images. All entries related to Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and his mother Kim Jong-sook are classified in a special section. Some noticeable items include footage of Kim Il-sung in a meeting with aides just before his death in July 1994. Kim Jong-il's voice can be heard in a video clip of the 60th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the North Korean People's Army on Apr. 25, 1992. In his speech, Kim Jong-il shouts, "Glory be to the heroic soldiers of the Korean People's Army!" in what is believed to have been his sole public speech. The encyclopedia refers to South Korean presidents as "puppets" and "traitors." Its evaluation on the Kim Dae-jung administration, which adopted the Sunshine Policy of engagement with North Korea, is that it "publicized stability and change, but essentially nothing changed."
• North leader’s son denies asylum rumors
  Kim Jong-nam gives first interview to South media June 07, 2010 Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, waves as he leaves his first-ever interview with South Korean media. By Shin In-seop MACAU - The reclusive eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il gave his first-ever interview to South Korean reporters last Friday after being tracked down at a hotel in Macau, China. Although Kim Jong-nam said little in the brief exchange, he denied rumors that he has been trying to seek refuge in Europe since allegedly coming under threat of assassination after losing a power struggle to his younger brother Kim Jong-un last year. “I have no plans on moving to Europe. Why would I?” he said. “I could go there for a vacation, but I think you have only heard rumors.” By Ahn Sung-kyoo [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr] [Succession] [Media]
• N.Korean Eminence Grise Dead in Mysterious Circumstances
  Ri Je-gang A powerful North Korean official has suddenly died in mysterious circumstances. North Korea on Wednesday evening announced the death in a car accident of Ri Je-gang (80), the first deputy director of the Workers Party's Organization and Guidance Department. Ri worked at the powerful department directly supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il for 37 years. He was apparently deeply involved in establishing the succession for Kim's son Jong-un. Kim Jong-un's mother, the late Ko Yong-hee, reportedly asked him to make sure that one of her sons, Jong-chol or Jong-un, succeeds their father. Ko died in 2004. Senior positions in the party, the government, and the military were more or less in Ri’s gift. Experts say there is something fishy about the sudden death of this eminence grise. It is possible that Ri was killed while driving his own car drunk after participating in one of Kim Jong-il’s secret parties, which happened to Kim Yong-sun, a party secretary in charge of South Korean affairs, in 2003 at the age of 69. But chances are slim that the octogenarian Ri drove himself. [Media] [Spin]
• Kim Jong-il Pops Up at Military Event
  Kim Jong-il North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has appeared in public for the first time since an international inquiry concluded 12 days ago that North Korea sank the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan. The North Korean media had kept silent about his activities since the findings were announced, but the official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday reported that Kim watched a performance by an art propaganda band of the Guard Command of the North Korean Army.
• Expert Fills in Blanks About N.Korean Succession
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Jong-nam, who lives in virtual exile in Macau, has apparently been sidelined to the extent that he is happy for his daughter to be close friends with a South Korean girl, an intelligence expert said Tuesday. Nam Sung-wook, director of the Institute for National Security Strategy, delivered the tidbit in a lecture about national security hosted by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. It would appear to confirm the open secret that Kim's ideologically sounder third son Jong-un has been picked to succeed his ailing father instead. Kim Jong-nam, who makes his home in Beijing and Macau, has a son and a high school-age daughter whose close South Korean friend often visits their home, Nam said. Nam said it seems Kim Jong-un was picked because the North Korean leader's middle son, Jong-chol, is disabled as a result of a car accident and suffers from a hormonal disorder. Nam predicted the succession will be complete by 2012. Kim senior suffered a stroke in 2008 and is partly paralyzed. Rumor has it he also suffers from kidney failure. The expert said the succession may have been among a welter of reasons why the North sank the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan. [Espionage] [Succession]
• Nonsmoking Campaign Encouraged
  Pyongyang, May 31 (KCNA) -- The nonsmoking campaign has been intensified in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. After a tobacco control law was enacted in the country some time ago, extensive activities have been conducted to put it into force. The Korean Tobacco Association was organized in the country to take measures for properly carrying out the state policies concerning tobacco production, joint venture, collaboration, bonded processing, import, export and sale. Smoking is prohibited in theatres, cinema houses, schools, hospitals, sidewalks, stops, traffic means and other public places and violators are exposed to legal sanctions. Health institutions and mass media have introduced the harmful effect of tobacco on health, environmental protection and economic development in varied forms and methods. Meanwhile, the Tobacco Substitutes Exhibition in Sosong District, Pyongyang, has been visited by many people. The exhibition informs the visitors of the harmfulness and aftereffect of tobacco with videos and printed matters for propaganda. It also provides them with tobacco substitutes and tonics such as nutritive pills, chewing gum and tobacco filter. On the World No Tobacco Day, May 31, Ri Yon Ok, chief of the exhibition, told KCNA that many people have quitted smoking with the help of the exhibition. We will produce many goods helping people quit smoking and expand the scientific and technical exchange with many countries encouraging nonsmoking, she added. To mark the day diversified activities have been conducted in the country such as a symposium on measures to protect people from passive smoking.

• N.Korean Brat Pack 'Behind Global Crime'
  A brat pack of children of the most powerful officials in North Korea have been involved in worldwide distribution of forged US$100 bills and drug smuggling, the Washington Times reported on Tuesday. Citing U.S. intelligence officials, the daily said the group, named "Ponghwajo" (torch group), was unmasked when South Korea and the U.S. were looking to take sanctions against North Korea. Ponghwajo is led by O Se-won, the son of Gen. O Kuk-ryol, a senior leader in North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission. Kang Tae-seung, the son of First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju, and Kim Chol, the son of Kim Won-hong, head of the People's Army Security Command, are among members. [Media] [Toolkit]
• Will dormant Mt. Baekdu volcano awaken?
  By Park Si-soo Staff reporter Mountain Baekdu, a dormant volcano on the border between North Korea and China, is showing signs of a possible eruption in the near future, experts warned Tuesday. "Baekdu could erupt anytime soon," said geologist Yoon Sung-hyo at Pusan National University, who has monitored the nation's highest mountain (2,744 meters) for any changes. "A variety of indicators are backing this scenario. The thing we should try to predict is when. It's clear it's imminent." The geologist cautiously raised speculation that an eruption could take place in a couple of years.
• N.Korea Announces Surprise Parliamentary Session
  North Korea's rubberstamp parliament will unusually convene again next month, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday. The session comes just two months after parliament convened on April 9. This is the first time that the Supreme People's Assembly has convened twice in the span of just two months. When former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung was in power, parliament met twice a year -- in the first and second half. But since Kim Jong-il came to power, sessions have been held only once a year.
• DPRK SPA to Be Held
  Pyongyang, May 18 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly on Monday issued a decision on convening the SPA. According to the decision, the 3rd Session of the 12th SPA will be convened in Pyongyang on June 7.
• N.Korea's Succession Campaign Stirs Up More Discontent
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il appears to have stepped up a campaign to pave his son Jong-un's way for the succession, the New York Times reported last month. Until late last year, Jong-un was rarely mentioned by name, but sources in North Korea say since January Kim junior has been publicized to the entire population beginning with the military. [Succession] [Media]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Samjiyon County
  Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il provided field guidance to the work in various fields of Samjiyon County. He first looked round the statue of President Kim Il Sung on the shore of Lake Samji and the Samjiyon Grand Monument and other places to learn in detail about the management of battle sites and how education is conducted through them.
• Great Man of Century
  Sixteen years have passed since the death of President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), father of socialist Korea. However, his image as a great man of the century remains etched deep in the memory of many people around the world. He was a peerlessly great man who authored the guiding ideology of the era of independence and thus illumined the way for mankind to take [Kim Il Sung]
• North admiral ousted from all posts
  May 15, 2010    Kim Il-chol North Korea announced yesterday that it relieved a Navy admiral and senior member of its highest decision-making body of all his posts, citing his old age. North Korea rarely announces the removal of an individual official based on age, but the official Korean Central News Agency said in a single-paragraph report that Kim Il-chol, 80, was relieved of all his duties as a member of the National Defense Commission (NDC) and first vice minister of the People’s Armed Forces.   [Media] [Spin]
• Decision on Relieving Kim Il Chol of All Posts Issued  
  Pyongyang, May 14 (KCNA) -- Kim Il Chol was relieved of the posts as member of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and first vice-minister of the People's Armed Forces for his advanced age of 80, according to Decision No. 06 of the NDC issued on May 13. 
• Jang Song-taek Seen as Powerful Figure Behind N.Korean Throne
  Jang Song-taek, the administration director of the North Korean Workers' Party, seems firmly established as a powerful éminence grise in the North Korean regime, a status confirmed during Kim's recent China trip. Jang, who is Kim's brother in law, was seated closer to the leader than his nominal rank warrants during official events on the trip, including a welcoming banquet hosted by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
• Kim Jong-il Still Paralyzed After Stroke
  His left hand also seemed nearly immobile and his entire body supported by his right leg. Kim reportedly had a stroke in August 2008. He appeared on the leadership platform during a session of the Supreme People's Assembly in April last year with a pronounced limp. "It seems that he's suffering the physiological sequelae of cerebral hemorrhage or cerebral infarction in the right brain. This is why he can't move his left arm and left leg freely," a doctor said. "The fact that he can't use his left arm and left leg freely even though a year and a half have passed since he had the stroke suggests that the sequelae have reached a level where it's difficult to recover." Meanwhile, photos show that Kim has also lost a lot of hair. Experts speculate that may be age-related or point to kidney trouble as some dialysis patients lose much of their hair. [Kim Jong Il] [health]
• 'Millions of N.Koreans Listen to Foreign Radio Broadcasts'
  Millions of North Koreans listen to dozens of foreign radio broadcasts transmitted by Japan, South Korea and the U.S., and the number is growing. This is according to Peter Beck, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, who said that it is quite a phenomenon given that Pyongyang authorities distribute only radios with fixed dials, block foreign broadcasts, and imprison citizens caught listening to foreign radio for as long as 10 years.

• How N.Korea's Ruling Family Swells Its Private Coffers
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son and the heir apparent Kim Jong-un is already said to be busy amassing his own slush fund. Despite North Korea's dire economic difficulties, Kim Jong-il himself is said to have stashed away between US$200-300 million every year to finance his lavish lifestyle and maintain the party elite's loyalty to him. With the money, North Korea would be able to import between 400,000 to 600,000 tons of rice, which would be enough to cover half the country's food shortage of 1 million tons of rice per year. [Media] [Black] [Personalisation]
• Defectors Recount Nightmare in N.Korean Camps
  Tales of unimaginable suffering were at the core of testimony from former inmates of North Korea's political concentration camps at a press conference Monday. "I ate whatever I could put into my mouth, except stones," recalled an inmate at the Yodok camp between 2000 and 2002. "Grain stock was checked every day and we were kept away from grains, so you had this extreme pain of being unable to eat them even if they were within sight," he said. "As starving inmates surreptitiously ate seeds, security guards sprayed pesticides on the seeds, so many died from eating the poisoned seeds." [Defector reports] [Human rights]
• Close Aide to Kim Jong-il Dies
  Ri Yong-chol Ri Yong-chol, who oversaw military organization and personnel in the North Korean Workers' Party for the past 16 years, has died, the North's state-run Korean Central Television reported Monday. He was in charge of military affairs in the party's core Organizational Committee. "Comrade Ri died at the age of 81 at 12:20 a.m. on Monday due to a heart attack," said a statement by the Central Committee, Military Committee and the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.
• Kim Jong-il Watches Massive (sic) Military Drill
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Saturday visited the 115th Army Unit, where he watched a massive drill marking the 78th anniversary of the North Korean military. "As soon as an order was given to begin the exercise, various kinds of artillery pieces discharged shells. Their powerful gunfire razed an [hypothetical] enemy camp to the ground and turned it into a sea of fire in an instant. A river-crossing unit led by tanks rained fire on the enemy and seized the river area immediately," [North] Korean Central Broadcasting reported. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il watches a military drill at the 115th Army Unit on Sunday marking the 78th anniversary of the North Korean military. /[North] Korean Central News Agency-Yonhap In the drill, the military mobilized multi-barrel rocket launchers capable of hitting Seoul and vicinity directly. The 170 mm self-propelled guns and 240 mm MBRLs the North has deployed forward have ranges of 40 to 90 km. The North's official KCNA news agency on Sunday quoted Kim as saying after the drill, "The People's Army has grown into a strong army fortified with an unchangeable determination to guard the leader and to become bombs and blow themselves up. Now the soldiers are ready to defeat and thwart any invasion by the enemy at the right moment." [Media]
• North Korea Appears to Tap Leader’s Son as Enigmatic Heir
  By MARTIN FACKLER Published: April 24, 2010 SUNGNAM, South Korea — The black-and-white photographs that were published last month in a North Korean newspaper appear no different from other propaganda coming from North Korea: they show the supreme leader, Kim Jong-il, touring a steel plant in a fur cap and his trademark sunglasses. It is the pudgy but stern-faced young man next to him, dressed in a snappy Western suit and dutifully scribbling in a notebook, who has spurred intense speculation. Could this unidentified man be just a plant manager? Or could this be the first public appearance of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader’s third son and heir apparent? “There, see how his face is in focus and illuminated even more than Kim Jong-il himself?” said Cheong Seong-chang, a specialist on North Korean politics at the Sejong Institute. “There is a high possibility that this is Kim Jong-un.” [Succession] [Media] [Intelligence]
• Kim Jong Il Watches Combined Exercise of KPA Unit 567  
    Pyongyang, April 13 (KCNA) -- General Secreatry Kim Jong Il watched a combined exercise of Large Combined Unit 567 of the KPA staged on the occasion of the Day of the Sun. After receiving a salute, he mounted an observation platform to be briefed on the plan of the exercise and watch it.  
• Dams Under Construction Near N. Korean Gulags  
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter An international law professor has claimed Monday that dams are under construction near six gulags in North Korea to destroy evidence of possible genocide there. Satellite photos showed several dams are being built in the mountainous regions near the notorious prison camps, including Yodok prison. Inmates of the prison camps reportedly number approximately 200,000, suffering from fear of public execution, starvation and extreme malnutrition. ``According to intelligence and witness accounts from North Korean defectors, the North may blow up the dams to kill the inmates in the event of a sudden change there," said Professor Hong Seong-phil of Yonsei University in Seoul. Hong reminded the attendees of the fact that those responsible for genocide in Poland, Germany and other nations ended up being brought to justice after their dictatorial leaderships were brought to an end. ``As those in power in the North are aware of the consequences that their antecedents in other countries had to take after the change, they will want to destroy evidence,'' he claimed during a seminar hosted by Rep. Park Sun-young of the Liberty Forward Party at the National Assembly. But Kim Sang-ug, a legislative researcher at the National Assembly Research Service, was skeptical about the possibility of North Korea using the dams to kill political prisoners. ``The North has built dams to provide industries and households with power. If North Korea wants to hurt political prisoners, those dams are supposed to be located downstream of the prison camps,'' he said. Kim said it's hard to confirm if the North has the motives to kill the inmates with the dam project because information about their exact location is unavailable.   [Takeover] [Human rights] [Evidence] [Media]
• Kim Jong-il 'Gets 20% of N.Korea's Budget for His Own Use'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il can freely dispose of 20 percent of his country's budget, a former secretary of North Korean Workers' Party has said that. Hwang Jang-yop told the Asahi Shimbun, "Only 30 percent of the budget is spent on public services, while 50 percent is earmarked for military spending." Hwang defected to South Korea in 1997.
• Kim Jong-il Misses Session of N.Korean Parliament
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il failed to show at the second session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly in Pyongyang last Friday. It was the fifth time he has been absent from an SPA session since he took the top power in 1998. A South Korean security official said it seems rumors that Kim Jong-il was away in China for a visit are not true. "He has been absent several times in the past from SPA sessions that dealt mainly with budget issues," he added.
• SPA of DPRK Meets
  Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- The 2nd Session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK was held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Friday. It was attended by deputies to the SPA. Officials of Party, armed forces and power organs, public organizations, ministries and national institutions and those in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and media attended it as observers. The session discussed the following agenda items: "1. On the work of the DPRK Cabinet in Juche 98 (2009) and its tasks for Juche 99 (2010)", "2. On the results of the implementation of the DPRK state budget for Juche 98 (2009) and its state budget for Juche 99 (2010)", "3. On the adoption of the ordinance of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly 'On revising some provisions of the DPRK Socialist Constitution'" and "4. Organizational matter".
• Report on Implementation of 2009 Budget and 2010 Budget
  Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- Deputy Pak Su Gil, vice-premier and minister of Finance, delivered a report on the results of the implementation of the DPRK state budget for last year and its state budget for this year at the 2nd Session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly held on Friday. According to the report, the state budget for last year was successfully implemented and, as a result, the state budgetary revenue was overfulfilled 1.7 per cent, an increase of 7 per cent over the previous year. Ministries, national institutions, management bureaus and complexes overfulfilled the national plans for budgetary revenue and all provinces, cities and counties across the country also overfulfilled their plans for local budgetary revenue. Last year's plan for state budgetary expenditure was carried out at 99.8 per cent. An investment from the state budget was focused on the development of metal industry while a huge financial allocation was made for the power and coal industries and the railway transport. 8.6 per cent more funds than the previous year were spent for capital construction and expenditure was increased for agriculture and light industry. A 7.2 per cent greater financial disbursement than the previous year was made for the field of science and technology, surpassing the level of the latest science and technology in domains of space technology, nuclear technology and CNC technology and putting the key industries of the national economy on a high scientific and technological basis.
  A large amount of fund went to the field of cultural construction and 15.8 per cent of the total state budgetary expenditure was spent for national defence.
• New Research Suggests N.Koreans Souring Toward Government
  North Korea's parliament has convened, for a session widely seen as political theater to approve decisions made from above. However, new research indicates political sentiment is not as unanimous around the country as it is in Pyongyang's halls of marble.
  But not all political winds are blowing in Kim's direction. Marcus Noland, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says a recent survey of North Korean defectors indicates a souring mood toward the leadership. "There's increasingly negative feelings toward the regime, and increasing disbelief of the regime's basic narrative that ascribes all ills to hostile foreign forces," he said [Sanctions] [Inversion] [Agency] [Defector reports]
• N. Korea not in danger of imminent collapse
  April 08, 2010 06:36 The highest ranking North Korean official who defected to South Korea says North Korea will not collapse soon despite its dire situation, a report said yesterday. Hwang Jang-yop, former secretary of North Korean ruling Workers’ Party, was quoted by Kyoto News Agency as saying this in a closed lecture in Tokyo Tuesday. “In North Korea, the influence of the late leader Kim Il Sung remains strong. So even if Kim Jong Il has health problems, North Korea will see no major upheaval as long as Kim Kyong Hui, Kim Jong Il’s younger sister and a Workers’ Party director, remains in power,” Hwang said. He added that a coup d’état by North Korea`s military is unlikely since it has been indoctrinated by ideology. [Collapse]
• Signs of big-bang in North Korea?
  April 3rd, 2010 Author: Eui-Gak Hwang, Korea University and ICSEAD Amid unconfirmed reports that China, North Korea’s chief ally, is preparing a contingency plan on the basis that the isolated North may collapse, Yonhap News reported [Korean] that Park Nam-ki, former head of Planning and Finance of the DPRK Workers Party, was executed last week as a scapegoat for the failed North Korean currency re-evaluation last October. The currency re-valuation (each 100 old North Korean won was exchanged for 1 unit of new currency) was aimed at recouping money hoarded by those families who have relatives abroad or access to foreign currency, and had a serious impact on the daily living standards of many people. [Collapse] [Inversion] [Agency] [Takeover] [Economic reform]
• They’re Not Brainwashed, They’re Just Miserable
  What North Koreans really want. BY MARCUS NOLAND | MARCH 30, 2010 This month, North Korea reportedly executed the Korean Workers' Party's economic policy director, Pak Nam Gi, for being a "bourgeois infiltrator" who ruined the country's economy. Upon his 2005 appointment to the position, a post akin to a finance minister, Pak had allegedly vowed to put an end to the "capitalist fantasy." But the 77-year-old technocrat's disastrous currency-reform program, launched Nov. 30, 2009, ended up damaging something very real: the informal market economy that today provides for most North Koreans' sustenance. The "reform" chopped two zeros off the currency, gave citizens only a brief window to exchange their wealth, and capped the amount of old bills that North Koreans could trade in at roughly $40. [Economic reform] [Sanctions] [Inversion] [Context] [Defector reports]
• N. Korean Refugees View Regime With Skepticism
  April 1, 2010 A new survey of North Korean refugees living in South Korea and China suggests an increasing number of North Koreans view Kim Jong Il's regime with skepticism. Marcus Noland, deputy director of the Peterson Institute, one of the authors of the study, offers his insight. Copyright © 2010 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: From NPR News, I'm Robert Siegel. MICHELE NORRIS, host: I'm Michele Norris, and this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. SIEGEL: North Korea is notoriously opaque: a dynastic, communist dictatorship where dissent is not tolerated, and the media are state-controlled. So assessing public opinion among North Koreans sounds like, at best, a crude business. A new study attempts to do that by sampling opinion among North Korean refugees, and the authors conclude that opposition to the North Korean regime, cynicism about it and listening to foreign news sources about it are all on the rise. [Economic reform] [Sanctions] [Inversion] [Context] [Defector reports]
• North Korea Turns in a Widening Gyre
  by Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute for International Economics Op-ed published in Handelsblatt as "Gescheiterte Reform destabilisiert Nordkorea" March 30, 2010 English language version © Peterson Institute for International Economics Last month, Park Nam-ki, the North Korean Workers Party Economic Policy Director, was reportedly executed for his role in the country's disastrous currency reform. Whether or not the reports of Park's untimely demise prove accurate, we may be witnessing the beginning of a transformation if not the end of the country's political regime. On November 30, 2009, the government sprang on the public a confiscatory currency reform that wiped out much of the savings of North Korean households and set off economic chaos that continues to reverberate through the society. The move not only disabled the market economy, which had become the principal source of livelihood for most North Koreans, but also precipitated an unprecedented outpouring of civil disobedience. The scale of the latter should not be exaggerated: It appears that the sporadic protests were relatively small and uncoordinated, but the reported prominence of octogenarian war veterans among the protestors deeply embarrassed the government. Its haphazard backtracking culminated last month in a historically unparalleled apology to the public delivered by Park, the reform's reputed architect, and Prime Minister Kim Yong-il through the party and government apparatus. While this last signal of greater accountability is to be welcomed, the whole episode is damning because the damage has been so obviously self-inflicted and inconsistent with the regime's narrative that ascribes all ills to foreign "hostile forces." [Victim] [Inversion] [Context] [Defector reports]
• Column] The trap of drawing a picture of N.Korea
  Kim Keun-sik, Professor of Political Science, Kyungnam National University In the wake of its currency reform, North Korea’s situation has been the subject of much debate. One report after another emphasizes the instability of the North Korean regime, judging the reform to have been an utter disaster. Some mention a food train ambush on Kim Jong-il’s birthday, others report on the execution of the official in charge of the reform. Hearing all of this news, one is left confused about what to believe. It is true that information about North Korea has become more abundant and is arriving faster than in the past. We have a number of defectors in South Korea, and it has become simpler to obtain cell phone information from the North Korean-Chinese border region. Indeed, the story of the currency reform was disclosed not by South Korean authorities but by an Internet site related to North Korean defectors. Despite the abundance of information, however, North Korea remains difficult for us to approach for data. It is not a place where South Korean journalists are able to visit the scene, freely make observations and write articles. This is why, in spite of the accounts of defectors and the news by cell phone, information about North Korea still requires cross-validation from various sources and careful corroboration.
  Since the North Korean authorities themselves are well aware that the reform is not a panacea, one could even say that they have more or less achieved their goals of strengthening the planned economy, lowering inflation and expanding national finances, at least for the time being. The fact that the reform was accompanied by a vision for attracting large amounts of foreign capital also leads one to suspect that this is a long-term strategy by North Korea to simultaneously achieve internal consolidation and external support [Economic reform] [Media] [Intelligence] [SK NK policy] [Defector reports]
• Naive or clever? Good or evil? Yes or No? The Easy and the Hard Way of Understanding North Korea
  By Ruediger Frank After German unification, the West finally had access to the secret archives of its former enemy. East Germany’s Ministry of State Security had committed acts that still keep courts and public opinion busy. The sheer degree to which the state had attempted to monitor, document and influence the actions of hundreds of thousands of its citizens was shocking to many. However, a second look often also revealed how incompetent and superficial even this most feared apparatus had been. Alas, it was not “the state” that collected and processed the information. It was individuals. Few of them, if any, were James Bond or Superman. Humans are naturally imperfect. They make mistakes and quickly reach their limits. Most of the time, they are plain boring. [Surveillance]

 
• North Korean Leader Establishing Son as Heir Apparent  
  Kim Young-jin Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been making concerted efforts to establish his youngest son as heir apparent, a top U.S. military officer said Wednesday in Washington, D.C. "Over the past year, Kim has systematically introduced his third and youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as the heir apparent," said Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea, testifying before a House Appropriations Committee hearing.   [Succession] [Media]  
• Political attitudes under repression: evidence from North Korean refugees
  Stephen Haggard and Marcus Noland What do citizens of highly repressive regimes think of their governments? How do they respond to high levels of repression? This paper addresses these questions by examining the political attitude of North Korean refugees. Unsurprisingly the evaluations of regime performance are negative, and there is some evidence that they are becoming more so, even among the core political class and government or party workers. While the sample marginally overrepresents groups with the most negative evaluations of the regime, multivariate analysis is used to generate projections of the views of the wider population; this exercise indicates that that the null hypothesis that the refugees accurately represent the views of the resident population cannot be rejected at the 95 percent level. However, the survey also shows that the barriers to effective communication and collective action remain high; repression works to deter political activity. Partly due to economic exigency, partly due to repression, private defiance of the government takes the form of “everyday forms of resistance,” such as listening to foreign media and engaging in market activities. Although not overtly political, these actions have long-term political consequences [Thinktank] [Defector reports] [Takeover] [Defector reports]
• Kim Jong-il 'Getting Dialysis for Kidney Failure'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il inspects an air force unit in May 2009. In recent photos including this one, Kim is shown with discolored hands and fingernails, common symptoms of kidney disease. /Yonhap North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure and receives kidney dialysis once every two weeks, the head of a think tank affiliated with the National Intelligence Service claimed Wednesday. [Kim Jong il] [Health]
• More indicators of North succession
  March 23, 2010 Senior officials of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, cabinet and the military offer flower wreaths last Friday to commemorate the centennial of the birth of Kim Il, former No. 2 man in the North Korean hierarchy. [YONHAP] North Korea has once again stressed the importance of and justification for a direct-lineage family succession, government sources said here. North Korean last Friday held a ceremony to commemorate the centennial of the birth of Kim Il, former No. 2 man in the North Korean hierarchy and independence fighter against Japan, according to a source. [Succession] [Media]
• N.Korea's Worst Concentration Camp Exposed
  North Korea's worst concentration camp is a reeducation center where women who escaped to China are subjected to the most brutal treatment, NGO Good Friends said Monday. The Jeungsan Reeducation Center in South Pyongan Province has a reputation for cruelty and the saying goes that even healthy people leave as cripples. The facility was turned into a reeducation center after the regime revised the criminal law in 2004.
• `2004 Explosion Was Attempt on Kim Jong Il`s Life`
  MARCH 22, 2010 05:42 A 2004 explosion at a railway station in North Korea was an attempt to assassinate leader Kim Jong Il, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted an analysis as saying yesterday. “The train explosion at Ryongchon Station in North Pyongan Province on April 22 that year killed nearly 200 people, injured more than 1,500, and destroyed more than 8,000 homes. The explosion is believed to have been an attempt to assassinate Kim,” Xinhua said. Though Xinhua quoted an analysis, it is quite unusual for the news agency to say the explosion was an assassination attempt on Kim. Xinhua mentioned the incident while reporting on mobile phone use in North Korea. [Assassination]
• Nostalgia for Kim Il-sung Rising in N. Korea  
    By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter The acute food shortage in North Korea after the failed currency revaluation last year has led some residents to miss the good old days when they had no worries concerning what to eat under the late former leader Kim Il-sung. A group of North Korean refugees here said that the presence of nostalgia for the late Kim in the North is associated with simmering public anger over the current leadership. North Koreans had no worries about skipping meals during the 1960s and 1970s as what they called the great leader Kim put people's livelihood first, said a group named Good Friends.   [Media] [Sanctions] [Kim Il Sung]    
• North Korea parliament to meet, Kim and cadres in focus
  By Jon Herskovitz Reuters Saturday, March 20, 2010; 12:46 AM SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's rubber stamp parliament will meet in April for an annual session where the secretive and isolated state typically reveals changes to its ruling elite and spending priorities for the coming year.
• N.Korean Finance Chief 'Executed Over Currency Fiasco'
  Pak Nam-gi, the former director of the Planning and Finance Department of North Korean Workers' Party, was shot dead by a firing squad in Pyongyang over the North's disastrous currency reform, sources said. A North Korean source said Pak was executed at a firing range in Sunan District early this month after the botched reform led to widespread protests with increasing public complaints and threatened the succession of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un.  
• [North Korea Census 2008] N.K. Census says 340 thousand died during N.Korea’s March of Tribulation
  The estimate is much lower than previous estimates of two to three million deaths from starvation According to a copy of North Korea’s 2008 census obtained Tuesday by the Hankyoreh, estimates indicate that the number of North Koreans who starved to death during the so-called “March of Tribulation” in the mid to late 1990s following the country’s economic, food and energy crises is estimated around 340 thousand people. Park Keong-suk, Seoul National University sociology professor and expert in population studies, reached this conclusion after comparing and analyzing data from the 2008 census and the 1993 census reportedly carried out independently by North Korean authorities.
  She added, “In any event, there is no statistical basis for the claims some people have made that two to three million people died of starvation.” [Sanctions] [Statistics]
• Kim keeps $4b Emergency fund in European banks
  * Source: Global Times * [00:46 March 16 2010] North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has a $4 billion "emergency fund" hidden in secret accounts in European banks, in case of US, South Korean invasion. [Takeover] [Media] [Personalisation]
• Kim Jong-il keeps $4bn 'emergency fund' in European banks
  By Oliver Arlow in Tokyo Published: 9:26PM GMT 14 Mar 2010 Kim Jong-il, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, has a $4 billion (£2.6 billion) “emergency fund” hidden in secret accounts in European banks that he will use to continue his lavish way of life if he is forced to flee the country.
  South Korean intelligence officials told The Daily Telegraph that much of the money was held in Swiss banks until authorities there began to tighten regulations on money laundering. Mr Kim’s operatives then withdrew the money - in cash, in order not to leave a paper trail - and transferred it to banks in Luxembourg.
  Despite a vice-like grip on North Korea since he assumed the post of Supreme Leader when his father, Kim Il-sung, died in 1994, Mr Kim, 68, has in place elaborate measures to escape in the event of a military invasion by a foreign power (sic), with China his most likely destination. [Media] [Takeover] [Toolkit] [Sanctions] [Personalisation]
• Kim Jong-il 'Has $4 Billion in European Banks'
  Kim Jong-il North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has US$4 billion hidden in secret accounts in European banks to continue his lavish way of life if he is forced to flee the country, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
  A South Korean intelligence officer said, "If they know about this money, the starving North Korean people will rise in revolt against the regime." [Media] [Toolkit] [Sanctions] [Takeover] [personalisation]
• Power Split in N.Korea 'Unlikely'
  A "sudden split in the leadership" of North Korea is unlikely but not out of the question, the International Crisis Group speculated in a report Monday. Titled "North Korea under Tightening Sanctions," the think tank's report points out that the Stalinist country has been "shaken by constricting international sanctions" and "extremely poor policy choices." Robert Templer, ICG's Asia program director, said, "Instability, a coup d'état or even regime collapse would not be observable from the outside until well underway." Such a scenario could spark a humanitarian emergency demanding international intervention, he added. [Takeover]
• Kim Jong-il 'Has 3 Years to Live'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has only three years to live based on all medical information compiled so far, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told South Korean officials. Campbell made the comments in a closed-door meeting during his trip to South Korea last month, sources said. Campbell invited three North Korean defectors, Liberty Forward Party lawmaker Park Sun-young, Democratic Party leader Jang Sang and Daily NK publisher Han Ki-hong to the U.S. embassy last month to discuss the political situation in North Korea and the prospects of dynastic succession there. U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Kathleen Stephens was also present. Campbell asked participants how long they thought the North Korean leader has to live. One forecast five years, while another predicted less than that. Campbell added his own prediction of less than five years, saying that based on all medical information available it may be three years. Experts speculate that these forecasts are behind Washington's proposal to hold more joint military exercises with South Korea to prepare for an emergency in North Korea [Intelligence] [Kim Jong Il] [Takeover] [Bizarre]
• N.Koreans 'Filled with Nostalgia for Kim Il-sung'
  North Koreans are feeling nostalgic for the days of nation founder Kim Il-sung at a time of economic hardship in the wake of a disastrous currency reform, NGO Good Friends said Tuesday. According to Good Friends, North Koreans miss the high economic growth rates and comparatively good life of the 1960s and 70s, for which they credit Kim senior. In those days the government in true Stakhanovite fashion gave innovative workers political rewards such as hero titles and national prizes as well as cash rewards, boosting their self-esteem and stimulating their enthusiasm for work. [NGO] [Inversion] [Media]
• Kim Jong-il 'Has $4 Billion in European Banks'
  Kim Jong-il North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has US$4 billion hidden in secret accounts in European banks to continue his lavish way of life if he is forced to flee the country, the Sunday Telegraph reported. [Black] [Bizarre]
• Official who fell from grace in the North in new post
  Ri Kwang-gun in Workers’ Party to handle inter-Korean economic issues March 16, 2010 A former North Korean trade minister who had fallen out of favor has assumed a senior post in the ruling Workers’ Party to handle inter-Korean economic exchanges, sources said yesterday. An intelligence official in the South Korean government said Ri Kwang-gun, the former minister of foreign trade, is working as a deputy director of the United Front Department at the Workers’ Party. Ri had been fired as the minister in 2004 but returned early 2009 as deputy head of Office 39 and ended up in the current department late last year. Office 39 manages political funds and Kim Jong-il’s personal finances, and the United Front Department is charged with inter-Korean businesses. [Media]
• Kim Jong-il's Visit to Hamhung Is a Bad Sign
    Kang Chol-hwan I visited Hamhung many times before defecting to South Korea, and whenever I went I felt distinctly uncomfortable. Hooligans clustering at the railroad station glared at the goods carried by pedestrians and provoked quarrels if they thought you were looking at them. At construction sites in Pyongyang, the word was that Hamhung people were wild. Often there were gang fights at project sites where tens of thousands of youths from different regions had been mobilized, and Hamhung youngsters were always the most violent. The city was home to the greatest number of organized gangs, and even police officers couldn't handle them. Hamhung also has more access to outside world as it is an intermediary place through which all things coming in through the northern border with China pass.  
• Kim Jong-il's Man in Geneva 'to Retire' 
  Ri Chol North Korea's influential ambassador in Geneva will reportedly leave his post after 30 years in Switzerland. Ri Chol (75) is believed to have handled North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's secret bank accounts as well as looking after his children when they went to school there and consulting doctors on Kim's behalf. It is not clear why Ri is leaving. "I guess that his advanced age and his long stay in Switzerland were taken into consideration," a diplomatic source said. "The decision may also have something to do with the succession" of Kim Jong-un, Kim's third son and heir apparent.  
• A crisis in the North Korean leadership?
  March 12th, 2010 Author: Andrei Lankov, Kookmin University and ANU Over the past year or so, something strange has begun to happen in Pyongyang. The North Korean leadership has taken some actions that have clearly damaged the interests of the ruling clique.   The recent currency reform is the best example of self-defeating policy decisions. For years, the Pyongyang government has waged campaigns against the unofficial and semi-official markets that have played a decisive role in North Korea’s economic life since the collapse of the state-run economy in the 1990s. As another move in this ongoing (and, perhaps, unwinnable) struggle, last November the government initiated currency reform that was meant to undermine the power of black-market merchants. [Succession]
• Shadowy N.Korean Heavyweight Steps into Limelight
  A man in a brown overcoat who welcomed Chinese envoy Wang Jiarui on his arrival in North Korea on Feb. 6 is attracting the attention of the Chinese-speaking world. Kim Song-nam is apparently a China expert in the Workers Party's International Department, the Hong Kong-based weekly Yazhou Zhoukan weekly said
• Joint Presidium of Pomminryon Meet
  Pyongyang, February 28 (KCNA) -- The 11th meeting of the Joint Presidium of the Pan-national Alliance for Korea's Reunification (Pomminryon) was held in the north and the south and abroad on Feb. 28 by way of exchanging facsimile messages. The meeting reviewed the activities for the reunification movement conducted by Pomminryon last year and discussed the tasks and ways for struggle this year.

• N.Korea's Population Grows as Life Expectancy Dwindles
  North Korea's population has grown larger but average life expectancy has become shorter, according to a recent census. The Wall Street Journal reported that North Korean authorities conducted the census in 2008 under the aegis of monitors from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). The North currently has a population of 24 million, up 2.8 million from 21.2 million in 1993. But average life expectancy has dwindled from 72.7 years in 1993 to 69.3, a good 10 years shorter than South Korea's. [Context] [Sanctions]
• The Terrible State of N.Korean Medical Care
  A team of South Korean doctors who visited North Korea a few years ago recall how shocked they were by the appalling conditions they witnessed at a rural hospital. Ringer's solution being administered to patients were kept in used soft-drink bottles instead of sterilized packages, while dilapidated beds were splattered with blood stains. Surgical thread was so thick that patients convulsed each time their wounds were sewn up. Hospital rooms lacked heat and electricity, rendering medical equipment useless. Doctors were growing their own cotton to procure material for bandages. [Context] [Sanctions] [Manipulation] [Victim]
• N.Korea Purges Party, Military
  The North Korean regime is purging senior military and party officials. In the Workers' Party, the heads of the financial and economic sections have been sacked over the disastrous currency reform and international sanctions, and in the military, officers in their 70s and 80s from the era of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung are making way for younger military leaders in their 50s and 60s.
• N.Korea to Release American Activist
  North Korea is to release Korean-American activist Robert Park, who entered the country illegally at Christmas to draw attention to human rights abuses. "The relevant organ... decided to leniently forgive and release him, taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrongdoings into consideration," Yonhap News on Friday quoted North Korea's official KCNA news agency as saying. [Overtures]
• Kim Jong-il Replaces Man in Charge of Special Coffers
  North Korea has recently replaced the director of a department of the North Korean Workers Party's Central Committee codenamed "Room 39," which manages leader Kim Jong-il's coffers and personal slush funds, it emerged Thursday. A North Korean source said Kim Tong-un (75) has been dismissed and his deputy Jon Il-chun (69) has been working in his place.
• A family and a conscience, destroyed by North Korea's cruelty
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, February 22, 2010 SEOUL -- "I am fool." That self-assessment comes from Oh Kil-nam, a South Korean economist who moved to North Korea a quarter-century ago, dragging along his unhappy wife and two teenage daughters. He then defected to the West, leaving his family stranded in a country his wife had called "a living hell." [Media]
• Border Guards 'Key to Trafficking in N.Koreans'
  North Korean and Chinese border guards play a vital part in the trafficking of North Korean women to China, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Thursday. In a feature report, the Japanese daily quoted a Chinese border guard as testifying he caught a few female North Korean defectors in their teens and 20s crossing the Duman (or Tumen) River and handed them over to a Korean-Chinese human trafficker. [Manipulation] [Softwar]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Command of KPA Unit 630
  Pyongyang, January 31 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected the command of KPA Large Combined Unit 630. He first looked round the room devoted to the history of the unit. Recalling with deep emotion President Kim Il Sung's undying exploits associated with the history of the unit, he said that the wise leadership and meticulous care of the President helped it grow to be a strong large combined unit made up of combined units and other units of a-match-for-a hundred combatants. He highly appreciated the unit's merits, saying that it has a history of laudable feats performed in the defence of the country and socialist construction. [Military economy]
• UN Census Puts N.Korea Population at 24 Million
  The first UN census in North Korea in 15 years reveals the country has a population of more than 24 million people, according to Voice of America. VOA said Thursday that the census by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found 11.7 million males and 12.3 million females in 5.88 million households in North Korea's 10 provinces.

• Kim Jong-il 'Undergoing Regular Kidney Dialysis'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is reportedly receiving regular kidney dialysis, raising speculation that his health may be deteriorating. According to Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun, the 68-year-old dictator, who has a history of heart disease and is believed to have suffered a stroke in August of last year, could be suffering from complications from diabetes. The newspaper said the South Korean and Japanese governments were informed of Kim's health status last fall. The report added that Kim tends to receive treatment before he meets with foreign guests to show that he is in good health. [Media]
• Kim Jong-il Ordered Shoot-to-Kill Policy for Defectors
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ordered officials in May 2008 to shoot defectors or imprison them for 10 years of hard labor if they were arrested, according to information obtained by South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies. Previously only those caught attempting to escape directly to South Korea had been punished so severely.
• N.Korea Inches Toward New Pragmatism
  The text on the poster reads "Stand your ground and look at the world." North Korea appears to be inching toward a new pragmatism stressing people's welfare rather than the constant martial tones it employed in the past. A New Year's Day message in the official media in early January urged the people to fulfill their assigned tasks, and one of the propaganda posters accompanying it calls on the people to stand their ground and look at the world. Another poster shows a woman in traditional Korean costume and a child smiling behind piles of food, shoes, wine, and rainbow-striped traditional jackets.
• NK Girl Wears 'I Love Jesus' Shirt
  This photo, taken by a foreigner visiting Pyongyang last year, shows a North Korean girl wearing “I Love Jesus” T-shirt. / Courtesy of Radio Free Asia By Kim Se-jeong Staff Reporter A recently released photo of a North Korean girl offers a contradiction to what has been known about the Communist country's religious freedom and the extent of freedom made available to outsiders. The photo made public by the Radio Free Asia based in Washington, D.C has a young girl wearing a white T-shirt with an illustration and a sentence, "I ? Jesus." The picture was taken in Pyongyang by an anonymous photographer, and submitted to the radio station by Curtis Melvin, an American economist. He also runs a blog, "North Korean Economic Watch" Melvin said, "In a society where religious freedom is completely deprived, people wearing a shirt like that are found to be very interesting." Repression on religious freedom in North Korea is widely known. According to accounts from North Korean defectors and Christian missionaries who have helped North Koreans defect from the Communist country, the regime shows zero-tolerabce to those who develop a religious affiliation. If caught, they are tortured and sent to a concentration camp.
  Yet, from what it's shown in the photo, the photographer is in the middle of a big crowd, and the girl poses for a camera. [Media] [Propaganda] [Spin] [Religion]
• 200,000 Political Prisoners Held in N.Korean Camps
  Some 200,000 political prisoners are being held in concentration camps in North Korea, and some have been executed by shooting or hanging, according to South Korea's National Human Rights Commission. The commission on Wednesday released a study of conditions in North Korean political prison camps based on testimony from North Korean defectors collected for the commission by the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights last year. [Evidence] [Human rights] [Manipulation]
• Old Propaganda Hand Becomes N.Korean Culture Minister
  An Dong-chun The North Korean Supreme People's Assembly appointed An Dong-chun, the chairman of the Stalinist country's authors' association, as new culture minister, the official [North] Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday. An is an old hand at hailing and praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, having written books lauding Kim's achievements and served as deputy leader of a cadre idolizing the leader.
• 'Kim Jong-il Suffers From Depression'
  Kim Jong-il North Korean leader By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter A North Korea watcher said Sunday that Kim Jong-il appears to be suffering from post stroke depression (PSD). The latest update about the health of the North Korean leader differs from what those who met with Kim in person last year, such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian musician Oleg Ovsyannikov, have said.
• North Korea holds massive New Year's rally
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Saturday, January 2, 2010; 9:26 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- Tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied in the capital Saturday to support the communist government's policies for the new year, including improved relations with the U.S. and South Korea and a higher standard of living. The crowd braved chilly weather to pledge loyalty to leader Kim Jong Il as top officials applauded from a balcony overlooking Pyongyang's main square. Video from broadcaster APTN showed Kim did not attend the rally. North Korea - which does not tolerate any political opposition - stages the annual rally to bolster public support for the government's New Year policies, announced in an editorial in major newspapers. Pumping their fists into the air, about 100,000 people shouted "Let's implement it," referring to the policy goals, as they marched through the square with red flags.
• Joint New Year Editorial 2010
  As you know well of the Joint New Year Editorial of Rodong Sinmun, Josoninmingun and Chongnyonjonwi through the internet, 2010 is the significant year which marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration. Also, 2010 is the 65th year that the DPRK has liberated from the Japanese colonial rule and the country was divided into two by the foreign forces before 65 years. It is our stand that the entire Korean nation should crown the year 2010 as a year of opening a new phase of independent reunification by frustrating all challenges of the anti-reunification forces with their concerted efforts and stepping up the grand nationwide march toward reunification.
  The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the DPRK and the USA. It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to establish a lasting peace system on the Korean Peninsula and make it nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiation. Our Party and the government of our Republic will strive to develop relations of good-neighborliness and friendship with other countries and achieve global independence under the unfurled banner of independence, peace and friendship: [Unification] [NK US Policy]

• The Last Emperor
  From defectors and former aides, a portrait of Kim Jong Il is emerging of family dysfunction, palace intrigue and imperial menace (sic). By PETER MAASS Published: October 19, 2003 The Dear Leader is a workaholic. Kim Jong Il sleeps four hours a night, or if he works through the night, as he sometimes does, he sleeps four hours a day. His office is a hive of activity; reports cross his desk at all hours. Dressed as always in his signature khaki jumpsuit, he reads them all, issuing instructions to aides, dashing off handwritten notes or picking up the phone at 3 a.m. and telling subordinates what should lead the news broadcasts or whom to dispatch to a prison camp. His micromanaging style is less Caligula, with whom he has often been compared, and more Jimmy Carter on an authoritarian tear. [Kim Jong Il] [Media] [Spin]

• The Facts About Kim Jong-il's Private Train
  The private train North Korean leader Kim Jong-il uses on his trips either within the communist country or abroad consists of six around 90 carriages, and some 20 train stations have been built specifically for his own use. To defend Kim against attack, two separate trains precede and follow the main entourage, one handling reconnaissance and the other security. South Korean and U.S. intelligence have been spying on Kim's private train with satellites, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and other surveillance equipment, as well as testimonies of North Korean defectors
• Pyongyang rebuilt city devastated by explosion
  November 07, 2009 North Korea has built Soviet-style apartment complexes to give a face-lift to its border town of Ryongchon where a devastating 2004 explosion occurred, according to a satellite image compiled by a U.S. researcher. The April 22 blast in the rural northwestern town near China took place several hours after leader Kim Jong-il passed through its railway station, fueling suspicions that the incident may have been an assassination attempt. Kim was returning from a surprise trip to China when the Ryongchon tragedy occurred. The North announced days later that highly explosive ammonium-nitrate fertilizer at the station had accidentally hit an electric cable, triggering the explosion that killed 160 people and injured 1,300. “In 2004, much of the town of Ryongchon was tragically destroyed in a large explosion,” wrote Curtis Melvin, a George Mason University doctoral student who runs one of the most extensive blogs on the economy and geography of the communist country. According to the satellite image compiled by Melvin that was viewed by the Yonhap News Agency on Friday, Ryongchon has since transformed from ashes into a modern town. “Gone are the traditional homes,” Melvin wrote. “They have been replaced by typical Soviet-style apartment blocks.” Melvin did not reveal the source of the new overlay, but said in a separate posting that he merges up-to-date Google Earth images with help from people with access to information on the North. An e-mail requesting an interview was not immediately answered. Melvin, who studies economics, has visited North Korea earlier this decade, and been featured by international media for his efforts to “uncover” the secretive North through satellite images and private photos. Last August, Melvin released a satellite photo of a mansion that he said belongs to Kim Jong-il, the 67-year-old dictator. [Spin] [Cliche]
• Amid Authenticity Dispute, Kim Jong-il Makes Brisk Inspections
  Amid some speculation that the Kim Jong-il that the former U.S. President Bill Clinton met this summer was a fake, the identity-disputed leader of the world’s most reclusive country made a series of brisk inspections to a newly constructed power plant and a farm in the southern area of the country, along with Workers' Party officials, Yonhap reported, citing the state's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). During the visit to North Korea's South Hamgyeong Province, Kim congratulated laborers who participated in building the power station, and urged farmers to improve farming technologies to resolve the ongoing food shortage in the country, the KCNA said, not identifying the date when this took place. KCNA said Kim was accompanied by Workers' Party officials, including his only brother-in-law Jang Song-thaek, who is a department director of the Party, and Kim Ki-nam, a secretary of the Party. A few days earlier, KCNA said Kim paid a visit to a construction site to encourage workers. Recently, Toshimitsu Shigemura, a Japanese journalist-turned professor claimed that North Korea is using a “double” to play the role of Kim Jong-il for its domestic and international audience, claiming the real Kim died in 2003. [Kim Jong Il] [Bizarre]

• K Kim Jong-il Heir 'in Secret Visit to Army Corps'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and rumored heir apparent on Sept. 9 visited the Ninth North Korean Army Corps in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province which is in charge of guarding the North Korea-China border. The visit to the corps' commander and political commissars was conducted in tight secrecy and came amid growing fears about discipline at the unit. Kim Jong-un reportedly said, "The military unit which the general [Kim Jong-il] considers the most important is the Ninth Army Corps in charge of guarding the border." An inside source in North Korea said the first frontline for North Korea is not the military demarcation line between the two Koreas but the North Korea-China border. The atmosphere there is so tense that the sound of North Korean soldiers shooting at defectors is heard almost every day. In recent days, so many senior officers of the Ninth Corps have been involved in drug dealing and other money-making business that the National Defense Commission has decided to take direct charge of the corps. Foreign intelligence agencies are trying to woo Ninth Corps officers, sources said. Rumor has it that some leading officers of North Korea's Sixth Army Corps attempted a mutiny in 1996 due to bribery by a foreign intelligence agency. [Corruption] [Espionage]
• S.Korean Scholar: North Experiencing Discord Among Kim Family Members
  A leading North Korea researcher and adviser to South Korea's president says the North is experiencing some friction at the very top of the ruling Kim family. The North's leader may have temporarily halted a succession process to calm his son's ambitions. [Succession]
• Multiple Fires Rage in North Korea
  Multiple fires were raging in the northeast region of North Korea recently, with a plume of smoke extending far out over the ocean, AFP reported Thursday. The true-color image captured by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Aqua satellite on Oct. 15 showed the northeast skies covered by great plumes of smoke extending over the East Sea, according to AFP.
• Songun Revolutionary Cause Originated from DIU
  Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- The Korean revolution is a sacred one which was pioneered and has advanced under the banner of the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU). In the 1920s when the national liberation movement of Korea was undergoing bitter twists and turns, President Kim Il Sung formed the DIU on October 17, 1926 with a firm belief that the enemy armed to the teeth could be beat down only with arms. The formation of the DIU provided the root of the Workers' Party of Korea and marked the start of the Songun revolution. [Kim Il Sung] [Songun]
• Int'l Press Gets Glimpse of N.Korea's Daily Grind
  A W35 million price tag for the Internet connection to transmit a five-minute piece of footage is only one of the endless list of inconveniences that make up daily life in North Korea (US$1=W1,163). Kristine Kwok, a reporter for Hong Kong's South China Morning Post who accompanied Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on his visit to North Korea on Oct. 4 to 6, recounts them in a story titled "Life in the Hermit Kingdom." "Accessing the Internet is a distant dream for North Korean citizens and an expensive luxury for visiting foreigners," Kwok wrote. "Filing a news report of Wen shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il would cost a TV station the equivalent of HK$233,472. The North Korean Foreign Ministry eventually decided to pay all the Internet fees for the reporters --much to their relief."   [Media] [Sanctions] [ICT]
• ‘N. Korea Stops Promoting Leader’s Son’  
  North Korea has suspended a propaganda campaign to promote the youngest son of leader Kim Jong-il as his eventual successor, AFP reported last week. Instead, the communist state is calling for solidarity around the current leader, AFP said quoting South Korean Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho.  [Succession]  
• Repression and punishment in North Korea
  Linked below is a paper co-authored with Steph Haggard on the evolving role of the North Korean penal system based on refugee surveys conducted in China and South Korea. Traditionally used as an instrument of political repression, the penal system has emerged as a mechanism for predatory corruption as well. The regime disproportionately targets politically suspect individuals, particularly those involved in market-oriented economic activities. Extreme levels of violence appear to be ubiquitous, even in lower level facilities where detainees are typically incarcerated for less than a year. High levels of discretion with respect to arrest and detention, combined with the very high costs of incarceration, provide large incentives for bribery to avoid punishment. The more arbitrary and painful the experience with the penal system, the easier it is for officials to extort money for avoiding it. East-West Center: "Repression and Punishment in North Korea: Survey Evidence of Prison Camp Experiences" [Manipulation] [Human rights] [defectors reports]
• North Korean Prisons Have Become a System of Extortion, Refugees Say
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, October 6, 2009 TOKYO, Oct. 5 -- North Korea's infamous penal system, which for decades has silenced political dissent with slave labor camps, has evolved into a mechanism for extorting money from citizens trading in private markets, according to surveys of more than 1,600 North Korean refugees. This Story North Korean Prisons Have Become a System of Extortion, Refugees Say Special Report: North Korea -- Closed, Hungry, Heavily Armed Reacting to an explosive rise in market activity, North Korea has criminalized everyday market behavior and created a new kind of gulag for those it deems economic criminals, according to a report on the refugee surveys. It will be released this week by the East-West Center, a research organization established by Congress to promote understanding of Asia (sic). [Manipulation] [Human rights] [defectors reports] [Media]

• Kim Jong-il Opts for Socialism Over Communism
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il apparently explained the deletion of the word "communism" from the country's constitution, which was revised in April. "It is difficult to comprehend communism. I will try to get socialism right," Kim was reported as saying by a spokesman for the state-run Minju Chosun newspaper. The spokesman was talking to South Korean reporters on the sidelines of inter-Korean family reunions in Mt. Kumgang. "This is the reason behind the deletion of 'communism' from the constitution," he said. "Communism is meant to be a one-class society where there is no distinction between exploiter and exploited, but that system cannot exist while American imperialism lasts."
• North Korea modifies its Constitution to reflect Kim Jong-il system
  The 6 new articles strengthen the National Defense Committee and its chairman powers and elevate Songun to the level of Juche ideology It was confirmed Monday that North Korea had modified its Constitution during the first session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly on April 9 by strengthening the position, duties and authority of the chairman of the National Defense Commission by designating him as the country’s supreme leader and adding the Songun (Army First) ideology to North Korea’s existing ruling ideology of Juche. In particular analysts believe this constitutional reform, the first in 11 years, has given constitutional status and hence systematized the existing Songun Politics and Songun Revolutionary Line centered on the National Defense Commission and its Commissioner, Kim Jong-il. This ninth reform of the North Korean Constitution, modifies the existing constitution of seven chapters and 166 articles that was put in place Sept. 1998 into a new constitution consisting of seven chapters and 172 articles.
• Why N.Korean Regime Succession Is a Delicate Matter
  North Korea has officially denied there is any talk of a successor to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, but only last Thursday newspapers published a photo of a North Korean propaganda poster taken by a tourist that exalts Kim's third son, Jong-eun. "Comrade Kim Jong-eun" is hailed in the poster as "succeeding to the lineage of Mangyongdae and Mt. Baekdu." Mangyongdae is the birthplace of Kim Il-sung, and Mt. Baekdu the alleged birthplace of Kim Jong-il. [Succession]
• National Angling Contest Held  
          Pyongyang, September 17 (KCNA) -- A national angling contest was held on the bank of the River Taedong in Pyongyang on Sept. 17. More than 60 angling fans selected in provinces, ministries and national institutions competed in the contest. They were allowed to use up to four sets of fishing tackles including pole and line, mechanical pole and line and hook and line. As soon as the contest started, the contestants cast the river. When floats moved up and down the surface of water and the bell tinkled, they fished up continuously goldfishes, bitterlings and other fishes with skilled movements. At the contest, prizes were awarded to those who caught many fishes by employing tactful angling methods. An exhibition of newly invented angling tackles took place on the same day.  
• Kim Jong-il 'Alert and Agile'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is using both hands freely, according to a Russian musician who met with Kim during a recent visit to Pyongyang, despite reports that his left hand remains paralyzed after a stroke last year. Oleg Ovsyannikov, who was in the North for a concert celebrating the 61st anniversary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, told Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun on Tuesday, Kim's "memories and speech were clear" and "he moved both of his hands freely and smoked cigarettes." A Russian orchestra led by Ovsyannikov performed a joint concert with a North Korean orchestra at the Mansudae Art Theater in Pyongyang on Sept. 8. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il looks through a magnifying glass at the Bukjeong Machinery Complex in North Pyongan Province in this undated photo provided by the (North) Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday. /KCNA-Yonhap Looking at Ovsyannikov, who is 2 m tall, Kim greeted him with a smile saying "You are very tall indeed." Then Kim introduced the North Korean singers on stage to Ovsyannikov without any trouble, and showed off his good memory by reeling off a list of names of Russian lieder composers. Kim smoked American-made Marlboro cigarettes, drank tea, and firmly shook hands with him during the conversation. After the concert was over, Kim praised the concert and asked Ovsyannikov what he thought about the North Korean conductor. [Succession]
• Documents Record 2003 Massacre of N.Korean Defectors
  Chinese police in 2003 found the bodies of 56 North Koreans drifting down the Apnok River in October 2003, a newly published police log says. The 56 had apparently been shot trying to escape the North. North Korea Economy Watch, a U.S. website, on Saturday carried photos from a report filed by Badaogou police station in Baishan, Jilin Province, reporting the collection of the bodies. This website said it obtained the photos from an anonymous blog on Chinese portal site Wangyi.
• Somalia: North Korea Ship Foils Pirates
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 15, 2009 Somali pirates tried but failed to hijack a North Korean cargo ship almost two weeks ago when crew members fought back with Molotov cocktails, a maritime official said Tuesday. The ship was drifting off the Somali coast near Mogadishu on Sept. 5 as the crew worked on the engine when 10 pirates approached in two speedboats, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Malaysia. The North Korean ship immediately started its engine and moved away, and the captain called the bureau for help when the pirates, dressed in military clothing, began firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, Mr. Choong said.
• Soldiers and People Are Harmonious Whole in DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 11 (KCNA) -- Today the soldiers and people of the DPRK form inseparable ties as a harmonious whole. The people are treating the soldiers as their real children or brothers and devoting themselves to them and the latter dedicating their youth and lives for the country and people. This is the true feature of the DPRK. The Pyongyang City People's Committee has assisted the army with all sincerity on more than 110 occasions over last ten-odd years.
• National Meeting Held to Mark 61st Birthday of DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 8 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the April 25 House of Culture on Tuesday to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

• N. Korea Launches Arirang Festival
  North Korea opened the Arirang festival Monday night as huge crowds were watching the world's largest gymnastic performance, AFP reported quoting the communist state's official media. The 80-minute show opened at May Day Stadium, according to the Korean Central Broadcasting Station monitored by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. AFP said this year's show has added new scenes to highlight the country's campaign to build a "strong, prosperous and powerful nation."
• North Korea's Papillon
  John Feffer | July 20, 2009
  Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Asia Chronicle on 7/16/09. When I was a boy, I devoured the great work of escape fiction, Papillon, which chronicled the astonishing life of Henri Charriere. The French courts sent Charriere to a series of penal colonies off the coast of South America, for a crime he didn't commit. Nicknamed Papillon (butterfly) for the tattoo on his chest, Charriere managed to break out of several prisons, including a harrowing escape on a raft of coconuts from the virtually inescapable Devil's Island. Kim Yong has accomplished a similar feat. Camp #14 is North Korea's version of Devil's Island, a penal colony where the convicts go in and never leave. They spend years underground mining coal in unspeakable conditions with nowhere near enough food to survive. But, like Papillon, Kim managed to escape and tell his tale. It is now available in English as Long Road Home (Columbia University Press, 2009).
  Estimates vary, but less than one percent of the North Korean population labors in these camps. In the United States, approximately one percent of the population is behind bars, [Human rights][Evidence][Prisoners]

• Classmates Recall Kim Jong-un's Basketball Obsession
  A picture of on North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un at the age of 16 A picture of on North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un at the age of 16 Fellow students at Berne's German-speaking Liebefeld-Steinhölzli School recall North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un as unremarkable and obsessed with baseball, the Washington Post said Wednesday. Those who knew "Pak Un," the name he used at the Swiss school, say he was indifferent to political issues and never made any anti-American comments. He worshipped basketball players in the NBA. A friend who visited his apartment at no. 10 Kirchstrasse, Liebefeld, recalls that Kim had a room filled with NBA-memorabilia.
• NK Leader’s Grandson Is a Big Fan of Rain
  Among the 4,500 fans who packed the auditorium of the Venetian Resort Hotel in Macao on June 27 to see the South Korean pop idol, Rain, was a 14-year-old middle school student from North Korea, the world's most reclusive country.
  It's not a secret that Kim Jong-nam, the oldest son of Kim Jong-il, lives in Macao with his family ? his second wife, identified as Zhang, 35, and with his middle-school son. Although the two Koreas' relationship has been tense lately, the son of North Korea's supreme leader has been known to maintain "good neighborly relationship" with South Korean residents there, often socializing with them. In fact, Jong-nam often shows up at Korean restaurants there, run by South Koreans, according to Chosun Ilbo Saturday.
• Kim Jong-il Makes 1st Public Appearance in 3 Months
  Kim Jong-il looks at a document during a memorial rally at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on the 15th anniversary of his father Kim Il-sung's death on Wednesday. /Yonhap North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attended a memorial rally at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on the 15th anniversary of his father Kim Il-sung's death on Wednesday morning, a recorded video clip by the North Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station shows. It was the first footage showing Kim moving around in three months since the 12th Supreme People's Assembly went into session on April 9. Kim is seen walking with a slight limp but appears to have no trouble getting around, stands up without help and bows his head for a brief silent tribute. But when his mouth is closed, the right corner appears to be raised. The footage shows visibly thinning hair on the crown of his head when he bows his head for a brief silent tribute or sits reading.
• Events Held to Remember President Kim Il Sung
  Pyongyang, July 6 (KCNA) -- The remembrance meeting of school youth and children titled "The Sun and the Youth" and a similar meeting of members of the Democratic Women's Union of Korea and other women entitled "The Songun Revolutionary Cause Is Everlasting" were separately held at the Central Youth Hall and the Women's Hall on Monday on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of demise of President Kim Il Sung.

• N. Korean Leader Kim Jong-il Chooses Sneakers Over High-Heeled Shoes
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter Many people choose to wear high heels to make them slimmer and, most of all, taller. So too does North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, whose height is about 160 centimeters. Due to his relatively short height, Kim is said to have worn heels, or shoes with thick insoles, from a young age. But recently he showed up in public without the shoes, and instead wore sneakers. [Media] [Bizarre]
• Kim Jong-un 'Acting as Proxy for Kim Jong-il'
  North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un works as acting chairman of the National Defense Commission to support his ailing father Kim Jong-il, the Mainichi Shimbun said Saturday. Quoting sources close to the North Korean regime, the Japanese daily said the leader's youngest son (26) is assisting his father although the position is not an official title. [Succession]
• Kim Jong-il's Health 'Getting Rapidly Worse'
  The health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is rapidly deteriorating, prompting the hasty decision to name his third son Jong-un as heir apparent, sources told the Chinese press. The Global News, a sister paper of the official People’s Daily, on Thursday quoted a foreign ambassador in Pyongyang as saying that Kim Jong-il's fragile health made the situation in North Korea "very complicated." The envoy told the Global News that authorities in Pyongyang are keeping tight lid on information about Kim's health. A North Korean source in Beijing said Beijing-based North Korean officials from Ponghwa Hospital, which is treating Kim's illness, are looking to import expensive medical equipment, which has become contraband since the North conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. Pyongyang is also seeking to import an emergency helicopter from overseas. "Kim seems to be in serious condition," the source added. [Sanctions] [Succession]
• Rare appearance
  June 09, 2009 In an undated picture released yesterday by North Korea’s official news agency KCNA, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, third from left, visits an orchard in Kosan, Kangwon, with his aides. Kim is wearing a thick coat while other officials wear lighter clothes, fueling speculation that he is suffering health problems. [REUTERS]
• Kim Jong Il Guides Creation of Opera "Evgeni Onegin"
  Pyongyang, June 7 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave guidance to the creation of opera "Evgeni Onegin". After learning about the creation of "Evgeni Onegin", he watched the opera under creation. Pyongyang Kim Won Gyun Conservatory is recreating the Russian opera "Evgeni Onegin", which was staged in 1958 by it, in keeping with the demand of the new century in hearty response to the instruction of Kim Jong Il to depict the national classics as well as world's famous masterpieces.
• Kim Jong-il's Eldest Son 'in the Dark but Not in Exile'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Jong-nam captured on Nihon TV North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Jong-nam admits he relies on press reports for news that his younger brother Jong-un will succeed their father but denies he himself is looking for asylum abroad. Speaking to Nihon TV, Kim Jong-nam said he based his assumption on media reports and could neither confirm nor deny them definitely [Succession]
• Hardline Military 'Taking Over in N.Korea'
  Hardline xenophobic brass are gaining ground in North Korea after South Korean money dried up since the Lee Myung-bak administration was inaugurated, according to AERA, a weekly associated with the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun. "During the 10 years of the left-leaning Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, nearly 1 trillion yen (approximately W13 trillion) including investment from civilian enterprises went to North Korea," the weekly said. "Since the Lee Myung-bak administration's inauguration, South Korea has become tight with money, and this has dealt a severe blow to the North Korean military." Some reports say that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il collapsed again in early May, which may have been the reason for bringing forward the nuclear test and haste to ensure the succession, AERA said. The weekly quoted intelligence officials as saying Kim is now too frail to work even for an hour a day. [Succession] [Inversion]
• Kim Jong-un Unlikely Candidate for NK Leader
  By Andrei Lankov Korea Times Columnist
  North Korea watchers are a seriously overworked group these days as important and often unexpected events happen in a quick succession. A missile launch in early April was followed by a nuclear test in late May, and now an ICBM is being moved to a launch pad. A consensus is that all these moves are primarily aimed at the US on assumption that a tougher position will allow them to squeeze more aid from Washington eventually. We have seen this before, but this time the North Koreans behave with unusual intensity, so many observers came to suspect that this intensity is somehow related to North Korean domestic issues. [NK US policy] [Succession] [Media] [Spin] [Disinformation]
• Kim Jong names youngest son as North Korean successor
  Kim Jong Il's youngest son, Jong Un, 26, is to be the next leader of the communist state, according to local reports Buzz up! Digg it Associated Press guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 June 2009 06.06 BST Article historyKim Jong Il's youngest son, who reportedly enjoys skiing and studied English, German and French at a Swiss school will be North Korea's next leader, a South Korean lawmaker and newspapers said today. The secretive communist state sent the message about the 26-year-old son, Jong Un, after the nation's May 25 nuclear test, which along with a series of missile tests has greatly raised tensions in the region, the Hankook Ilbo reported. [succession]
• Spy Agency Confirms NK Leader's 3rd Son as Successor
  South Korea's National Intelligence Service has confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il designated his third and youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor shortly after the country's second nuclear test, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting lawmakers. The confirmation, given to members of the National Assembly information and intelligence committee Monday, is the first word from the Seoul government regarding North Korea's next leader following months of media speculation. Predictions that the elder Kim, 67, would soon designate his heir have circulated since he reportedly suffered a stroke last summer. [Succession]

• DPRK's Power Increased by Dint of Songun
  Pyongyang, May 26 (KCNA) -- The progressives of the world are praising highly the DPRK's successful launch of the artificial satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 as a brilliant victory of the great Songun politics. Only the United States and other bellicose forces, turning their face from the trend of the times, are hell-bent on aggressive rackets, taking issue with the satellite launch, a great undertaking in history. The army and people of Korea, however, are forcefully pushing ahead with the building of a great, prosperous and powerful nation with indomitable mental power, without shrinking in the least from the ever intensified moves of the hostile forces. This world-startling indomitable spirit is based on the confidence and pluck which have been cemented steel-strong in the flames of the Songun revolution. The actuality verifies how correct are Songun politics, reliable precious sword for defending national sovereignty and peace, and the increase of self-reliant defense capabilities, its offspring. Songun politics reflects the revolutionary will of the Workers' Party of Korea to safeguard with credit the national dignity and interests and achieve the cause of building a great, prosperous and powerful nation and the independent and peaceful reunification of the country without fail on the principle of giving importance and priority to the military affairs. The Korean army and people, who resolutely opted to take the road of Songun at the historic crossroads of independence and subordination, have opened a new era of national prosperity, frustrating all the reckless isolation and stifling moves of the imperialist allied forces on the forefront against imperialism and for independence. It is the revolutionary mettle and immovable will of the army and people of Korea not to allow any slightest moves of the hostile forces against their just cause. It was strikingly manifested in the fact that some time ago the DPRK solemnly declared at home and abroad that it would further increase the self-defensive nuclear deterrent and defend reliably the peace and security on the Korean Peninsula with the might of Songun to cope with the acts of the enemy incriminating the DPRK's right to peaceful space development. Today the imperialist reactionaries' hostile policy toward the DPRK is going to naught in face of the might of Songun and the DPRK is demonstrating its power all over the world. Only prosperity is in store for the DPRK as long as it is guided by Songun politics, a symbol of independence and dignity.
• Youngest son of Kim Jong-il tests role as heir
  May 12, 2009 The third and youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been increasingly visible on official occasions and masterminded some of the country’s major publicity events, such as a recent fireworks extravaganza, in an apparent bid to burnish his image as a successor, sources said Monday. Kim Jong-un, who is believed to have been tapped in January as the isolated state’s next leader, has been seen making efforts to elevate his reputation by organizing the April 15 fireworks show and initiating an economic reconstruction drive, called the “150-day campaign,” sources privy to North Korean internal affairs said on condition of anonymity.
• Measures against Swine Flu Taken in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 6 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is intensifying preventive actions against swine flu on high alert for the influenza spreading rapidly in the world. Pak Myong Su, vice-chairman of the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Commission, had an interview with KCNA regarding the state measures taken against A/H1N1 flu. Reporter: Would you tell me about the state measures taken against A/H1N1 influenza spreading widely in Mexico, the United States and many other countries? Vice-chairman: For the present, the foreigners entering our country, especially those from the outbreak areas, are strictly quarantined in the frontier and those who are suspected to have been infected are under medical surveillance in isolation until they have been confirmed.
• Power Struggle Looms in N.Korea
  The North Korean elite lead insecure lives nowadays. Some members of the Unification and Propaganda Department of the Workers Party, accused of having bungled their South Korea policy, have recently been sent to the Yoduk concentration camp. All North Korean intelligence officers assigned overseas were called back home early this year to undergo questioning by the State Security Department. About 30 percent of them have yet to return to their overseas posts, and those who have returned were emaciated from harsh interrogations, according to sources. Asked what the food situation is like in North Korea, a North Korean overseas official said what was more serious in the North is the manhunt. The State Security Department is hunting innocent people in a bid to ferret out spies implicated in South Korea's recently reinforced overseas intelligence activities. [Agency]
• Kim Jong Il Gives Field Guidance to Secondary School in Rakwon County  
          Pyongyang, April 29 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave field guidance to Honored Red Flag Sojung Secondary School newly built in Rakwon County. This school was constructed by solider-builders dispatched by leader Kim Jong Il as a benevolent present to the children in a seaside village. He also sent many educational equipment and materials, including computers, to the school. After being briefed on the history of the school, he acquainted himself in detail with the conditions of computer education, going round a room for computer education, guided by the principal of the school. Saying that in order to help everyone acquire high computing technique it is urgent to fix the computer education as a major basic subject at the stage of elementary and secondary education and concentrate efforts on it, he underscored the need to work out the teaching schedule well in conformity with the characters of schoolers and raise the qualifications of teachers in this field. [Education]  

• Italian Food Restaurant
  Pyongyang, April 28 (KCNA) -- There is a restaurant specializing in Italian dishes in Kwangbok Street, Pyongyang. Its main dishes are various kinds of pizza and spaghetti dishes including pizza margherita and spaghetti vongole bianco. It also serves famous Korean and foreign dishes. Manager of the restaurant Kim Sang Sun told KCNA: There is a moving story behind the appearance of this restaurant. General Secretary Kim Jong Il took care that a restaurant specializing in Italian dishes was opened, saying the Koreans should be let to taste world- famous dishes. He took necessary measures, learning that the restaurant found it a tough row to hoe, having no cook experienced in Italian dishes. Now our cooks are just as good as Italians in making Italian dishes. No wonder the Korean and foreign customers are satisfied with the famous dishes of the world served by our restaurant.
• Kim Jong Il's son elevated to defense post
  By HYUNG-JIN KIM The Associated Press Sunday, April 26, 2009; 11:00 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's youngest son has reportedly been named to the powerful National Defense Commission, an appointment analysts said indicates the 26-year-old is being groomed to take power. Kim Jong Un speaks English, likes basketball _ and is said to look and act just like his father.
• N. Korea’s Unique Food Attracting Foreigners
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter North Korea has unique food made with rare ingredients. The Choson Sinbo newspaper, the communist regime's de facto mouthpiece, published in Tokyo, introduced a range of cuisine including ostrich soup and simmered chicken heart at a festival presenting holiday food last week. One of the dishes that received critical acclaim was ostrich soup in ostrich eggshell.
• N. Korean leader confesses fatigue due to economic drive: state paper
  SEOUL, Apr 18, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has confessed he's struggling with the grinding pace of his activities but keeps pushing himself onwards out of responsibility for the fate of his homeland, the North's party mouthpiece said Friday. "A man is not made of iron and ought to take care his own body. But I have no time to do so," Kim was quoted as saying by the Rodong Sinmun, published by the Workers' Party, during a recent field trip. "Why wouldn't I be tired and need more sleep?" Kim said. "Even though I'm tired, I'm pushing myself to keep going. What drives me to keep going despite the fatigue and distress? The profound sense of duty of bearing the fate of our homeland -- our people -- on my shoulders." The 67-year-old leader, now back in control after a reported stroke last summer, has significantly increased his economy-related visits this year, making 49 such trips as of Friday, compared to 19 last year and 17 in 2007, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry. Watchers say Kim's stepped-up public activities are a sign of Pyongyang striving to increase industrial output for its 2012 economic campaign. [Kim Jong Il]
• Actress Recalls NK Leader as Culture Devotee
  Choi Eun-hee A veteran actress has recalled North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as an impressive culture devotee so dedicated that he would write down dance moves on paper. "He was the first man I met who attempted to make a 'dance notation.' I was curious how dance moves could be transformed onto paper, but I never stayed to see it being printed," South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. "Aside from everything else, Chairman Kim was highly communicative when it came to culture and films. He was a man who learned about the world through movies." Choi was kidnapped to Pyongyang in 1978 and made 17 films there under the North Korean dictator's watchful eyes with her husband director Shin Sang-ok, who passed away in 2006. "We were treated well (in North Korea), but could not really pursue an artistic career," Choi was quoted as saying. "They still call us traitors for fleeing." [Kim Jong Il]
• N.Korea Releases Photos of Military High Command
  Official North Korean newspapers released photos of all 12 members of North Korea's top organ of power, the Defense Commission, which is chaired by Kim Jong-il. The Rodong Sinmun and Minju Chosun released the photos after the new commission was confirmed by the recently elected rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly. In the past, North Korea released only the photos of the chairman and vice chairmen.
• Grand Evening of Fireworks Held
  Pyongyang, April 15 (KCNA) -- A grand evening of fireworks "Fireworks for Building Great Prosperous and Powerful Nation" was held on the bank of the Taedong River here on Tuesday evening to commemorate the 97th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. The bank of the river and the roads facing the Tower of the Juche Idea were crowded with hundreds of thousands of citizens from all walks of life who gathered to watch the fireworks. General Secretary Kim Jong Il took the tribune of honor.
• [Kim Jong-il’s third term: politics] North Korea strengthens foundations for a “post-Kim system”
  While NDC has risen as a state authority, Chang Sung-taek, brother-in-law of Kim, may assume position of “delegated authority” With the help of experts at the Hankyoreh Peace Research Institute, the Hankyoreh presents its analysis and forecasts on the character and direction of “Kim Jong-il‘s Third Term System,” which was inaugurated by the first meeting of North Korea’s 12th Supreme People‘s Assembly last Thursday. -- Editor Kim Yong-hyun, professor of North Korean Studies in Dongguk University At the first meeting of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim Jong-il was reelected as chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea (NDC), while Chang Sung-taek, Director of Administration Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, also became a member of the NDC. The NDC has now expanded and grown stronger in terms of its members and systemic strength. A new stable foundation and chain of command has been set in place for the “post-Kim Jong-il system.”
• NKorea's Kim brings close relative to center stage
  By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Friday, April By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Friday, April 10, 2009; 11:21 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il is officially back on center stage following a reported stroke, but has promoted a trusted in-law to the spotlight in the clearest sign yet he is making preparations for an eventual successor, analysts said Friday. Though looking thinner and grayer, and limping slightly, Kim's appearance at the closely watched first session of the North's new parliament Thursday was more than enough to lay to rest any lingering doubts about his health, and prove he is in charge. Kim appointed his brother-in-law Jang Song Thaek to the all-powerful National Defense Commission, providing analysts with clues about what the future may hold for North Korea after Kim either dies or becomes incapacitated.
• N.Korean Parliament Convenes
  North Korean Kim Jong-il claps at the Supreme People's Assembly on Thursday in this video grab from recorded footage aired by the KCTV channel. The 12th North Korean Supreme People's Assembly in its first general meeting on Thursday amended the constitution for the first time in 11 years and reappointed Kim Jong-il as the country's commander-in-chief, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The constitution, established in September 1948, was first amended in December 1972, introducing the chairmanship and consolidating Kim Il-sung's dictatorship. The second amendment in September 1998 gave more power to the National Defense Commission, signaling the first phase of Kim Jong-il's leadership.
• Kim Jong Il returns to center stage looking good with a slight limp
  Based on Supreme People’s Assembly footage, experts say that his health has since improved » North Korea National Defense Commission Chairman, Kim Jong-il, pays a silent tribute during the Supreme People’s Assembly meeting in Pyongyang, April 9. A noticeably older-looking Kim Jong-il appeared Thursday at Pyongyang’s Mansudae Assembly Hall, the site of the first meeting of North Korea’s 12th Supreme People’s Assembly. Kim Jong-il who now is 67 years old was visibly grayer and thinner. Some outside observers suggest the wrinkles on his face look deep for his age, perhaps as a result of a large weight loss experienced within a short period of time. Intelligence authorities are attributing this to a special diet that he has been following since his recovery from a collapse caused by a cerebrovascular ailment last year. In a recorded video of the assembly convening aired Thursday by North Korea’s Chosun Central TV, prior to the commencement of the meeting Kim appeared from the right side of the stage to receive a standing ovation from the representatives present. He proceeded to enter the hall by walking ten steps to the central seat of the main platform. He appeared to be limping slightly in his left leg, which some have suggested might be paralyzed, but he moved his arms relatively freely.
• N.Korean Parliament Convenes
  North Korean Kim Jong-il claps at the Supreme People's Assembly on Thursday in this video grab from recorded footage aired by the KCTV channel. The 12th North Korean Supreme People's Assembly in its first general meeting on Thursday amended the constitution for the first time in 11 years and reappointed Kim Jong-il as the country's commander-in-chief, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
• Kim Jong Il Elected Chairman of NDC of DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- The First Session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK held here elected General Secretary Kim Jong Il chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission. The session solemnly declared internally and externally that Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and supreme commander of the revolutionary armed forces, was elected chairman of the NDC of the DPRK, reflecting the unanimous will and wishes of all the servicepersons and people, as he has performed the immortal exploits to shine long in the history of the country and put the dignity and position of the DPRK on the highest level by wisely leading the Juche revolutionary cause started in Mt. Paektu to victory through his distinguished ideological and theoretical activities and with his dynamic leadership.
• North Korean Leader, Thin and Limping, Returns to Assembly and Gains New Term
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 9, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, returned to center stage in the North’s capital, Pyongyang, on Thursday when the country’s Parliament elected him to another five-year term. But the secretive government gave no clues, after months of questions about Mr. Kim’s failing health, as to which of his three sons would be prepared to succeed him. State television showed Mr. Kim, 67, receiving a standing ovation as he walked, with a slight limp, into the session of the rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly. In contrast to his former paunchy build, he looked gaunt and older, but he maintained his authority, returning the applause and motioning the delegates to be seated. He appeared to have difficulty using his left hand because of, doctors believe, a stroke he suffered last August.
• DPRK Stirred by Launching of Satellite
  Pyongyang, April 8 (KCNA) -- Scientists and technicians of the DPRK succeeded in putting Kwangmyongsong-2, an experimental communications satellite, into the orbit by carrier rocket Unha-2 under the state long-term plan for the development of outer space on April 5. Upon hearing this news, the Koreans are excited with great joy. Chief Secretary Kim Phyong Hae of the North Phyongan Provincial Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea said that this historic event is a manifestation of the unshakable will of leader Kim Jong Il to open the gate to a great, prosperous and powerful nation without fail, breaking through any difficulty. He continued: [Spin]
• Unopposed, Kim Jong-Il Takes Third Term
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 9, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, had himself re-elected to another five-year term by Parliament on Thursday as questions persisted over his failing health and his regime’s confrontation with the outside world after its recent rocket launch. The Supreme People’s Assembly “upheld” Mr. Kim as chairman of the country’s most powerful agency, the National Defense Commission, said the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Meanwhile, Pak Tok-hun, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the UN, warned yesterday that the North would take “strong steps” against any Security Council action against the rocket launch. Pak insisted that Pyongyang launched a satellite and said the Security Council was “undemocratic” in criticizing North Korea for launching the satellite while other countries were allowed to do the same. “This is a satellite. Everyone can distinguish a satellite from a missile,” Pak said. “Every country has the right, the inalienable right, to use outer space peacefully. “Not a few countries, many countries, they’ve already launched a satellite, several hundred times,” Pak added. “Does it mean that it is O.K. for them to launch a satellite, but we are not allowed to do that? This is not fair.” [Satellite] [Double standards]

• Varied Anti-Tuberculosis Activities
  Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- Varied anti-tuberculosis activities are being conducted in the DPRK in step with the strategy for eradicating tuberculosis in the world. The DPRK government has directed deep attention to the work for preventing and uprooting the infectious diseases as an important part of its health policy from long ago. First of all, efforts are being concentrated on the hygienic propaganda against tuberculosis, while raising the social interest in the importance of the anti-tuberculosis activities and strengthening support to them. The doctors in charge of households and prophylactic treatment organs are enlisted in the work in a positive way. Meanwhile, the hygienic propaganda is being conducted through mass media and a new scientific film "Tuberculosis and Health" was released. Colorful activities are also held in the country every year on the occasion of the "World TB's Day" (March 24). The government has taken positive measures to prevent tuberculosis. As part of the measures, all the newborn babies are vaccinated with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) within seven days from 18 hours after birth and a step is being taken to supply preventive medicine to them without interruption. Efforts are being exerted not only to regularly conduct medical check-up through medical consultation and medical examination car but also to block all the channels to the outbreak of TB cases. The DPRK is further deepening contacts with the World Health Organization and other international organizations in the anti-tuberculosis activities.
• Kim Jong-il Looking Leaner Than Before
  A picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, left, taken on Sunday from a scene aired by the North Korean Central Television, shows a thinner Kim than the one taken before the second inter-Korean summit with former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in Pyongyang in October 2007. / Yonhap-Korea Times By Kim Se-jeong Staff Reporter The latest pictures released by the (North) Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) showed a much thinner Kim Jong-il, 67, than a couple of months ago. A picture, reportedly taken during a tour of the Kim Il-sung University's new swimming pool facility and released late last week, seemed to be clear confirmation of Kim's deteriorating health. While visiting the swimming complex, Kim appeared to be thinner than in January when photographs were released by Chinese media after his rare meeting with a Chinese official in Pyongyang.
• Kim Jong Il Provides On-the-Spot Guidance to Newly Built Swimming Complex at Kim Il Sung University
  Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to the newly built swimming complex at Kim Il Sung University. The swimming complex built on the personal initiative of Kim Jong Il has a large swimming pool and wading pool. They have been built in such a peculiar style that they not only offer the teachers and students an ample opportunity of training their bodies and enjoying cultural rest but can host international competitions.
• Kim Jong-il's Son Not on List of New Delegates
  Kim Jong-un, the third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and possible successor to his father, was not named as a delegate to the Supreme People's Assembly. The list of 687 new delegates to the SPA was announced on Monday. "Rumors about Kim Jong-un's appointment as the successor will probably die down for the time being," said a Unification Ministry official.
• N.Koreans 'Elect' Parliament   
      North Korea on Sunday conducted elections for the Supreme People's Assembly, marking what some have described as the third Kim Jong-il regime. North Korean leader Kim (67) reshuffled the power structure on the occasion of nominal elections for the SPA in August 1998 and in August 2003, ratcheting up tension on the peninsula with a view to tightening his hold on power. In 1998 when his first regime started, the North sent a submarine into South Korean waters near Sokcho, Gangwon Province and test-fired a Taepodong-1 missile, which it claimed was a satellite. During the elections for the SPA in 2003, the second North Korean nuclear crisis over suspected development of highly enriched uranium reached its height   [Bizarre]    
•   Kim Jong Il Participates in Voting  
          Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Sunday inspected Kim Il Sung Political University and participated in the election of deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly together with servicepersons. When he arrived at the university, teachers and students and their families enthusiastically welcomed him, extending the highest glory and the warmest thanks to him. After warmly acknowledging their enthusiastic welcome, he moved to the festively decorated polling station. There he received a ballot from the chairman of the Election Committee of Sub-Constituency No. 22 of Constituency No. 342 for the election of deputy to the SPA and voted for KPA officer Jon Il, candidate for deputy to the SPA. He met and had a talk with the candidate. After his voting, he went round the room devoted to the history of the university, conducted by its rector.  
• Elections in North may shed light on succession
  March 07, 2009 Following North Korea’s parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday, the third term of Kim Jong-il’s reign will begin. Experts in South Korea said the election outcome will serve as a barometer for many political changes in the North, pointing toward the communist country’s overhaul of its power elite, the future of inter-Korean relations and the possibility of a father-to-son power succession. The North holds elections for the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s unicameral rubber-stamp legislature, every five years. Although Assembly members are lawmakers on the surface, they actually hold additional positions - often top spots in the Workers’ Party, military and government. Every five years marks a turning point in the Dear Leader’s regime.
• NK to Hold 'Most Democratic Election'
  With North Korea preparing for a once-in-five-years legislature election Sunday, its state media Saturday urged its citizens to go and vote by praising its election system and denouncing South Korea's "capitalist-corrupted" election practice, Yonhap reported. "Simply put, South Korean elections are all about money, government influence, coercion, fraud and trickery. Most of all, money is the best," Jong Kyu-jin, who is believed to have defected to North Korea in 1989, was quoted as saying by Radio Pyongyang. He said North Korea's election "best serves the people and is the most democratic system in the world."
• N.Korea's Elite Combat Forces Revealed
  The operational department of the North Korean Workers Party is a special force of highly-trained secret agents. Consisting of some 2,000 highly trained individuals, it was established for the purpose of undermining the enemy's leadership in time of war.

• Kim Jong Il Sends Open Letter to All Voters throughout Country
  Pyongyang, February 18 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Tuesday sent an open letter to all voters throughout the country. The letter said: Voters' meetings were held in all constituencies of the country to nominate candidates for deputies to the 12th Supreme People's Assembly amid high political enthusiasm of the service personnel and people who are stepping up the general onward march towards the future of a great, prosperous and powerful socialist country, and they nominated me as candidate for the post of deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly. This is an expression of their absolute support for and trust in our Party, and their revolutionary confidence and indomitable will to carry forward the revolutionary cause of Juche to the end under the Party's Songun-based revolutionary leadership. I extend my heartfelt thanks to the entire electorate of the country for their deep trust in me.
• Kim Jong-il's 3rd Son 'Chosen as Heir'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has chosen his third son Jong-un as his heir apparent, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Tuesday. The Japanese daily quoted a North Korean official as saying the General Political Staff, the key organ of the People's Army, has been distributing a memorandum saying Jong-un (26) was chosen as the heir early last month.
• North Korea Census Results Announced
  The population of North Korea totaled 24.05 million as of Oct. 2008, reported Radio Free Asia on Saturday, citing the preliminary census by the United Nations Population Fund. There were 11.72 million men and 12.33 million women. South Pyeongan Province was the most populated province, with 4.05 million and the capital city Pyongyang had 3.26 million people. North Korea conducted a census survey for the first time in 15 years since 1993 with the help of the UNFPA in October last year.
• 1st Picture of Kim Jong-il's Youngest Son Revealed
  Kim Jong-un at 11 The first known photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son Jong-un has been made public amid rumors that Kim junior is his father's likeliest successor.
• N.Korea Reshuffles Top Military Posts
  From left, Kim Yong-chun and Ri Yong-ho North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has reshuffled senior military leaders. The official news agency said on Wednesday the National Defense Commission and the Workers' Party's Central Military Commission appointed Vice Marshall Kim Yong-chun (73), vice chairman of the Defense Commission, as minister of People's Armed Forces or defense minister. Gen. Ri Yong-ho, commander of the Pyongyang Defense Command, is the new chief of the North Korean Army's General Staff. A South Korean intelligence officer said, "It's unusual for North Korea to reshuffle key military leaders in a situation where it is increasing the threat of armed conflict by showing signs of preparing for a long-range missile test. We're carefully analyzing why North Korea has replaced the key officials."
• Minister of People's Armed Forces and Chief of General Staff Newly Appointed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, February 11 (KCNA) -- A decision of the DPRK National Defence Commission and the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea was released on February 11 in the name of Kim Jong Il, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission. Vice Marshal of the Korean People's Army Kim Yong Chun was appointed as minister of the People's Armed Forces of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and KPA General Ri Yong Ho as chief of the KPA General Staff, according to the decision.
• Kim Jong-il 'Didn't Have Brain Surgery'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may not have undergone a brain surgery, as previously reported, a diplomatic source in Beijing said on Monday. The source said Chinese special envoy Wang Jiarui, who met Kim over a five-hour boozy lunch in Pyongyang on Jan. 23, did not see any trace of brain surgery. Wang reportedly saw no trace that Kim's hair had been shorn trace of hair cut necessary for brain surgery or any scars on Kim's head. Nor did Kim wear a wig in an attempt to hide it. "Kim's left hand was neither paralyzed nor swollen, and when we shook hands, I could feel the power in his right hand," the source quoted Wang as saying. Kim also reportedly accepted a letter from Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered by Wang with both hands.
• Kim Jong-il 'Drinking Heavily'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il drank a great deal of potent liquor during a lengthy lunch with visiting Chinese special envoy Wang Jiarui on Jan. 23, a diplomatic source in Beijing said Thursday. "Following a conference in the morning of Jan. 23, Kim lunched with Wang for over two hours," the source said. "I understand that North Korean spirits were served on the occasion, and Kim proposed a number of toasts and drank many small cups of liquor." Meeting Wang, the first foreign visitor since he reportedly suffered a stroke last fall, Kim may have drunk hard in a bid to demonstrate his health, diplomats in Beijing speculate. The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday quoted a diplomatic source as saying prior to his meeting with Wang, Kim refrained from inspection tours for over a week to recover his health. The daily said the lunch lasted for about five hours. Kyodo News on Wednesday said Kim commented on the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama by saying, "We'll see how the U.S moves." [Media]

• Kim Jong-il's Son Denies Chinese Backing for Succession
  The eldest son of ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Tuesday said he does not think China supports him as his father's successor and that nobody knows who will be the Stalinist country's next leader. But Kim Jong-nam, who has spent much of his time abroad in recent years, stopped short of ruling out that he may fill his father's shoes. Japanese reporters had asked Kim junior whether he has China's support as the next leader when he arrived in Beijing from Pyongyang by North Korean carrier Air Koryo last Saturday. He was en route to Macau, where he has spent a great deal of time.
• Succession Is Kim Jong-il's Decision Alone, Son Says
  Kim Jong-nam (38), the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, last Saturday said his father alone determines who succeeds him. Kim Jong-nam made the remark in Beijing. It was his first comment on the sensitive issue of who will succeed the ailing leader, from whom he is said to have been estranged.
• New Year in North Korea
  In this photo, North Korean children celebrate the Lunar New Year in Pyongyang on Monday, Jan. 26, 2009.
• North Korea in 2008 and 2009: the view from Pyongyang
  Posted Date : 2009-01-16 (IFES Forum No. 09-1-16-1) by B. C. Koh (Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago) The joint editorial published on New Year’s day in the daily organs of North Korea’s three most influential organizations—The Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), The Korean People’s Army (KPA), and The Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League—merits attention, because it enumerates Pyongyang’s official view of what it has accomplished in the preceding year and what it hopes to accomplish in the New Year. This practice began in 1995 in lieu of the New Year’s Day messages the late Kim Il Sung used to give. This year’s joint editorial in the Nodong Sinmun, Choson Inmingun, and Ch’ongnyon Chonwi was entitled “Let Us Glorify This Year as The Year of a New Revolutionary Upsurge While Sounding A Bugle for a General Advance.” Like its predecessors, it boasts of notable achievements in many sectors, and anticipates an epochal progress in the coming year—all of which owes and will owe to the sagacious and brilliant leadership of Kim Jong Il as well as to the foundation laid by and the immortal ideas of the late Great Leader Kim Il Sung.
  If the North hopes for a favorable response from the Obama administration, however, it is bound to be disappointed. U.S. Secretary of State designate Hillary Rodham Clinton made it clear that the Obama administration would pursue a “very aggressive effort” against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Speaking at a Senate confirmation hearing on January 13, Clinton also said that the incoming administration would favor the Six-Party Talks. In her words, “we have got to end North Korea as a proliferator… So we will embark upon a very aggressive effort to try to determine the best way forward to achieve our objectives with them.” She mentioned the suspected transfer of nuclear weapons technology by the North to Syria and “both the plutonium reprocessing program and the highly enriched uranium program, which there is reason to believe exists, although never quite verified.”
• Lunar New Year in Pyongyang
  North Korean children jump rope as they mark the Lunar New Year in Pyongyang, North Korea Monday, Jan. 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
• KCNA Report on Suspected Japanese Drug Smuggler's Departure from DPRK
  Pyongyang, January 13 (KCNA) -- A suspected Japanese drug smuggler departed from the DPRK after being held in custody here. The Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday released the following report in this regard: Yoshiaki Sawada, former department director of the Enterprise Co., Ltd, of Japan, who had been held in custody in the DPRK since October 2003 for attempting to smuggle drug in violation of the law of the DPRK and international law, left here on Tuesday thanks to a humanitarian measure taken by an institution concerned of the DPRK. The results of the investigation conducted by the institution clearly proved the truth behind a despicable plot hatched by a Japanese-plot breeding organization to charge the ship Mangyongbong-92 with "drug trafficking" by using the above-said man and seriously damage the prestige of the DPRK and the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, taking advantage of this case. The suspected man frankly admitted his crime and relations with those forces behind the operation and made a sincere apology for his wrongdoing. The above-said institution of the DPRK treated him in a humanitarian manner and leniently dealt with his case, taking his wish to go back home and health condition and so on into consideration. [Drugs]
• N.Korea to Hold 'Election' in March
  North Korea will hold what is billed as an election for the Supreme People's Assembly, the parliament, on March 8, the official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. The assembly rubberstamps personnel, budget and external policy decisions for the regime.
• Election of Deputies to 12th SPA to Be Held
  Pyongyang, January 7 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Tuesday promulgated its decision on holding the election of deputies to the SPA of the DPRK. According to the decision, the election of deputies to the 12th SPA will be held on March 8, Juche 98 (2009) according to Article 90 of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK.
• N.Korea in Sweeping Shakeup at the Top
  The North Korean regime has carried out a sweeping Cabinet overhaul, replacing at least nine ministers and making some changes to key positions in the People’s Army and the Workers' Party. In addition to three appointments reported in the official North Korean media earlier, the Unification Ministry says Chon Kil-su was appointed new railways minister, Kim Kwang-yong forestry minister and Ri Yong-nam trade minister.
• Pyongyang Mass Rally Held
  Pyongyang, January 5 (KCNA) -- A Pyongyang mass rally took place at the Kim Il Sung Square Monday to respond to the letter of the employees of the Chollima Steel Complex and carry through the militant tasks laid down in the joint New Year editorial. Attending the rally were Kim Yong Il, Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop, Kim Jung Rin, leading officials of ministries, national institutions and working people's organizations and others including over 100,000 citizens. Read out there was the letter of the complex employees addressed to the working people across the country.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, January 4 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected Unit 1489 under the Artillery Command of the KPA and watched the firing training of its artillery pieces. He was greeted on the spot by Col. General Ri Jong Bu, artillery commander of the KPA, and other general officers and commanding officers of the unit. He acquainted himself with the unit's performance of duty. Then he mounted an observation platform where he was briefed on the training program and watched the firing training.
• Why Does Kim Jong-il Promise Great Things for 2012?
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been quoted as saying it was "the firm intention of the party and the people to open the gates on a powerful country by 2012." He made the cryptic statement while inspecting the Chollima Steel Complex in South Pyongan Province, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Earlier, Kim was quoted by the Korean Central Television Station as saying, "Now that an ideologically and militarily powerful country has been achieved through the development of nuclear weapons, an economically powerful country should be achieved by 2012." "A country" in each case seems to refer to a stage in North Korea's development. But why 2012? North Korea experts note that 2012 is the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth, and suggest his son may be looking for some milestone for the occasion.

• Kim Jong-il's Leadership 'Stable'
  Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong on Monday said it seems the North Korean leadership is “stable.” He based the opinion on a flurry of official North Korean reports showing ailing leader Kim Jong-il inspecting various sites. The unification minister made the remarks at a meeting with reporters on the ministry beat over luncheon, citing North Korean media reports that Kim Jong-il engaged in public activities on 22 occasions since Oct. 4. "We should conclude that everything is normal" in North Korea, he added.
• Kim Jong-il appears in public for inspections of state institutions
  Despite long absence amidst reports of ill health, number of public appearances this year totals 94 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il conducted an inspection of the Chollima Steel Complex in South Pyeongan Province, North Korea’s Korean Central Television reported Thursday. This report comes four days after a report last Sunday that he inspected a pottery factory in the city of Huicheon, Jagang Province. The network did not announced the date of Kim’s inspection visit, as is customary.
• N.Korea Resistance 'Growing'
  A South Korean activist on Tuesday claimed the iron curtain shutting North Korea off from the outside world beginning to crack due to a massive inflow of information. Ha Tae-keung, the president of Open Radio for North Korea, made the claim in an article titled, "North Korea in Media War," on the website Redian. "The recent controversy over sending leaflets to North Korea is simply a sign of how strained Pyongyang is over the inflow of outside information," he wrote. "Something surprising is taking place in the North this year," Ha said. "One of the two pillars underpinning the North Korean system -- information control and iron-fisted rule -- is crumbling down rapidly." North Korean refugees in China find another world in China, meet South Koreans and watch South Korean TV, according to Ha, and those that are deported back as well as North Korean traders who cross the border have become messengers conveying the reality of the outside world. Ha said VCDs, DVDs, radio and mobile phones reach across North Korea.
• Kim Jong-il Outings 'No Fakes'
  South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities believe North Korean leader Kim Jong-il did make the semi-public appearances the North has been reporting in recent weeks, despite ill health apparently brought about by a stroke. A senior South Korean intelligence officer on Sunday said Kim's personal armored train did travel to the areas where Kim was said to have made the visits. "Based on the information we gathered, we think it is highly likely that he actually visited these cities," he said. Both South Korean and the U.S. intelligence agencies reconnoitered the movement of Kim's personal train with the KH-12 satellite, the U-2 scout plane, and South Korea's Kumgang spotter plane, and confirmed that the train was moving. [Military balance] [Espionage]
• N. Korean Leader Makes Sixth Public Appearance
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, center, conducts an on-site inspection at a ceramic plant in Jagangdo in this undated image, released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, Sunday. / Yonhap North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has recently paid a visit to a ceramic factory, the sixth in a series of trips to military and public facilities following a stroke he suffered earlier in the year, the North's official news agency reported Sunday, in an apparent move to silence rumors about Kim's health. The communist nation has released a string of pictures showing the leader inspecting various facilities, according to Yonhap News Agency. The awkward positioning of Kim's left hand in the images, however, has renewed suspicion that he may be suffering from the after effects of the stroke he reportedly suffered in August.
• 'Kim Jong-il Did Not Undergo Operation'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, center, visits a chicken factory in Sariwon, south of North Korean capital Pyongyang in this undated picture released by North Korea’s official news agency Korean Central News Agency. / Yonhap By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had a stroke but is now better, a French doctor who last treated him said Thursday. Paris-based neurosurgeon Francois-Xavier Roux told French newspaper Le Figaro that the secretive leader, however, did not undergo surgery.
• French Doctor Speaks Out on Kim Jong-il's Health
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered a cerebral hemorrhage but did not undergo surgery and is recovering, according to a French neurosurgeon who treated the reclusive leader in October. Francois-Xavier Roux made the disclosure in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro. Meanwhile, French intelligence services reportedly checked with a heart surgeon from Lyons who visited the North to treat Kim back in 2004 whether he brought back a blood sample with him and whether Kim had contracted AIDS. Le Figaro carried a full-page feature on Thursday on the secretive treatment of the top-class families of North Korea. Under the title "These French Doctors at Kim Jong-il's Bedside (Ces medecins francais au chevet de Kim Jong-il)," the daily reported the behind-the-scenes stories. in November, 1991, when Kim Il-sung had a heart attack, North Korea took a heart surgeon from Lyons to Pyongyang, and North Korean diplomats in Switzerland sent a pacemaker for his operation to the North in a diplomatic pouch.
• Banks of Taedong River Lowered
  Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- The banks of Taedong River flowing through Pyongyang have been lowered and consolidated between the Okryu Restaurant and the Chungsong Bridge. The original banks which had been reinforced on various occasions after the liberation of the country played a big role in protecting the city from floods in the past. This project has been done because several barrages were constructed across the river so as to control the water level and prevent floods including the West Sea Barrage in the mouth of the river and the Mirim, Ponghwa, Songchon and Sunchon Barrages in the upper reaches. As a result one can view the Tower of Juche Idea, the east Pyongyang area and rich stream of the river from the west bank. Roads have been constructed along the river and a large number of trees and the flowering plants of good species planted on the riverside areas. The bank areas have been turned into parks for the
• Walled City of Pyongyang, Capital of Koguryo
  Pyongyang, December 5 (KCNA) -- The Walled City of Pyongyang, capital of Koguryo (277 B.C.-668 A.D.) is one of the national cultural legacies of Korea with a history spanning fifty centuries. Koguryo moved its capital to Pyongyang in the year of 427 and built the walls in the latter half of the 6th century (552-586). Six wall stones inscribed with letters were found in modern ages, which proved the stage, period and scale of the wall construction. The Walled City of Pyongyang with about 16 kilometers in circumference of the walls, 23 kilometers in total length of the walls and 11.85 square kilometers in total area has Moran Hill in the north and Taedong and Pothong Rivers in the east, west and south, which provided natural and geographical conditions unfavorable for the foreign invaders and favorable for defenders.
  It, which was called Jangan Walls, consisted of four castles -- Naesong (inner castle) where the royal palace was located, Jungsong (middle castle), the administration centre of Koguryo, where central government offices were located, Woesong (outer castle) where there were main residential quarters and Puksong around Moran Hill (outer ring walls for defending the city). According to a historical record, there were more than 210,500 households inside and outside of the walls. The walls were 4-5 meters high in hilly lands and 7-9 meters high in flat areas. The Walled City Pyongyang was really an impregnable fortress with various defence facilities, many wall gates and commanding posts in the walls.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-spot Guidance to Reconstructed Central Zoo
  Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to the Central Zoo reconstructed on an expansion basis. It covers an area of more than a hundred hectares at the foot of picturesque Mt. Taesong. After being briefed on the zoo in front of a big painting showing a panoramic view of the zoo, he went round aquarium, tiger, bear and horse sheds and other places for a long while. Learning in detail about the reconstruction and operation of the zoo, he expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the appearance of the zoo has radically changed in a few years.
• Survey of Aged Population in 2007
  Pyongyang, November 27 (KCNA) -- Researches into and survey of the situation of the aged population took place in the DPRK in Juche 96 (2007). Before the survey, researchers of the Population Centre worked out a survey plan, survey index and survey questionnaires on the basis of experiences in the past census. Meanwhile, substantial test survey and census workshop were organized in preparation for a spot survey. On this basis, the researchers carried out a survey among old folks above sixty and their families in nearly 60 dongs and ris of Pyongyang City, South Phyongan and South Hamgyong Provinces In this course a lot of information about the demographic conditions and socio-economic activities of the aged persons, their educational and health status, the characteristics of their families and understanding of the question of aged people were collected. [Ageing society]
• 'North Korean Leader Had Another Stroke'
  Kim Jong-il By Michael Ha Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered another stroke and a seizure last month, and his condition got bad enough to consider emergency surgery, a report said Wednesday. Japan's Mainichi newspaper said that Kim suffered the recurrence of a brain hemorrhage, which was followed by a seizure, in late October. The situation was serious enough that Kim's attending physicians had to consider surgery, the report said, citing an unnamed Chinese official familiar with Kim's health status. The newspaper said it could not confirm whether Kim had more surgery but added his condition now appears to have stabilized for the time being.
• North Korea’s Very Cautious Cinematic Thaw
  Malte Herwig The Pyongyang International Cinema House was packed for screenings at North Korea’s film festival in September. By MALTE HERWIG Published: November 21, 2008 PYONGYANG, North Korea Guards outside the Pyongyang International Cinema House. HUMOR may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the citizens of North Korea, a country known mostly for militant anti-Western propaganda, chronic food shortages and an internationally isolated government pursuing nuclear weapons. And yet audiences at the 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival here clearly enjoyed themselves this fall during screenings of Western dramas and comedies, occasionally even erupting into riotous laughter.
  After more than a decade of natural disasters, famine and economic mismanagement, everyday life is no laughing matter for the 23 million Koreans north of the demilitarized zone, which has separated the Koreas since the end of the war between the two countries in 1953 [Victim] [Spin] [EWA]
• DPRK adopts social security law
  Posted Date : 2008-11-07 (NK Brief No. 08-11-7-1) (North) Korean Central Broadcasting reported on November 6 that the DPRK Cabinet had adopted a ‘Social Security Implementation Measure’. This measure “laid down in detail questions of principle and methods to be observed in improving the social security work such as the recipients of social security allowances and their standards, their preferential treatment, social security procedures, disbursement of social security fund, organization and management of social security organs, production and supply by subsidiary mechanism.” The broadcast explained that the measure was a “firm guarantee has been provided to meet better the growing demand of the people and convenience in their life and enable the welfare recipients to enjoy greater benefits of social security at the expense of the state.”
• N.Korea Reports Another Kim Jong-il Outing
  North Korea continues to report supposed public appearances by leader Kim Jong-il in apparent efforts to show that he is in good health, but observers continue to cast doubt on the veracity of these reports. The (North) Korean Central News Agency on Sunday reported Kim had watched an art performance by a naval company of the People's Army, but it neither specified when and where he watched the performance, nor supplied any photos or video images. It was 10 days after a report that he attended a performance by an art troupe on Nov. 6.
• Kim Jong Il Enjoys Art Performance Given by Soldiers of KPA Companies
  Pyongyang, November 16 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il appreciated an art performance given by soldiers of a company under KPA Unit 235, a company under KPA Unit 851 and a company under KPA Unit 507 who proved successful at the 32nd art festival of servicepersons of the KPA.
• N.Korea Releases More Kim Jong-il Photos
  North Korea on Wednesday released 15 photos of its leader Kim Jong-il inspecting two military units. The release came three days after another set of pictures of him watching a soccer match were published Sunday. They were apparently put out to coincide with Election Day in the U.S.
• New Kim Jong-il Photos Hint at Minor Stroke
  North Korea on Sunday released photos that it claims show leader Kim Jong-il watching a football match. It was an apparent effort to demonstrate he is well, but experts say even these carefully vetted images reveal signs that Kim is suffering the effects of a stroke
• Football fan Kim Jong-il's a picture of health
  New photographs fail to solve the mystery of whether the North Korean leader is ill
  Peter Walker guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 02 2008 12.47 GMT Article history North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, who according to the country's official media was attending a football match. Photo: KCNA/AFP It's currently the most tantalising guessing game in global affairs: exactly what is the state of Kim Jong-il's health? A series of reports variously claim that the North Korean leader is recovering after a stroke or similar ailment, and that a French brain surgeon has been consulted.
• More Kim Jong-Il Photos Are Released
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: November 2, 2008 SEOUL — The North Korean state-run news media on Sunday released photos showing its leader, Kim Jong-il, smiling and looking vivacious, some two months after he was believed to have suffered a stroke. North Korea has in recent weeks struggled to counter intense speculation from abroad about the state of its leader’s health, with methods that have tended to raise more questions about Mr. Kim’s medical condition.
• Pak Song Chol Dies
  Pyongyang, October 29 (KCNA) -- Pak Song Chol, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and honorary vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, died of long illness at 5 a.m. on Oct. 28 to our regret at the age of 95. He was born in a poor peasant's family in Kyongju City of North Kyongsang Province on September 2, Juche 2 (1913).   He was a faithful revolutionary soldier who devoted his whole life to the cause of national liberation and working class liberation and socialist construction and the independent reunification of the country under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung.
• Kim Jong-il 'not Incapacitated yet'
  Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday said the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is not good, "but I don't think that he's in a state in which he's unable to make any decisions at all." Aso was speaking at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the House of Councilors. "We have received intelligence reports that he is in hospital," Aso added.
• Kim Jong-il's Son 'Sees Brain Surgeon in Paris'
  Kim Jong-nam leaves a hospital in Paris last week in this Fuji TV video footage. /Yonhap     Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in Paris last week met with a neurosurgeon who then left for Pyongyang, Japan's Fuji Television reported Monday. 
• Response to “Has the Next Great Leader of North Korea Been Announced?
  October 24th, 2008 The following are comments on the editorial "Has the Next Great Leader of North Korea Been Announced?” by Rudiger Frank. John J. Tkacik, Jr, is the Senior Research Fellow in Asian Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Rudiger Frank is a Professor of East Asian Economy and Society and Vice Director of the East Asian Institute at the University of Vienna. II. Comments by John J. Tkacik, Jr. on “Has the Next Great Leader of North Korea Been Announced?” Ruediger Frank is, of course, the expert on North Korean leadership dynamics, so I would defer to his expertise on the matter, but I wonder if he may be overlooking the legitimating power of the “Songun” (Soengun) ideology as he predicts “collective leadership” after Kim Jong Il’s passing – whenever that happy moment may arrive.  
• Has the Next Great Leader of North Korea Been Announced?
  By Rudiger Frank
  October 21st, 2008 Rudiger Frank, Professor of East Asian Economy and Society and Vice Director of the East Asian Institute at the University of Vienna, writes, "This time, we could see the Party taking over the role of a church, safeguarding ideology and the leadership of the two "Eternal" leaders, forming or organizing the collective leadership that seems to be the only logical step, and appointing a leader who will not be Great but visible. The recent homage to the Party's monument could be the first step in the process of announcing this solution; the next Great Leader of North Korea could be Mother Party."
• N. Korea releases photos of Kim Jong-il
  Experts question the validity of the photos, citing the difference in the season depicted » North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency released this and other photos of Kim Jong-il on October 11, the first photos of Kim released in 56 days amid rumors about the state of his health. Questions remain about the authenticity of the photos because none of them were dated, leading to the speculation that they were taken at an earlier date. A North Korean news outlet released photographs of North Korea’s National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il inspecting a military unit on October 11. Video footage of Kim was not, however, released. It was first time in 56 days that the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency carried a photo of Kim; the last time was on August 16, following a report on the North Korean leader’s inspection of a military unit on August 14.
• Southern Dramas Available in N. Korea
  By Park Si-soo Staff Reporter Various video and audio productions from capitalist countries are becoming more widely available in North Korea, with the authorities becoming more lenient on those enjoying such contents. Previously North Koreans could be subject to life-long jail terms or even capital punishment, according to a white paper on human rights in North Korea released Monday.
• Kim Jong Il Enjoys Student Football Match
  Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il enjoyed a student football match on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of Kim Il Sung University, the highest institution of Juche-based education and science. There was the football match between teams of Kim Il Sung University and Pyongyang University of Railways that day, at which the former beat the latter 4-1.   After watching the match, Kim Jong Il congratulated the players on their good results, saying that the revolutionary and militant students in our country are good at art and sporting activities while devoting all their wisdom and enthusiasm to the study of science for the country and the people
• NK Leader Seen in Public Since Illness: Report
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il saw a soccer game, the first public appearance since speculation arose that he had suffered a stroke, the communist state's news agency reported Saturday. The 66-year-old Kim, who reportedly have had surgery after suffering from cerebral hemorrhaging in August enjoyed a college football match, according to the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "After watching the match, leader Kim Jong-il congratulated the players on their good results, saying that the revolutionary and militant students in our country are good at art and sporting activities," the North's KCNA news agency reported.
• N. Korea's first census since 1994 begins
  PYONGYANG Oct. 1 North Korea on Wednesday began taking its first census since January 1994, which is also the second ever to be held in the country. Tens of thousands of examiners will carry out the survey until Oct. 15 under cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund, authorities said. According to the 2007 almanac published by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, the country's population was 23,612,000 as of 2004. October 2, 2008
• Painters of Juche Life? Art from Pyongyang
  A Berlin exposition challenges expectations, offers insights on North Korea
  Jan Creutzenberg Starving children, collapsing nuclear plants, a leader wearing sunglasses and a jump suit -- when it comes to North Korea, the choice of imagery in the press is limited. Several coffee table books, illustrated travel accounts and even a graphic novel present impressions of empty boulevards, monumental statues, workers with a smile on their face and the colorful Arirang Mass Games. But what about the image North Korea draws of itself? Recently a catalogue of propaganda posters presents a rather grim face with slogans ranging from "Death to US imperialists, our sworn enemy!" to "Let's extensively raise goats in all families!" The exhibition "Art from Pyongyang," currently on display at the Art Center Berlin, shows different pictures: the "Hermit Kingdom" appears less industrialized and militarized, but rather idyllic. No wonder -- for it is the first time North Korea's Ministry of Culture officially held an exhibition abroad. [Image]
• Gallery Pyongyang
  Berlin gallery specialising in art from DPRK. Many excellent photos
• Kim Jong-il on Spotlight
  By Tong Kim September 25th, 2008 Tong Kim, Research Professor with Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, writes, "One thing that the experience of the reports on Kim's health issue reminds us is the realization of how little we know about North Korea's leadership. The past decade of engaging the North has enabled the South to learn more about North Koreans. In this context, it is more imperative now to resume inter-Korean dialogue."
• Who Makes the Decisions in N.Korea Now?
    Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Monday that North Korea had asked the agency’s inspectors to remove seals and surveillance equipment at the Yongbyon reprocessing plant. The six party talks are deadlocked because the United States and North Korea have been unable to agree on a system to verify the contents of the nuclear materials the communist country has declared. As the deadlock continued, North Korea began to take one step after another to restore operations at its Yongbyon plant, which had been disabled, in protest against the international community. If North Korea removes the seals and expels U.S. disablement officials and IAEA inspectors, then the six party talks face ruin.
• 'NK Leader May Attend Workers' Party Ceremony Oct. 10'
  'NK Leader May Attend Workers' Party Ceremony Oct. 10' North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will likely appear in public at a ceremony in early October to celebrate the founding of the ruling Workers' Party and quell speculation about his health, a nongovernmental organization said Wednesday.
• Statements about Kim Jong-il’s health reflect mixed views
  China reports Kim is convalescing, while U.S. appears cautious and N. Korea defensive about rumors the leader is ill
  Chinese, U.S. and North Korean officials are making more concrete statements about rumors that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is suffering ill health.   During a visit to Japan, Liu Hongcai, deputy chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, said in a September 16 meeting with New Komeito Party leader Ota Akihiro that Kim’s illness might not be as serious as reported in the media. He said it was impossible to know the exact situation, but Kim might need to convalesce for the time being.
• Speculation on North Korean Leader Thrives in Factual Vacuum
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: September 19, 2008 CHEORWON, South Korea — When Kim Il-sung, the revered North Korean founder and president, died in 1994, the demilitarized zone between the Koreas became what soldiers and civilian residents in this frontier town remember as "an opera house of funeral songs."
  For 10 days, the North Korean propaganda loudspeakers filled the air with dirges and Soviet-style funeral marches, so heavy in mood that one resident said "it felt like a dark cloud." Now reports are saying that Kim Il-sung’s son, Kim Jong-il, the current leader, has had a stroke. Rumors about his condition run rampant. But North Korea, which may be the world’s most secretive nation, has betrayed no signs of unrest so far. Officials and analysts in Seoul, the South Korean capital, say it appears to be business as usual.
• Wanted: Chinese Doctors Who Treated Kim Jong-il
    Feverish speculation about the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il now centers on the Chinese doctors rumored to have treated him after a possible stroke last month. A South Korean senior intelligence officer on Thursday said it "doesn't seem that the doctors performed surgery" on Kim. All of them, however, were reportedly neurosurgeons
• N.Korea's Leading Apparatchiks Revealed
  Gen. Hyon Chol-hae, the 74-year-old deputy director of the general political department of the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) has been North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s most frequent companion on official occasions. Hyon has accompanied Kim, who is said to be recovering from a stroke, on 32 occasions this year.
• Kim Jong-il Out of Public View Over Chuseok
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who is reportedly recovering from neurosurgery after suffering a stroke, remained out of public view on Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving Day, it was confirmed on Monday.
• North Korea After Kim Jong Il
  Rumors of a stroke or illness have Korea watchers wondering what the nuclear-armed, communist country would look like after Dear Leader by Moon Ihlwan
• NK Stresses Unity Amid Report of Kim Jong-il's Illness
  North Korea emphasized Sunday the necessity of maintaining national unity and loyalty towards leader Kim Jong-il, amid recent reports that Kim had collapsed and is recovering from a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage. A lengthy political discourse that appeared in North Korea's official newspaper, the Rodong Shinmun -- and was carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency ? said that the country's mightiest weapon is unity. ``Our mightiest weapon ? the real missile ? is 'the missile of unity.' There are weapons that can destroy missiles, but there is not any weapon that can destroy a crystal made up of tens of millions of hearts," the newspaper said.
• N. Korea Leader Recovering Fast: Official
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is recovering from surgery fast enough to brush his teeth by himself, said a government official, Friday. The official said he was informed that Kim is not in a serious condition as opposed to some reports or speculations by North Korea experts. He said that the South is closely monitoring Kim's health status. Asked about the succession plan of leadership in the North, the official said group or collective leadership has been in place there, saying it is his personal view. The South Korean government reportedly received the intelligence regarding the North Korean leader's stroke two to three days after Kim collapsed.
• Kim Jong-il 'Suffering Convulsions'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is recovering from a stroke but is suffering irregular convulsions, which prevented him from appearing at an event marking North Korea's 60th anniversary on Tuesday, a diplomatic source based in Beijing who is well versed in the internal affairs of North Korea said Thursday.
• Torchlight Soiree Marks 60th Birthday of DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 9 (KCNA) -- A torchlight soiree of youth and students "The Homeland of Songun" was held at Kim Il Sung Square Tuesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK. Present there on invitation were senior officials of the Party, the army and the state, the chairman of a friendly party, deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly, officials of the party, armed forces and power organs, social organizations, ministries and national institutions, anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, servicepersons of the KPA, officials in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and media, heroes, persons of distinguished services, working people in the city, the chief of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front, the congratulatory group of Koreans in Japan and other congratulatory groups and delegations of overseas compatriots and Koreans overseas, diplomatic envoys of various countries and staff members of different embassies and representatives of international organizations here, foreign delegations, delegations of organizations for the study of the Juche idea and friendship and solidarity organizations and foreign guests.
• Kim Ok at Dear Leader's Sickbed
  South Korean intelligence officials are increasingly paying attention to a woman who is taking care of the ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Kim Ok, 44, is known to be de facto the fourth wife of Kim Jong-il. As Kim’s confidante, she is one of a handful of people who have free access to the bedridden Kim Jong-il. Analysts pointed out her as someone who deserves "the most attention" in terms of her growing political clout, which is likely to grow further. For example, she is expected to influence on Kim Jong-il’s key personnel appointment and who can see the ailing Kim, in case the leader recovers his illness and resumes his work in a limited manner. Kim Ok majored in piano at Pyongyang Musical College and started to work at one of the offices that managed secretarial tasks for Kim Jong-il.
• NK Leader Underwent Heart Surgery Last Year
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il underwent heart surgery by a team of German doctors last year, a Japanese daily newspaper said. Asahi Shimbun said only a handful of South Korean government officials were informed of the surgery by one of the German doctors. The Japanese newspaper cited a Korean government official, who was allegedly one of them. The daily said Kim had undergone coronary artery surgery in April 2007 and recovered later.
• North Korea’s Leader Is Seriously Ill, U.S. Intelligence Officials Say
  By MARK MAZZETTI and CHOE SANG-HUN Published: September 9, 2008 WASHINGTON — Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s leader, is seriously ill and is likely to have suffered a stroke weeks ago, American officials said Tuesday, raising the prospect of a chaotic power struggle in nuclear-armed North Korea.
  . No public appearances by the North Korean leader have been reported since mid-August. Intelligence officials in Washington said that the exact status of Mr. Kim’s health was unclear, but that on Tuesday he failed to attend a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of North Korea and that American intelligence agencies believed that he was now under the care of doctors in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Reconnoitering Company
  Pyongyang, August 6 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected the Reconnoitering Company of KPA Unit 891. He took warm care of its soldiers' living, going round an education room, bedroom, mess hall, wash-cum-bath house, daily provision store, sports hall, military lecture room, outdoor resting place and other places of the company. He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the company has built the exterior and interior of its barracks like a rest home and assiduously managed its economic life.
• Torrential Rains Hit DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Heavy rains poured in many parts of the DPRK from August one to three, influenced by the low pressure created in the middle of the West Sea of Korea. The precipitations in Sepho, Hoeyang, Kosong and Phyonggang areas of Kangwon Province and Paechon and Yonan areas of South Hwanghae Province were respectively 322mm, 303mm, 244mm, 225mm, 224mm and 177mm on August two alone
• Who Will Lead North Korea After Kim Jong-il?
    By Andrei Lankov Korea Times Columnist Succession prospects are one of the most frequent questions any North Korean watcher has to deal with. North Korea is a hereditary dictatorship, a de-facto absolute monarchy, and hence it seems logical that sooner or later aging Kim Jong-il will nominate one of his sons as a heir designate ? much like his own father did in the 1970s.
• English Lesson in N. Korea
  JULY 25, 2008 08:53 A group of people dispatched to North Korea by the Institute for Strategic Reconciliation, a think tank established by Asian-Americans, teach English to the reclusive country’s middle school students. Though North Korea once educated its teachers by inviting British citizens, it is reportedly the first time for the communist country to invite Americans to educate their students. The dispatched English education team includes five second-generation Korean-Americans. [Education]
• National Meeting Held to Mark 55th Anniversary of Victory in War
  Pyongyang, July 26 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the April 25 House of Culture on Saturday to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War. Present at the meeting were senior officials of the party, the army and the state, the chairman of a friendly party, officials of the party, armed forces and power bodies, public organizations, ministries and national institutions, servicepersons of the Korean People's Army, officials in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and media, persons of distinguished services in the war, servicemen's families, those who distinguished themselves in assisting the army, working people in Pyongyang, overseas compatriots and the chief of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front. Present there on invitation were diplomatic envoys of various countries, representatives of international organizations and members of the military attaches corps here. A report was delivered by Vice Marshal of the KPA Kim Il Chol, member of the DPRK National Defence Commission and minister of the People's Armed Forces. July 27, Juche 42 (1953) is shining as the day of the second liberation of the country in the annals of the sacred struggle of the Korean people for sovereignty, independence and socialism as they defeated the U.S. imperialist aggressors and defended the sovereignty of the country and the nation, the reporter said, and went on: [Korean War]
• N.Korea Carried Out 901 Public Executions in 2007
  North Korea committed a total of 6,738 human rights violations in 2007, of which 901 were public executions, according to the North Korean Human Rights Infringement Record Center. The center, affiliated with the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, on Tuesday published its white paper on human rights in North Korea for the year.
• Aid Program Applied to Education
  Pyongyang, July 22 (KCNA) -- Kim Hyong Jik University of Education has of late developed an education aid program which helps place the training of personnel on a more scientific and comprehensive basis to meet the requirements of the IT era. Ri Jin Sop, chief of the Education Information Center of the university, told KCNA: The center has developed a remote-controlled lecture system to lift the quality of education to a higher level. The education system enables students to listen to lectures, have question and answer and take examinations with the help of computers in the absence of teachers
• E-edition "History and Culture of River Taedong"
  Pyongyang, July 21 (KCNA) -- The Korean Cultural Preservation Centre has recently brought out the e-edition "History and Culture of River Taedong". It consists of six parts: Primitive Age, Ancient Korea, Koguryo, Koryo, Ri Dynasty and Modern Age. It gives a vivid description of the history and culture of the River Taedong, the cradle of the Korean nation which holds a legitimate position in the cultivation of world human culture. [ICT]
• Successes in Researches into Bird Influenza
  Pyongyang, July 21 (KCNA) -- Scientists of the Veterinary Institute under the Academy of Agricultural Science of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has achieved successes in researches into avian flu. From four years ago the scientists of the institute have been engaged in researches to clarify some biological features of various kinds of bird flu viruses spreading in the world and built a data base for their genes. In this course, they have established a gene analysis method of diagnosing various types of bird flu instantly and correctly without standard serum and standard antigen. And they newly developed a diagnostic reagent which is highly sensitive to bird flu viruses. The new diagnostic reagent, whose sensitivity to the avian flu viruses is above 95 percent, is higher in accuracy than the previous one. They also established the process of manufacturing the diagnostic reagent. The new diagnostic reagent is appreciated by the units which have introduced it.
• DPRK bolsters social security laws
  Posted Date : 2008-07-17 (NK Brief No. 08-7-17-1) Recent transformations in the North Korean economy and society have led the government to draft policies to link the social welfare matrix to the social security law. The ‘Democratic Chosun’, a publication of the Central Peoples’ Standing Committee and the Cabinet, has on five occasions (April 3 and 4, May 14, 16, and 23, 2008) run articles titled, “Regarding the Social Security Law,” explaining recent changes to the law and its affects on the North’s social welfare. This law contains six sections and 49 articles, the purpose of which is to strictly establish the structure and methodology of the nation’s social security system, and to protect the health of the people while providing them with secure and happy lives. Details of the law have not yet been made available. North Korea established the National Social Security Law on August 30, 1951, although it was not actually enforced until after the April 14, 1978 Socialist Labor Law was passed. North Korea’s social security system is a means with which to control the country’s socialist economy, and also acts to restrict the lives of the people, as well. From when the September 8, 1948 Constitution was passed right up until today, North Korea has provided its people with social insurance and social security systems. Society’s sick, feeble, and handicapped receive treatment assistance or material support from the social insurance system. By looking at past transitioning countries, one can see that transforming systems and quickly changing social and economic structures lead to linking of social security with social welfare in order to protect the society’s weak. In North Korea, the passing of the July 1, 2002 Economic Management Reform Measures and other sudden changes in the social and economic environments raised concerns regarding the issue of protecting the country’s most vulnerable. Combined with the North’s food shortages, the protection of the society’s elderly, children, pregnant, and other vulnerable elements has become a special issue of concern for North Korean authorities.
• Kim Jong Il Pays Homage to Kim Il Sung
  Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace on Tuesday. He was accompanied by KPA Chief of the General Staff Kim Kyok Sik, Minister of the People's Armed Forces Kim Il Chol, First Vice-Director of the KPA General Political Department Kim Jong Gak, staff members of the KPA Supreme Command and general officers of the KPA. He paid homage to President Kim Il Sung together with the commanding officers of the KPA.
• Pyongyang to Become International City by 2012
  North Korea is creating a commercial street in downtown Pyongyang as part of a large-scale project to turn the capital into an international city by 2012, when its late leader Kim Il-sung marks the centennial birthday, according to Yonhap News. North Korea broke ground in December to construct a 50-story twin tower hotel, a trade center, a modern department store and office buildings under the initiative of Jang Song-taek, brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong-il, Yonhap reported quoting informed sources. The creation of "Geumgang street" is part of the North's broader plan to rebuild its sagging economy by 2012, a year honoring the 100th birthday of its late leader Kim Il-sung, the sources said.
• N.Korean Border Guards 'Shoot to Kill Defectors'
  North Korean border guards armed with Russian Dragunov sniper rifles shot dead citizens who tried to flee the impoverished nation by fording the Duman or Tumen River into China, the Sunday Times reported citing human rights campaigners.
• Brisk City Greening
  Pyongyang, June 20 (KCNA) -- City greening is in full swing in the DPRK. The Pyongyang Flower Institute has intensified researches to increase flower resources. It has bred many species of beautiful and fragrant flower seeds by bioengineering method while improving flower varieties. The Pyongyang Greenery Station is not only planting and tending a lot of flower seedlings according to seasons but also scrupulously organizing the work of propagating them. The station transplants cosmos of new high-grade breed, rose and Weigela florida and other flower shrubs in streets every year in proper combination with evergreens in an effort to further beautify the towns and villages and provide the citizens with an environment of cultural and emotional life. In order to encourage floriculture throughout the country, the government organizes various flower shows and fairs and widely introduces how to cultivate flower plants and how to care flower gardens and general knowledge on flower plants through mass media.
• Activities for Increasing Ranks of Voluntary Unpaid Blood Donors
  Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has conducted diverse activities for increasing the ranks of voluntary unpaid blood donors. Blood transfusion can be ensured successfully only when people donate blood to the society and people of their own accord. Hence the government has put the collection of voluntary donors and the supply of blood as an important health policy and directed deep attention to the work. It has long established a well-arranged nation-wide blood supply system and brought up lots of competent blood-transfusion officials so as to guarantee the life security of the people.
• World Environment Day Observed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) -- A national workshop on the occasion of World Environment Day was held at the People's Palace of Culture on June 5. Kim Kyong Jun, vice-minister of Land and Environment Preservation, made an opening speech. It was followed by speeches made on the subjects "Present situation, cause and future consequences of global warming," etc. Speakers referred to the adverse impact of climate change on humankind at present and measures against it and steps being taken by the DPRK to preserve and improve the natural environment. An event was held at Moranbong Middle School No. 1 on the same day.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-spot Guidance to Reconstructed Cultural Establishment and Renovated Public Catering Centers
  Pyongyang, June 5 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to the reconstructed cultural establishment and renovated public catering centers in Pyongyang. The Taedongmun Cinema House, Okryu Restaurant and Chongryu Restaurant which had served the people for a long period as buildings symbolic of the WPK's policy of love for people have been reconstructed or renovated as monumental structures in the era of Songun, bringing great joy to the people of the country who will significantly mark the diamond jubilee of the DPRK.
• Brisk Anti-Tobacco Campaign in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 31 (KCNA) -- An anti-tobacco campaign is being launched vigorously in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. With the formation of the State Tobacco Control Committee the no-smoking campaign is being conducted as a state health activity and all forms of advertisement, support, promotion and others on tobacco goods which may encourage smoking are strictly banned throughout the country. The public places have been set as no-smoking districts, people are allowed to smoke only in limited places and smoking among the students is controlled strictly in particular.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-the-Spot Guidance to Hamhung University of Medicine
  Pyongyang, May 29 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to Hamhung University of Medicine. He first went round the monument to the on-the-spot guidance given by President Kim Il Sung and the monument to his on-the-spot instructions standing in the compound of the university and the room devoted to its history.
• Sinchon Museum Visited by Endless Stream of Koreans, Overseas Compatriots and Foreigners
  Pyongyang, May 27 (KCNA) -- More than 15.4 million people have visited the Sinchon Museum in Sinchon County, South Hwanghae Province of the DPRK for the past five decades since it was opened. Among them were at least 220,000 overseas Koreans and more than 30,000 foreigners. During the last Korean War, the U.S. imperialists and class enemies killed more than 30,000 innocent people or a quarter of the population of Sinchon County in the most brutal way. [Korean War events]
• Group Leadership Likely to Lead North Korea: Experts
  MAY 26, 2008 07:52 A recent report showed that more than half of the 22 Ph.D. researchers at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis expect a form of group leadership will take place in North Korea after Kim Jong Il dies. The majority of them said Kim’s second son Kim Jong Chul, 27, is the dictator’s favorite, but first son Kim Jong Nam, 37, and brother-in-law Chang Song Taek, 62, are thought to have a stronger power base for succession.
• Pyongyang Undergoes Facelift
  Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- A campaign for putting Pyongyang on a new look has been vigorously launched with the approach of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK. The city is abustle with the work of paving most of the streets with asphalt, greening areas along streets and painting buildings. More than 20 streets including Ryongnamsan, Ponghwa, Yongung, Changgwang and Hyoksin Streets and their sideroads and roads leading to and in parks, recreation grounds and other cultural resorts around Moran Hill and along the Taedong River have been already asphalt-surfaced. According to the data available, the pavement project has been carried out over 50 per cent.
• Bird Flu Prevention Work Intensified in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is exerting greater effort to prevent the avian flu spreading in wide areas of the world because of the spring migration of wild birds. In an interview with KCNA Ri Kyong Gun, chief of the veterinary section under the State Emergency Quarantine Committee, said the DPRK is conducting epizootic work against bird flu on a regular basis every year in close cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In connection with the recent outbreak of avian flu in areas of North and South Cholla Provinces, south Korea, he continued to say, we are intensifying the anti-epizootic campaign to prevent the bird flu which exerts harmful influence on the national economy and people from spreading to the north.
• N. Korean population estimated at 23.48 million: CIA
  North Korea's population is expected to increase slightly to 23.48 million in July, according to a U.S. intelligence agency report.     North Korea will see its population increase to 23,479,089 in July, up 0.73 percent from 23,301,725 a year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency said in its updated version of the World Factbook 2008.   The report, available on the agency's Website, also estimated the average life expectancy for North Koreans at 72.2 years, 0.28 of a year longer than a year earlier.
• North Korea’s Literary Theory
  North Korean students study at a school in Pyongyang in this 2003 file photo. / Korea Times This is the first part in a series of articles by Choi Yearn-hong who is to publish his memoirs under the title of My American Memoir: A Korean-American Life, later this year in the United States. The writer was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and University of Seoul. He is a poet, essay critic and a long-time columnist for The Korea Times. ? ED. North Korean literature promotes socialist ideology, new technology and Puritan communist culture. Kim Jong-il has been criticizing North Korean literature as lacking philosophic depth, aesthetic sense, sensitivity and artistic craftsmanship, and thus as mundane, mechanical, repetitive and ``distant from life.'' His different theories, ``the seed theory,'' ``literature as a study of man,'' and ``Our Own Creative Works,'' attempted to correct weaknesses in North Korean literature. I doubt his theories have achieved what they were supposed to accomplish. North Korean literature in the 1980s and 1990s reflects the North Korean reality and economy which suffers from numerous bottlenecks that lead to shortages in many areas.
• N.Korea's Cherished Newswoman
  A report published in a North Korean magazine on Tuesday reveals the unusual treatment accorded to one of that nation's most beloved newswomen. The story in the monthly magazine Naenara describes the life of Ri Chun-hi, an anchorwoman at the state-run Korean Central Broadcasting Station. "She lives with her husband, two sons, a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter in a house in a beautiful place in Pyongyang, the capital," the magazine said. "The modern dwelling house and car were given to her as gifts by the state." The 65-year-old Ri is also quite familiar to South Koreans as she is in charge of announcing official North Korean statements directed at foreign nations  
• Heaven Day Ceremony of Chondoism Held
  Pyongyang, April 5 (KCNA) -- A Heaven Day ceremony was held in Pyongyang on Saturday to mark the 148th foundation anniversary of Chondoism. Present there were Chairwoman Ryu Mi Yong, adviser O Ik Je and office bearers of the Korean Chondoist Church Central Guidance Committee and Chondoists in Pyongyang. [Religion]
• SPA Session to Be Convened
  Pyongyang, March 20 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly on March 17 promulgated a decision on convening the SPA session. According to it, the 6th session of the 11th SPA will be convened in Pyongyang on April 9.
• N. Korea to convene parliamentary session
  North Korea will convene an annual session of the Supreme People's Assembly, its rubber-stamp legislature, next month, the communist state's official news media reported Thursday. "The 6th session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly will be convened in Pyongyang on April 9," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, quoting a decision by the SPA Presidium.
• 10th anniversary of Torch of Songgang Kindled by Kim Jong Il Marked
     Kimchaek, March 9 (KCNA) -- A meeting took place at the Songjin Steel Complex on March 9 to mark the 10th anniversary of the torch of Songgang kindled by General Secretary Kim Jong Il.     A congratulatory message sent by the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea to the workers, technicians and officials of the complex was conveyed at the meeting.     The congratulatory message recalled that Kim Jong Il visited the complex on March 9, Juche 87 (1998) to kindle the torch of Songgang, the torch for effecting a new great revolutionary upswing, and dynamically led the workers there to take the lead in pulling through the difficulties during the "Arduous March," the forced march by rushing forward once again at the speed of Chollima (the winged horse).
• Exceptional Winter Climate
  Pyongyang, March 3 (KCNA) -- An abnormal climatic phenomenon never seen previously was witnessed in the DPRK last winter. Kim Mun Uk, a room chief in the Hydro-Meteorological Service, said: A temperature below fifteen degrees Celsius below zero was quite rare in the winter season and it passed without midwinter cold. The cycle of three cold days and four warm days which had occurred with the periodic alternation of high and low atmospheric pressures was hardly witnessed. And there was a little snow with the dry weather prolonged. According to data available, snow scarcely fell in Pyongyang and other areas of the western coast and some areas of the eastern coast in the period from mid-December last year to February 21 this year and the precipitation in January was 0 mm in Pyongyang, Phyongsong and Sariwon, the lowest ever since the beginning of meteorological observation.
• Pyongyang Media Stresses National Unity
  On the day of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s inauguration, the organ of the Central Committee of the North Korean Workers’ Party offered only a veiled reference to the event. "We can advance independent unification and peaceful prosperity only when we achieve grand unity of the entire nation based on the principle of national self-reliance," the Rodong Shinmun wrote. North Korea has yet to report Lee's election, more than two months since election day.
• State Symphony Orchestra, National Treasure
  Pyongyang, February 18 (KCNA) -- The State Symphony Orchestra of the DPRK is an art troupe valued at national treasure. �@Founded on August 8, Juche 35(1946) under the guidance of President Kim Il Sung, the orchestra has covered a road of development that it can really be proud of. �@Its history is not long, but it has grown into an orchestra of vast prospects with a group of top-notch instrumentalists and an excellent creative staff. �@In the 1970s Kim Jong Il gave an energetic guidance to it to create an original mixed orchestra of Korean style, thus opening up a new horizon for the development of Juche-oriented symphony. �@The symphony involves three orchestral groups in which such national instruments as saenap (a Korean brass wind instrument) and small gong thick in national flavor and peculiar in tone are mixed with western instruments. It is characteristic of rich and unique power of representation.
• Rare Sandpipers Found in Myanmar
  By MICHAEL CASEY The Associated Press Wednesday, February 13, 2008; 8:01 PM BANGKOK, Thailand -- Eighty-four spoon-billed sandpipers have been discovered in a coastal stretch of Myanmar, offering hope for saving the endangered birds, a conservation group said Thursday. The discovery in early February comes only months after Russian researchers reported that numbers of the tiny birds _ with speckled brow feathers and a distinctive spoon-shaped bill _ had dropped 70 percent in the past few years in their breeding sites in Siberia and none had been seen this year in their traditional wintering sites in Bangladesh, Britain-based conservation group BirdLife International said. The World Conservation Union lists the bird as endangered with only 200 to 300 pairs left in the wild. The discovery of 84 birds wintering in Myanmar _ only one of which appears to have come from Siberia _ raises the prospect of breeding grounds elsewhere, BirdLife said. The birds' migration route takes them from Siberia down through Japan, North Korea, South Korea, mainland China and Taiwan, to their main wintering grounds in South Asia.
• N. Korea Intensifies Press Oppression
  North Korea executed a state-run company's director last year for having made phone calls abroad without government permission, an international journalist group said in its annual report released Sunday. The case reflects a marked increase in executions for the offense of communication with people outside the totalitarian country, Reporters Without Borders said. ``North Korea is the world's most isolated country and the security forces are responsible for keeping it that way at all costs,’’ it said in the report. `` North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is visiting media newsrooms, giving orders to reporters and correcting the editorials.’’ The group campaigning for freedom of speech also introduced burgeoning efforts to break the isolation. About a dozen North Korean reporters, who received secret training in China, launched the country's first magazine immune to censorship in November. ``Working closely with a Japanese news agency, Rimjingang has promised unprecedented news about the situation within the country,’’ it said. ``The first edition carried interviews with North Koreans and an analysis of the country's economic situation.’’ (Yonhap) [Media]
• N.Korea Says Population Hit 23.6 Mil. in 2004
  North Korea's population reached 23,612,000 in 2004, according to a 2007 almanac released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency on Sunday. The country's yearbook for 2006, released in early 2007, did not report the North's population for 2003.
  According to the latest yearbook, the communist country's population grew by about 1.5 million, or around 200,000 per year, from 22,114,000 in 1996, when the "march of hardship" was coming to an end.
• Is North Korea Undergoing a Restructuring?
  JANUARY 16, 2008 01:46 North Korea has been undergoing a “major restructuring” of its party, government and military organizations since the New Year. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il instructed on Dec. 29 that all of the regime’s institutions, including the Workers` Party, the cabinet, the military and national security agency, reduce their bureaucracies and the number of senior officials by 30 percent beginning in 2008, according to a well-informed source on Pyongyang’s internal affairs. “High ranking officials are very anxious about the restructuring since those who may lose their posts will either be forced to retire or be transferred to the workforce,” according to the source. Some organizations responsible for customs administration were reportedly downsized by Jan. 1, 2008. Employees of the National Security Agency, the National Intelligence Command, the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Office and Foreign Product Inspection Office work in the North’s customs office, but the employees of the regional headquarters have stopped working since Jan. 1. Although detailed plans for the restructuring have not been announced, speculation is rife among high ranking officials that the first target of the reform will be each institution’s agencies linked to earning foreign currency, given that an excessive number of those agencies had been established. The communist regime has a huge organization system. The National Defense Commission consists of one committee and two departments, while the cabinet is made up of three committees, 30 sections, one institute, one bank and two departments. The Workers` Party also runs five committees, two departments, 14 bureaus and one research center. Each of them has increased their size by launching an agency that can earn foreign currency, since the so-called “March of Hardship” in the mid-1990s.
• Former Unconverted Long-term Prisoner Dies
  Pyongyang, January 15 (KCNA) -- Former unconverted long-term prisoner Kim Yong Thae, pro-reunification patriotic fighter, died from an incurable disease on Jan. 14 at the age of 76. His obituary was released on Tuesday. It said: He was born in a poor peasant family in Kwaksan County, North Phyongan Province on July 23, Juche 20 (1931). He joined the Korean People's Army during the Fatherland Liberation War. His illness forced him to remain in an enemy-controlled area during the period of the KPA's strategic temporary retreat. He was arrested by the enemy while fighting as a Jirisan guerilla. He remained true to his revolutionary faith as a member of the Workers' Party of Korea despite brutal torture and operation to force conversion on him behind bars for several decades. After coming into the care of the DPRK 8 years ago, he devoted his energy and wisdom to building a great prosperous powerful socialist nation and achieving the cause of national reunification till the moment his heart stopped beating.
• New Era of Reunification and Prosperity Will Come in 2008
  Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) -- The Korean people are aflame with the zeal to open up a new era of independent reunification and peace and prosperity by joining efforts of the whole nation in response to the joint New Year editorial. �@The slogan of the joint editorial "Open up a new era of independent reunification and peace and prosperity by pooling the efforts of our nation!" indicates correct and realistic direction and way of this year's struggle for national reunification whereby to thoroughly implement the October 4 declaration under the banner of "by our nation itself" set forth in the June 15 joint declaration.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, January 7 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected KPA Unit 776 honored with the title of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment. Kim Jong Il looked round the room dedicated to the history of the unit, guided by the commander of the unit.

  New Year’s Joint Editorial 2008
  Text and commentary on the editorial
  

  • Joint New Year Editorial of Leading Newspapers in DPRK
    Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi today released the joint New Year editorial "Glorify This Year of the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the DPRK as a Year of Historical Turn Which Will Go Down in the History of the Country" on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 97 (2008).
    Official full text
  • Summary
    Summary of the Joint Editorial by Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People; Societies for Friendship with the Asia Pacific People; Korea-Asia Pacific Exchange
  • N.Korea New Year's Message Stresses Cooperation with South
    North Korea’s uniform New Year editorial on policy directions for 2008 omits the denuclearization process and still makes no mention of the election of Lee Myung-bak as president in South Korea. Published in three newspapers -- the North Korean Workers' Party organ Rodong Shinmun, the North Korean People's Army newspaper, and the Vanguard Youth newspaper, such editorials have been a regular feature on Jan. 1 since 1995.
  • Continuing South Korea’s leading role
    [Editorial] The joint editorial appearing on New Year's Day in North Korea's three main newspapers is considered the Pyongyang government's New Year's address. This year's editorial used the term "peaceful prosperity" (pyeonghwa beonyeong) several times over. Gone were the usual calls for a "grand union of anti-conservatives" in the South to oppose the Grand National Party and the other usual criticisms of the GNP. Overall, the editorial emphasizes uniting behind the North Korean government and strengthening the North's economy, and it also placed a lot of weight on advancing inter-Korean relations by, among other things, thoroughly implementing October's summit declaration. This shows you that Pyongyang has considerable expectations for the new South Korean government, that of President-elect Lee Myung-bak. The six-party talks are reaching a crucial point, specifically over the North's declaration of its nuclear past and present and the United States' removal of the North from its list of terror-sponsoring states.
  • Pyongyang Urges Seoul to Honor Summit Accords
    By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter North Korea Tuesday expressed hope in a New Year's message that inter-Korean summit accords on economic cooperation will be implemented on schedule under the incoming administration that has pledged to get tougher on the North. The North refrained from commenting on President-elect Lee Myung-bak and his North Korea policy, which prioritizes the North's nuclear disarmament before aid.

2007

• N.Korea 'Resumes Public Executions'
  North Korea has apparently stepped up public executions this year. The Stalinist country had carried out fewer public executions since 2000, but according to Seoul-based relief agency Good Friends, they increased this year.
• Kim Jong-il's Second Son Gets Key Politburo Post
  Kim Jong-chul, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's second son, was assigned to the post of the vice chief of the ruling Korean Workers' Party's Organization and Guidance Department, a hugely influential posts in North Korea, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Saturday. Quoting sources close to the North Korean regime, the Japanese daily wrote the 27-year old "has his office at the KWP headquarters, as Chairman Kim does. He receives instructions from his father as occasion arises."
• Even Hermits Can Get Rich
  Kim Jong Il's Korea may be an impoverished nation, but a select few are finding ways of accumulating wealth. By Christian Caryl | Newsweek Web Exclusive Nov 11, 2007  Even amid the grandeur of North Korea's Myohyang Mountain tourist area, where few Westerners have ever been allowed to visit, it's impossible not to gawk at him: a middle-aged North Korean sightseer decked out in a crisp Kim Jong Il-style suit, sunglasses and implausible upswept hairdo. But the most striking thing isn't his Dear Leader-wannabe getup; it's the device he's holding. In one of the most desperately poor countries on earth, it's worth half a year's pay for most of his fellow inhabitants: a sleek little Japanese digital video Handycam. [Media] [Daily life] [Marketisation]
• Kim Jong-il's Eldest Son Resurfaces in Paris
  Kim Jong-il's Eldest Son 'Back in Pyongyang' The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam (36), has been spotted in Paris earlier this month. Japan’s Fuji TV aired a video clip on Tuesday in which a plump man it said was Kim Jong-nam left a luxurious hotel near the Champs Elysees and walked to a limousine. Dodging questions with a smile, Kim said in fluent French, "I just went to the dentist and I can't talk much. I'm sorry." Asked about his linguistic skill, Kim answered, “Everyone knows I studied in Europe.” Asked whether he has a friend in Paris, he said, “It would be disrespect to my friend if I talked about the person.”  
• Thae Jong Su Appointed as Vice-Premier of DPRK Cabinet
  Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- Thae Jong Su was appointed as vice-premier of the DPRK Cabinet. A decree of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly in this regard was promulgated on Tuesday.
• Struggle against Bourgeois Way of Life Called for
  Pyongyang, October 12 (KCNA) -- The bourgeois way of life is like dreadful ideological poison as it makes people degenerate and corrupt, says Rodong Sinmun Friday in a signed article. It goes on: The American way of life represents the corrupt bourgeois way of life. It is the imperialist mode of existence based on all sorts of inhuman and miscellaneous ideas and modes including extreme individualism, the principle of existence governed by the jungle law, extreme misanthropy and national chauvinism. The bourgeois way of life reduces people to human beings no better than animals who only seek their own interests and behave as they please and mental cripples who know nothing but money. The virus of the above-said way of life lies in that it lures people into dissipation by stimulating their vulgar taste and sentiments. The virus of this way of life also lies in that it renders people deformed and benighted [Softpower]
• International Day of Older Persons Observed
  Pyongyang, October 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today observes International Day of Older Persons. Noting that international efforts are being made to increase interest in the problem of the aging of population and use the potential, technique, experience and wisdom of the aged for social life and human development, the paper says in a signed article: The work of protecting aged persons is undertaken amid the deep concern of the state and society in the DPRK. There is the social trait of respecting revolutionary elders such as anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, war veterans and persons of merits and other aged men and women and giving them preferential treatment. The aged are let to do useful work for the state and society with their special knowledge and technique and rich experience, according to their health conditions and hopes.
• DPRK education reform underway
  Posted Date : 2007-09-11    (NK Brief No. 07-9-11-1) The 2007 New Year’s Joint Editorial revealed that this year, North Korea is promoting radical educational reform, boldly casting out ‘cram education,’ and other remnants of their old system while emphasizing ‘Education Revolution.’ North Korea’s new educational reform can generally be summarized into four major parts: early childhood education and the standardization of foreign language and computer education, emphasis on ingenuity over memorization, strengthening practical education (gifted education), and on-going reeducation of teachers and professors. In order to support this kind of reform, North Korea established an education fund in 2005, and has remodeled more than 70 middle and high schools in Pyongyang, showing their increased interest and investment in the country’s education. The idea attracting the most attention is that efforts are being poured into cultivating “capable beings who learn one thing, understand tens, and use it to do hundreds”—no longer focusing on cram education and rote memorization. [ICT] [Reform]
• Military-First Politics (Songun): Understanding Kim Jong-il's North Korea
  Han S. Park
  Dr. Han Park defines and examines the concept of songun within the North Korean political system. He uses interviews, North Korean publications, and first-hand observations to support his views of the precise role that songun plays in Kim Jong-il's North Korea--including its impact on culture, the military, foreign policy, the economy, and the education system.
  Han S. Park is University Professor of Political Science, School of Public and International Affairs, and Director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues (GLOBIS), at the University of Georgia, in Athens, Georgia. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Korea Economic Institute, Washington, D.C., on 23 May 2007.
• National Angling Contest Held
  Pyongyang, September 7 (KCNA) -- A national angling contest was held on the bank of the River Taedong in Pyongyang on September 6. Angling fans selected in provinces, ministries and national institutions competed in the contest sponsored by the Central Committee of the DPRK Natural Conservation Union. The contestants were allowed to choose any type of angling tackle catering to their tastes and liking and use up to four sets of tackle each. At the contest, special prize went to Han Kom Mu, chief staffer of the Taehung Guidance Bureau, who caught several fishes at a time by employing tactful angling methods and first prize to An Kang San who lives in Taesong-dong, Sariwon City, North Hwanghae Province. An exhibition of newly invented angling tackle took place on the same day.
• Kim Yang-gon Emerges as Key Figure in N.Korea
  Kim Yang-gon (69), the director of the United Front Department of North Korea's Workers' Party The director of the United Front Department of North Korea's Workers' Party, who played a key role in arranging the second inter-Korean summit, is emerging as an influential figure in the North. Kim Yang-gon accompanied North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a recent inspection of a military unit, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday -- an unusual role for the director of the department, who is in charge of the North’s political campaigns and business interests in South Korea. In March, Kim Yang-gon accompanied Kim Jong-il on a visit to the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang. A North Korea expert says the latest inspection was “proof that Kim Yang-gon's status in the North has been consolidated. It seems Kim Jong-il was preparing for the forthcoming inter-Korean summit even during his inspection tour.” An intelligence officer said the inspected unit appeared to be a South Korean underground operations unit near Pyongyang or Kim Jong-il's guard unit. He added Kim Yang-gon had emerged as one of Kim Jong-il's closest aides.
• North Korea announces arrest of spies tied to foreign agency
  September 06, 2007 North Korea said yesterday it had arrested spies working for an unspecified foreign country who were collecting intelligence on the communist state's military and state secrets. It said a foreign spy agency had trapped "some corrupt" North Koreans traveling abroad by using money, sex and blackmail and turned them into moles, the official Korean Central News Agency said. "Recently, the National Security Service of the DPRK has arrested spies who were recruited by a foreign spy agency and the agent who was directing them," it said. The agent posed as a businessman, it said, adding the spies' missions included taking pictures and drawing maps of key military facilities. They were also asked to collect documents on military and state secrets and spread the ideas of freedom and democracy to key figures so that they would flee the authoritarian North, the KCNA said. [Espionage] [Media]
• Espionage Acts of Foreign Intelligence Service Disclosed
  Pyongyang, September 5 (KCNA) -- Espionage acts of a foreign intelligence service were disclosed and smashed some time ago in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The state security organ of the DPRK arrested the spies absorbed to the foreign intelligence service and intelligence agent who commanded them and seized their intelligence apparatuses. As brought to light during the investigation into the case and the statements of the arrested spies, the foreign intelligence service absorbed some unsound people out of the visitors of the DPRK to third countries by the method of money and girls, threat and blackmail and turned them into its paid spies in an attempt to spy on important military objects and strategic key-points related with the supreme interests of the DPRK. Their duty was to take photographs of an important military object in an area and confirm the spot co-ordinates and collect concrete data on the object with the help of the GPS after they received it. Their duty was also to obtain original texts of documents of the DPRK including the state and military secrets and the ideological tendencies of the people and, at the same time, to create illusion about the "free world" among senior officials and lure them out to third countries if possible. After it infiltrated the hired spies into the DPRK, the foreign intelligence service sent an intelligence agent to the DPRK under the guise of a trader to command their activities on the spot. He carried with him a digital camera battery to which the GPS was attached. [Espionage]  
• N.Korean Museum Said to Be Selling National Treasure
  An important 'chae-hyeop' lacquered bamboo box was reported to be for sale by North Korea's Central History Museum. In the caption at the bottom, the museum's vice curator is saying he would sell the box for US$700,000 The Korean Central History Museum in Pyongyang is reported to have asked a Japanese journalist to sell a cleverly woven bamboo box, a rare national treasure, for US$700,000. The museum even allowed a cameraman to take close-up photos of the lacquered box, called a "chae-hyeop." When the incident was made known last Thursday, South Korean cultural experts expressed concern and suggested Pyongyang would be better off if the box were leased to Seoul's National Museum instead of sold.
• Performance of "Arirang" Suspended
  Pyongyang, August 27 (KCNA) -- The grand gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" which was resumed on August 1 was suspended for the time being due to the unexpected torrential rain and flood damage. It has now become hard to continue the performance as working people in different parts of the country are all out to recover from the flood damage these days. The performance is expected to be staged again after the flood damage is cleared away.
• Has Power Transition Begun in NK?
  Kim Jong-nam By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has returned home after living overseas for years and taken up a key post in the Stalinist state's ruling Workers' Party, a news report said Monday. North Korea watchers say the return of Kim Jong-nam, 36, who had been living in Macau for the past few years, is expected to influence Kim Jong-il's succession plans in the future.
• Kim Jong-il's Eldest Son 'Back in Pyongyang'
    The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam (36) has returned to Pyongyang and is working at the Organization and Guidance Department of North Korea's Worker's Party, an intelligence source said Sunday. The department is the key agency that controls all of the party, the military and the government of North Korea. This has prompted analysts to speculate about a reconciliation and the possibility that Jopng-nam, who has been living in exile in Macau, could inherit the leadership instead of his younger half-brothers Jong-chul (26) and Jong-woon (24), who were variously tipped for the succession
• North postpones Arirang festival once again due to flooding
  August 28, 2007 Due to severe flooding in the country, North Korea has temporarily suspended Arirang, its regular series of mass games, the country’s state-run media reported yesterday. The Korea Central News Agency said the mass gymnastics and dance performances will be canceled for the time being because laborers around the nation are being mobilized for flood recovery projects. The report said the Arirang festival will resume after North Korea recovers, but did not give any specific date.  
• NK Continues Mass Gymnastics Show
  North Korea is continuing its mass gymnastics performance despite heavy floods that devastated much of the communist country, the North's state media reported Tuesday. "Arirang," named after a famous traditional Korean folk song, was held in 2002 and 2005, but was cancelled last year due to floods. The first part of this year's show, which ran about 80 minutes starting at 8 p.m. every day except for Sunday, was held between mid-May and May 20. The second part started on Aug. 1 and is to last until mid-October.
• Guinness Certificate Awarded to "Arirang"
  Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) -- A certificate of the Guinness World Records was awarded to the grand gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang". It was handed to Song Sok Hwan, vice-minister of Culture, by Wu Xiaohong, representative of the Guinness World Records Ltd., on a visit to the DPRK at the May Day Stadium on August 15. The record of largest gymnastic and artistic performance in the world was created in Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK, the certificate says. Conveying the certificate, the representative said the grand gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" could be successfully created thanks to the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il, and expressed deepest respect to him. Warmly haling the registration of the performance in the Guinness World Records, the representative hoped that "Arirang" would successfully go on in the future. More than 7 million Koreans in the north and the south and overseas and foreigners have watched the performance which has taken place over 180 times. [Bizarre]
• Kim Jong Il Visits Jonggwang Temple
  Pyongyang, August 12 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited the Jonggwang Temple, an ancient historic and cultural site. The temple situated in Wonsa-ri, Riwon County, South Hamgyong Province, is one of the ancient structures built in mid-7th century. He was briefed on the historic relics. He learned in detail about how the temple is preserved and managed, walking round its interior and exterior including Taeung Hall, Myongbu Hall and the Sari Tower. The Jonggwang Temple is of great value as a national treasure because it keeps in their original state valuable historic relics including precious pictures vividly reflecting the phases of those times, he said, underscoring the need to show it to many people. Our country has lots of valuable historic and cultural relics as it boasts 5,000 year-long history and brilliant culture, he noted, adding that this is the pride of the Korean nation. [Religion]
• Xiaohaerbaling Meeting of Strategic Significance for National Liberation
  Pyongyang, August 10 (KCNA) -- August 15 is the day of the Korean people's national liberation. On this occasion, they are recollecting with deep emotion the historic Xiaohaerbaling meeting (August 1940) that decided to change the strategic line at the new turning period of the Korean revolution, along with the Mingyuegou meeting (December 1931) and the Nanhutou meeting (February 1936) that also set forth important strategic lines on the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
  The President delivered a speech titled "On Preparing for the Great Event of National Liberation" at the meeting. He advanced it as a new strategic task to preserve and accumulate the force of the KPRA, the backbone of the Korean revolution, and train its officers and men to be able political and military cadres in the preparation for greeting actively the great event of national liberation. In order to carry out this task with success, he put forward a new fighting policy on switching over from large-unit operations to small-unit actions. [Kim Il Sung] [NK SK policy] [Six Party Talks]
• DPRK Students Prove Successful at International Math Olympiad
  Pyongyang, August 8 (KCNA) -- DPRK students won one gold and four silver medals at the recent 48th International Math Olympiad held in Vietnam. The gold medal was awarded to An Sung Chol, student of Pyongyang Middle School No. 1, four silver medals went to Kang Chung Hyok, student of Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, Kim Jin Hyok and Sin Kum Song, students of Pyongyang Middle School No. 1, and An Ok Song, student of East Pyongyang Middle School No. 1, and an honorary certificate was conferred upon Pak Il Jin, student of Pyongyang Pothonggang Middle School No. 1.
• Kim Jong-il in Rare Round of Public Appearances
  North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il has absolved five days of public appearances by visiting military units and a machinery factory, the first time this year the reclusive leader has appeared in public for so many days in a row. The North's official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday said Kim visited a machinery factory in Chongjin city, North Hamgyeong province after visits to four military units between July 31 and Aug. 3.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-Site Guidance to Newly Built Hospital
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-site guidance to the newly built North Hamgyong Provincial People's Hospital. The hospital opened some days ago is a comprehensive medical service center covering more than 50,000 square meters as it has all equipment for medical treatment and service facilities.
• Kim Jong Il Gives On-the-Spot Guidance to Ranam Coal Mining Machine Complex
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to the Ranam Coal Mining Machine Complex. He first looked round the monument to the on-the-spot guidance of President Kim Il Sung and the room devoted to its history. Looking back with deep emotion on the history of the development of the complex, he said it has turned into the nation's reliable large machine producer under the wise leadership of the President and his care. He learned about the production at the complex, making the rounds of the machine assembling shop and other places of the complex.
• Kim's Army Visits Prompt Speculation
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 4, 2007 Filed at 10:39 p.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has visited military bases for four straight days, an unusual frequency that has prompted speculation he may be about to make a decision regarding the country's disputed nuclear program. The visits come ahead of a joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise. On Friday, North Korea denounced the upcoming Aug. 20-21 drill as an ''unacceptable provocation.'' The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday that Kim inspected an army unit and expressed satisfaction with its combat readiness. It was the fourth straight day that KCNA reported Kim visiting an army base [Joint US military]
• Results of Election of Deputies to Local Power Bodies Released
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- The Central Election Guidance Committee for the Election of Deputies to the Provincial (Municipality Directly under Central Authority), City (District) and County People's Assemblies of the DPRK issued a report on the results of the election on July 30.
• Kim Jong Il Participates in Election of Deputies to Local People's Assemblies
  Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Sunday visited the Chusang Co-op Farm in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province to participate in the election of deputies to the provincial, city and county people's assemblies of the DPRK. He received ballots from the chairman of Sub-Constituency No. 36 of Constituency No. 85 for election of deputies to the South Hamgyong Provincial People's Assembly and cast them for Choe Sun Hui, sub-work team head of the Sangjung Co-op Farm of Hamju County, who is candidate for deputy to the South Hamgyong Provincial People's Assembly and Ho Kum Suk, chairperson of the Management Board of the Chusang Co-op Farm of the County, who is candidate for deputy to the Hamju County People's Assembly. Then he conversed with the candidates. After voting, he acquainted himself with the farm work there and the rural construction.
• Pyongyang Cultured Language, Pride of Korea
  Pyongyang, July 25 (KCNA) -- The Korean people are proud of having the Pyongyang cultured language and are embodying in their linguistic life thoroughly. The Pyongyang cultured language is the standard one of the nation, which is fully reflecting the national characteristics and constantly developing in accordance with the requirements of the times. The Koreans are a nation of one and the same blood who have lived in a territory with same culture down through history. They have developed the Korean language into the Pyongyang cultured language, centering around Pyongyang, the hub of the politics, economy and culture, since the liberation of the country from the Japanese colonial rule. The Korean language, with abundant vocabularies, can correctly distinguish the differences between various objects and their meanings and clearly express people's feelings and emotion, color, taste and etiquette. Its pronunciations are fluent, intonations soft and sounds beautiful. The Pyongyang cultured language comprehends the superior linguistic factors of the national language. In particular, all the words of foreign origin which are difficult to understand have been removed and a vocabulary system has been established on the basis of home-grown words. As a result, the Pyongyang cultured language protects the purity of the Korean language on a high level. Chinese and Japanese words had been brought into the Korean language in the past owing to the flunkeyism of feudal rulers and the Japanese imperialists' moves to obliterate the Korean language. Foreign words including them have been arranged into Korean ones.
• Population Urbanization Issue Settled in DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 12 (KCNA) -- The fast urbanization of population in the world has raised serious socio-economic problems including difficulty in city management, destruction of ecological environment and worsening working and living conditions. Activities are being conducted to cope with the problem in the international arena. The DPRK government has put forward a unique socialist principle for the formation of urban population and ways for its implementation already long ago and made a history of Juche-oriented urban construction. Above all, it has built more than 95 percent of cities on a minor scale and allocated industrial productive forces rationally throughout the country, thus providing conditions for even distribution of population.
• North Korean leader says working overnight is his 'habit': report
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is said to frequently work overnight, according to a recent report by the North's official media on Sunday. "Staying up all night is my habit," Kim was quoted as saying by the Rodong Sinmun newspaper in a story about the 65-year-old leader's work style. The paper cited a February pre-dawn telephone dialogue between Kim and a senior worker, who didn't want to be identified. "How's your health? I again wake up a sleeping comrade," said Kim before ordering the worker's tasks. The worker responded, "General (Kim), 4:00 a.m. has already passed. How could you stay up all night again? Please take a break for a while." Kim replied, "It's nothing. At this time, my work is in full swing." [Kim Jong Il]
• North Korea : A Case to Answer – A Call to Act
  Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s report, North Korea : A Case to Answer – A Call to Act, states that “there is a prima facie case for the commission of crimes against humanity, namely murder, extermination, enslavement/forced labour, forcible transfer of population, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, persecution, enforced disappearance of persons, other inhumane acts and, perhaps, rape and sexual violence. It also examines the possibility of genocide and concludes that there are indicators of genocide against religious groups, specifically Christians, implemented in particular in the 1950s and 1960s. The strictly hierarchical system of government and the information available about decision-making in North Korea suggests that the political leadership, and in particular Kim Jong-Il, is responsible for the commission of such crimes.” The analysis focuses primarily on the extensive political prison camp system where 200,000 people are believed to be held. It has been written by international lawyers and provides extensive testimonies and quotes from North Koreans. It represents the culmination of seven years of research and draws heavily on interviews and consultations with over 80 North Korean defectors. [Human rights] [Defector reports] [Manipulation]
• Born and raised in a North Korean gulag
  By Choe Sang-Hun Published: July 9, 2007
  SEOUL: On Nov. 29, 1996, 14-year-old Shin Dong Hyok and his father were made to sit in the front row of a crowd assembled to watch executions. The two had already spent seven months in a North Korean prison camp's torture compound, and Shin assumed they were among those to be put to death. [Defector report]
• Kim Jong-il Looks Unwell
  Adding substance to rumors about his declining health, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il looks worse than two months ago, when he attended a ceremony to celebrate the 75th birthday of the North Korean Army. Seen meeting the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Tuesday, the 66-year-old North Korean leader looked thinner, with serious hair loss and dry skin.
• Kim Jong-il makes less public appearances this year
  During the first half of this year, North Korea's National Defence Commission chairman Kim Jong-il made less than half as many public appearances as he did during the same period last year. Analysis of North Korean media reports, released on July 3 by South Korean news agency Yonhap, indicate that as of the end of June of this year, Kim made a total of 29 appearances, 45 percent of the 64 public appearances he made last year. He has been seen far less frequently than his 39 appearances in 2005, 44 appearances in 2004 and 51 appearances in 2003.
• Slim Kim
  July 05, 2007       The photo at right shows a much slimmer North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in a meeting on Tuesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi compared to the photo on the left taken on Aug. 30, 2006. The photo of a slender Kim has given rise again to speculation that he may be in ill health. The media earlier this year questioned Kim's health, but South Korea's National Intelligence Service said he is in good condition. Officials say there are no signs of preparations for succession. Kim, who suffers from diabetes and heart disease, is reported to have quit smoking and cut down on his drinking years ago. Maybe he has also been working out. [REUTERS/YONHAP [Kim Jong Il]
• Superiority of Korean Language
  Pyongyang, July 3 (KCNA) -- The Korean language has a long history with the formation of the Korean nation. With the creation of Hunminjongum (the Korean alphabet) in 1444, the Korean people have used it in writing. The Korean spoken language is fluent and gentle to hear. It has also good intonation. It, with rich pronunciation, can express correctly any difficult and complicate pronunciation. The Korean alphabet consists of 21 vowels and 19 consonants. The vowel not only reverberates loudly but also constitutes the core in a syllable, the smallest unit of the pronunciation. Only when it is combined with the vowel, can the consonant form a vivid syllable and clearly reverberate in well harmony with the before and behind words. The vowels and consonants of the Korean alphabet can express the general meanings and minute differences of the objects, phenomena and processes. Therefore, it is possible to pronounce all the foreign languages correctly. There are more than 5,000 languages in the world, none of which can compare with the Korean written and spoken languages delicate in expression, rich in meaning and abundant in vocabulary.
• Woman Who Fled North Korea Returns There
  By AUDRA ANG The Associated Press Tuesday, June 26, 2007; 9:26 AM BEIJING -- A woman who fled North Korea after living there for 43 years returned to the communist country Tuesday following nearly four years in Japan, saying she missed her children and found Japanese society unwelcoming. To Chu Ji arrived in Pyongyang and was greeted by her family, who brought her a bouquet of flowers and embraced her, weeping.
  North Korean To Chu Ji, watched by an unidentified boy, speaks to reporters after arriving at Pyongyang airport in North Korea Tuesday, June 26, 2007 in this image made from television. To, who spent three years and seven months living in Japan after she claims she was kidnapped, returned to her homeland on Before leaving, To spoke at a rare news conference at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, saying she had been cheated by "bad people" into leaving North Korea in 2003. [Refugee reception]
• Local Election to Be Held in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 19 (KCNA) -- The election of deputies to the Provincial (City under the Direct Control of the Government), City (District) and County People's Assemblies will be held in the DPRK on July 29 according to Article 133 of the Socialist Constitution and the decision of the Local People's Committees, said the information released by the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly on Monday.
• Central Election Guidance Committee Formed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 24 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly on June 23 issued its decision No. 96 on organizing the central election guidance committee for the elections of deputies to provincial (city under the direct control of the government), city (district) and county people's assemblies. According to it, the central election guidance committee was formed with Yang Hyong Sop as chairman, Kim Jung Rin as vice-chairman, Choe Yong Rim as secretary and Ju Sang Song, Kim Kyong Ho, Ryom Sun Gil, Kang Chang Uk, Pak Sun Hui and Kim Yong Ho as members.
• N.Korea's Kang Sok-ju Appointed to NDC
  North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju, who is in responsible for Pyongyang's diplomatic affairs including the nuclear issue, was in May made a member of the ruling National Defense Commission (NDC) led by dictator Kim Jong-il, Russian sources said Sunday. The sources said Kim appointed Kang to the leadership body to strengthen his power base, with the move seen as ensuring the NDC holds sway over the military as well as domestic and foreign affairs. Kang has served as the First Vice Foreign Minister since 1986 and is known as the only foreign ministry official who can directly advise Kim. He was a signer of the 1994 Geneva Accords between the U.S. and North Korea and the leader of Pyongyang's representatives in the six-nation talks. Kang recently visited Moscow for treatment of a cataract. [Agreed Framework]
• Safety of Blood Transfusion Ensured in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 14 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is making an earnest effort to ensure the safety of blood transfusion according to the program of the World Health Organization. Safe blood transfusion has been raised as a key problem in the improvement of public health and prevention of epidemics. A regular state blood service system has been established in the country many years ago so as to guarantee the safety of people's lives. On the basis of it, the government has paid attention to increasing the number of voluntary unpaid blood donors. And it is training competent blood experts, while organizing regular information activities to give the people new understandings on blood transfusion. It is organizing colorful events on the occasion of the "World Blood Donor Day" (June 14) to give pride and honor to those who voluntarily donate their blood free of charge.
  The public health sector of the country is strengthening collaboration with the WHO and other international organizations, keeping close ties with them to ensure the safety of blood transfusion.
• Kim Jong Il Had Artery Surgery in May, Person Says
  (Update2) By Bradley K. Martin and Hideko Takayama June 14 (Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was operated on by a team of German doctors last month to open a blocked artery, a person connected to the Kim regime said. While doctors from German Heart Institute Berlin arrived in Pyongyang prepared to perform major surgery on Kim, they found only one clogged artery, the person said. The 65-year-old Kim, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, recovered well from the surgery, said the person, who asked that his name not be used because North Korea wanted the operation kept secret.
• NIS Investigating Reports of Ailing Kim Jong-il
  Rumors are growing that reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health is failing. Following the first report on the matter by the Chosun Ilbo on May 28, Japan's Shukan Gendai on Saturday reported that Kim had heart surgery by a team of German doctors, and the U.K.'s Telegraph on Monday wrote that he can barely walk 30 yards without tiring. On May 29, U.S.-based MSNBC wrote on their website that U.S. intelligence officials confirmed that they are "taking seriously recent reports of a deterioration" in Kim's health
• N.Korea’s Population, Life Expectancy Inch Up
  The total population of North Korea as of July 2007 will be 23,301,725 and average life expectancy 71,92 years, according to estimates by the CIA. Men live 69.18 years and women 74.8. As for the South, the population will be 49,044,970, and the average life span 77.23 years --73.81 years for men and 80.93 years for women. The figures come from the latest update of the CIA’s “World Factbook” uploaded on Sunday.
  1. A government-owned store in Pyongyang is festooned with icicles. 2. This farm in South Pyongan Province funded by the Korean Foundation for World Aid was selected as the best farmyard in March. 3. Pyongyang Citizens return from work on the tram. 4. Busy in the rice fields. Some shopping centers in downtown Pyonyang are closed since staff are mobilized for work in the fields during the rice-panting season. Pyongyang citizens are obliged to go to the countryside and help out in the paddy fields for 40 days a year. North Korea’s population grew 0.79 percent compared to 23,113,019 last year, and the increase has been steady since 2003. The average life span has also inched up from 70.79 years in 2003. Infant morality decreased from 25.66 deaths out of 1,000 infants in 2003 to 22.56. North Korean women had on average 2.05 children. The CIA estimates North Korea’s economic growth rate at 1 percent and per capita GDP at US$1,800
• Speculation arises again over N. Korean leader's health
  Keen attention is being paid to the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il after a British newspaper speculated that he may need heart surgery to restore his failing health. Citing western government sources, the Daily Telegraph reported North Korea's reclusive leader has been so unwell that he could not walk more than 30 yards without a rest.
• To be or not to be the N.K. foreign minister
  Following the death of former foreign minister of North Korea Paek Nam-sun this January, eyes and ears are open to who would succeed him. While in most countries, being named the next foreign minister would be a coveted honor, it was the opposite in North Korea. Kang Sok-ju, the first vice foreign minister, indeed, has tried with all his means not to be named the new foreign minister, according to sources familiar with the North Korean system. "North Korea designated Kang as the successor of late Paek, but he somehow dodged the actual appointment citing his illness, possibly arthritis," a source was quoted as saying by Yonhap News. Instead, former ambassador to Russia Pak Ui-chun was named to the seat on May 18 after it was vacant for four months. Whether it was possible for Kang to "dodge" the appointment remains unconfirmed, the situation is quite understandable considering how North Korea bestows actual authority on the No. 2 man while the more public figure takes on the official top seat. Kang, seeking to remain in a position of real power, may have wanted to stay where he is
• Public Welfare Promoted in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 8 (KCNA) -- Efforts to ensure social insurance and social security systems on a high level are being exerted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The example of the Hamju County Farmers' Rest Home has been generalized in all the other rest centers throughout the country with success. The Sokwangsa Rest Home and the recuperation home attached to the Kum Song Tractor Plant are being renovated to suit the requirements of the Songun era. A great care is being shown to affording convenience in the life of the disabled soldiers, war veterans and women and promoting their health. The houses for the aged, houses for the handicapped without kith or kin and convalescent hospitals for disabled soldiers are being facelifted at the state expense in Pyongyang, Jagang Province, South Hamgyong Province and other areas. Subsidies are paid in time to the special disabled soldiers for their health promotion and the preferential supply is being done to their protectors across the country. The special subsidy system for the women with many children is in force on a high level.
• DPRK Strives to Prevent Global Warming
  Pyongyang, June 5 (KCNA) -- The abnormal climate phenomena caused by global warming has been raised today as a hard problem in the world. The UN Environment Programme set "Global Warming" as the theme for this year on the occasion of the World Environment Day (June 5), since it threatens the life and security of humankind. Organized on the occasion of the day in the country were colorful events including a scientific symposium and a national seminar on reducing the emission of atmospheric green- house gases and preventing global warming, and film shows for arousing profound social interest in the issue. Jong Hyong Il, a department director in the Ministry of Land and Environment Preservation, told KCNA that the DPRK which has been suffering from the upward temperature in recent years is conducting varied activities in accordance with the world trend for preventing such phenomena. He went on: It deepens the scientific researches into elevation of energy efficiency and utilization of regenerated energy and directs efforts to the work for applying the results. The construction of large and minor hydro-power stations is being pushed ahead through an all-people movement and application of wind power positively encouraged. An effort to improve the efficiency of solar batteries is being made, too. Meanwhile, a brisk tree-planting campaign is being launched to increase the adsorption of carbon. The DPRK, a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol and the Montreal Protocol on Substances Destroying Ozone Layer, is doing its best to restrict and reduce the emission of atmospheric green-house gases as much as possible.
• Rumors Say Kim Jong-il's Health Deteriorating
  NIS 'Checking Rumors That Kim Jong-il Is Sick'
  South Korean intelligence officials are investigating information that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health has deteriorated recently, a source said. "The National Intelligence Service has obtained information that the reclusive leader Kim's diabetes and heart disease have been worsening. This information is more reliable than former rumors," a government official said. "It is known that U.S. intelligence officials are also looking into similar information," the official added. Kim was born in 1942 and is 66 years old this year. He has conducted official activities 23 times from January 1 to May 27 this year, which is half the number of activities he led by this time last year.
• North Korea: The Nadir of Freedom
  Kondgan Oh The Newsletter of FPRI’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education May 2007 Vol. 12, No. 16 Kondgan Oh is a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author of North Korea Through the Looking Glass (Brookings, 2000). This essay is based on her presentation at the May 5-6, 2007 Living Without Freedom: A History Institute for Teachers, sponsored by FPRI’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education, held at and co-sponsored by the National Constitution Center and the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia. FPRI’s History Institute program is chaired by David Eisenhower and Walter A. McDougall and receives core support from the Annenberg Foundation. The program on Living without Freedom was supported by a grant from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Videotapes and texts of this and other lectures are available online. North Korea is a country devastated by tyrannical rule, famine, death, and a strict caste system. A small country, it is nonetheless important because it’s located in the middle of the dynamic Northeast Asia region, surrounded by China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan. Also, its weapons capabilities are among the world’s most deadly. It tested a nuclear weapon on October 8, 2006, and is unlikely to cease its pursuit of these weapons. Unlike East Germany, North Korea has had no mass exodus. By early 2007, 10,000 North Koreans had defected to South Korea. The U.S. has few North Koreans; those that are here are generally attached to the UN mission.
• North Korean leader happy in home skies: expert
  By Jack Kim Reuters Sunday, May 27, 2007; 2:47 AM SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has no problem flying, crisscrossing his rugged country on military planes, contrary to popular belief that he avoids air travel at all cost, a South Korean expert said. Media reports and diplomats have said Kim -- like his late father -- has a debilitating aversion to flying and almost always travels by train or motorcade under tight secrecy. "Not much has been known about Kim Jong-il's air travel, but when you look at his movement on field guidance at military bases, he doesn't seem to have a particular aversion to flying," said Ko Jae-hong of the Institute for National Security Strategy. [Kim Jong Il] [Disinformation]
• North Korea Resumes Jamming Broadcasts
  By HANS GREIMEL The Associated Press Thursday, May 24, 2007; 8:42 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- Communist North Korea has resumed jamming short wave radio broadcasts from outside the country after a break of several months, an international media watchdog group said. The reclusive country has been trying to block such broadcasts _ by groups such as the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia _ for nearly half a century, but the jamming had been in substantial decline since lMacro running .......ast July, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement released Wednesday. On May 11, however, North Korea began stepping up its jamming of independent and dissident broadcasts. The group denounced the jamming as a "violation of international law."
• N Korea gets less severe on escapees
  By Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: May 3 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 3 2007 03:00 International pressure is causing North Korea to change the way it treats those caught trying to flee the country, although torture and imprisonment re-main commonplace, a leading South Korean human rights watchdog said yesterday. In a new report based on interviews with 20 former political prisoners, the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights said since 2002 North Korean authorities had slowly begun to treat differently those caught leaving. "Simple escapers" to China were now interrogated for shorter periods, while those trying to get to South Korea, a voyage considered an act of treachery, received much harsher treatment, former prisoners told the group.
• DPRK Strives to Reduce Levels of Greenhouse Gases
  Pyongyang, April 22 (KCNA) -- The DPRK government is taking an active part in the international activities for reducing levels of industrial gases, which are of great significance in solving the global environment issue. The air pollution by the waste gas from diesel engines claims 800,000 in the world every year and the emission amount of carbon dioxide, the factor of the global warming, has been increased by 30 percent as compared with that two decades ago. The issue of reducing levels of the greenhouse gases threatening the existence and development of the humankind is one common to all the countries around the world. The DPRK government has drawn up a strategy for reducing greenhouse gases and taken positive measures for its implementation.
• Regional Consultation on Strengthening Health Systems Based on PHC Approach Held
  Pyongyang, April 20 (KCNA) -- The WHO Southeast Asian Regional Consultation on Strengthening Health Systems based on PHC Approach was held at the People's Palace of Culture from April 18 to 20. It was attended by a delegation of the Regional Office for South-East Asia of the World Health Organization led by Director Samlee Plianbangchang and delegations and delegates from the DPRK, Nepal, East Timor, Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Thailand, diplomatic envoys of various countries and representatives of international organizations here.
• North Korea Names New Military Head: Yonhap
  By REUTERS Published: April 22, 2007 Filed at 3:49 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has named a new military chief after his predecessor was appointed as the deputy of the National Defense Commission following 12 years in the top military post, Yonhap news agency said on Sunday. It said the North's official KCNA news agency had named the new military chief in a report carried in late on Saturday. KCNA said General Kim Kyok-sik, chief of the general staff of the Korean People's Army, had accompanied leader Kim Jong-il on an inspection of two military bases. It did not elaborate.
• Kim Yong Il Elected Premier of DPRK Cabinet
  Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Il was elected premier of the DPRK Cabinet at the 5th Session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK. Born on May 2, Juche 33(1944), he served in the Korean People's Army for nine years from Juche 50(1961) and then graduated from the University of Marine Transport to obtain the qualification of navigation officer. After spending three years as a three-revolution team member, he worked as instructor and deputy director of a general bureau of the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport for 14 years. He was minister of Land and Marine Transport from Juche 83(1994) till he was elected premier of the Cabinet.  
• Kim Yong-il Elected North Korean Premier
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Kim Yong-il North Korea’s legislature on Wednesday elected Transport Minister Kim Yong-il as the country’s new premier, the North’s state-controlled news agency reported. He replaces Pak Pong-ju who has been accused of embezzling some of the national budget, the report said. According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim was elected as the new premier in a plenary session of the North’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), a rubber-stamp legislature of the Stalinist state. Kim, 62, rose to his position after starting his bureaucratic career as a rank-and-filer in the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport. He is known to have expert knowledge in economic affairs.
• 5th Session of 11th SPA of DPRK Held
  Pyongyang, April 11 (KCNA) -- The 5th session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK was held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Wednesday. General Secretary Kim Jong Il attended the session. Present there were deputies to the SPA. Officials of the Party, military and power organs, social organizations, ministries and national institutions and officials in the fields of science, education, culture and art, public health and media were present there as observers.
  The session relieved Deputy Pak Pong Ju of premiership and elected Deputy Kim Yong Il premier of the Cabinet of the DPRK. Deputy Kim Yong Chun was elected vice-chairman of the NDC of the DPRK at the session.
• Report on Results of Implementation of Last Year's State Budget and State Budget for This Year
  Pyongyang, April 11 (KCNA) -- Deputy to the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly Ro Tu Chol, vice-premier of the Cabinet, delivered a report on the results of implementation of the state budget of the DPRK for Juche 95 (2006) and its state budget for Juche 96 (2007) at the fifth session of the 11th SPA held on Wednesday. According to the report, the state budgetary revenue last year was fulfilled at 97.5 percent as compared with that under plan or a jump of 4.4 percent over that in the previous year
  15.8 percent of the total state budgetary expenditure will be allocated for national defence.
• SPA Hears Report on Work of Cabinet Last Year and Its Tasks for This Year
  Pyongyang, April 11 (KCNA) -- Deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly Kwak Pom Gi, vice-premier of the Cabinet, delivered a report on the work of the DPRK Cabinet in Juche 95 (2006) and its tasks for Juche 96 (2007) at the fifth session of the eleventh SPA held on Wednesday. According to the report, precious successes were made in socialist economic construction last year; the total revenue in the sectors of the national economy grew as compared with that in the previous year and the production of major industrial goods showed a marked increase in the same period.
• N.Korean Premier Sacking May Signal More Opening
  By REUTERS Published: April 12, 2007 Filed at 3:22 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's appointment of a new premier suggests the impoverished and isolated state wants to open up more and bring in real economic reform, analysts in the South said on Thursday. A brief mention at the end of a state news agency report on Wednesday's meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly said Pak Pong-ju had been removed and replaced by Land and Transport Minister Kim Yong-il. No reason was given. ``I think North Korea has reached a point where they think it is necessary to actually build an economy even if it takes changing the leader,'' Yoo Ho-yeol, professor of North Korean studies at Korea University, said. Once seen as a rising star to lead the country's nascent economic reforms, analysts said Pak may have fallen foul of the powerful military and some cited speculation he was sacked for corruption.
• North Korea Replaces Prime Minister
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 11, 2007 Filed at 11:17 a.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea replaced its prime minister Wednesday during a session of its rubber-stamp parliament, the country's state media reported. Pak Pong Ju was relieved of the premiership and replaced by Kim Yong Il, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, without giving any reasons for the shuffle. Pak, previously the minister of chemical industries, had been appointed in 2003 in a move that was believed to indicate the North's attempts to revive its moribund economy. His replacement Kim had served as transport minister since 2003. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il attended the meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, KCNA reported, but apparently did not make any comments there. [Economic reform]
• Public Health Services in DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea keeps paying much effort to the public health services. The public health organs at all levels are vaccinating all the people, young and old, men and women, against various kinds of diseases in conformity with the policy of prophylactic treatment of the Workers' Party of Korea. A spring clean-up campaign is being vigorously launched at residential quarters and working sites to keep clean the surroundings for the purpose of eliminating the sources of diseases with the help of the hygienic and anti-epidemic institutions at all levels. Meanwhile, radios, TV and publications regularly give hygienic knowledge to prevent and wipe out epidemics. Preventive injection and medicines are being mass-produced to be supplied to the inhabitants free of charge.
• Anniversary of Chondoism Observed
  Pyongyang, April 5 (KCNA) -- The "Heaven Day Ceremony" was held in Pyongyang Thursday to commemorate the 147th anniversary of the foundation of Chondoism. Present there were Chairwoman Ryu Mi Yong, Advisor O Ik Je and officials of the Korean Chondoist Church Central Guidance Committee and Chondoists in Pyongyang. [Religion]
• NK Defector Offers Glimpses of Life in Pyongyang
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Lim Il, a North Korean defector-turned-author, speaks in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul Thursday. /Korea Times Photo by Shim Hyun-chul Take a guess as to whether sneaky middle-aged men sexually molest women in packed commuter buses in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, just as takes place in capitalist Seoul. Lim Il, 39, a North Korean defector-turned-author who resides in Seoul, says ``yes, they do'' and actually ``they do a lot of it.'' ``It's not rare to witness men groping women's butts during rush hours in the strict Stalinist state,'' Lim said in an interview with The Korea Times Thursday. ``Well, I saw such cases more than once a week. That's probably because there are no red-light districts allowed in Pyongyang and women don't have cell-phones to call the police.'' [Media]
• N Korea envoys 'keeping children'
  North Korea's Beijing embassy is reportedly not co-operating North Korean diplomats stationed overseas are reportedly refusing an order to send their children home, according to South Korean media. The order was issued earlier this year in an apparent attempt to stop defections from the hardline regime. It said diplomats should send all but one of their children back to North Korea by the end of March. But South Korea's Yonhap news agency said diplomats were resisting the order, in an "unprecedented" move. Yonhap quoted an unnamed source as saying the incident could trigger a "major political scandal", given how unusual it is for North Korea's ruling Communist Party to be disobeyed.  
• Session of DPRK Supreme People's Assembly to Be Convened
  Pyongyang, March 22 (KCNA) -- The fifth session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK will be convened here on April 11, Juche 96 (2007), according to a decision of its Presidium promulgated Wednesday.
• Former Unconverted Long-term Prisoner Receives Birthday Spread
  Pyongyang, March 22 (KCNA) -- Choe Ha Jong, an indomitable patriotic fighter for reunification, who was a former unconverted long-term prisoner, greeted his 80th birthday. A benevolent birthday spread sent by Kim Jong Il was conveyed to him on March 21. Born in Ryongho-ri, Kim Chaek City, North Hamgyong Province, on March 21, Juche 16 (1927), he went to an alien land with a dream of learning, burdened by the sorrow of national ruin, but he could not realize his hope of youth. Only in the embrace of the true motherland liberated by President Kim Il Sung could he lead a worthy life and become a student of Kim Il Sung University and a member of the Workers' Party of Korea. During the Fatherland Liberation War he joined the Korean People's Army and fought bravely for the victory in the war. Later he was arrested by the enemy while fighting heroically for the reunification of the country. But he remained true to his principle as a revolutionary to the end for 36 years. [Human rights]
• Romanian Woman 'Kidnapped by N.Korea in 1978'
  Updated Mar.22,2007 09:05 KST   A Romanian woman who went missing in Rome in 1978 was abducted by a North Korean agent and lived in the North for some two decades, the Romanian daily Evenimentul Zilei reported in its March 20 issue. Doina Bumbea was 27 when she went missing. [Abductees] [Bizarre]
• Women Centenarians
  Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- The number of long-lived persons is increasing in the DPRK. Kim Pu Yong residing in Tongmyong-dong, Rason City, and Choe Kil Bok in Jangbaek-dong, Munchon City, recently celebrated their centenary birthdays. These women centenarians did not lay their work aside even after retiring on a pension and have always led an optimistic life. They love national dishes including kimchi and bean past soup, not having unbalanced diet. Kim Jong Il sent birthday spreads to them
• North Korea's Cruelty
  By Kay Seok Saturday, March 17, 2007; Page A19 SEOUL -- North Korea is again dominating headlines by signing a deal to close its main nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors to return in exchange for energy and economic assistance. As North Korea watchers cautiously welcome this possible step toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, a deeply disturbing development has garnered almost no attention: Pyongyang's hardening policy toward North Korean border-crossers. [Human rights]
• Home of N.Korean Leader's Son 'Burgled'
    Intelligence services have information that the Macau home of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Kim Jong-nam was burgled, sources say. Authorities are trying to confirm the information. A government official in Seoul told a reporter there was a rumor that homes in an exclusive villa complex in Coloane Island were broken into, and related government offices and police are investigating. The Zhuyuan Haoyuan villa complex is 15 minutes from downtown Macau and its 80 villas are among the territory's most exclusive. The average price of each villa is estimated HK$15 million, roughly US$1.92 million. Yellow sunflower symbols adorning the doors of nos. 361 and 371 easily identify them as Kim Jong-nam's.
• National Meeting Marks International Women's Day
  Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- A national meeting to mark the 97th anniversary of the International Women's Day was held at the People's Palace of Culture Thursday. The meeting was attended by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, senior officials of working people's organizations, women officials, women labor innovators and women in Pyongyang and Korean women from Japan staying in the socialist homeland. Present there on invitation were women of foreign embassies and missions of international organizations here.
• NK Diplomats Ordered to Send Kids Home
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter North Korean diplomats and those who work at overseas branches of state-run trading companies have been ordered to send their children home except for one child by the end of this month, sources said. The order was issued on Feb. 14, after a one-month-and-a-half notice, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. In the early 1990s, the North ordered its students abroad to return home during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakdown of the Berlin Wall. But this was the first time for Pyongyang to call home the children of diplomats and officials at trading companies.
• N Korea 'cracks down on escapees'
  A protest in Seoul last month over treatment of would-be defectors North Korea has toughened its line on people who try to flee across the border into China, a new report by a rights watchdog says. Human Rights Watch says that even those who are trying to cross the border for the first time face years in prison. It says repatriated escapees can spend up to five years in political prison camps and are beaten and starved. The group says the North Korean government "persecutes its citizens for simply trying to survive". North Korea has so far made no comment on the report.
• N. Korean Leader Kim Considers 'group Leadership' system: Sources
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il might consider a "collective" leadership system after he leaves office, a move away from the long-anticipated father-to-son power transfer, Yonhap News reported on Feb. 25, 2007
• Measles Outbreak Infects 3,000 N.Koreans
  A measles epidemic broke out across North Korea infecting some 3,000 people and causing four deaths, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Monday. The IFRC in Geneva, Switzerland, said that since the outbreak last November, 3,000 North Koreans have been infected and 1,013 have been treated by local health authorities, Reuters reported. The IRFC said, "The continued presence of the measles is accompanied by a risk of increasing cases and the further spread of the illness to other parts of the country." North Korean public health authorities requested 5 million doses of measles vaccine from international bodies such as IFRC and WHO.
• 4 Dies From Measles Epidemic in North Korea
  A measles epidemic has claimed at least four lives and infected about 3,000 people in North Korea, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Monday. The federation said in a statement that measles has been found in 30 North Korean counties since the outbreak started in November last year. It added that four deaths were reported on Jan. 4 when two children and two adults died from measles and its complications such as pneumonia. Around 3,000 North Koreans were confirmed to have infected with the disease. Pyongyang has asked international organizations for massive doses of vaccine to prevent further spread of the epidemic. The North has requested 5 million doses of measles vaccine to immunize its citizens aged from seven to 45. The requested doses cost $1.5 million, and North Korea will pay the costs for transportation, distribution and staff training.
• N Korea guards 'face execution'
  Two North Korean soldiers are thought to be at immediate risk of execution for helping North Koreans flee to China, Amnesty International says. It said the two border guards were due to be executed in January, but this was postponed until after the leader Kim Jong-il's 65th birthday last Friday. Amnesty International is calling for international pressure to be put on the North Korean leadership over the issue.
• North Korea Marks Leader's 65th Birthday
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Friday, February 16, 2007; 12:12 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- Thousands of people danced and brought flowers in North Korea's capital Friday to celebrate the 65th birthday of "dear leader" Kim Jong Il, amid progress in ending its nuclear programs and speculation abroad over who will eventually succeed him.
• Kim Jong-il celebrates his 65th
  Peter Walker and agencies Friday February 16, 2007 Guardian Unlimited   North Korea celebrated leader Kim Jong-il's 65th birthday today with the expected mix of public marches, lavish personal praise and fierce anti-US rhetoric.
• Foreign Guests Arrive
     Pyongyang, February 14 (KCNA) -- Foreign guests flew into Pyongyang Tuesday to join the visitors to the secret camp in Mt. Paektu on the occasion of the birthday of Kim Jong Il. They included General Secretary of the Bangladesh Peace Council Kamal Hyder who is vice-president of the World Peace Council, Abdel Azim El Maghraby, asst. secretary general of the Arab Lawyers Union, Don Borrie, chairman of the New Zealand-DPRK Society who is co-chairman of the Oceanic Committee for Solidarity with the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, K. S. Rao, chairman of the Indian Committee for Supporting Korea's Reunification, a Chinese delegation headed by Chen Jun, executive deputy secretary-general of the China Association for International Friendly Contact, Norma G. Binas, vice-president of the Philippines Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification in the Korean Peninsula, Ristiyanto, secretary general of the Indonesia-Korea Association for Friendship and Cultural Exchange, Hector Figueroa, major of Catamayo, Loja in Ecuador, Daniel Alvarez Celi, chairman of the Ecuadorian Committee for Supporting Korea's Independent and Peaceful Reunification, Tania Alvarado Chavez, president of the Ecuador-Guayaquil Institute for Friendship with the Korean People, Trotsky Serano, president of the Canar Provincial Institute for the Friendship and Solidarity with the DPRK of Ecuador, Francis F. Lyimo, vice-chairman of the Tanzania-DPRK Friendship Association, Anders Kristensen, secretary general of the Nordic Cooperation Committee for Friendship and Solidarity with the Korean People and chairman of the Denmark-DPRK Friendship Association, Martin Lotscher, president of the Swiss Committee for Supporting the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a delegation of the "Jongilbong" Russia-Korea Friendship Association of Ulyanovsk Region led by Aleksandr Kruzlikov, first secretary of the Ulyanovsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Meinolf Mario Wulf, representative of the Association for Friendship with the Korean People headquartered in Spain.     Arriving on the same day by train were D. Tsakhilgaan, president of the Union for Peace and Friendship of Mongolia, and his party, a delegation of the Nepal Journalist Association led by its Chairman Manju Ratna Sakya, a delegation of the Mongolia-Korea Friendship Society led by its Executive Chairman B. Baigalmaa.     Arriving here earlier were Ludmila Levkova, chief of the Russia-Korea Children's Friendship Association Named after Kim Jong Il of 11th Middle School in Khabarovsk City, Russia, and her party, a delegation of the Australia-DPRK Association for Friendship and Cultural Exchange led by its National Secretary Raymond Ferguson, Noboru Kameda, representative of the Japan-DPRK Cultural Society, Takashi Nata, representative of the Ehime Institute for Modern Korea Studies of Japan, Zhang Qi, grandson of Zhang Weihua, anti-Japanese revolutionary martyr, and Song Shukuan, general manager of the Zaoyuan Fish Breeding Company of China.
• Pyongyang Abustle with Preparations for Lunar New Year's Day
     Pyongyang, February 14 (KCNA) -- Working people and schoolchildren in Pyongyang are busy with preparations for the lunar New Year's Day (February 18).     Schoolchildren are engrossed in preparing the New Year performance rich in national tinge.     The Pyongyang Circus and State Comic Troupe are perfecting the depiction of art works of new themes at the final stage to give laugh and joy to the citizens.     Industrial establishments and neighborhood units are planning to play such folk games as yut and Korean chess on the holiday. Schoolchildren are holding tug-of-war, kite-flying, top-spinning and other folk games at their schools and classes by league match method.     Shops, the Okryu Restaurant, the Chongryu Restaurant, fun-fairs and other service facilities are also absorbed in making full preparation to receive customers.     Korean costume companies are busy at making ordered folk dresses for women, old persons and children.     All the families are securing holiday foodstuffs and cleaning their houses.
• Nuke Deal Touches Few Pyongyang Residents
  There was no indication in the streets of Pyongyang on Tuesday that six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program had reached a historic agreement in Beijing the same day. Pyongyang citizens were unaware of the news while the city was busy with preparations for the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Feb 16., the North’s biggest holiday. [Agreement070213]
• Book sheds light on life in N.K. army
  Defector says S.K. perception mired in stereotype
  Contrary to rumors of brutality among the ranks, according to a book by a North Korean defector, there is no corporal punishment and detention within the North Korean Army.
  Instead, ranked officers draw a square on the practice grounds and have the rule-breakers do a "formal march" (the North Korean parade walk) along the outline of the square. The military detention system was also abolished in the 1960s. In other cases, a soldier who disobeys the orders of his/her squad leader will be pressed to assume responsibility for their action, and then faces a ‘mutual verbal critique’ during the daily assembly. The book, Would North Korean Soldiers Have Hardtacks? by Lee Jeong-yeon, a 38-year old ex-DPRK soldier, was written to give "a more accurate and objective information on the DPRK armed forces to the South Koreans," Lee said. The work highlights many of the details of North Korean military life. [Daily life] [Human rights] [Defector report] [EWA]
• Kim Jong-il's Son Makes Surprise Appearance in Beijing
  Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, appeared in Beijing on Sunday. Immigration officials at Shoudu Airport in Beijing said that Kim Jong-nam was included on a list of VIPs who arrived in the Chinese capital that day. Kim, wearing a cap, sunglasses, and blue jeans, was first spotted in the afternoon by Japanese television crews at the airport. He stopped briefly in front of a hotel in Beijing to answer reporters' questions. “I have nothing to do with the six-party talks or the ongoing talks regarding the U.S. financial sanctions on North Korea. I came here for a personal reason,” Kim said. When asked about the possibility of his succession to North Korea’s leadership, he said that he had nothing to say on the matter. Kim arrived in Beijing by a direct flight from Macau. People are guessing that he may head next to Pyongyang for the Feb. 16 birthday of his father.
• NK Leader's Eldest Son in Beijing
  The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is in Beijing for a brief stop on his way back home, Yonhap News Agency reported today. "Kim Jong-nam, 35, arrived in Beijing Sunday to visit Pyongyang to attend his father's birthday party," Yonhap reported quoting one of Kim’s friends. "He will fly to Pyongyang on Tuesday and come back to Beijing after the event."
• Kim Jong-il’s Son Living Life of Riley in Macau
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s eldest son Kim Jong-nam has been living in Macau with his family for 10 years, sources say. Several Macanese who met the younger Kim say he has fake Portuguese and Dominican Republic passports and frequently travels to Beijing, Bangkok, Vienna and Moscow
• Kim Jong-il's Son Caught on Candid Camera
  The eldest son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam, got caught on camera at a five-star hotel in Macau by Japan's TBS television on Friday afternoon. Kim denied his identity, saying “No” when a TBS reporter asked whether he was Kim Jong-nam. The Japanese reporter then asked Kim’s opinion on the economic sanctions on North Korea, but Kim only answered, “I have nothing to say.” Both spoke in English. The reporter got the same answer when he asked Kim whether he was on vacation. Queried if he was staying in the city’s luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kim junior said, “I can’t tell you. My private life.” Kim then grabbed a taxi, named the destination in Chinese and disappeared.
• Makgolli, Folk Drink of Korea
  Pyongyang, January 30 (KCNA) -- The Korean people are fond of Makgolli (unrefined liquor), a folk drink. From olden times the Korean peasants have been used to gather together at break and lunch time and to relieve themselves from fatigue, drinking Makgolli. Makgolli is made mainly with starch. The boiled and cooled starch is mixed with malt and some boiled rice. The mixture is fermented for five-seven days at the temperature of 25-27 degrees centigrade and 75 percent of relative humidity. It is filtered out before drinking. It contains alcohol below ten percent and a lot of nutritive elements including sugar. It tastes sour and sweet and makes the drinkers exhilarant. It is also applicable for disease treatment. Makgolli made from the boiled root bark of Acanthopanax sessiliflorum and hulled adlay makes spleen, stomach and intestines healthy. And it is efficacious for treating such diseases as arthritis and neuralgia.
• Day of Buddha's Attainment of Great Wisdom Marked
  Pyongyang, January 26 (KCNA) -- Masses praying for national reunification took place at different temples of the DPRK on Friday to mark the Day of Buddha's Attainment of Great Wisdom. Present at the masses were office bearers of the Central Committee of the Korean Buddhist Federation and its provincial, city and county committees, priests of temples and believers.
• Korea Education Fund Gets Brisk
  Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) -- The Korea Education Fund is active in backing educational institutions in the DPRK. Ri Yong, secretary of the KEF, said, in an interview with KCNA, that Koreans at home and abroad and political, public and educational figures and organizations in many countries have been rendering a lot of material and financial assistance to the DPRK in its educational work proceeding from the lofty humanitarian idea in accordance with the call of the Korea Education Fund (KEF) established in January Juche 94 (2005). Its support, he went on to say, has been given to the insufficient educational apparatuses and school things, improvement of infrastructure of educational institutions and studying conditions at schools and to training of personnel. In a recent year alone, organizations in Germany, Canada and other countries and members of the Germany Agro Action (GAA) in the European Union Office in the DPRK rendered a large amount of finance and materials. Especially the Koreans residing in China, Canada and other countries donated scientific and technical books of various fields and facilities to the KEF to help the improvement of educational conditions and the development of education. The KEF hails all the donators at home and abroad on the principle of good intentions and voluntariness and will continue to promote the tradition of international cooperation. It is situated in Ryonhwa-Dong No 2, Central District, Pyongyang. (E-mail: kef@co.chesin.com, Homepage: www.koredufund.com) [Training] [Opening]
• Contaminated Beef in North Korea
  Mysterious disease reportedly leaves victims looking like 'sliced meat' Robert Neff (neff) Email Article Print Article Published 2007-01-16 05:00 (KST) In a country infamous for famines, it is no wonder that cattle in North Korea are prized so highly and considered "national property." According to government sources, North Korea had about 575,000 head of cattle in 2002, but considering the recent floods and food shortages this number may have dropped. In addition to the floods and food shortages, North Koreans must contend with the bovine diseases that cause health concerns not only to the cattle, but also for the people. The most serious incident took place in the summer of last year. It began in the North Korean region of Yanggang. A horrible and mysterious disease which the frightened residents called "leprosy" for its horrible devastation of its victims causing them to break out in boils and oozing skin that progressed to the point that, as one North Korean defector described it, left its victims looking "like pieces of sliced meat."
• North conducts emergency drill of top security
  Exercise believed to be preparation for an unforeseen change in power
  January 15, 2007 ? Several security organs directly in charge of the safety of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, conducted an emergency drill in Pyongyang on Friday, intelligence sources from South Korea and the United States said. Military troops and tanks from the Pyongyang Defense Command were deployed rapidly while increased military communications were noted that day. In addition, the Escort Bureau, in charge of protecting Mr. Kim, also had a busy day, the sources said. The incident sparked a flurry of activity by the South's intelligence community, as the increased military activity in the North's capital did not fit the usual pattern of winter drills conducted by the North's military. The fact that security organs closely guarding the North's leader's safety were involved in the activities sparked momentary suspicion among some sources that a military coup might have occurred in the North.
• Kim Jong-il ‘Won’t Quit Till He’s 90’
  Right after North Korea conducted its nuclear test on Oct. 9 last year, the hermit nation’s leader Kim Jong-il said, "I’m going to be the longest-serving leader in the world. I can rule this nation till I’m 80 or 90," according to a Japanese newspaper. Since then, any mention of the succession has been taboo in the North, the Mainichi Shimbun said Thursday.
• . Korean foreign minister dies
  North Korea's foreign minister, who was suffering from chronic disease, has died, the communist country's official media reported Wednesday. He was 78. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a wreath of flowers to the altar set up for Paek Nam-sun, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The KCNA provided no details about the cause of his death or the date. "(North Korean) Leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday sent a wreath to the bier of late Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, deputy to the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, expressing deep condolences over his death," the report said.
  Paek was born in Ryanggang Province in 1929, and graduated from Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang. He served as foreign minister for the communist country since 1998. Using his alias Paek Nam-jun, Paek attended major inter-Korean meetings held in the 1990s and served at key posts for the North's Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland and other political organs. Paek is reported to have received medical treatment for his disease in Kuala Lumpur in July 2006 when he led the North Korean delegation to the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). He was allegedly suffering from chronic kidney problems.
• North's foreign minister, 77, is dead
  January 04, 2007 ? North Korea's foreign minister, Paek Nam-sun, has died, the country's official news outlet said yesterday. He was 77. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a floral tribute to Mr. Paek's family, the Korean Central News Agency said. The short report included no details on the cause or place of his death. North Korea watchers and South Korean government officials said the North's foreign policy will probably not change because of his death; he did not appear in a list of North Korea's power elite. In Seoul, the administration met last night to consider whether or not to send a condolence message. No decision had been announced as of late evening.
• Military influence broadens in Kim Jong-il's North
  January 04, 2007 ? Since its founder Kim Il Sung's death in 1994, North Korea's political landscape has been transformed dramatically, and military officials have solidified their standing in the power elite of the communist country. They have elbowed aside civilian politicians and bureaucrats, a new analysis shows, and the data confirm that the North's "Military first" political slogan is much more than rhetoric.
• N. Korean Foreign Minister Dies
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, who was suffering from a chronic disease, has died, the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Wednesday. He was 78. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sent a wreath of flowers to the bier of the late foreign minister, expressing deep condolences over his death, the report said. The report, however, did not provide details on how or when Paek died. Born in 1929 in Ryanggang Province, a highland area near the North Korea-China border, Paek graduated from Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang and began his diplomatic career in the 1960s. He has worked as foreign minister since 1998.
• Joint New Year Editorial Issued
  Press Release No. 1 Embassy of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in Canberra
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi today released a joint editorial under the title "Usher in a Great Heyday of Songun Korea Full of Confidence in Victory" on the occasion of the hope-filled New Year. (By email from DPRK embassy, Canberra)
• Pyongyang on New Year's Day
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- The New Year's Day of Juche 96 (2007) has come. From the early morning, streams of the Korean people visit statues of the great President Kim Il Sung, the eternal sun of Juche, with floral baskets and bunches of flowers to make a New Year's bow to him. Officers and men of the Korean People's Army, working people of all strata and school youth and children in Pyongyang visit his statue on Mansu Hill with the pride of having adorned the year 2006 with great labor successes. They are full of optimism and firm resolution to perform feats in the hopeful New Year.
• North Korea vows to strengthen military power in New Year
  North Korea vowed Monday it will continue to uphold in the new year its military-first policy that has helped it develop nuclear weapons and strive to rebuild its moribund economy. In a joint newspaper editorial that summed up its policy goals for 2007, the hard-line communist country also called for unflinching loyalty to leader Kim Jong-il who will turn 65. "Our access to a nuclear deterrent was an auspicious event in the national history as it meant the realization of the Korean people's centuries-old desire to have national strength no one could dare challenge," said the editorial carried jointly by newspapers representing the North's party, military and youth militia.
• North Korea goes it alone
  [EDITORIALS] North Korea stressed in New Year's editorials of its major publications, such as Rodong Sinmun, that the country needed to become an economically strong nation. The editorials of the North's official mouthpieces, which these major publications essentially are used as, are an official guideline that serves as a direction for the North's political, economic, foreign affairs and inter-Korean relationships ? in short, all aspects of the North's society. As the editorials have emphasized the importance of growth, it is likely that the North will put its efforts behind reviving its ailing economy.
• Joint New Year Editorial Issued
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi today released a joint editorial under the title "Usher in a Great Heyday of Songun Korea Full of Confidence in Victory" on the occasion of the hope-filled New Year. The DPRK has never seen in the annals of the protracted and arduous Korean revolution such year as 2006 in which the position of the country was justifiably raised to the level of powerful one and the dignity of the Korean nation was vigorously demonstrated, the editorial says, proudly reviewing the epoch-making events and historical victories gained last year.
• N. Korea Stresses Economic Revival
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea's New Year joint newspaper editorial on Monday underlined that it will strive to modernize its economy. The editorial also said Pyongyang will continue strengthening its defense power by focusing on ``songun'' or ``military-first'' policy that enabled it to conduct an underground nuclear test last October
• N. Korea Builds Hospital Ward for Bird Flu Patients
  North Korea has finished construction on a hospital ward for patients with bird flu and other contagious diseases with financial support from the World Health Organization (WHO), a media report said Sunday. The WHO had been helping North Korea to build the isolated ward inside a Pyongyang hospital since June, said the Chosun Sinbo, published by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

2006

• Rodong Sinmun Reviews This Year's Achievements
  Pyongyang, December 26 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun terms this year a year of great leap in which the cause of building a prosperous powerful nation of Juche has been put on a higher stage of development and broad vistas opened up for the country and the nation. This year the army and the people of the DPRK made radical changes in politics, military affairs, economy, culture and all other fields under the Songun leadership of Kim Jong Il, ushering in a new heyday of national prosperity, the daily says in a by-lined article today, and goes on:
• Korean News Service Photo service
  DPRK photos, text in Korean
• N.K. general to lead if Kim loses power
  A top military commander is expected to take the reins in North Korea in the event its leader Kim Jong-il loses power during an emergency, a South Korean parliamentary report said yesterday. The report on a possible North Korean crisis pinpointed General Oh Geuk-ryul, chief of central combat operations of the Workers' Party, as the strongest candidate to take contingency leadership of the communist country.
• Unique Theory on People's Guerrilla War in World History of War
  Pyongyang, December 16 (KCNA) --The theory on people's guerrilla war, the unique theory of Juche on armed struggle adds a brilliant page to the world history of war. At the Mingyuegou Meeting on December 16, Juche 20 (1931), President Kim Il Sung advanced a proposition that the people are the state, the people are the home front and the people are the regular army.
  When the war starts, the people will become soldiers and rise up. Therefore, the guerrilla warfare which we shall wage can be called a people's war. [Role of NK military] [Songun]
• 'Kim Jong-il's Death Won't Lead North to Collapse'
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter North Korea would be sustained by one of its top military officials even after its reclusive leader Kim Jong-il’s death, a National Assembly committee reported Monday. The report issued by the Assembly’s intelligence committee admitted that an emergency situation would be sparked by Kim’s death. It said, however, that top military officials, especially Gen. Oh Guk-ryol, 75, would mobilize troops to stabilize the management of state affairs. The report said that Kim’s top priority is not to establish diplomatic relations with the United States and gain economic aid, but rather to appoint a successor to maintain the North’s current political system.
• Kim Jong-il: Strategy and Psychology
  Mike Mazarr
  December 12, 2006 KEI Washington, DC [Kim Jong Il]
• Korean Student Proves Successful at International Concours
  Pyongyang, December 13 (KCNA) -- Ri Myong Gum, DPRK girl studying at Santa Chechilia Conservatory in Rome, won a prize at an international concours for Giacomo Lauri Volpi Prize held in Latina, Italy, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. The concours drew 80 renowned male and female singers from the DPRK, Italy, Russia, China and other countries and regions. Ri competed in the adult group that comprised 47 famous professional singers and came second to receive a prize and a diploma.
• 70th Anniversary of Monthly Samil Marked
     Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the People's Palace of Culture on November 30 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Monthly Samil, a revolutionary journal founded by President Kim Il Sung. Present there were Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, officials of the press and printing organs, reporters, editors and media persons.
• World AIDS Day Observed
     Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson Friday dedicates an article to World AIDS Day. The day was instituted as a link in the whole chain of the global efforts and activities for preventing and controlling AIDS horribly threatening human lives while rapidly prevailing worldwide, notes the article.     Reviewing many successes recorded in its prevention and treatment with the efforts to prevent it gathering force worldwide, the article says:     Under the wise guidance of Kim Jong Il, the DPRK established the strategy of prevention and control of AIDS with orderly systems of its information, prognostication and watch, and examination across the country. On this basis, measures have been taken not to allow a single AIDS case.     AIDS called "the plague of the 20th century" and "the leprosy of the 20th century" is still threatening the existence of humankind in the 21st century. However, there is no doubt that humankind will totally eradicate it on the earth and get rid of its threat.
• Being Wooed by Kim Jong-il: a Leader’s Wife Writes
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s third wife Ko Young-hee.
  “Jan. 28, 1973 was an extremely cold day. The clock pointed to 11 p.m., so I was about to go to bed when there was a knock at the door. I thought it might be my father, but when I opened the door, I couldn’t be anything but surprised: someone had come to tell me that our Dear General was out there standing in a snowstorm, waiting for me...” A memoir about what it is like to love a man who never came in from the cold, purportedly written by Kim Jong-il’s third wife Ko Young-hee, has hit the bookshelves of Pyongyang. [Kim Jong Il]
• Heredity Consultation Brisk in DPRK
     Pyongyang, November 28 (KCNA) -- Heredity consultation about patients suffering from constitutional diseases is under way on a high scientific level in the Democratic People�fs Republic of Korea. The Heredity Consultation Office of the Hospital Attached to Pyongyang University of Medicine has conducted researches for more than two decades to correctly judge at least 100 kinds of heredity causes, environmental and external factors and diagnose and treat basic diseases that affect the growth of human bodies.     It has studied and put on record all symptoms of amyotrophia before making a remote-controlled observation of them. It is diagnosing such cases and those who have such symptoms through PCR observation and by a chain analyzing method.     This helped find out the women with the above-said symptom in good time and diagnose them before childbirth, making it possible to prevent the birth of babies suffering from amyotrophia.
• Anti-epidemic Work against Bird Flu Intensified in DPRK
     Pyongyang, November 27 (KCNA) -- The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has intensified the anti-epidemic work against bird flu at the turn of the season. This work is under way every year as a nationwide movement under the coordinated guidance of the State Emergency Preventive Committee.     U Song Rim, director of the Central Veterinary and Anti-epizootic Center under the Ministry of Agriculture, told KCNA that the anti-epidemic work against bird flu is brisk as the veterinary and anti-epizootic organizations are playing an increasing role.
• Kimchi-making for Winter at Its Height
     Pyongyang, November 17 (KCNA) -- The season of making Kimchi for the winter has come in Korea. Kimchi, a world-famous foodstuff, is the pride of the Korean women.     It is the ardent wish of the housewives to prepare tasty Kimchi.     Recently, hundreds of women phone the Phyongchon Kimchi Factory every day regarding technical issues raised in making winter Kimchi.     The topic among women is how to prepare tasty Kimchi.     The TVs and the radios introduce the methods of making various kinds of winter Kimchi as well as the powder of Kimchi lactic acid bacilli, fluid for culturing Kimchi lactic acid bacilli, Kimchi fluorine preservative and others which keep the inherent taste of Kimchi and preserve it for months.     Foodstuff shops and public service facilities are crowded with women to purchase condiments needed for Kimchi.
• Central Zoo under Reconstruction
     Pyongyang, November 13 (KCNA) -- The Central Zoo at the foot of Mt. Taesong in Pyongyang, the DPRK, is being refurbished. The projects are being conducted in the direction of providing better living conditions to the animals to suit their physiological characteristics and of ensuring the best conveniences to the visitors.     The reconstruction of elephant, giraffe, chimpanzee and many other animal cages is being vigorously carried on.     The new cages will be furnished with facilities to ensure temperature and ventilation in winter.     Water project is also under way.     Ju Kum Chol, a section chief of the zoo, told KCNA that people would soon enjoy a good holiday in the renovated zoo.
• All People Called upon to Work Hard to Build Rich and Powerful Nation
     Pyongyang, November 12 (KCNA) -- A great prosperous powerful socialist nation of Juche the Korean people are working hard to build means a country in which the sovereign right and interests of the popular masses are fully guaranteed in all fabrics of social life including politics, economy, ideology and culture and a country with strong national power which no enemy dares attack. Building this kind of country would bring the prosperity of Korean style. Rodong Sinmun Sunday says this in a signed article. I
• 12th National Drama Festival Held
  Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- The 12th national drama festival was held here from October 25 till November 2. Dramas created by art organizations in Pyongyang and local areas were juried before being put on the stage. Staged during the festival were nearly 20 dramas and narrative art pieces dealing with the greatness and vitality of the Songun policy of the Workers' Party of Korea and truthfully representing the persevering struggle and admirable life style of the Korean people out in the drive to build a great prosperous powerful nation.
• Activated Insam Capsules for Liver Protection Developed
  Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- Activated insam capsules for liver protection developed by Kanggye University of Medicine in the DPRK are hailed by local and foreign clients for its high efficacy. The drug, made with more than ten Koryo medicinal materials including insam (ginseng), is potent for acute and chronic hepatitis, hepatic cirrhosis, fatty liver, toxic hepatitis, cholecystitis and pancreatitis. It, with strong detox function, detoxifies various poisons including alcoholism and food poisoning. And in case of taking medicinal chemicals together with the drug, the liver can be protected. Taking it after liquors helps eliminating poisonous action on liver by alcohol within two hours. The drug was highly appreciated at the 9th national exhibition of inventions and new technology held in September. It obtained a patent of the DPRK in June this year.
• Animal Resources Increase in DPRK
  Pyongyang, October 31 (KCNA) -- Animal resources have increased in the DPRK as the days go by. In October Juche 45 (1956), President Kim Il Sung saw to it that a decision of the DPRK Cabinet "On Fostering the Character of Loving the Nature among the People and Strengthening the Work for Protection and Propagation of Beneficial Birds and Beasts" was adopted in order to increase the country's natural wealth, and wisely led the activities for carrying it into practice.
• 'Factional warlords could emerge in N.K.'’
  U.S. expert says Kim Jong-il's alliance with military could destabilize regime in the future A destabilization of North Korea's regime could lead to the emergence of factional warlords , a U.S. expert on North Korean military said in a report. Ken E. Gause, a researcher at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's alliance with the military has been a "key buttress" of his rule for the last decade, but has the possibility of destabilizing the regime in the future. "As the North Korean economy has deteriorated under Kim Jong-il, many elites have been forced to compete for privileges and access like never before," Gause said in the 68-page report. "If the regime loses its ability to placate the elite through goods and services, there is a real chance for the creation of factions. If the situation persists, this factionalism could transform itself into centers of opposition to the regime." [Collapse] [Victim] [Predictions]
• Samjiyon County Undergoes Facelift
  Pyongyang, October 30 (KCNA) -- The Samjiyon area, located in the northern part of Korea, is being facelifted more beautifully and colorfully. New kinds of street lamps are being installed in the streets of Samjiyon Township to suit the peculiarities of loop line roads, buildings and residential quarters. Tall lamps are being set up along Potnamu (white birch) Street and other main streets of the township and relatively low lamps being set up along the roads from around the Samjiyon Schoolchildren's Palace to the Lake Samji and the "Kapsan-Musan guard road" to blend well with forest scenery. Garden lamps and clutches of lamps are being installed in the areas around the Paektu Museum, the Chonji Health Complex and other monumental buildings to add beauty to the nocturnal view of the streets. The project started in late September.
• N. Korea Beefs Up Counterintelligence
  North Korea has toughened surveillance of locals suspected of gathering information about its nuclear and military activities in the wake of its Oct. 9 atomic bomb test, the Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday. Quoting an informed source, the report said the Ministry of People's Security, Pyongyang's top police agency, issued a directive to its security agencies on Oct. 15 that they should closely monitor and report suspicious activities.
• North Korean leader's kin hurt in mishap
    October 09, 2006 ? Jang Song-thaek, brother-in-law of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and a senior member of the country's governing Workers' Party, was severely injured in a traffic accident in Pyongyang recently, sources well informed about North Korean affairs said yesterday. Mr. Jang, the first vice department director of the Workers' Party, is considered a member of Pyongyang's power elite. He is married to Kim Kyong-hui, the party's light industry department director and younger sister of Mr. Kim. In August they lost their daughter who reportedly committed suicide while in Paris as a student.
• Kim Jong Il Absolutely Trusted by World People
  Pyongyang, October 5 (KCNA) -- The progressives repose profound trust in Kim Jong Il today when the people's struggle for independence has entered on a new high phase, says Rodong Sinmun in a signed article Thursday. Personages of different strata, political parties and organizations of various countries sent a large number of wholehearted gifts, congratulatory letters and messages of greetings to him and influential news media gave wide coverage of his revolutionary activities, the article says, and goes on: [In denial] [Bizarre]  
• Initiation of Munitions Industry in DPRK
  Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) -- Today the DPRK has a powerful munitions industry to produce any weapons and combat material and technical equipment. President Kim Il Sung visited the Phyongchon plain in early October Juche 34 (1945) right after the liberation of the country to initiate the munitions industry. In order to build a new Korea before the foundation of the Party, state and regular army, he went out to the plain to found the national defence industry prior to his visit to the workers of the Kangson Steel Works. He said that the fight against the imperialists was not over and the victor should be armed with more and more weapons.
• International Day of Elder Persons Observed
  Pyongyang, October 1 (KCNA) -- Papers here today dedicate by-lined articles to the International Day of Elder Persons. The issue of senility is one of great global concern, but the issue of elder persons is resolved right in Korea thanks to the deep attention and popular policy of the Party and the state, Rodong Sinmun says, and goes on:
• Female Inmates in North Face Compulsory Abortion
  By Kim Rahn Staff Reporter Female inmates in North Korea are forced to have abortions while criminals are sometimes publicly executed, according to a South Korean lawyers' group. The Korean Bar Association yesterday released a report on the human rights situation in North Korea, after two years of data collection and interviews with 100 North Korean defectors who came to the South after 2000. [Defector reports] [Human rights]
• Kim Jong-il Uses Body Double
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il has employed at least two doubles to impersonate him at public functions due largely to his fear of being assassinated, a South Korean intelligence official said Friday. It is no secret that other authoritarian figures such as deposed Iraq leader Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler also used physical doubles at times for political, intelligence and safety reasons. ``As far as I know, at least two Kim Jong-il look-alikes fill in for him for some lower profile official events to reduce the chances of Kim being exposed to terrorist attempts,'' a South Korean intelligence official said on request of anonymity. [Bizarre] [Assassination]
• Despite gains, North Koreans disillusioned
  Food, fuel, and know-how are flowing into the totalitarian state, but citizens are dispirited. By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – Mrs. Park is North Korean salt of the earth. Until the 70-year-old was stripped, beaten, and charged with dissent, Park and her family were patriotic, loyal, ordinary. They were true believers in the ruling Kim family's "juche" ideology, which holds that Korea must be separate from all nations and that total obedience is owed to the Kim family. Park's eight kids worshiped Kim Il Sung, the "father of their minds." When Kim died and millions perished in an epic famine, the Parks didn't panic. They wrote a letter to Kim Jong Il, volunteering to farm - something only a pure and loyal family would dare in North Korea. [Defector report]
• Bulletin of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People
  Pyongyang March 2006 [Kim Il Sung] [drugs] [Missiles]
• Koryo Pharmacy Built
  Pyongyang, September 14 (KCNA) -- A Koryo pharmacy has been built in Sariwon City, North Hwanghae Province, the DPRK, to give common knowledge on Koryo medicine to people and help improve their health and treat their diseases. Its building is a tile-roofed one of Korean-style, which is well blended with the folk street of the city and its surrounding landscape. It serves customers with tens of kinds of tonics including Kyongokgo and Changchulgo, medicines efficacious for various diseases and hundreds of kinds of Koryo medicinal stuffs.  
• Veterinary, Anti-epizootic Campaign Brisk in DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 11 (KCNA) -- The veterinary and anti-epizootic campaign is gathering momentum in the DPRK in September and October, months of veterinary and anti-epizootic campaign. The Veterinary and Epizootic Prevention Department of the Ministry of Agriculture has notified a working plan to be done in the period to each provincial rural economy committee and veterinary and epizootic prevention center and officials of relevant institutions are properly carrying on it. The Central Veterinary and Epizootic Prevention Center is channeling efforts into producing preventive medicines for bird flu and other epizootic diseases.
• 'Most N. Koreans Vulnerable to Epidemics'
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - A medical checkup of more than 1,000 North Korean defectors indicates that their fellow countrymen in the communist country are generally left defenseless against epidemics, a lawmaker said Wednesday. Quoting a 2005 report by the state-run Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Rep. Chung Hyung-keun said 77 percent of 1,075 North Korean defectors examined here were found to have suffered diphtheria and rubella while in the North.
• Myths and Folktales Told by N. Koreans
  [Books] By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
  Once upon a time, there was a turtle that got caught on the shore at Tonghaehyun, South Pyongan Province, which is now part of North Korea. When the village people rushed to eat it, their chief stopped them and put it back in the sea. That night, a white-haired old man appeared in the village chief's dream and thanked Park Se-tong. ``My son, who was recklessly playing outside regardless of weather, narrowly escaped being boiled and eaten and you saved him,'' the old man said, promising that three generations of Park's descendants would enjoy high ranking positions in government in return for his good deed.
• Philosophical Principle of Juche Idea
  Pyongyang, August 18 (KCNA) --The Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything, which was fathered by President Kim Il Sung. Man is the master of everything. This means that man is the master of the world and his destiny. This also clarifies the position of man in the world. The man lets everything in the nature and society serve him and dominates it. The people are not subjected to the nature but subordinate it to their requirements. The further their intelligence and ability develop, the wider their domination sphere expands.
• Kim Jong-il's Appearance Aims to Seek Normalcy'
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's first public appearance in 40 days is a gesture to restore relations with South Korea, an American specialist in Asian affairs said Tuesday. It symbolizes ``return to normalcy" from the turbulent situation caused by missile launches on July 5 and an intention to restore relations between the two Koreas, Larry Niksch of the U.S. Congressional Research Service said in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA).
• Kim resurfaces in North's media
    August 15, 2006 ? North Korea's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, made his first public appearance since his country launched missiles more than a month ago, the country's state-run Korean Central TV reported over the weekend. The network reported that Mr. Kim visited a livestock farm run by a military unit called 757, accompanied by several senior military officers. The exact timing of the visit was not reported nor was the location revealed, as is customary in the North.
• NK Leader Makes Public Appearance
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il has made a public appearance, putting an end to more than a month-long absence. According to the North's state media yesterday, Kim has recently visited an army unit. North's official media outlets has not reported news on Kim since July 4, a day before a day before Pyongyang test fired missiles, according to South Korea's spy agency. [Media]
• Pyongyang Cinemas Packed to Full
  Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) -- The newly released feature film "Diary of a Girl Student" has been screened at cinema houses in Pyongyang from the last Sunday. The number of cinemagoers reaches tens of thousands every day. TV billboard and hoardings on the facade of the cinemas further arouse interest of people.  
• Kim Jong Il's Absence Raises Speculation
  North Korea's Kim Jong Il Hasn't Been Seen in Public Since July 4, Raising Speculation
  By KWANG-TAE KIM SEOUL, South Korea Aug 8, 2006 (AP)— North Korean leader Kim Jong Il hasn't appeared in public since his country test-fired missiles that drew international condemnation, leading to speculation of a possible sense of crisis inside the reclusive nation. Kim attended a Russian art performance and visited a tire factory July 4, a day before the missile launches, and he hasn't appeared publicly since, according to South Korea's spy agency. The North's propaganda machine hasn't reported on Kim's activities since the missile launches, but last week the country's official news agency said Kim sent a consolation message to ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
• Bathing Resorts on East Coast Boom
  Pyongyang, August 7 (KCNA) -- The bathing resorts along the shore of the East Sea of Korea are booming these days, the hottest period of the summer. Beautiful are seashores where curious rocks, sandy beaches, sweet brier flowers and pine-tree forests are well blended with the blue sea water. The quality of water is good and its temperature is 25-29 degrees centigrade in summer. There are many bathing resorts on the east coast including Songdowon, Majon and Soho. Each day tens of thousands of working people and school children are enjoying their holidays, bathing in the sea and in the sun on the sandy beaches and practicing flag signaling. There are a swimming beach and a rest home for miners in Kiam-ri, Riwon County. In summer, a special train for miners of Komdok, Paekgumsan and Taehung in the Tanchon area is operated every day. Other scenic spots on the east coast -- Haechilbo of Mt. Chilbo which constitutes beautiful scenery with rainbow rock, elephant rock and curious rock cliffs, Chongsokjong in the sea off Thongchon and Haksadae in the sea off Riwon -- are all full of joy of people who are enjoying their holidays. This shows well the optimism of the Korean people who invariably advancing forward, convinced of the better morrow, although they are facing difficulties today.
• New Feature Film Released
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- The Korean Film Studio recently produced a new feature film "Diary of a Girl Student" to be listed as a masterpiece in the Songun era. A preview of the film was held at the People's Palace of Culture on Thursday. It was appreciated by Kim Yong Nam, Pak Pong Ju, Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop and others. The film makes an impressive and truthful representation of the life of an ordinary scientist's family in a diary style. It perfectly answers the questions as to where lie the pleasure and happiness of the Korean people in the Songun era and what is the genuine ideal of the younger generation
• Thousands 'beg' to be enlisted in North Korea, sources say
    August 04, 2006 ? Men and women of military age who have not yet joined the service have sent petitions to the government begging to be enlisted as soon as possible, sources close to North Korean affairs said yesterday. From behind the scenes, the government has organized similar such drives before, North Korean defectors said. One of the sources, who recently returned from Pyongyang, said he saw gatherings at schools, factories and companies in which North Korean youth groups pledged their patriotism and signed petitions asking the ruling Workers' Party to allow them to join the military. Such gatherings took place in Pyongyang and also around the nation, the source said. [Songun]
• .Korean Propaganda Machine Judders Into Action
  Articles praising North Korea's Songun or military-first ideology have poured out on the homepages of pro-North Korean organizations like Solidarity for Unification, the National Alliance for Democracy and Reunification of Korea and the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification since late July. "The Songun ideology is a historic moment in the emergence of our nation in a new shape in the 21st century, putting an end to the woes of a weak nation," says one article. "But for North Korea's great military strength, the U.S. would have invaded the North and caused war in our country," says another. The articles are signed by dubious organizations such as "Group of Seoul Citizens Supporting the Songun Ideology" and "Co-representatives of A Group of College Students Supporting the Songun Ideology [Songun] [Media]
• Pyongyang pushes 'army-first' policy
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune
  Published: August 2, 2006
  SEOUL Seo Hyang Wol, a 43-year-old North Korean housewife, has given birth to nine children, making her a shining example of a national campaign to increase birth rates. But that is not the only thing that makes "women across the republic abuzz with talk of emulating her," according to North Korea's official news media. Inspired by the leader Kim Jong Il's "songun," or "army-first," policy, Seo named three daughters Chong Byol, Pok Byol and Tan Byol - or "Rifle Star," "Bomb Star" and "Bullet Star." A son born in 2003 and a daughter born last year were named Son Gun and Hyok Myong. Put together, the names mean "army-first revolution." [Songun] [Media][Victim]
• North halts plans for rites there on Aug. 15
    August 02, 2006 ? Following up its postponement of this year's Arirang Festival, North Korea told the South yesterday that it was also calling off the scheduled inter-Korean celebration of Liberation Day, the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender in 1945. Pyongyang cited recent flood damage as the cause of the cancellation. The North Korean Committee for Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration told its South Korean counterpart that it would be too difficult to continue with the celebration. "Due to the unusually heavy rainfall, both Koreas suffered great damage and many North Koreans have been mobilized for recovery work around the country," the committee said. "The North has been treating the Aug. 15 celebration and the Arirang Festival as important, so the cancellation indicates that the situation is serious there," a spokesman for the South Korean committee said. Although the North blamed the flood damage for the cancellation, many North Korea watchers here see a political motivation. "The North faced the floods amid the national crisis after the missile firings," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Seoul's Dongguk University. "The South and the United States begin their joint military drill on Aug. 21, so the North probably decided to call off the events." Mr. Koh said Pyongyang probably intended to create tension domestically and induce assistance from the international community, including the South, by emphasizing the amount of damage it had suffered.  
• Citing flooding, North pushes back a festival
    July 31, 2006 ? The North Korean Arirang festival, which was to have begun on Aug. 15, was postponed until next spring, according to the president of the Korean American National Coordinating Council. Rain damage in North Korea was cited as the reason for the delay. Yoon Kil-sang, the president of the council, posted the postponement announcement Friday (in the United States) on Minjok, an Internet news site there. He said he was notified by the North Korean mission to the United Nations of the postponement.
• 60th Anniversary of Law on Sex Equality Observed
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- Papers here Sunday dedicate editorials to the 60th anniversary of the promulgation of the Law on Sex Equality. Rodong Sinmun in an editorial says that the promulgation of the law by President Kim Il Sung on July 30, Juche 35 (1946) was a historic event which brought about a radical change in the position and socio-political life of women. The Korean women have devotedly defended the Party and the leader, remained faithful to the idea and cause of the leader and dynamically rolled one of the two wheels of the revolution, making a positive contribution to building a prosperous powerful country in the last six decades, the daily says, and goes on:
• Yes, dear (leader): Kim reportedly has a new love
    July 24, 2006 ? North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il has taken his former private secretary as his new companion, after his purported former wife died of cancer two years ago, reliable sources said yesterday. The marital status of Mr. Kim, who turned 64 in February, has never been officially confirmed, but it has been widely believed that three women have been treated as his wives.
• Kim Jong-il 'Marries Former Secretary'
  A picture presumed to be of Kim Ok when she accompanied Cho Myong-nok, North Korea's first vice chairman of national defense, to Washington when he visited as special envoy of Kim Jong-il in October 2000, from the U.S. Defense Ministry homepage./Yonhap
  Rare Sighting of Kim Jong-il's Clapton-Loving Son   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has married his former secretary, sources claimed Sunday. Kim has been living with Kim Ok (42) since his wife Ko Yong-hi died of cancer in 2004, and she is effectively the communist nation's "first lady," they said.
• Kim Jong-il has new wife: report
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has reportedly taken his former secretary as a new wife after his purported spouse died of cancer in 2004. The emergence of Kim's new wife is expected to give a new twist to a power struggle between his sons over who would succeed at the helm of the communist country. "I heard Kim has been living together with a woman named Kim Ok, who served as his secretary, as Ko Yong-hi died two years ago," Yonhap News Agency quoted a South Korean government source as saying.
• North Korea also Reeling from Rain Casualties
  Torrential rainfall left some 100 North Koreans dead and more than 9,000 suffering significant damages. Downpours also inundated farmlands, which is expected to further aggravate food shortages. "Six hours of heavy rains dropped 280-320 mm on Sunday, destroying 11,524 houses and leaving more than 9,000 victims in three counties of South Pyongan Province", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said Wednesday. There were around 100 individuals found dead or reported missing as of Monday but considering that damage assessments are not usually carried out in a timely manner in North Korea, the final figures are expected to be much higher.
• Buddhist Masses for Reunification Held
  Pyongyang, July 20 (KCNA) -- Buddhist masses to defend peace against the U.S. and war and pray for the reunification of the country were held at temples across the DPRK Thursday on the lapse of 140 years since the United States infiltrated the USS Sherman into Korea on an aggressive mission. Present at the masses were office-bearers of the Central Committee of the Korean Buddhist Federation and its provincial, city and county committees, resident priests of the temples, monks and Buddhists.
• DPRK Seriously Affected by Heavy Rains
  Pyongyang, July 21 (KCNA) -- It rained torrentially between 14 and 16 of July, causing heavy human and material losses in many parts of the DPRK. The government of the DPRK has taken emergency measures to rehabilitate the disaster-hit areas and investigated the losses. According to the investigation, several areas in South Phyongan, Kangwon and South Hamgyong Provinces were hit hard. In the Yangdok, Sinyang and Songchon areas of South Phyongan Province, a lot of people died, more than 6,200 dwelling houses and some 490 public buildings were partially or totally destroyed and submerged, and thousands of hectares of arable land inundated, washed away and buried. And motor roads, bridges and railway trunk lines were seriously damaged at over 200 points and electricity and communication networks cut off
• North Korean Diplomats Gather in Pyongyang
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korean diplomats are gathering in Pyongyang this week for the first time in five years amid rising international pressures over its recent launch of seven missiles. But the meeting date does not appear to be an aftershock of the missile launches on July 5 as the diplomats were notified to come to Pyongyang ``long before'' the launches, intelligence sources said. The number of diplomats coming to Pyongyang is somewhere between 30 to 35, they said.
• Korea Is Proud of Long History of Characters
  Pyongyang, July 3 (KCNA) -- The Korean nation has used characters from more than 5,000 years ago. During the Kojoson (ancient Korea) period when people in many parts of the world were still in a primitive state, the ancestors of the Korean nation made and used Sinji Characters, the first of its kind in the Korean history. King Tangun, founder of Kojoson, instructed Sinji, an officer, to create letters. One day Sinji went hunting and saw deer's footprints imprinted on a sandy land. In the footprints, he got a clue for creating letters. The name of the Sinji Characters was derived from the fact.
  The Sinji Characters are phonetic and syllabic ones. Their forms differ from those of the ideographic characters of China and of the syllabic characters of Japan. The Korean nation created Hunminjongum (Korean alphabet) in 1444 by carrying forward the Sinji Characters. [Heritage]
• NCB delegation Arrives
  Pyongyang, June 27 (KCNA) -- A delegation of the International Narcotics Control Board led by former President Hamid Ghodse arrived here Tuesday. The DPRK government hosted a reception in honor of the delegation in the evening.[Drugs]
• Old Castles of Koguryo Restored
  Pyongyang, June 9 (KCNA) -- Some parts of the castles of Mt. Taesong and Pyongyang have been restored to their original state. They are the national treasures showing the history of Koguryo, a powerful state which existed in Korea for nearly a thousand years, and the prominent wisdom of its people. The castle of Mt. Taesong has a long history as one of large castles of Koguryo.
  Some parts of the inner and outer walls of Pyongyang have been restored with success. The part of the inner wall from the Ulmil Pavilion to the Chongryu Pavilion on Moran Hill has been rebuilt with old wall stones. Its defence setups were also restored to their original state. Besides, a part of the outer wall near Jang Chol Gu Commercial University has been rehabilitated in the form of the walls belonging to Koguryo.
• 700 North Koreans Killed in Train Collision: Report
  SEOUL (Yonhap) ? Nearly 700 North Koreans, including 270 soldiers, were killed in April when two trains collided in the isolated communist country, an Internet news provider reported on Tuesday. The accident took place in Kowon, South Hamgyong Province, when a freight train collided head-on with a six-car passenger train, the Seoul-based Daily NK said, quoting a North Korean railway official in Chongjin, the administrative seat of the province. [Media]
• Armored Cars "Sonyonho" Presented to KPA
  Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) -- The members of the Korean Children's Union across the country presented to the Korean People's Army many armored cars "Sonyonho" provided by them through a dynamic movement for doing good things on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the union. Kim Kyong Ho, first secretary of the Central Committee of the youth league, in a report at a ceremony held at Jonsung Square Monday said that these armored cars are associated with burning patriotism and sincere desire of the union members across the country to contribute even a bit to increasing the combat capability of the KPA, the best mainstay for the Songun revolution and the main force of revolution, true to the Songun leadership of Kim Jong Il
• World Environment Day Marked
  Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) -- A function took place at Kim Song Ju Primary School Monday on the occasion of the World Environment Day. Present there were officials of the Ministry of Land and Environment Preservation, teachers of the school, working people in the city and a delegation of the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE International).
• KCNA on Changes in Area of Mt. Paektu
  Pyongyang, June 4 (KCNA) -- Five decades have passed since leader Kim Jong Il started the study tour of revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt. Paektu. The first study tour of the area organized by him in June Juche 45 (1956) was a great action which solemnly declared before the era his firm faith and will to defend and glorify forever the revolutionary traditions established by President Kim Il Sung and a historic event of weighty significance in keeping the continuity of the Korean revolution started in Paektu forests. Kim Jong Il has since worked heart and soul to turn Ryanggang Province into a grand seat of education in the revolutionary traditions. He visited the province on nearly 40 occasions in last five decades.
• Silk, Traditional Korean Textile
  Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- Silk cloth is a traditional fabric of Korea. The Korean people have woven various kinds of silk fabrics from thousands of years ago, earning fame from the international community for the high standard of their weaving technique. Silk fabrics have been widely used in their everyday life as materials for quality clothes and ornaments. Those wearing silk clothes are often met in the country. It is an old custom that the brides and aged people put on graceful silk dresses and participate in their wedding and birthday feasts. In particular, children in rainbow-striped silk garments and women in chima and jogori (Korean-style skirt and coat) on national holidays and anniversaries stir up national emotion and add beauty to streets. In order to fully meet the demand of the people for silk cloths, the government of the DPRK built silk production bases in different parts of the country.
• Book "Research into Koguryo Relics" Published
  Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- Book "Research into Koguryo Relics" has been recently published by the Science and Encyclopedia Press of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It is widely read by people at home and abroad. The book gives analysis of various kinds of relics created and used by the people of Koguryo, the strongest feudal state (277 BC-668 AD) in the Korean history, to clearly show the then political and military systems and development of economy and technology.
• World No Tobacco Day Observed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- An event was held at the People's Palace of Culture Wednesday on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day. Present there were Vice-Minister of Public Health Choe Chang Sik, officials in the field of public health in Pyongyang, officials of ministries, national institutions and working people in the city, and Tej Walia, representative of the WHO here, staff members of missions of international organizations and diplomatic envoys of various countries here.
• Time-honored Pyongyang
  Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- Pyongyang, the DPRK, has the longest history as the capital city in the world. People have inhabited Pyongyang, with all the natural elements needed for human existence, from more than a million years ago. Tangun, ancestral father of the Korean nation who was born in Pyongyang, founded Kojoson (ancient Korea), the first state of Korea, in the early 30th century BC and set up the capital here.
• International Children's Day Celebrated
  Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- A friendship gathering took place at the Mangyongdae Fun Fair on Thursday with children and women in Pyongyang and foreign children and women attending on the occasion of the 56th International Children's Day. Present there were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Ryu Mi Yong, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Korean Chondoist Chongu Party, and others.
• University ban for Korean smokers
  Good exam grades will no longer be the main requirement for students hoping to get a university degree in North Korea. The government has announced plans to ban students who smoke from higher education, unless they give up. The communist country has been on an anti-smoking drive for years, led by leader Kim Jong-il, a reformed smoker. Mr Kim once described smokers as one of the "three main fools of the 21st Century" along with people who were ignorant of music and computers. [Media]
• Number of Smokers Decreases in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 31 (KCNA) -- No-smoking campaign has been actively conducted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. According to Choe Chang Sik, vice minister of Public Health, the smoking rate of the country went down by about 15 percent at present below 2000. The government has set itself the goal of reducing the smoking rate to 30 percent by 2010 and further tightened the control over cigarettes while paying greater attention to the campaign. The DPRK enacted the Smoking Control Law to make a legal foundation for no-smoking campaign. According to the law, no-smoking places have been expanded, cigarettes are strictly banned to sell to children and smokers are denied the quality of entering universities. In order to decrease the smoking rate through such levers as cultivation, production and sale of tobacco, ties with tobacco producers and sellers have been made closer. In particular, various methods and means including smoking-quit pills and smoking-quit pipes are being developed to help those give up smoking. The anti-smoking campaign is further invigorated through mass media, art propaganda activities and health lectures. A function was held at the People's Palace of Culture Wednesday on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day, at which good experience in giving up smoking was introduced.
• DPRK Celebrates Day of Sun
  National Meeting Held to Commemorate Kim Il Sung's Birth Anniversary
  A national meeting was held at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on April 14 to commemorate the 94th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. Present at the meeting were Kim Yong Nam, Jo Myong Rok, Pak Pong Ju, Kim Yong Chun and Jon Pyong Ho and others.
• Multimedia for Developing Children's Intellectual Powers Made
  Pyongyang, May 22 (KCNA) -- The Korean Documentary and Scientific Film Studio, in close contact with the Academy of Pedagogical Science, has recently produced "Encyclopedia of Developing Children's Intellectual Powers" (1) for four to five-year old children. The multimedia program is edited in an interesting way to suit the ages and mental qualities of children on the basis of successes and experience gained in preschool education. It consists of two parts titled "Observation on Flowers" and "Observation on Animals", which vividly show varied shapes, colors and physiology of flowers and species, features and modes of existence of animals, helping children in boosting their observation abilities. Under the titles "Time for Studying together with Mother", "Homework Given by Mother", "Break" and "Interesting Riddles" the multimedia deals with interesting matters of promoting mothers' concern for bringing up their children as intelligent ones from the childhood.
• DPRK Celebrates Day of Sun
  National Meeting Held to Commemorate Kim Il Sung's Birth Anniversary
  A national meeting was held at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on April 14 to commemorate the 94th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. Present at the meeting were Kim Yong Nam, Jo Myong Rok, Pak Pong Ju, Kim Yong Chun and Jon Pyong Ho and others.
• 24th April Spring Friendship Art Festival Held
• 8th Kimilsungia Festival Held
• Abnormal Snow in Korea
  Rain and snow fell in most parts of the DPRK on April 17 due to the effect of depression moving from Huabei of China to the northward of the West Sea of Korea. Ri Chol Su, vice-director of the Central Weather Forecast Institute under the Hydro-Meteorological Service, said: In Pyongyang area it snowed from around 06:30 to around 09:00. The snow lied 1 centimeter thick and its precipitation was 2 millimeters. Such phenomenon was observed in Korea on April 17, 1962.
• DPRK Celebrates Anniversary of Kim Jong Il's Election as NDC Chairman
• New School Year Begins in Korea
  A new school year has begun at schools at all levels across the DPRK. Ceremonies of marking the year took place at Kim Song Ju Primary School, Pyongyang Primary School No.4, Kim Jong Suk Middle School No.1, Changdok School, Samhung Middle School, Mubong Middle School in Samjiyon County, Hero Sukchon Middle School No.1 and all other schools across the country on Saturday. At the ceremonies, reporters and speakers recalled that President Kim Il Sung established the best socialist educational system, regarding education as an important matter decisive of the victory of the revolution and the destiny of the nation long ago, and showed warm loving care for the younger generations.
• Night view of Pyongyang
  A night view of Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea, on Monday. North Korean officials claimed that the city's electricity supply has been improved and more lights are now turned on at night. The photo was taken from the Koryo Hotel near the Pyongyang train station using an f-stop of 2.8 with a 30 second exposure, ISO 200. The scene appeared darker to the naked eye. By Kim Choon-sik [photo] [Energy]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Women's Company of KPA
  Pyongyang, May 11 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, inspected a women's company of KPA Unit 838. He acquainted himself with the company's performance of duty
• Kim Jong Il Provides On-Site Guidance to Newly Built Pyongyang Conservatory
  Pyongyang, May 10 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, provided on-site guidance to the newly built Pyongyang Conservatory. He was received by leading officials of the conservatory on the spot. The commander of the unit which had participated in its construction made a report to him on its successful construction. . The conservatory covering a plottage of 5 hectares on the bank of the Taedong River has been constructed by soldier-builders in a matter of two years. It is a seat of learning music and arts as it is equipped with all educational facilities such as a main building, a building for a special education, an annex, an 800-seater concert hall, several auditoriums, a hostel, a gymnasium and entertainment and service facilities. [Military economy]
• Kim Jong Il Gives Field Guidance to Cultural, Sports Facilities and Construction site of Power Station
• North, South Korea Discuss Prevention of Clashes in West Sea
  General-level Military Talks Held in Panmunjom The third round of inter-Korean general-level military talks were held at Panmunjom on March 2 and 3.
• NK Novels Defict Shared Korean History
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Representative figures from Korean history such as Buddhist priest Sosan, left, and Ahn Joong-keun are featured in books published in North Korea. Two North Korean novels, recently published in the South by a company aiming to introduce a series of historic novels from the other half of the Korean Peninsula, may well serve as a timely reminder of the historical background to anti-Japanese sentiment that runs deep in both Koreas. While it might be argued the novels are just more examples of pan-Korean nationalism, which the North Korean regime relentlessly touts, they are also a reminder that, despite ideological differences and continuous haggling over who is the legitimate government truly representing the Korean people, the two Koreas share national heroes and common feelings toward the ``intruders'' over the hundreds of years before national division. The first of the historic novel series, ``Ahn Joong-keun Shoots Ito Hirobumi (Ahn Joong-keun Idungbakmunul-ssoda),'' is set in the early 20th century, during which time Japan's move to annex Korea gained momentum. The novel, which the North claims was originally a revolutionary drama piece created by its founding father Kim Il-sung in 1928, is adapted by Lim Jong-sang, 73, an established writer in the communist country. {Japanese colonialism} [Joint Korean] [Heritage]
• North Korea's Population Stands at 23.11 Million
  The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States has predicted that the North Korean population could grow by 0.84 percent to 23.11 million in July 2006 from last year. The estimation was contained in the CIA's updated ``World Factbook.'' The report said North Korea's birthrate was estimated to have fallen slightly with 15.54 births per 1,000 population in July, compared with 16.09 births last year, the report said. It said infant mortality rate in the North was estimated to fall to 23.29 deaths per 1,000 births, representing the fourth consecutive annual decline. According to the report, life expectancy was estimated to stand at 71.56 years, a fourth consecutive annual increase.
• Angling Encouraged in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 31 (KCNA) -- Angling becomes brisk in the large and small rivers, lakes and reservoirs in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with the beginning of spring. Angling has a long history in Korea. It, along with agriculture, collection of edible plants and hunting, was a mainstay for the Korean people from the Neolithic era. People in the era used a fishing hook similar to the present one. The hook had an eye to tie up line and the point with a barb was sharpened. There was anchor-shaped fishing hook, too. The materials of hooks were animal bones or teeth. The sizes of hooks were 3 centimeters or 5-8 centimeters.
• Time-honored Floor Heating System
  Pyongyang, March 27 (KCNA) -- Hot-water and electricity have been widely introduced in ondol (floor heating system) of dwelling houses in cities and rural areas including Pyongyang, Kanggye City of Jagang Province and Taehongdan County of Ryanggang Province in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The heating systems provide the people with good living environment. They are an application of the scientific and technical development to the ondol housing custom. The Korean people have created and developed their peculiar ondol-heating system from the time when they settled down in this land.
• Kimchi recognized as top 5 health food
  March 27, 2006 ? The staple Korean food kimchi was selected as one of the world's five healthiest foods by Health Magazine published in the United States. The magazine recommended readers incorporate the spicy fermented cabbage dish into their diets for its bacteria lactobacilli, which can also be found in yogurt, as well as its high content of vitamins A, B and C, according to the magazine's online edition for March. Citing recent studies, the magazine said the healthy bacteria in kimchi can prevent yeast infections, help with digestion and may also help prevent cancer. The magazine also provided readers with a few cooking tips, such as scrambling eggs or topping a baked potato with kimchi. Other foods to make the magazine's top five list were Spanish olive oil for heart disease prevention, Japanese soy sauce for prevention of cancer and osteoporosis, Greek yogurt for enhancing immunity and Indian Lentils for high content of protein, cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber and iron.
• Intensified Veterinary and Anti-epizootic Work in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- A nation-wide veterinary and anti-epizootic campaign is being carried on in the March-April veterinary and anti-epizootic months in the DPRK. The Stockbreeding Management Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture has worked out new regulations to be abided by in the months and taken various measures to prevent epizootics. Primary attention has been directed to prophylactic treatment in the rural villages and stock-breeding and poultry fields across the country. A campaign of vaccinating newly-developed Koryo veterinary preventive medicine to the domestic animals according to their ages and of exterminating insects is going on. Activities for cleaning and disinfecting cages and pens of domestic animals and arranging environment are being conducted on a mass scale. The Central Anti-epizootic Centre under the Ministry of Agriculture has directed a special attention to taking steps to prevent bird flu. The centre has amended and supplemented a directive in a scientific way with regulations that should be adhered to in the anti-epizootic and quarantine work in connection with bird influenza. And it sent the directive and world divination materials to the inferior units and helps the relevant organs and units thoroughly carry through it.
• New Education System Established in DPRK
  A new higher education system was established in the DPRK to elevate the level of scientific education. According to a report of the KCNA on February 23, in order to bring up versatile technical personnel with two or three kinds of expert knowledge, not one kind, the government has taken the step so that students, who have finished a course of social or natural science, may continue to learn technology. Under the new higher education system, university graduates who majored in natural science will study for two years and those who majored in social science for three years at College of Mechanical Science and Technology, Automation Engineering Faculty and Material Engineering Faculty under Kim Chaek University of Technology. Officials and teachers of the Ministry of Education and the university are doing their best to give education on a high standard from the selection of subjects to working out of teaching plan and teaching method for rearing scientific and technical personnel who are possessed of science, technology, theory and practice.
• Law on Estimating Environmental Influence Adopted
  The Law on Estimating Environmental Influence has been recently adopted in the DPRK, the KCNA reported on February 21. According to the report, the law consists of 5 chapters and 33 articles. Chapter 1 Fundamentals of Law on Estimating Environmental Influence stipulates the mission of the law, various principles including those of application for and deliberation of the documents needed for the environmental influence estimation and objects of the law application. It also stipulates the investment principle. According to it, the state shall develop exchange and cooperation with other countries and international organizations in the field of environmental influence estimation.
• Notice Issued on Convocation of SPA Session
  Pyongyang, March 22 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly issued a notice on Mar. 21 informing the deputies of its decision to call the fourth session of the 11th SPA on April 11, Juche 95 (2006), in Pyongyang. Deputies to the SPA are requested to register their names at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on April 9 and 10, Juche 95 (2006), it said.
• N.K. parliament to meet amid nuclear standoff
  From news reports North Korea's parliament will meet next month, Pyongyang said yesterday, offering a glimpse into the policy priorities of the secretive state amid a stand-off with regional powers over its nuclear arms program. Last year's meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly focused on ways to produce more food in a country that battles chronic shortages and measures to boost the economy as well as the military.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Women's Sub-Unit of KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, March 21 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, inspected a women's sub-unit of KPA Unit 824. He acquainted himself with the sub-unit's performance of duty. He took deep care of its servicepersons' service and living, going round an education room, a bedroom, a mess hall, a non-staple food store, a wash-cum-bath house and other educational entertainment and supply service facilities.
• North decrees death for drug traffickers
  March 20, 2006 ? Tending to its international image, North Korea has issued an edict to strengthen its penalties against illegal drug trafficking. It warned that North Koreans involved in the protection, export or trafficking of illegal drugs would be executed. A South Korean civic group yesterday cited a North Korean government document that contained the decree. According to the group, Good Friends, North Korea's Ministry of Public Security issued the decree. The ministry is the rough equivalent of the South's National Police Agency. The North's criminal code says illegal drug manufacturing is punishable by up to five years of forced labor; trafficking is punishable by life in a prison camp. In a meeting with U.S. officials in New York on March 7, Lee Gun said that Pyongyang had strengthened its drug-related penalties. He is the director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's American affairs bureau. [Double standards]
• DPRK Celebrates Birthday of Kim Jong Il
• North Korea Has Right to Carry Out Preemptive Strike, Army Says
  March 15 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea has the right to carry out a preemptive strike in the event it is threatened, the Korean People's Army said in a statement, denouncing U.S. and South Korean military exercises this month on the Korean Peninsula. ``A preemptive strike is not the monopoly of the U.S.,'' the army said in a statement yesterday carried by the official Korea Central News Agency. North Korea ``has the right to preempt an attack as the most effective and positive act for self-defense.''
• N Koreans cleared over heroin
  The Pong Su was found carrying $50m of heroin
  A North Korean shipping company is considering suing Australia's government after its senior officers were cleared of drug trafficking. The captain and three senior officers of the Pong Su were found not guilty on Sunday of aiding heroin smuggling, by Victoria state's Supreme Court. The suggestion that senior crew were implicated in the smuggling had led to accusations of backing by Pyongyang.
  The Pong Su freighter has been impounded in Sydney since April 2003. Jack Dalziel, a lawyer representing the Pong Su shipping company and captain Man Sun Song, said on Monday he was under instructions to consider seeking compensation for loss of earnings by the ship's officers. The ship had also been worth several hundred thousand US dollars at the time of the raid, but had since deteriorated, The Age reported. Australia's chief of police Mick Keelty said that, as in other smuggling cases, the ship would be destroyed.
  Man Sun Song, along with the ship's chief mate, chief engineer and political secretary, were all acquitted of heroin smuggling on Sunday. But it was revealed after the verdict that four other men pleaded guilty to smuggling before the trial started. Two have been sentenced to 23 and 22 years in jail and the two others have yet to be sentenced. Pyongyang's role
  Mr Keelty said on Monday it was "hard to establish" whether the North Korean government had been involved in the operation, given Sunday's acquittals. "So it's a bit hard for me now to say that there's any direct evidence of the involvement of the North Korean government," he said. "But clearly an operation of that size doesn't get under way without some sort of... significant support not only to get the heroin into North Korea but to get a vessel from that side of world over to Lorne in Victoria does require significant resourcing and support." The North Korean government has denied any involvement in the case, in which more than 125kg (275 pounds) of heroin were discovered on the ship when it anchored off the southwest Victoria town of Lorne on 16 April 2003. At the time, Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer summoned North Korea's ambassador to Australia and alleged that Pyongyang was involved in the incident. The US government went on to cite the case as evidence of a link between North Korea's government and international drug trafficking, [Disinformation] [Drugs]
• Pong Su four found not guilty
  The captain and three officers from an alleged North Korean drug-running cargo ship have been found not guilty of helping to import heroin into Australia. Following more than seven months of evidence and 10 days of deliberations, a Victorian Supreme Court jury today found the men not guilty of aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of heroin. The alleged sophisticated drug-running operation has been described as the largest detected in Victoria and one of the largest in Australia. The Crown prosecution said the cargo ship Pong Su carried 150 kilograms of heroin to Australia in 2003. A man died while allegedly trying to bring the load to shore in a rubber dinghy in treacherous weather, off Lorne in Victoria's south-west, on April 16. The ship was seized off the NSW coast after a dramatic four-day pursuit involving several naval vessels. The ship's captain Man Sun Song, 65, its "political secretary" Dong Song Choi, 61, first mate Man Jin Ri and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri, both 51, pleaded not guilty to the charge that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The accused men's lawyers have said their clients were not aware heroin was on board the ship and the Crown case was built on speculation and a lack of evidence. Outside the court, the ship's chief engineer Ju Chon Ri, said he was pleased with the verdict and looking forward to going home. "I'm very happy to be free," said Ju Chon Ri. "Yes, we are going home, it's good, good," he said. He said it had been a long trial. "It has, seven months already. I'm very happy thank you." Lawyer Nick Pappas, who represented first mate Man Jin Ri, said the verdict showed that justice had been done and the jury system was working. "We're very happy with the verdict obviously and all the accused are very pleased to be freed after nearly three years in custody," Mr Pappas said. "We're all of the view that it's a good example of our jury system working and justice has been done," he said. Mr Pappas said he was looking forward to celebrating with the men by having a beer. "They've got a visa as such and they're walking down the street, so we might go and have an Australian beer with them." Defence lawyer, John O'Sullivan, said the men would not be deported, but he expected they would go home to North Korea within days. "They'll go back in the next few days I expect," said Mr O'Sullivan. He said his client, Dong Song Choi, was still trying to come to terms with the verdict, but was happy. "Clearly, he's spent three years in custody, so it's been a shock to him today," he said. "But it would be hard to believe that they (the men) wouldn't be pleased with the result." Prosecutor John Champion, SC, refused to comment on the verdict as he left court. "I don't have any comment, no comment," Earlier, Justice Murray Kellam commended the jury for their effort during what he described as one of the longest trials in Victoria. "There have been few trials in the history of Victoria as long as this," Justice Kellam said. "Few jurors have had to commit so much time in a case. I recommend you be exempt from jury duty for the remainder of your life," he said. Comment was being sought from the Australian Federal Police and Customs Minister Warren Truss. - AAP
• Heroin freighter to be destroyed
  Natalie O'Brien March 07, 2006
  THE Pong Su, the North Korean freighter that has cost taxpayers more than $2million to maintain while its crew was awaiting trial over the importation of 150kg of heroin, will be destroyed.
  Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said yesterday: "It still is a vessel that was used for the importation of heroin into Australia -- that's been proved before the courts -- and it will be destroyed just like any other vessel in that situation." It is understood that the AFP is holding talks with Customs, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and defence officials about destroying the red and black 743-tonne timber carrier. The Pong Su cost more than $2500 a day for marine engineers to maintain and prevent it from polluting Snails Bay in Sydney Harbour, where it was moored for more than three years. In 2004, A syndicate of Vietnamese businessmen offered to buy the Pong Su for $250,000 and have it scrapped. The offer was rejected. [Double standards]
• Vital evidence kept from jury on Pong Su drug run
  North Korea's links to a heroin run were not presented in court, writes Carmel Egan March 07, 2006
  ONE of the great unsolved mysteries of the Pong Su drug trafficking saga is why the smugglers chose to take their 150kg shipment of pure heroin ashore at the worst possible time -- in treacherous seas and gale-force winds off the rocky southwest Victorian coast. Federal agents admit that had the traffickers aboard the Pong Su, a cargo freighter owned by the communist government of North Korea, chosen a calmer night, the 2003 drug run might not have gone so wrong. "The spot they picked on a calm day would probably have been OK," said AFP agent Damien Appleby. But it was April 15. And for loyal North Korean citizens, that is a day that must be marked appropriately -- to honour the birthday of late president and "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung. While four men pleaded guilty to their role in the heroin mission, the captain of the ship and its political officer were among the crew members who walked free from court this week. But the jury who found them not guilty were never allowed to fully consider the ship's links to the North Korean Government, with long connections to international drug trafficking.
  On that night in 2003, Agent Appleby received a call from the Korean interpreter eavesdropping on two suspected heroin traffickers about to rendezvous with the drug ship. "They are talking about it being tonight ... it can't be cancelled." "You could see the huge surf. I turned to the driver, Steve Meagher, and said 'They're going to be killed'," Appleby said. The following morning, just as predicted, Agent Meagher found the body of one of the drug traffickers entangled in brown kelp. The Pong Su was circling offshore nearby and the dead man's partner, Ta Song Wong, was hiding in bushes as police sealed off the beach. His capture the next day gave police mobile telephone numbers, SIM cards and a global positioning device that linked Wong and his shore-based accomplices to an international drug syndicate in South East Asia -- and proved, police believed, the complicity of the North Korean Government. The breakthrough in the case was a tip-off that came eight days earlier. They were told to look out for a man named Kiam Fah Teng. Teng had arrived in Australia on March 27 from Beijing with another member of the shore-party, Yau Kim Lam. Teng was the logistics officer sent by the drug ring to hire vehicles, organise accommodation and smooth the way for the man who would distribute the drugs in Sydney and Melbourne. Lam was the communications man. Teng eventually met up with the third member of the shore party, Wee Quay Tan. Tan was an experienced international drug runner with a conviction for trafficking heroin in Europe. Teng, Tan, Lam and Wong would all eventually plead guilty to aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of heroin. Teng received a 22-year sentence, Lam got 23 years. Wong and Tan are yet to be sentenced. But the story of how the AFP busted the Pong Su was suppressed until a verdict was handed down in the seven-month trial of the ship's captain, Man Sun Song, political officer Dong Song Choi, first mate Man Jin Ri and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri. On Sunday the Supreme Court jury found all four innocent. For the AFP, the failure to convict the senior officers was a significant blow. Vital evidence exploring the North Korean Government's history of international drug smuggling was not allowed to be presented to the jury, including testimony from two North Korean defectors. And the jury heard nothing about a direct radio communication between the ship and North Korea. [Media] [Spin]
• Pyongyang Bell
  Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- The Pyongyang Bell is one of the national cultural heritage of Korea. It has been preserved well in the colorfully painted bell-house north of the Taedong Gate on the bank of the Taedong River flowing through Pyongyang thanks to the national cultural inheritance preservation policy of the Workers' Party and the government of Korea. It was not certain when the original bell was cast. The original bell was hanging in Pukjang Pavilion (northern commanding post) of the walled city of Pyongyang. The present one larger than the original one was cast in 1726 after its breakage owing to fire of the pavilion.
• The Analysis of Chairman Kim Jong-il's Public Activities in 2005
  MoU (Jan.23,2006)
• Kim kin's return just as puzzling as his 2-year exile
  January 31, 2006 ? After more than two years of political ostracism, Jang Song-thaek, the brother-in-law of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, appears to be back in the senior ranks of the communist ruling circles. Mr. Jang, 60, was once regarded as the second-ranking figure in the Worker's Party. He was the first deputy of the party's central committee until his exile from the party leadership, for reasons that are still a mystery to the outside world. But on Saturday, Mr. Jang was among a group of officials that accompanied Mr. Kim at a Lunar New Year ceremony, a signal of the leader's favor. That was his first appearance in public since October 2003, when he was still a powerful political policy and personnel management figure in Pyongyang. He had sometimes been eyed by outsiders as perhaps the most likely candidate to succeed Mr. Kim; he appeared at a dinner for Korea's president, Kim Dae-jung, when he visited Pyongyang in June 2000. He also was in Seoul in October 2002 during a fact-finding visit by an economic delegation from the North.
• Korean People Enjoy Lunar New Year' Day
  Pyongyang, January 30 (KCNA) -- Officials and working people across the country significantly and delightedly enjoyed the lunar New Year' Day (Jan. 29), a traditional holiday of the Korean nation The streets and villages of Pyongyang were in a holiday mood. Seen in the streets of Pyongyang were slogan boards carrying letters "We sincerely wish the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il good health", "New Year's greetings to you", "Congratulations on the lunar New Year's Day" and so on, national flags, red flags and celebrating lanterns. The streets were crowded with masses going and coming to make New Year's visits to their parents, relatives, teachers and predecessors. They exchanged New Year's greetings and promised to devote themselves to the country this year, too. Art performances and folk games of schoolchildren at Kim Il Sung Square, the Arch of Triumph Square, Jonsung Square and other places of Pyongyang added to the holiday mood. At factories, farms and dwelling houses working people enjoyed the holiday with pleasure.
• Dear Leader's In-Law Reappears: Report
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Chang Song-taek, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law, has made a political comeback after a two-year absence, the secretive state's official news media reported Sunday. Chang, husband of Kim's younger sister, Kim Kyong-hee, appeared at a dinner gala hosted on Saturday by the top North Korean leader, according to the (North) Korean Central News Agency and the (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station. They reported that Kim, chairman of the National Defense Commission, attended the party with his senior officials including Chang, first deputy chief of the Workers' Party Central Committee, marking the Lunar New Year's holiday. Kim has reportedly put Chang, who had been believed to be one of the North Korean leader's closest confidants, under house arrest along with 80 other officials and their family members in early 2004 for their ``factionalism.''
• NDC of DPRK Hosts Banquet
  Pyongyang, January 28 (KCNA) -- The National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea hosted a banquet Saturday evening on the occasion of the lunar New Year. Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, was present at the banquet. Also present there were Kim Il Chol, member of the NDC of the DPRK and minister of the People's Armed Forces, Pak Pong Ju, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the C.C., the WPK, Kang Sok Ju, first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Kwang Ho, department director of the C.C., the WPK, Ro Tu Chol, vice-premier of the DPRK Cabinet, Ri Yong Chol, Jang Song Thaek and Ri Jae Il, first vice-department directors of the C.C., the WPK, Kim Yang Gon, councilor of the NDC of the DPRK, Kim Yong Il, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and Kim Thae Jong, vice-director of the International Department of the C.C., the WPK. Present there on invitation were Wu Donghe, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of the Chinese embassy and Chinese technicians and specialists active at the Taean Friendship Glass Factory. When Kim Jong Il appeared in the banquet hall, all the participants enthusiastically welcomed him with thunderous applause. A staff member of the Chinese embassy here presented him with a bunch of flowers and offered him New Year's greetings.
• North Korea: Red in tooth and claw
  By James Card
  BUSAN - The grainy, sometimes out-of-focus film opens with a warning: "This program is something you've never seen before. It is about brutal animal fights and it is all real and intensely interesting." The 52-minute video, which the opening describes as "made in North Korea as a documentary", goes on to show a variety of animals, many endangered species, either tearing one another apart or posturing for an attack. This is not your National Geographic documentary about animals in the wild kingdom battling over territorial rights, dominance or a sex partner. It's not about predators and their prey. Hanjoon Productions' animals are mostly caged, their battles initiated. Rumors about North Korean films of savage, staged fights involving endangered animals have been around for years. Now, the films are available. The video can be found at some video rental shops in South Korea, but hunting around is required. A handful of Korean online video retailers carry copies, which can be purchased for about 5,000 won (US$5). [Black]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, January 27 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, inspected KPA Unit 932. After receiving a salute, he went round the monument to the on-the-spot instructions of President Kim Il Sung and the rooms devoted to the education in the revolutionary history and to the unit's history, conducted by the commander of the unit.
• Year's First Triplets Born in DPRK
  Pyongyang, January 26 (KCNA) -- The first triplets for the year were born at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital on Jan. 23. This is the 361st one since the opening of the hospital. The newly born triplets are girls and their body-weight is normal. Mother Jong Myong Ae is in Sariwon City, North Hwanghae Province of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. She was fortunate in confinement with the help of a medical team.
• Joint Meeting Calls for Intensified Patriotic Movement for National Reunification
  Pyongyang, January 26 (KCNA) -- A joint meeting of the government, political parties and organizations of the DPRK was held at the People's Palace of Culture on Jan. 26. Present there were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea, Ro Tu Chol, vice-premier of the Cabinet, Kim Yong Dae, chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party, Ryu Mi Yong, chairperson of the Central Committee of the Chondoist Chongu Party, and other senior officials of the government, political parties and organizations of the DPRK and officials concerned. The meeting discussed its agenda item "On conducting dynamic patriotic movement for independent reunification, peace against war and the great national unity under the uplifted banner of 'By our nation itself'". Yang Hyong Sop in a report called on the Koreans to demonstrate the might of the Korean nation rallied as one under the banner of the June 15 joint declaration once again and give a fresh momentum to the cause of national reunification this year. It is necessary to put an end to the U.S. policy of aggression against the DPRK in order to remove the danger of a war growing as the days go by and defend peace on the Korean Peninsula, he said, adding: If the U.S. truly wants to improve relations with the DPRK, stop antagonizing it and co-exist with it in peace, it should make a fundamental switchover in its policy towards the DPRK and show it in practice as an assailant that has done harm to the Koreans for a historically long period.
• NK Leader's Outings Increase
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last year made the most annual public appearances since he took over from his father in 1994, the Unification Ministry said Sunday. The public appearances of the reclusive leader were, as usual, largely ones related to military affairs or meetings with officials of the communist North's traditional allies such as China and Russia, the ministry said in an analysis. ``Following the year 2003 and 2004, Kim focused more than half of his public activities on military-related affairs,'' the analysis said. ``Checking up the military's war preparedness, Kim showed his commitment to protect the system and `songun politics' both in and outside his country.'' Songun means military-first in Korean, under which the North drives its policy centering on the military. Kim has steadily increased his number of public appearances with military reference since 2002, apparently feeling threatened by the nuclear crisis in October 2002, when the United States confronted the North with allegations of secret enrichment of uranium, as well as by the Iraq War in March 2003, the ministry said. Out of 99 public appearances in 2002, 38 were military-related. In 2004, it was 60 out of 92, and last year 70 out of 131, according to the data. The ministry attributed the sudden rise in the number of public appearances last year to a variety of festivities marking the fifth anniversary of the June 15 Inter-Korean Joint Declarations and the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from the Japanese colonial rule as well as the foundation of the North's Workers' Party.
• 250-mile Journey for National Liberation
  Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- Eighty-one years have elapsed since President Kim Il Sung paid a 250-mile journey for national liberation. The army and people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea take this opportunity to recollect with deep emotion the noble patriotic idea of the President associated with the historic journey. In mid January Juche 14 (1925) when he studied in Mangyongdae true to the intention of his father Kim Hyong Jik that a man born in Korea must have a good knowledge of Korea, the young President was told that his father was arrested by the Japanese police again. He felt a terrible anger and hatred for the enemy. With a determination to fight at the risk of his life for taking revenge on the enemy of his father, his family and his nation, he set out on the 250-mile journey for national liberation on January 22. The route of the journey from Mangyongdae, Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang to Badaogou, the northeastern area of China, via South and North Phyongan, Jagang and Ryanggang Provinces of Korea was a rugged one beyond imagination. He negotiated one steep pass after another through biting cold and primitive forests where beasts roared even in the daytime. Keenly witnessing the miserable lots of the ruined nation wherever he went, he made a grime resolve not to return before Korea had become independent. The journey, covered by the President in his teens, was the path of independence against imperialism and of patriotic devotion, reflecting his firm conviction and unswerving resolution to beat back the aggressors violating the sovereignty of the nation. The revolutionary activities of Kim Il Sung, who adorned the modern history of the Korean people with heroic events and undying exploits, originated from the 250-mile Journey for National Liberation. [Kim Il Sung] [Japanese colonialism]
• Analysis of North Korea's New Year Joint Editorial of the Party, the Army and the Youth Vanguard(Jan.1,2006)
  1. On January 1, 2006 (09:00-09:35 a.m.), North Korea announced through the Central Broadcasting Station, the Pyongyang Broadcasting Service and the Central TV, a Joint Editorial in the bulletin of the party, the army and the youth guard, titled "Let us make a higher leap, full of great ambition and confidence." "The bulletin of the Party, the army and the youth vanguard" is the official publication of Rodong Shinmun, the Korean People's Army and the Youth Vanguard.
  2. Evaluation The New Year's Joint Editorial released by North Korea is characterized as follows. North Korea expressed an intention to avoid irritating the United States unnecessarily, being conscious of U.S. oppression against North Korea with regard to such issues as nuclear resources and illegal transactions involving counterfeit notes. Rather than presenting a new course for policies in each sector, it focused on the continuing promotion of existing economic policies, including once again designating agriculture as the main front, and on demonstrating its determination to safeguard the system based on Seongun(Military-First) politics. The editorial is characterized by the fact that three-point patriotic movement, for independent unification, peace against war, and grand national unity, were newly outlined.
• DIU, Origin of Korean Revolution
  Pyongyang, January 11 (KCNA) -- This year will significantly mark the 80th anniversary of the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU) in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The DIU's formation was a new starting point and origin of the Korean revolution. President Kim Il Sung, shouldering the destiny of the country, started his revolutionary activities in his teens and formed the DIU on October 17, Juche 15 (1926) with young communists of the new generation. The immediate task of the DIU, a revolutionary vanguard organization, was to defeat Japanese imperialism and achieve the liberation and independence of Korea. Its ultimate goal was to build socialism and communism in Korea and, furthermore, to overthrow all the imperialisms and realize communism throughout the world. [Kim Il Sung]
• Looking for Mr. X: North Korea's Successor
  by Brent Choi
  January 10th, 2006
  Brent Choi, a North Korea Specialist at the Joongang Daily, writes "most of the reports on North Korea's successor are 99% wrong. Kim Jong-il's sons might not even make it to the list of candidates. In order to become a successor the prospective leader will have to prove oneself in enhancing both economy and ideology. The winner "Mr. X" will sooner or later emerge at the front seat of the power through generation shifts after winning the tacit approval and confirmation from political elites. That precise timing will be in accordance with the seventh Party Convention. Let's just continue to keep a close eye on the North for 2-3 years more."
• Masses Held to Pray for National Reunification
  Pyongyang, January 7 (KCNA) -- Masses praying for national reunification were held at temples in the northern half of the country to mark the day of Buddha's attainment of great wisdom. Present there were priests of the Central Committee of the Korean Buddhist Federation and its provincial, city and county committees and monks and Buddhists of respective temples. Rituals took place there to be followed by speeches and a prepared address. Speakers said that the day of Buddha's attainment of great wisdom was commemorated at a time when all the people across the country are waging a dynamic struggle to build a great prosperous powerful nation and achieve national reunification. In order to build on this land a paradise in the present world in which the idea of getting rid of pain and attaining happiness desired by Buddha is embodied, all the Buddhists in the north and the south should unite in the Dharma-minded concord and drive the U.S. forces chiefly responsible for the division of the nation out of south Korea and implement to the letter the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, they noted. All the Buddhists will join all other fellow countrymen in the dynamic patriotic movement for independent reunification, peace against war and great national unity under the banner of "By our nation itself" in the future, too, as they did last year and thus further glorify the June 15 era of reunification, they stressed. [Religion]
• Koguryo Mural Tombs, World Heritage
  Pyongyang, January 6 (KCNA) -- Korea is endowed with many tombs with mural paintings created in the period of Koguryo. Koguryo was the first feudal state of Korea, which had great influence upon the development of the Oriental culture in the Middle Ages for its prominent architecture and drawing techniques. The mural tombs vividly mirror the then developed level of science and culture of Koguryo for their various structures of stone-piled chambers and rich content of the mural paintings. The mural tombs are divided into those with figure and genre paintings, with pictures of four guardians and with figure and genre paintings and pictures of four guardians according to their themes.
• North Korea to Wait Longer for 1st Foreign Church
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The construction of North Korea's first foreigners-only church has been delayed for more than a year, a South Korean pastor working for the project said on Saturday. In an interview with the Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-sponsored radio network, Pastor Lee Sung-woo from a missionary group leading the project said that "We received permission from the North Korean authorities in 2004 for the construction of the church in Pyongyang." Named the Pyongyang International Harvest Church, the envisioned church has drawn keen attention, as it would become the third official church in North Korea following the Pongsu Church built in 1988 and Chilgol Church built in 1999. "A South Korean construction company already submitted a design for the church to the authorities," he added. "The building of the church should be completed this year under the plan." [Religion]
• Joint New Year Editorial Issued
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Papers here today carry "Make a higher leap full of great ambition and confidence", a joint editorial issued by Rodong Sinmun, the official organ of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, Josoninmingun and Chongnyonjonwi on the occasion of the New Year Juche 95 (2006).
  Last year we splendidly celebrated the 60th anniversaries of the Party and the country's liberation as a great festival of victors in the Songun revolution and fully demonstrated the political and ideological might of our revolutionary ranks. . The grandiose military parade and other celebration events and the mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" were the epical scenes showing the solidness of single-minded unity, the might of the People's Army and the dignity of our nation. . Fresh progress was made in agricultural production by concentrating and mobilizing nationwide efforts in farming. The Taean Friendship Glass Factory, the Paekma-Cholsan Waterway and other structures of lasting value in the Songun era were built in all parts of the country and a large number of projects of great importance in the economic construction and the improvement of the people's living standard were reconstructed or updated. We resolutely foiled the U.S. moves to isolate and stifle the country by maintaining a tougher stance and firmly defended our ideology, system and cause
  The habit of attaching importance to the military affairs should be thoroughly established throughout the society. Top priority should be given to ensuring everything necessary for the national defence industry as required by the line of economic construction in the Songun era. The proud traits of Songun Korea that the people assist the army and vice versa should be brought into fuller bloom. . A radical turn should be brought about in socialist economic construction and the improvement of the people's living standard. It is the intention of the Party and our fighting objective to revitalize all the economic sectors and get the people to benefit virtually from our economic foundations in the near future. .
  Agriculture should be put forward as the main front of the economic construction this year, too, and all the forces be mobilized and concentrated on farming once again.
• New Year Stamp Issued
  Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- The Korea Stamp Corporation has issued a stamp in celebration of the New Year, Juche 95 (2006). The stamp figures majestic peaks around Lake Chon of Mt. Paektu against the beautiful sky aglow with the rising sun on the morning of the New Year's Day. Among them is the peak inscribed with leader Kim Jong Il's autograph "Mt. Paektu, holy mountain of the revolution". The stamp also shows rhododendron opening flowers and various kinds of plants growing at the foot of the peak. Printed in the stamp are words "Juche 95 (2006)" in the upper part and "A Happy New Year" in the lower part. Its face value is 3 won.
• New Year editorial
  North Korea released a 'joint New Year's editorial' under the title of "Make a leap forward with great ambitions and confidence", which revealed that North Korea would focus on pursuing the previous policies, shown in the re-designation of agriculture as a major industrial front rather than suggesting new policies.
• Kim Jong-il Calls for Young Bloods in Cabinet
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has called for efforts to replace aging officials with young talent, a recent publication from North Korea obtained by Yonhap News Agency revealed Thursday. ''I highly valued the workers that our dear leader (Kim Il-sung) personally trained and allowed them to continue working,'' Kim said in a 2001 meeting with central committee members of the North's Workers' Party. Kim succeeded his father and founder of North Korea Kim Il-sung when the latter died of heart failure in 1994, marking the first hereditary succession power in a communist country. He has since maintained and even promoted most of his late father's colleagues, such as the country's titular head of state Kim Yong-nam, who heads the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and helped his father found the communist state. The North Korean leader, however, said, ''Most of the executive officials who served the dear leader are now old,'' according to the book, a collection of Kim's published works, letters and remarks.
  Pointing out the age of the first-generation leaders, most of whom are now well over 70, Kim said the country must make what he called a bold decision to train and employ new, young officials, according to the book. The North Korean leader suggested an academic background as one of the achievements for the new officials, a rare criterion for employment in a country where equality is praised before individual abilities or achievements. ''We must now stress people's academic background in all walks of life,'' Kim was quoted as saying, adding that an official's remarks can be taken seriously only when the person has enough knowledge to support the remarks or claims.
• NK Leader's 1st Public Appearance of New Year
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il made his first public appearance of the year Wednesday with a rare outing to a newly built library at a Pyongyang university. Kim came to give "field guidance to the new e-library and gymnasium at Kim Chaek University of Technology," the North's Korea Central News Agency reported Thursday. "Learning in detail about its construction, equipment and operation, he expressed great satisfaction over the successful construction of the modern library, which reflects the appearance of the ideal society desired by the Korean people," the report said.[ICT]
• Rodong Sinmun on Establishing Juche in Ideological Work
  Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today dedicates a signed article to the 50th anniversary of the publication of President Kim Il Sung's famous work "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work". Clarified in the work are the principled issues to be held fast to with all consistency by the working-class party in deepening its ideological work and leading the revolution and construction ranging from the necessity for thoroughly eliminating flunkeyism and dogmatism and establishing Juche to the ways of doing so.
• Great Care Taken for National Heritage
  Pyongyang, December 29 (KCNA) -- Great efforts have been made to excavate, preserve and introduce the national cultural heritages in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea this year. Researchers in the field of historical studies including the Archeological Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences unearthed many pieces of valuable relics in an extra-large house site in Honam-ri, Samsok District, Pyongyang on the bank of the Taedong River. They show the cultural development in the Pyongyang area in the Neolithic era. The Ryongthong Temple in Kaesong, one of the historical remains in the days of the Kingdom of Koryo, the first unified state in the Korean history, was restored to the original state. And a lot of cultural heritages were excavated or rehabilitated to the original state in different parts of the country. An exhibition of historical remains and relics newly collected was held in the Korean Central History Museum on the occasion of the 60th anniversaries of the Workers' Party of Korea and national liberation.

• Is Another Father-to-Son Transfer of Power Possible in N. Korea?
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
  This year saw rampant speculation in South Korea on when North Korea will possibly unveil plans for the succession of power from one incumbent leader Kim Jong-il to one of his three sons. There have been a number of occasions that could have been well suited to announcing such a grand vision for the communist country with a Confucian touch. In August, for example, was the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. The North has contended that its founding leader Kim Il-sung served as a leading independence fighter.
  Most bet on Kim Jong-chol, about whom little is known except that he was once educated in Bern, Switzerland, in the mid-1990s. But there have also been some skeptical voices that questioned the possibility of another power succession in North Korea 31 years after the late Kim Il-sung designated his son Kim Jong-il as his successor in the first father-to-son power transfer. ``I have met party officials, military people, artists, doctors, et cetera. They told me `please don't, they'll think you're spying on us' when I asked them about the succession issue,'' said a source who has a close connection with Pyongyang's ruling class, frequently visiting the North for business affairs. ``But when I insist, they tell me that they think Kim Jong-il is their last leader,'' the source said on condition of anonymity. ``So what North Koreans think is the reunification (of the two Koreas) must come soon.''
• Yun I Sang- His Music and Methods of Expression
  Yun I Sang (1917-1995) was a world-famous composer, who was awarded a lot of prizes such as Goethe Medal sponsored by the Goethe Institute. This year, 2005, is the 10th memorial year of his death. A concert commemorating the 10th death anniversary of Yun I Sang's death was held at the Yun I Sang Concert Hall from October 26 to 28.
• Yon Hyong Muk Dies
  Yon Hyong Muk, an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the Vice-Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission (NDC), died of an incurable disease at the age of 73 on October 22. The Central Committee of the WPK and the DPRK National Defense Commission released an obituary of Yon Hyong Muk on the same day. The Central Committee of the WPK and the NDC formed a state funeral committee with Jo Myong Rok as its chairman and Kim Yong Nam, Pak Pong Ju, Kim Yong Chun, Kim Il Chol, Jon Pyong Ho and 43 others as its members.
• Summing Up "Proud History" of WPK
  The 60th Anniversary of the WPK A national meeting was held at May Day Stadium to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
  Kim Jong Il, the General Secretary of the WPK, the Supreme Commander of Korean People's Army (KPA) and the Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission, was present at the meeting. Also present were leading cadres of the WPK, the state and the army and the chairpersons of friendly parties. Kim Yong Nam, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK and the president of the Presidium of SPA, made a report.
• Changes in North Korea for the Past Five Years
  {ROK Ministry of Unification 23 December 2005}
  Through the events, such as the June 15 Joint Declaration (June, 2000), announcement of the "new way of thinking" (January, 2001), and the '7.1 Measures' (July, 2002), North Korea has gradually maintained their level of change. The change in mentality of the citizens in North Korea occurred much faster than the changes made in the economic system of North Korea. Such changes in the mentality of the citizens are expected to create the grounds to expedite further changes in North Korea's future and simultaneously play the structural role of preventing North Korea from trying to return to its past.
  In the field of economy, North Korea has officially recognized the function of the market mechanism to be a vertebral part of the national economy and has been expanding the implementation of various factors of the market economy in its economic sectors in incremental stages. North Korea introduced various aspects of the market economy into its system through the '7.1 Measures', which includes increasing the prices of commodities, wages, and the exchange rate, demolishing the rationing system, and providing more freedom for enterprises to operate private businesses.
  In March 2003, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il directed an official recognition of the market in North Korea and to nurture the market as a distribution channel. As a result, as of September 2005, North Korea has 95 trading centers. In addition, in January 2004, North Korea had trial runs for a family-based farming system and implemented a plan on improving the operations of factories and enterprises [Economic reforms]
• Observation of Migrants Intensified
  Pyongyang, December 8 (KCNA) -- Observation of seasonal birds has been intensified in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as bird flu spreads world wide. There are more than 210 kinds of migrants that inhabit Korea or pass via it in winter. Out of them wild goose, wild duck, eagle, hawk, gull, Gruidae are the most possible birds to spread bird influenza. They move through the east and west coasts and central mountainous areas of Korea. A system for observing habitats and movement of migrants has been established with officials of the State Emergency Veterinary and Anti-epizootic Committee and prevention centers at all levels and working people and necessary steps are being taken one after another. The National Epizootic Prevention Centre under the Ministry of Agriculture is conducting activities to grasp the passing routes of migrants that are regarded as vehicle of avian flu and to prevent them from coming into contact with poultry.
• North seen as wary over next 'dear leader'
  December 12, 2005 ? North Korean leader Kim Jong- il has issued a special instruction barring any discussion about who might succeed him, informed sources in Seoul said yesterday. According to the sources, Mr. Kim gave the instruction during a recent meeting with ranking officials including Kim Ki-nam, secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party and military generals Hyun Chol-hae and Park Jae-gyong. "Our enemies are backbiting us by speculating about our [country's] future leadership and a father-to-son succession," Kim was quoted by one source as saying in the meeting. "I ask party and military leaders to strictly crack down on any public discussion on the [issue of our] next leader." Mr. Kim reportedly noted that any talk of his inherited power would defame him and his late father, making the North an "international laughingstock."
• Pyongyang Picks Hospital for Bird Flu
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ North Korea has designated a hospital for treatment of possible bird flu patients as it is stepping up efforts to prevent an outbreak of the potentially deadly disease, a World Health Organization official said Saturday. The North authorities have picked a hospital in Pyongyang for possible outbreak of the bird flu, said Eigil Sorensen, the WHO's representative in the North, in an interview with Radio Free Asia. Radio Free Asia is funded by the United States for its Korean-language broadcasting. Without specifying the name of the hospital, he said he had inspected the hospital himself, which the WHO and the North authorities are expanding. As far as he knows, there has been no outbreak of the bird flu yet in the country, the official said.
• Succession talk worrying N.K. leader
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly ordered a crackdown on rumors about the future leadership of the country amid speculation that his second son, Kim Jong-chol, may become the next leader. Kim expressed concern recently that talk of a second hereditary succession could damage the image of the communist state and could invite derision from the international community, Seoul sources said. They said Kim issued the special instruction during a recent meeting with top officials from the government, the military and the ruling Workers' Party. Kim was quoted as saying, "Our enemies are slandering us citing a father-to-son succession."
  He reportedly ordered the government and the party to stop any discussion of a power succession and step up monitoring of rumors about his successor and ordered rumormongers to be harshly punished. During the meeting, according to sources, Kim said that if he transfers power to one of his sons, it would damage his and his father's image and would be mocked in the international community.
• World Day of AIDS Observed
  Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- Dec. 1 is World Day of AIDS. The day was instituted for the purpose of increasing public concern on the danger of AIDS known as the pest of the 20th century and prevention of its spread. Minju Joson today carries data that AIDS is now spreading all over the world and its infection has reached a very serious stage. It goes on: Seriousness of AIDS drawing world-wide attention is its harmful affection on the growth of children.
• Anti-avian Flu Campaign Intensified in DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 18 (KCNA) -- The anti-bird flu campaign has been intensified in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The State Veterinary and Anti-epizootic Emergency Commission has recently worked out regulations of anti-avian influenza work, emergency rules of action at the bird flu outbreak and a strategy for successfully preventing it. A preventive campaign is being dynamically conducted in accordance with them. The regulations specify the working system between the central organ and local ones and make it possible to ensure cooperation and uniformity in the anti-epidemic work. And the related units shall take steps to prevent people and domestic animals from being afflicted with bird flu and take counter- measures at the outbreak of such cases according to the established system and orders.
• Kim Jong Il Sends Birthday Table to Former Unconverted Long-Term Prisoner
  Pyongyang, November 16 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il sent a birthday table to former unconverted long-term prisoner Ri Kyong Chan, indomitable pro-reunification patriotic fighter, on his 70th birthday. Born in a tenant family in Jangphung County on Nov. 15, Juche 24 (1935), Ri underwent bitter sufferings as member of a stateless nation. He could enjoy a new worthwhile life under the care of President Kim Il Sung. He turned out in a sacred struggle for national reunification and was unfortunately arrested by the enemy while courageously fighting against him. However, he remained true to his revolutionary principle to the last despite the enemy's all sorts of cruel torture for several decades
• Origin of Six Famous Mountains in Korea
  Pyongyang, November 15 (KCNA) -- There are six famous mountains in Korea for their grandeur, mysterious rocks and cliffs and scenery beyond description. Working people from all walks of life are now enjoying their holidays in these mountains tinted with autumn foliage. From olden times, Koreans say that there are four famous mountains in Korea, Mt. Kumgang in the east, Mt. Myohyang in the north, Mt. Kuwol in the west and Mt. Jiri in the south. They had not included Mt. Paektu in the famous mountains, calling it an ancestral mountain. Later it has been included in the list of the famous mountains in the meaning that there can not be famous mountains without the ancestral mountain as if children are unthinkable apart from parents. Buddhist saint Sosan well-known in Korea said that the country has five famous mountains, the first of which is Mt. Paektu, the second Mt. Kumgang, the third Mt. Myohyang, the fourth Mt. Kuwol and the fifth Mt. Jiri.
• Who's next in North Korea?
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2005
  SEOUL Kim Jong Il, the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, is pushing an age - 63 - when he is widely expected to designate a successor who will carry the mantle of power he inherited from his own father in the Communist world's first and only dynasty. But he has problems. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 34, has not been home for years, wandering in self-imposed exile overseas and reportedly on the run from hit men hired by supporters of his stepbrothers. His second son, Kim Jong Chol, is only 24 and was reportedly dismissed once by his father as too "girlish" to be a leader. His youngest son, Kim Jong Un, 22, remains a mystery; in fact no one in the outside world is known to have ever seen his photograph.
• CNN shows North Korean executions, prisons
  November 15, 2005 ? Gory images of public executions and life inside political prisons in North Korea were aired by CNN on Sunday prime time, with the documentary producer saying the shocking depictions were only a part of North Koreans' experiences. The U.S. cable news network aired an hour-long documentary entitled "Undercover in the Secret State." The public executions shown had already been aired in Korea in March and some footage was from seven years ago. CNN said the images were from video recordings shot by dissidents and smuggled out of North Korea. In the documentary, a dissident claimed there is a growing movement in North Korea opposing the Kim Jong-il regime. The program showed a North Korean man being publicly shot by three policemen in Hoeryong, North Hamkyong province. It also showed a child being viciously bitten after he attempted to steal food at a farmer's market. Sarah McDonald, the documentary's producer and director, said her crew interviewed a man who had been in a political prison shown in the movie, but his story was too depressing to air. "What he described, we didn't put it in the film," she was quoted by CNN. "It is so appalling, you just can't imagine. He said that 95 percent of people who go into that prison die in the prison. Their whole motivation is to kill these people, but they won't let them die easily. They ? they torture them to death over a very long period of time." According to CNN, the North Korean government did not immediately respond to the U.S. broadcaster's request for a comment on the documentary. Human Rights Watch, an international rights group, estimated that 200,000 political prisoners exist in the North, while Pyongyang denies the accusation. [Black]
• NK Food Ration System Forces People to Work
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter The newly introduced food ration system in North Korea offers different rates to workers and those who do not work in order to encourage people to return to their workplaces, reports said. According to the reports, the new ration system that has been implemented in urban areas in the North, provides the staple foods _ rice, corn, wheat and potato _ at two different prices to the public in the impoverished communist country. One kilogram of A-class rice is supplied to laborers at 46 North Korean won (around 2 cents), but provided at 627 won to people belonging to the group called ``No. 26'', a North Korean term used to describe those who do not work. Under the current exchange rate, one U.S. dollar equals approximately 2,500 North Korean won. A cob of corn was sold at 24 won to laborers while being supplied at 420 won to the other group. ``Under the new system, the working population can buy rice and other food at cheaper prices. But if you don't work, the price increases quite sharply,'' said a Chinese-Korean merchant, who returned from his trip to the North, on condition of anonymity.
• DPRK Efforts for Prevention of Bird Flu
  Pyongyang, November 6 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is directing big efforts to preventing the bird flu which is rapidly spreading the world over. Leader Kim Jong Il recently spoke of bird flu several times and took concrete measures. All the officials and the working people across the country including those of the Cabinet Secretariat, ministries and national institutions and the field of the veterinary and anti-epizootic and public health have turned out as one in the prevention of bird flu.
• Activist mother lauds hospital care in North
  November 07, 2005 ? ? Hwang Sun, 31, while she was confined at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital in the North Korean capital last month. Her daughter, Gyeore, is the first known South Korean baby born in the North. Provided by Hwang Sun "If I talk about my feelings about North Korea's medical system frankly, it probably would break the National Security Law ? the articles that ban praising or sympathizing with North Korea," Hwang Sun, told the Joong-Ang Daily at her home in eastern Seoul on Friday. She is a well-known South Korean activist and a mother of two children. Ms. Hwang gave birth to her second daughter on Oct. 10 during her tour to the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang ? the first known South Korean baby to be born on the other side of the inter-Korean border. She was in the North as a tourist to watch the Arirang Festival performance there. While she was watching the performance at the May 1 Stadium, Ms. Hwang said she felt the first labor pains. "I looked at my watch so often to time how frequently the contractions were coming that the North Korean medical team at the stadium with me suspected that the baby was coming soon," Ms. Hwang said. "I thought I would be all right, but they hurriedly moved me to the hospital." Ms. Hwang delivered a 3.36-kilogram (7.4 pounds) healthy baby girl, whom she named Gyeore, by Caesarean section at North Korea's Pyongyang Maternity Hospital. After 15 days of recovery at the hospital, she and her daughter returned to South Korea on Oct. 25. "North Korea is very proud that it began a state policy of special attention to maternity issues from the 1970s," Ms. Hwang said. Pyongyang Maternity Hospital is located in the Taedonggang district of the North's capital city, and has 2,000 patient rooms. Built in 1979, it is the largest women's hospital in North Korea.
• Anti-Bird Flu Work Intensified in DPRK
  Pyongyang, October 24 (KCNA) -- A nation-wide campaign to prevent bird flu epidemic has been intensified in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under the unified guidance of the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Committee as it has spread to different parts of the world. The Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Public Health, State Bureau for Quality Control, Pyongyang City Poultry Guidance Bureau and other related units are enhancing their role in this campaign. In an interview with KCNA, Vice- Minister of Agriculture Mun Ung Jo said that as the bird influenza has rapidly spread to different parts of the world with the south-east Asian region as the center, the government has taken necessary steps to prevent the bird flu virus from affecting the country. The government, based on the experience gained in the anti-bird flu epidemic work, has established a system of quickly and correctly reporting an outbreak of the case to the central guidance office while making all material and technical preparations so as to remove any slight symptoms in time. Information activities are also brisk to prevent bird influenza. Materials related to the outbreak of the case and its damage in foreign countries and materials on technology needed for preventing it have been sent to the provinces, cities and counties. Such anti-epidemic measures as medical check-up of the workers, thorough sterilization and quarantine at poultry farms have also been taken. In particular, the movement of migrants is under regular observation, their excretion being examined and families and special farms are required to breed poultry in pens. Various kinds of poultry and their products imported from abroad and travelers are thoroughly quarantined at ports and frontier stations. Meanwhile, scientific researches into separating and identifying bird flu viruses are being made on the basis of successfully making vaccine against the bird flu virus which was found in the country
• Yon Hyong Muk Dies
  Pyongyang, October 23 (KCNA) -- Yon Hyong Muk, alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and vice-chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, died of an incurable disease to our sorrow at the age of 73 on Oct. 22. Yon Hyong Muk was born in the family of a revolutionary in Kyongwon County, North Hamgyong Province on November 3, Juche 20 (1931). After the liberation of Korea he grew up to be an able official under the benevolent care of the Party and the leader and held important posts of the Party and the state for years.
• North Korean Leader's Top Aide Dies
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Yon Hyong-muk, one of the closest confidants of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday. He was 73. ``It is a great loss to our party and people to have lost comrade Yon who has long contributed to the party's great achievements with his firm loyalty and high capability,'' the KCNA said in its obituary. Yon cuts a rather familiar figure in the South as he led the North Korean delegation to Seoul for a number of high-level inter-Korean talks during the early 1990s. It was Yon who signed the six-point joint declaration for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in February 1992, with his South Korean counterpart Chung Won-shik, then prime minister. In addition, Yon attended the farewell dinner and farewell ceremony at the airport during the inter-Korean summit held between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June 2000 in Pyongyang.
• Top Aide to N. Korea's Kim Jong Il Dies of `Incurable Disease'
  Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Yon Hyong Muk, a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, died yesterday of an `incurable disease,' the North's official Korea Central News Agency said today. He was 73.
• Roast Chestnuts and Sweet Potatoes Popular in Pyongyang
  Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) -- Stalls along streets in Pyongyang are drawing customers for roast chestnuts and sweet potatoes these days. According to Kim Sung Thaek, a department director of the Ministry of Commerce, the commercial and catering service networks under the Pyongyang City Bureau for the Guidance of Public Service and the Pyongyang City People's Committee started serving roast chestnuts and sweat potatoes on the occasion of the 60th birthday of the Workers' Party of Korea. There are more than 310 roast chestnut and sweat potato stalls only in the main streets of the city, he added. President Kim Il Sung instructed officials concerned to take measures for providing Pyongyang citizens with roast chestnuts and sweet potatoes. In order to carry it into practice leader Kim Jong Il saw to it that roast chestnut and sweat potato stalls have been set up in streets and chestnuts and sweat potatoes preferentially supplied to the city. Amid such care, stalls never ceased to serve roast chestnuts and sweat potatoes even in the period of the "Arduous March" and the forced march. The odor of roast chestnuts and sweat potatoes is a unique flavor in Korea during autumn.
• NK to Keep Military-1st Policy
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea celebrated Sunday the 60th anniversary of the founding of its Workers' Party with a vow to stick to its policy of ``songun,'' or military first, saying the policy of giving priority to reinforcing military power is essential to build a self-reliant country
• N. Korea Leader Said Considers Successor
  The Associated Press Saturday, October 8, 2005; 10:14 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's spy agency believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Il leans toward having his second son succeed him as head of the communist country, a news report said Saturday. Kim likes 24-year-old Jong Chol because of his circumspect character, the newspaper Chosun Ilbo said, citing unidentified lawmakers who were briefed Friday by the National Intelligence Service.
  The eldest son, Jong Nam, 34, who reportedly angered his father in 2001 by trying to enter Japan on a fake passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland, is out of favor and the third son, Jong Un, 21, is considered too young, the paper said. There was no comment from the intelligence agency.
• Rodong Sinmun Calls for Frustrating Imperialist Psychological Warfare
  Pyongyang, October 7 (KCNA) -- The peoples of all countries aspiring after independence should heighten vigilance against the imperialists' psychological warfare and shatter their moves with a revolutionary ideological and cultural offensive, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. The tragedies that resulted from the psychological warfare of the imperialists in recent years go to prove that countering their psychological warfare with a powerful revolutionary offensive is an important way of shattering their moves for aggression and domination and defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation, the article notes, and goes on: [Softpower]
• Sixty Year of Victory and Glory for the WPK
  October 10 this year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party of socialist Korea. The foundation of the WPK was a historic event that effected a radical change in shaping the destiny of the Korean people. All the victories, successes and wonderful realities of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are related with the founding day.
  people and the cause of socialism to shining victory! Songun. means giving top national priority to military affairs and making the Korean People's Army the backbone of revolution, so as to beef up the driving force of revolution and vigorously promote national defence and socialist construction as a whole.
• Kim Jong Il's Candid Talk Caught on Tape
  "I told them to say things in order to get more foreign aids", Kim Jong Il
  Wolgan Chosun: This is a transcript of Kim Jong Il's conversation with Huh Jong Man and Suh Man Sul, two top leaders of the General Association of the Koreans Resident in Japan (Chongryon), a pro-North organization. The conversation took place in the evening of April 25, 1998 at Kim Jong Il's villa. We obtained this document from a Japanese intelligence agency concerned with North Korea. On the surface, Kim is critical of the United States, Japan, and South Korea and praises the socialist system of North Korea, but deep in his heart, he is envious of capitalism and wants to learn from it. Kim is candid about the difficulties in North Korea and unintentionally points out some of the weaknesses of the North Korean system. Some of the highlights of Kim's conversation are: Kim Dae Jung is unusually mean-spirited. Kim Young Sam is a dirt-bag. Kim Ja Jung is the evilest of all South Korean capitalists. We need superior seeds for our crops. Bring here Japanese factories when they are closed down. The United States is our mortal enemy and at the same time, our teacher. We sent in the army to save the Hwanghae Steel Mills from the thieves who ran it. I admire the capitalist legal systems. The law exams in Japan and South Korea are exemplary.
• Disclosed stills show soldiers beating defector
  September 27, 2005 ? Stills from video footage allegedly showing North Korean border guards beating a female defector were disclosed yesterday by Free North Korea, on its Web site, www.freenk.net. The civic group that promotes North Korean issues posted 14 photos they said were from a video taken Aug. 17 near the border of China and North Korea at the Yalu River. The woman was said to have lived in China for eight years but had crossed the border into the North in order to sell goods. The sequence of photos show two soldiers in what appear to be North Korean uniforms, inside a guard post beating a woman with sticks until one stick breaks. As the female collapses to the ground, a soldier kicks the woman in the head. This is the first time photos alleged to be of North Korean soldiers beating a defector have become public. A source said yesterday the tape in question was obtained by a North Korean defector in China and will be aired soon on Japanese TV. Some observers speculated other soldiers may have taken the video as only the attackers' backs could be seen. [human rights] [media]
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Company and Power Station
  Pyongyang, September 21 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, inspected a company of KPA Unit 916 and a power station built by KPA Unit 966. He acquainted himself with the company's performance of duty and watched its servicepersons' training. He expressed satisfaction over the fact that all the servicepersons have been trained as a-match- for-a-hundred fighters and set forth tasks to be fulfilled to increase the combat capability of the company.
  He was greatly satisfied to learn that the unit has realized electrification at a high level by use of electricity produced by itself and built all modern facilities for entertainment and supply service to the convenience of the servicepersons. It is very good to use electricity in doing everything including room- heating, cooking and operation of saunas, he said, underscoring the need for all units to realize electrification to provide the servicepersons with highly civilized and affluent living conditions.
  The next leg of his inspection was a new power station built by KPA Unit 966. He learned in detail about the construction of the power station and the production of electricity there, going round a generator-room, power-distribution room and a big man-made reservoir. He highly praised the feats performed by the servicepersons of the unit, saying it is a great success that in recent years they have built several modern power stations one after another by widely using the latent reserves to produce a lot of electricity for the successful electrification in the unit. [Military economy]
• Kim Jong IL stresses need to strengthen the company
  Kim Jong IL, general secretary of the Workers¨ Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People¨s Army, inspected a company under KPA Unit 228. He was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong. He was saluted by the commanding officers of the unit and the company. He learned about the company¨s performance of duty before seeing the servicepersons under training. He expressed satisfaction over the fact that the commanding officers and soldiers of the company were fully capable of undertaking any combat duty as a-match-for-a-hundred combatants. He stressed the need to implement the WPK¨s policy of training thoroughly. Making the rounds of education room, bedroom, mess hall, kitchen, non-staple food store, bathroom, barns and power station, he showed the paternal care of the living of the soldiers. The company is breeding many farm animals such as goat, chicken and duck so as to supply the soldiers with a plenty of nutritive foodstuff including milk, meat and vegetables and enjoying much benefits from the power station built by their own efforts. After feasting his eyes on the barns swarming with farm animals and the fields covered with vegetables, he highly appreciated the achievements made by the soldiers. He called for concentrating sustained efforts on building up the company, noting that it is very important to strengthen the company, a main combat unit of the KPA. He gave a pair of binoculars and an automatic rifle to the servicepersons of the company as gifts and had a photo session with them. [military economy]
• Kim Jong Il Sees "Arirang" Mass Gymnastic Display
  In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula and the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea, "Arirang," a large-scale mass gymnastic display and art performances, was staged on August 16 at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang with General Secretary Kim Jong Il attending. Kim Jong Il saw the performance with senior officials of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the state and the army. Russian guest Konstantin Pulikovski, presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia, also enjoyed the performance.
• N. Korea Upgrades Travel Permits
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter
  North Korea has introduced a new "high-tech" travel permit for citizens traveling abroad in an apparent bid to prevent forgery by would-be defectors. NK Auction, an Internet site dealing in North Korea-related products, unveiled Tuesday the new type of passport with a scanned photograph and typed personal details. The pass was issued in June 2004 with a valid period of one month. Until now, North Korean travel passes have had pasted photos and handwritten details. Pyongyang watchers said the communist state seemed to have upgraded the travel permit in order to fight forgery by North Koreans attempting to flee their country. A growing number of North Koreans are forging travel permits to seek refuge in China instead of risking their lives by swimming across the river on the border, experts said. The new travel pass was introduced as a follow-up measure to Pyongyang's computerization of its identification system of civilians and soldiers. [Media] [Double standards]
• Heavy Rainfall in DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- A torrential rain fell in Pyongyang, South Phyongan, South and North Hwanghae Provinces. According to observations from 6 p.m. on August 3 to 6 a.m. on the 4th, Maengsan witnessed 142 mm of rainfall, Phyongsong 139 mm, Sariwon 138 mm, Pyongyang 134 mm, Songchon 96 mm, Pukchang 95 mm, Jangyon 92 mm and Hwangju 91 mm. In particular, for an hour from 3 a.m. on Thursday, there was as much rainfall as 66 mm in Pyongyang and 40 mm in Kangnam. The heavy rain mainly hit cities situated along the River Taedong such as Pyongyang, Phyongsong and Sariwon.
• A dip in the Yalu
  [Photo] August 05, 2005 ?
  North Korean children cooling off yesterday in the Yalu River,on the border between North Korea and China. The photo was taken near Shinuiju, North Korea, from a cruise boat which departed from Dandung, China
• Songbul Temple in DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 3 (KCNA) -- Songbul Temple built in 898 is located in the fort on Mt. Jongbang in Sariwon city, North Hwanghae Province, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It consists of 6 buildings--Ungjin, Kukrak, Myongbu and Unha halls and Chongphung and Sansin pavilions with a five-storied pagoda in the centre. The Ungjin hall is one of the oldest remaining wooden buildings in the country. It, belonging to the period of Koryo (918-1392), was rebuilt in 1327 Though nearly 700 years has passed since its reconstruction, its colorful painting remains unchanged. The Kukrak hall, which was built in 898 and rebuilt in 1376, was burnt out by the U.S. imperialist aggressors' bombing during the Fatherland Liberation War. The present one was constructed as it was in Juche 45 (1956).
• Kim Jong Il Inspects Command of Large Combined Unit of KPA and Its Unit
  Pyongyang, August 2 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, inspected the command of the large combined unit and Unit 615 honored with the title of Kum Song Lifeguard of the KPA situated in the forefront area in the central sector of the front. He was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong
  Then he moved on to the duck farm built by the unit. He put forward the tasks to be fulfilled to boost the duck production, saying that the farm should operate at its fullest capacity to pay off profusely. He had a photo session with the servicepersons of the unit.
• Control of Smoking Developed to Stage of Active Practice
  "World No-Tobacco Day" Event in Pyongyang
  On the occasion of "World No-Tobacco Day (WNTD)" (May 31), an event to encourage "no smoking" was held on May 30 at the Koryo Academy of Medical Sciences in Pyongyang. While no smoking events had been held annually, before the Ministry of Public Health of the DPRK attached a special meaning to the recent event. The "Framework Agreement on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization (WHO)" was adopted in 2003 and 168 countries, including the DPRK, signed it as of June 29, 2004. Choe Chang Sik, Vice Minister of Public Health, made a speech at the opening ceremony of the event. He said, "With each country's signature of this framework agreement, WNTD has been given a new meaning and the tobacco control movement has entered its stage of active practice."
• DPRK Establishes Civilian Fund for Children's Education
  The Korea Education Fund (KEF) was established, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on June 7. The fund is a legal non-governmental organization for public interests. Its mission is to regulate and strengthen financial and material support necessary to develop education in accordance with the requirement of the times. According to the KCNA, many Koreans at home and abroad and famous political, public and educational figures and organizations have rendered a lot of material and financial backing to the DPRK in its educational work, proceeding from the lofty humanitarianism of loving peace and valuing the future. It has made a contribution to the improvement of educational conditions and the balanced development of education. And many figures have advanced a proposal to establish an organization in the form of humanitarian fund for the purpose of strengthening the support to the educational work and have exerted efforts to realize it. Their efforts have resulted in founding the Fund in January last through an agreement and working procedure with parties concerned. The Fund does not fix the regional limit in general activities such as raising fund and performing support. And it decides personnel selection according to relevant program and the agreed plan on specific objects, transcending the differences in political view, religious belief, race, nationality and sex. The KEF welcomes all donators at home and abroad who are based on good intentions and voluntary principle. [Economic reform]
• Anniversary of Promulgation of Law on Sex Equality Marked
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- Papers Saturday editorially observe the 59th anniversary of the promulgation of the Law on Sex Equality. An editorial of Rodong Sinmun says that President Kim Il Sung promulgated the historic law on July 30, Juche 35 (1946), thus bringing about a fundamental turn in improving the social status of the Korean women and carving out their destiny.
• Pulled paper sparks row
  A doctoral student at Stockholm University's department of Oriental languages claims to have been barred from a conference because of his controversial research, although conference organisers said it was because his paper lacked academic merit.
  He argues that "what drives (Western man's) fetishism with Asian women is quite simply paedophile tendencies". He also says that interracial marriage and the adoption of East Asian babies are part of a long tradition of colonial oppression.
  The external examiner for Mr. Huebinette's doctoral thesis, Keun de Ceuster, is a member of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe. Mr. Hubinette argues that the association excluded him from its biennial conference held last week at Sheffield University.
• Re-depiction of Grand Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Performance "Arirang" Brisk
  Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- Re-depiction of the grand mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" is brisk in the run-up to the 60th anniversaries of the Workers' Party of Korea and Korea's liberation. Participating in it are at least 100,000 famous creators and artistes of the DPRK including winners of international and national concours, youths and students. They have worked heart and soul to revise and supplement some scenes of the work as required by the times and perfect the representation, performing skill, costumes, stage decor and lighting on a higher level in a matter of a few months. As a result, they successfully held the first rehearsal of the extravaganza on July 26. Completed under the energetic guidance and care of leader Kim Jong Il, it was premiered in April, Juche 91 (2002), on the occasion of the 90th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. It caused a great sensation all over the world as it was rated as the greatest monumental masterpiece not only in terms of its content, style and scale but in the level of ideological value and artistic representation. [Bluster]
• Individual Art Show Held in DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- A show of art works presented by People's Artist Ri Kyong Nam and Choe Ung Gwon of the Mansudae Art Studio took place at the Pyongyang International House of Culture from July 14 to 28. On display there were over 60 Korean paintings and 80 porcelains. Ri and Choe are famous at home and abroad as talented artists of Korean painting and ceramic workmanship.
• 52nd Anniversary of Victory in War Commemorated
  Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- The 52nd anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War was commemorated on July 26. A loyal meeting of servicepersons of the three services of the Korean People's Army was held at the education ground of the Monument to Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War to vow to glorify the Songun revolutionary leadership feats of Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il for all ages. Kim Yong Chun, chief of the KPA General Staff, in his report said that the historic victory in the Fatherland Liberation War which excited the world as a "military miracle in the 20th century" was a brilliant fruition of the wise leadership of Generalissimo Kim Il Sung. He referred to the fact that Kim Il Sung gave a shameful defeat to the U.S. imperialist aggressors who boasted of being "the strongest" in the world with his matchless pluck and will, outstanding strategy and tactics and extraordinary commanding art and brought about the beginning of decline for them.
• Functions Held to Celebrate Day of Victory in War
  Pyongyang, July 26 (KCNA) -- A presentation of wartime songs "Eternal Song of Victory of Songun" was made by war veterans from across the country in Pyongyang on July 25 to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War (July 27, 1953). It was appreciated by Kim Yong Nam, Kim Il Chol, Kim Jung Rin and other senior officials and working people. [Korean War]
• DPRK Violinist Emerges Winner at International Concours
  Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- Violinist Mun Kyong Jin of the Mansudae Art Troupe emerged winner at the Kaneti International Violin Concours held in Hungary from July 15 to 20. The concours drew 60 excellent violinists from seven countries including the DPRK, Russia, China and Hungary. Its jury included renowned professors and doctors who are violin experts from Russia, Britain, Greece, Mexico and other countries. The concours involved the first- and second- phase elimination contests and the final. In the final competition qualifiers performed solos for Mozart violin concerto played by the Hungarian symphony orchestra.
• Korea Has Longest History of University
  Pyongyang, July 7 (KCNA) -- Korea is one of the countries with the longest history of university in the world. Historical documents say that Koguryo (B.C. 277-A.D. 668), an old kingdom in Korea, established "Thaehak" (university) for the purpose of strengthening the feudal rule. At that time, Koguryo had a well-regulated nationwide education system with schools in local areas and "Thaehak" in the capital. According to Prof. and Dr. Pak Yong Hae who is a candidate academician, "Thaehak" gave students literary and military education. It greatly contributed to the prosperity of Koguryo, which existed for a millennium as a strong nation. "Thaehak" furnished itself with the features befitting a higher educational institution in 372. The kingdom of Koryo (918-1392) carried forward the educational tradition of Koguryo to found "Songgyungwan", the highest seat of education in the country, in 992. Koryo Songgyungwan, a university of light industry, in Kaesong City, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the heir to "Songgyungwan".
• Kim Jong-il changes travel companions
  July 05, 2005 ? For the last six months, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, at least in his public duties, appears to have changed his traveling companions. According to an analysis by the JoongAng Ilbo's Unification Research Institute on North Korean media reports, Mr. Kim now prefers the company of government technocrats more often than his once usual coterie of military officials. The research institute said yesterday it has analyzed the state-run newspaper Rodong Shinmun's coverage of Mr. Kim's public appearances during the first half of this year. While Mr. Kim's activities mainly include visits to military bases as they have done in previous years, Pyongyang's cabinet members and Workers' Party officials are accompanying him more often than military leaders.[ role of NK military]
• Historic Relics, Remains Preserved in DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 4 (KCNA) -- More and more historic relics and remains showing the brilliant history and splendid culture of the Korean nation have been discovered and preserved well in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the Songun era. Over the last decade a lot of relics and several thousand pieces of remains have been unearthed in the country. Among them are relics in Richon-ri, Sungho District and Phyodae relics in Honam-ri, Samsok District, Pyongyang and a brick tomb in Saenal- ri, Sinchon County, South Hwanghae Province. In particular, 63 mural tombs belonging to the period of Koguryo including the mural tomb in Tokhung-ri, three tombs in Kangso and Tomb No.3 in Anak were inscribed on the world heritage list. Leader Kim Jong Il, on his way to army units, made time to go round time-honored relics and said that they should be restored to the original state on the basis of historical facts and education in patriotism conducted well through them. [Koguryo]
• North Korea: A rare peek at daily life
  July 04, 2005 ? That the majority North Koreans suffer from hunger and a declining standard of living is no secret. But because of the country's isolation, what life is like for the 22 million people living under the rule of Kim Jong-il and a few thousand of his fellow elites has for decades been something of a mystery. In recent months, the flow of photographs and video footage to outside world showing how common North Koreans are living and coping has increased. Taking photos is often barred by authorities. Documentary images are smuggled out of the country often at great personal risk.
  More positive are the expressions on the faces of children cared for by the charities. The full faces of primary school students in Rakwon County in South Hamgyong province betray no sign of the misery believed commonplace in North Korea. The toddlers at a daycare center in Pongson seem anything but hopeless. [Media]
• Society for Rallying Comrades, First Party Organization in Korea
  Pyongyang, July 2 (KCNA) -- Seventy-five years have elapsed since the first party organization in Korea -- the Society for Rallying Comrades -- was formed. After advancing a proper and realistic policy for founding a party at the historic Kalun Meeting (June 30-July 2, 1930) President Kim Il Sung formed the first party organization at Jinmyong School in Kalun on July 3, Juche 19 (1930). The first party organization was the embryo and seed of the Workers' Party of Korea. From then on, the Korean revolution could advance with a true vanguard of revolutionaries of a new generation under the leadership of the President.
• Joint Slogans of CC. and CMC of WPK Issued
  Pyongyang, July 2 (KCNA) -- Joint slogans of the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea were made public Saturday on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the WPK. The full text of the slogans reads: �@We greet the 60th anniversary of the glorious Workers' Party of Korea on the road of the sacred Songun revolution.
• Kalun Meeting, Cradle of Songun Politics
  Pyongyang, June 30 (KCNA) -- The Korean people have won victory after victory, attaching importance to the military from the beginning of the revolution. The idea that a counterrevolutionary force should be countered by a revolutionary force was put forward at the historic Kalun Meeting (from June 30 to July 2) 75 years ago. At that time the Japanese imperialists with huge armed forces were intensifying their colonial repression and plunder of Korea than ever before while making preparations to invade the Asian Continent. The situation compelled the Korean people to wage an organized armed struggle against the imperialists. Reflecting the situation, the Kalun Meeting advanced the issue of launching an all-out anti- Japanese war as the basic line of the anti- Japanese national liberation struggle and the first and foremost task of the Korean communists. It also stressed that the Koreans should defeat the invaders with arms in their hands in order to achieve the liberation of the country. It was a significant meeting which provided a foundation of the Songun politics, the ever- victorious sword.
• Socialist Patriotism Displayed in Building Prosperous Country
  Pyongyang, June 29 (KCNA) -- Socialist patriotism is an idea and sentiments of loving the socialist motherland where there are a great party, a genuine people's government and a superior socialist system, says Rodong Sinmun in an article Wednesday. Socialist patriotism displayed by the Koreans is manifested in that they turn out as one man in the struggle to defend socialism with firm resolution to share destiny with it, the author of the article says, and goes on: Socialist patriotism is the spirit of ardent love for the socialist motherland and the unrelenting spirit to fight the enemies attempting to do harm to it. No one can have hatred for the class enemies without ardent love for the country.
• Conservation Center of Koguryo Mural Tombs Under Construction
  Photo shows the conceptual drawing of the preservation center of Koguryo mural tombs. The construction of the preservation center of Koguryo Mural Tombs is making steady progress in the DPRK. The "Koguryo Mural Tombs" are formally registered as UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage at the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee held in China on July 2004. The "Koguryo Mural Tombs" which are located mainly in suburban Pyongyang, Nampo and Anak District, South Hwaghae Province, were created in the Koguryo period of Korean History(100 BC-668 AD).
• Maintenance of Principle of Collectivism Called for
  Pyongyang, May 18 (KCNA) -- The principle of collectivism should be firmly maintained in all fabrics of social life in order to shatter the U.S. imperialists' frantic moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and defend and advance Korean socialism to victory, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. Collectivism is what keeps socialism alive, the article notes, and goes on: The principle of collectivism was not observed in socialist construction in a number of erstwhile socialist countries. This caused individualism to prevail in all sectors of the state and social management, including politics, economy and culture, and led to the collapse of socialism.
• A Gallery Peers Into the Closed World of North Korean Art
  By CRAIG SIMONS Published: May 18, 2005 BEIJING - You probably have never heard of Han Song Chol or Son U Bong. But their ink-wash paintings provide a rare glimpse into artistic expression in modern North Korea. Mr. Han's near-photographic "Break Time at the Ironworks" shows muscular men dripping with sweat and drinking water from tin cups at a sweltering foundry. Mr. Son's "Peak Chonnyo of Mount Kumgang" is a classical Korean landscape of towering cliffs shrouded by mists.
  Together they essentially represent the two creative outlets for artists in North Korea today: Soviet-influenced socialist realist depictions of industrial workers, and traditional studies of nature. In neighboring China, where many young artists have gravitated toward more globalized, contemporary styles, those genres have largely gone the way of socialism. But in North Korea, one of the world's most isolated countries, it seems that they are still rigorously maintained.
• Efforts Made for Preventive Work against Bird Flu in DPRK
  The Korean Central News Agency of the DPRK (KCNA) reported on April 8 that the DPRK is making efforts to prevent bird flu. Ro Tu Chol, chairman of the State Emergency Veterinary and Anti-Epizootic Committee, said that about 200 emergency committees have been formed and emergency vaccinations against bird flu have been applied to all poultry farms
• North Korea: The worstest, baddest, evilist Persecutor of Christians in the World
  For the third year in a row, North Korea has been named the worst persecutor of Christians, according to the Open Doors International "World Watch List."
  A sceptical commentary by Berkeley geographer Judy Han
• Health Food Made in DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 29 (KCNA) -- Compound nutrient powder and jelly have been made in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to improve people's health. Contained in them are 17 kinds of amino acids and natural ferments, various vitamins, 7 sorts of microelements, etc. They are popular among miners and coal-miners and those with other labor-consuming jobs. They are also efficacious for preventing and curing digestive disorder, tuberculosis in early stage, arteriosclerosis and aging. They, made in consideration of the daily average amount of vitamins, salt, microelements and dextrose needed for recovery from physical and mental fatigue, were registered as state inventions in the 7th national exhibition of inventions and new technologies.
• Children's Camps Reopen in DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 27 (KCNA) -- Schoolchildren are enjoying themselves at children's camps which reopened the door on the occasion of the Day of the Sun, the birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung (April 15). The authorities of the camps across the country are organizing varied activities suitable to children's ages and feelings so that they may spend pleasant days during their camping. The activities include art contests, craft show, evening of culture, sports and amusement contests, sightseeing aboard ship, boating and swimming. Meanwhile, the campers climb mountains to get knowledge of nature and collect plants, cooking by themselves, and thus train their body and mind and deepen what they have learned. They also visit revolutionary battle sites and time-honored cultural relics. The camping period is from April to October. During the period, schoolchildren enjoy a 3-day, 5-day and 7-day camping. Jo Chun Gil, a department director of the Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, told KCNA that this year over 140,000 pupils will camp in scenic spots throughout the country.
• Army Full of Spirit of Guarding Leader
  Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- "Let us defend the headquarters of the revolution headed by the great Comrade Kim Jong Il with our lives!" is a slogan reflecting all the Korean servicemen's unswerving oath. The slogan is based on their belief that they will always emerge victorious under the command of Kim Jong Il. The servicemen, who regard guarding the leader as their life and soul, carry this slogan into practice. It was proved by what eleven servicepersons belonging to Kim Ji Song unit of the Korean People's Army did some time ago.
• Three Koryo Medical Books
  Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- Hyangyakjibsongbang (a medical encyclopedia), Uibangryuchi and Tonguibogam (the complete collection of traditional Korean medicine) are famous medical classics of Korea. Hyangyakjibsongbang, which consists of 85 volumes, was published in 1433 by Ro Jung Rye and others. Compiled in the book is experience in treating diseases with traditional medicines. It gives 10,700 prescriptions and 1,476 methods of acupuncture and moxibustion for 959 kinds of diseases in a systematic way -- introduction, causes, pathology, symptoms, and acupuncture and moxibustion methods for each disease. It also writes about production places, features and efficacy, collecting methods and indication of nearly 700 kinds of medicinal materials in Korea. Uibangryuchi, published in 1445, is a medical encyclopedia which is made up of 365 volumes.
• North Korea beats avian flu, UN says
  April 27, 2005 ? North Korea has successfully overcome an outbreak of bird flu, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In a report posted on the agency's Web site, the FAO said that an H7 strain of bird flu virus, which had been detected in three poultry farms near the capital of Pyongyang, had been eliminated by local veterinary authorities. About 218,000 infected chickens were culled in the process, and sales of poultry, meat and eggs were banned. The FAO said that it sent three experts to assist authorities in diagnosis and disease management, and that North Korean authorities were cooperative in providing essential information. The H7 virus is not directly related to the H5N1 avian influenza virus in other parts of Asia, which has killed 52 people since late 2003.
• Giving Top Priority to People's Health
  Actual Situation of Environmental Protection in DPRK Interview with Kim Gwang Ho, Director of Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection
• Juche-based Idea on Public Health Proves Successful
  Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- Twenty years have elapsed since leader Kim Jong Il sent his letter "On the Further Improvement of the Health Service" to the participants in the national conference of medical workers on April 21, Juche 74 (1985). In his historic letter, he gives answers to questions of principle arising in the health service of the country in a comprehensive way. They range from the essence, mission and role of the health service to issues of thoroughly implementing the prophylactic line of the Workers' Party of Korea, improving medical service, developing medical science and technology, strengthening the training of medical workers and fully ensuring material supply to the health sector. The correctness and great vitality of the Juche- based idea on public health advanced in the letter, which should be taken as guidelines in the socialist health service, have been fully manifested through practice.
• North Korea: Allow Access for U.N. Rights Monitor
  China Must Stop Sending Back North Koreans at Risk of Persecution (New York, April 15, 2005) ·The North Korean authorities should immediately and fully cooperate with U.N. human rights experts to improve the country's abysmal human rights conditions, Human Rights Watch said today
• COMMISSION ADOPTS SIX TEXTS ON VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS AROUND THE WORLD
  Commission on Human Rights AFTERNOON 14 April 2005
  In a resolution on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, adopted by a roll-call vote of 30 in favour to nine against, with 14 abstentions, the Commission expressed its deep concern about continuing reports of systemic, widespread and grave violations of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention; and sanctions on citizens had been repatriated from abroad. The Commission decided to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for a further year.
  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea categorically rejected the draft resolution which it said had been fabricated by hostile forces and their followers, with the aim of stifling the country. The draft represented an extreme manifestation of the politicization, selectivity and double standards that had constantly been rejected in the human rights sphere.
• NK Develops `Neo Viagra'
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea recently named a newly developed antioxidant as ``Neo Viagra-Y.R.,'' a picture book published in Pyongyang reported in its April edition. The drug's name is similar to Pfizer's best- selling product. But the monthly Choson clarified that North Korea's ``authoritative'' pharmacologist Ryu Il-nam developed it. The magazine did not spell out what Y.R. stands for in English, but it is supposed to be ``Youth Restoration,'' given the bracketed Korean phrase ``Chongchunbuhwal.'' The report did not say the new drug is a cure- all. But it reported that Y.R. could treat obesity, hepatitis, cerebral arteriosclerosis as well as ``incurable'' back, shoulder and joint pains. As the name implies, it is also effective in treating impotence, the magazine said.
• Korea Affected by First Storm of Yellow Sand
  Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) -- The first dust storm this year was observed in Korea on March 17. The mild storm, churned up by winds in Gobi Desert of Mongolia and some Inner Mongolian areas of China on Wednesday, moved southeastward and reached the central part of the West Sea of Korea next morning. Affected by the sand storm were Pyongyang and South Phyongan, North and South Hwanghae Provinces including Phyongsong, Sariwon, Haeju, Ongjin, Jangyon and Kaesong in the afternoon and at night. The sand sedimentation amount was 150kg/km2 in Pyongyang.
• Brisk Campaign against Yellow Sand Damage in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 17 (KCNA) -- With the advent of spring, activities to prevent possible yellow sand damage are being conducted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Members of the Feb. 17 Shock Brigade of Scientists and Technicians are engaged in observing sand storm and its movement and finding out its physical and chemical components. As the effect of dust storm on environment, industry and agriculture including vehicles, precision machines, crops, livestock and sericulture has been clarified, measures to prevent its damage are being taken. Through TV and radios, scientists explain every day such common sense as harmful effects of yellow sand on human body including eyes, respiratory organs and skin and measures necessary to avoid damage. Public health officials and medical workers conduct hygienic information activities with visual aids at institutions, factories and residential quarters. Newspapers and magazines come out with articles related to dust storms.
• Video shows executions in North
  March 17, 2005 ? Video footage of the brutal execution of three North Koreans was scheduled to be shown on Japanese TV yesterday, according to a human rights group that released captured images of the footage. The footage, recently obtained by Japan's N-TV, shows the brief trials of 11 North Koreans. Three were given death sentences, and the other eight were ordered to serve 15 years hard labor. After a judge handed down the death sentences, a voice in the video is heard saying,"Carry out immediately." The accused are then tied to stakes. [media]
• NK Execution Video Released
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Japan's Nippon Television Network on Wednesday broadcast what it said were video clips of two public executions which took place in North Korea earlier this month. It is the first time to witness the firing squad shooting people to death in front of crowds, including the victims' family members, a civic group leader in Seoul said. North Korea has denied it committed the executions. ``Even though the video clip quality is poor, it is evidence that North Korea is still conducting public executions,'' Han Ki-hong, president of the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, told The Korea Times.
  It is not known who provided the video clips to the Japanese broadcaster. Han said he thinks ``brokers'' might have engaged themselves in a ``deal'' with the television station in Japan. [media]
• Pupils Make 250-mile Journey in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 14 (KCNA) -- Schoolchildren's "250-mile journey for learning" has continued in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. This year more than 3,500 pupils from over 70 schools have participated in the march. This march has been organized regularly every year from March Juche 63 (1974) when the first march was made by chairmen of the youth league and children's union organizations of middle school and model members of the children's union from throughout the country, over 5,000 in all. On March 16, 1923, President Kim Il Sung, at the age of 11, made the journey after his father told him that he should have a good knowledge of Korea. He left Badaogou, China, crossed the River Amnok and walked from Phophyong to Mangyongdae, his native hometown. Schoolchildren's march is a token of their willingness to learn from his lofty intention. Each group consists of 50 pupils with school as a unit and the marching period is 21 days. The march continues all the year round except May and October. Every day a group leaves Phophyong and tour Pyongyang for a week after its arrival in Mangyongdae. During the march, they conduct colorful political and cultural activities and inspection through which they get a deep knowledge of the President's revolutionary history and exploits. More than 12,500 pupils have participated in the march every year over the last three decades since the first march took place.
• Measures for Protecting Rare Animals Taken in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 10 (KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has directed great efforts to protecting and increasing animals which are rare and in danger of becoming extinct. In recent years the government has taken various measures to reset reserves in the country and set up new reserves for the animals in danger of extinction. Good conditions have been provided so as to protect and propagate some 200 species of rare animals including Korean tiger, sable, deer, moose, bear, Tadorna cristata, white-bellied black woodpecker, Eumeces coreensis, Salamandrella keyserlingii and Salvelinus malma m. chonjiensis.
• National Meeting Marks World Women's Day
  Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- A national meeting was held at the People's Palace of Culture today to mark the 95th World Women's Day. Pak Sun Hui, chairwoman of the C.C., the Korean Democratic Women's Union, made a report at the meeting. She noted that international unity and solidarity of women have been strengthened in the efforts to liquidate imperialism and colonialism and achieve national independence and build socialism and great progress has been made in the development of the world women's movement in nearly one century after the world progressive women set March 8 as an international holiday of the working women the world over
• Preventive Measures against Bird Flu in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 7 (KCNA) -- An energetic work to prevent bird flu is going on in the DPRK. It is taking thorough-going preventive measures and setting up a watch system to bar bird flu from infiltrating into the country. A rigorous hygienic and veterinary quarantine has been instituted on the borderline and at harbors and airports. The foreign poultry and its products and those who cross the borders are subject to strict control at all the border posts.
• From North Korea, a new puzzle
  Saturday, March 5, 2005 SEOUL North Korea has postponed a regular session of its Parliament, its official news agency said Friday, in an unprecedented move that puzzled watchers of the secretive state. .
  The presidium of the Communist country's Supreme People's Assembly made the decision Thursday, the official KCNA news agency said. The session had been scheduled to begin next Wednesday. "The date of the session will be set and announced publicly," the news agency said. The move to postpone the assembly meeting was probably not directly related to the state of Kim's hold on power, the official said, but the postponement is likely to fuel the arguments of North Korean watchers who believe Kim has a tenuous grip.
  The spring session of the assembly is held to settle the previous year's spending and to approve a new budget. Major economic policy measures are also adopted at the session. Noriyuki Suzuki, chief analyst at the Tokyo-based Radiopress news agency, said the postponement might be a sign that a decision on a major economic policy move was delayed. "I think this is the most reasonable interpretation," he said. Radiopress specializes in monitoring events in the North.
• North delays session of its Assembly
  March 05, 2005 ? Against the background of intensifying diplomacy over North Korea's nuclear arms programs, Pyeongyang media issued an unusual announcement yesterday, saying the communist state's highest legislative body had postponed its regular session in what is believed to be the first occurrence of its kind. The reports offered no explanation for the delay. Through its state-run media, North Korea said a meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, which was scheduled to take place Wednesday in Pyeongyang, had been postponed. Since the communist regime's creation in 1948, the Assembly has met annually, largely to rubber- stamp decisions by the North's leaders. The reports said the meeting was adjourned at the request of Assembly deputies, and that a new date would be fixed and announced later. "This is unprecedented development, and we are gathering information," a ranking member of South Korea's National Security Council said yesterday. "But we do not have a clear idea of what it means."
• SPA Session to Be Postponed
  Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK Thursday announced a decision on postponing the third session of the 11th SPA. According to it, the Presidium of the DPRK SPA will postpone the session originally slated for March 9, Juche 94 (2005), at the requests made by deputies to the SPA in all domains of the socialist construction. The date of the session will be set and announced publicly.
• 2 Human Traffickers Executed in Public in NK
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea put two human traffickers to death in public in late February for smuggling North Korean women into China, a South Korean online radio service reported Thursday
• Kim Jong Il's 63rd Birthday Celebrated at Various Events Held at Home and Abroad
• 100,000 Pyongyangites Hold Mass Rally to Accomplish Tasks for "General March for Songun"
• Lunar New Year in Pyongyang
  Pyongyangites Have Happy Time at Home Children Enjoy National Traditional Games February 9 was the lunar New Year. In the DPRK, national tradition and culture have been very highly regarded by people for a long time and the Bon festival and New Year's Day according to the lunar calendar are grandly celebrated. This year, people in the DPRK enjoyed three straight holidays from Feb. 9 to 11 for the lunar New Year. How did Pyongyangites spend their time during the holiday season? On February 9, children gathered at Kim Il Sung Square, Pyongyang gymnasium and other places and enjoyed traditional games such as flying kites, top-spinning and Chegichagi (shuttlecock). At the Kim Il Sung Square, children gave a shout of joy playing top-spinning game. There was a national game store in one corner of the square. The store was thronged with children who have a well-filled purse because of the New Year's gift. Kites were the most popular and next were tops and Chegi (shuttlecock) in the store.
• Turdus Merula Found in DPRK
  Pyongyang, February 28 (KCNA) -- Turdus merula, a summer migrant, has been found in the Mt. Taesong area, Pyongyang, and other places of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for the first time. Various species of winter migrants belonging to Turdidae have inhabited in the northern part of the country. Originally, turdus merula propagated itself mainly in Europe. But it has gradually expanded its inhabitation to east Asia. After it was proved that the bird began to inhabit in Korea, it has been formally registered as an inhabitant in the country.
• Faith in Socialism and Scientific World Outlook
  Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- It is the steadfast conviction of the Korean army and people that nothing can block the advance of history to independence and socialism and socialism will surely win victory. Rodong Sinmun Sunday says this in a signed article. The true features of the Korean people forming integrity with socialism are the brilliant fruition of the outstanding ideological and theoretical activities of leader Kim Jong Il and his wise leadership, the article notes, and goes on: Socialism is a society in which the independent nature of man, the popular masses, is embodied. This is a Juche-oriented theory on the inevitability of victory which was uniquely clarified by Kim Jong Il.
• Wreaths Laid before Bust of O Jin U
  Pyongyang, February 25 (KCNA) -- Wreaths were laid before the bust of revolutionary fighter O Jin U at the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery on Mt. Taesong on Friday on the occasion of his 10th death anniversary. Seen standing there was a wreath sent by Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army. Present at the wreath-laying ceremony were Pak Pong Ju, Kim Il Chol, Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop and other officials, servicepersons and his bereaved family.
• Kim Jong-il Heads Intelligence Agency
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il may head the country's all-powerful intelligence agency alone, according to a diagram of North Korea's power structure released by the Ministry of Unification on Wednesday. The State Security Agency might be under the direct control of the National Defense Commission, which is chaired by the ``Dear Leader,'' Seoul officials said.
• Selection of University Students in DPRK
  Pyongyang, February 21 (KCNA) -- The selection of students for the new academic year is under way at all universities and colleges in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Public attention has been directed to the selection of the university students which is an important issue related with the future of the country, nation and the revolution. Anyone who received the universal eleven-year compulsory education is qualified to advance to universities or join the study-while-working system (factory, farm and fishermen's colleges and correspondence courses). In the DPRK, the universities open the door for graduates from middle schools so that they may realize their hope and develop their talents. And young people who work in economic sectors can apply for an examination at universities they want to study at. Among the examinees are discharged soldiers. Each university can select those with distinguished ability and talent for preparatory course. Under the study-while-working system, working people can study at universities or colleges commensurate with their occupation. The selection of students will be completed throughout the country before the start of the new academic year on April 1.
• DPRK SPA to Meet
  Pyongyang, February 17 (KCNA) -- A decision of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK on convening a session of the SPA was promulgated on Feb.7. According to it, the third session of the 11th SPA will be convened in Pyongyang on March 9, Juche 94 (2005).
• Concert Given to Celebrate Kim Jong Il's Birthday
  Pyongyang, February 16 (KCNA) -- A concert was given by the State Symphony Orchestra and the Mansudae Art Troupe at the People's Palace of Culture Tuesday to celebrate the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il, the nation's greatest holiday. It was appreciated by Party and state senior officials, chairpersons of friendly parties, officials of the Party and power organs, working people's organizations, commissions of the cabinet, ministries and national institutions, servicepersons of the Korean People's Army and working people in the city.
• Crisis or no, dictator's party goes on
  February 17, 2005 ? Despite the geopolitical imbroglio over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the extravagant state-ordered public celebrations of Kim Jong-il's birthday went on as usual yesterday, as state propaganda organs urged citizens to unite against what it called external threats. In an editorial commemorating the 63rd birthday of the "Dear Leader," the North Korean Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said that Mr. Kim's policy had forestalled invasion attempts by the United States and other enemies of the North.
• North Korea Celebrates Kim Jong-il's Birthday
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - Despite the growing tension over North Korea's acknowledged nuclear capability, Pyongyang is in a festive mood as people prepare to celebrate the birthday of the country's leader Kim Jong-il, according to the communist state's news media.
• N Korea wages war on long hair
  Men's hairstyles reflect their 'ideological spirit' North Korea has launched an intensive media assault on its latest arch enemy - the wrong haircut. A campaign exhorting men to get a proper short-back-and-sides has been aired by state-run Pyongyang television. The series is entitled Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle. While the campaign has been carried out primarily on television, reports have appeared in North Korean press and radio, urging tidy hairstyles and proper attire.
• Let the Whole Party and Army and All the People Unite as One in Mind and More Strikingly Demonstrate the Might of Songun!
  New Year Joint Editorial of "Rodong Sinmun," "Josoninmingun" and "Chongnyonjonwi"
  Rodong Sinmun, organ of the Workers' Party of Korea, Josoninmingun, organ of the Korean People's Army, and Chongnyonjonwi, organ of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, issued on January 1 a New Year joint editorial titled, "Let the Whole Party and Army and All the People Unite as One in Mind and More Strikingly Demonstrate the Might of Songun!" The following is excerpts of the joint editorial. (Original in Korean, translation is ours- ed.) Last year Juche 93 (2004) was a year of worthwhile struggle in which a revolutionary offensive was conducted on the three fronts- politics and ideology, anti-imperialism and military affairs and economy and science- to make a breakthrough toward fresh success in the efforts to build a great prosperous powerful nation.
• Early in New Year, People Vow to Accomplish State Tasks to Build "Powerful Nation"
• NK Leader Yon Appears in Public
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter Yon Hyong-muk, 74, vice chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission, appeared in public Feb. 2 for the first time since receiving medical treatment in Russia late last year. North Korea's Central Television broadcast Yon sitting with other national leaders in the front row of a rally at the April 25 Culture Center in Pyongyang.

• Rodong Sinmun on Revolutionary Optimism of Army and People
  Pyongyang, December 26 (KCNA) -- The revolutionary optimism of the army and people in the DPRK has provided a sure guarantee for having brought today's victory despite all sorts of difficulties, says Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a signed article. It goes on: The period of the "Arduous March", the forced march, was a proud one in which the army and people of the DPRK highly displayed revolutionary optimism, rallied close around leader Kim Jong Il. Their revolutionary optimism and conviction of victory represent the revolutionary optimism peculiar to the revolutionary people who absolutely trust and follow their leader and share their destiny with him in any adversity.
• Kim Jong Il Enjoys Art Performance of State Symphony Orchestra
  General Secretary Kim Jong Il talking in a relax mood with officials those who accompany with him, at outside the hall presenting the performance of the State Symphony Orchestra. Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission, enjoyed an art performance given by the State Symphony Orchestra. Also appreciating it were Secretaries of the WPK Central Committee Kim Kuk Thae and Kim Ki Nam, Chairman of the Radio and TV Broadcasting Committee of the DPRK Cha Sung Su, Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Ri Kwang Ho and First Vice Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Ri Jae Il. Put on the stage were the newly created symphonic suite "Long Journey of Songun," orchestral music "Rich Harvest Comes to the Chongsan Plain" and "Arirang."
• Hwang Jang-yop Warns of Hasty Conclusion on North Korea
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranked Pyongyang official to defect to South Korea, advised media not to jump to hasty conclusions over recent developments in North Korea such as Kim Jong-il's portraits being pulled down from public places in Pyongyang, the Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Monday. ``You should not interpret those actions, including removal of the portraits and distribution of anti-regime handouts, as a big change (in North Korea),'' Hwang told the RFA during a Sunday interview. The 81-year-old said Kim was showing to the world his confidence in controlling the communist regime without depending on such ``formalities'' because he believes his power has been stabilized enough.
• Kang Po, Mathematician of Koryo
  Pyongyang, December 17 (KCNA) -- Mathematics has been developed on a high level in Korea from olden times. Kang Po, a mathematician and astronomer of Koryo (918~1392), found out an interpolation of higher degree already in the 14th century and thus made a great contribution to the development of mathematics and astronomy. He introduced into the observation of the celestial sphere movement the interpolation for calculating the deviation between its average angle movement and its actual angle movement. It made it possible to ensure the accuracy in measuring the positions of the sun and planets at any date (time) with already observed materials.
• Abnormal Winter Weather in Korea
  Pyongyang, December 16 (KCNA) -- Korea has been affected by abnormal weather in winter in recent years. The cycle of three cold days and four warm days, the inherent feature of the winter in Korea, has been rare to be seen. On the contrary, warm days continue and it often rains much. It is the result of the high temperature which has continued in winter season for several consecutive years. The high temperature makes snow fall like rain. This year there was much rainfall around the beginning of winter as compared with other years. Jong Ryong U, vice director of the Central Meteorological Institute under the Hydro- meteorological Service, told KCNA that such abnormal weather will continue until December 20 or more. The lowest temperature in the morning is expected to be 5-8 degrees centigrade below zero in most areas of Korea except the northern inland in this period, he said, and went on: This means that the lowest temperature in the morning in the Pyongyang area is 3 degrees centigrade higher than the usual temperature which recorded 11 degrees centigrade below zero. This abnormal phenomenon has been caused by the atmospheric circulation changed by the global mild climate. It makes it impossible to form the Siberian continental high pressure.
• Astronomy of Koguryo
  Pyongyang, December 15 (KCNA) -- Historic relics of Korea show the developed astronomy in the period of Koguryo. On display at the Korean Central History Museum in Pyongyang are historic relics including data concerning astronomical observation and government meteorological observation office recorded in the Koguryo part of "The Chronicles of Three Kingdoms", an observatory model, a picture of constellations painted on murals of a Koguryo tomb and a picture of stars engraved on the ceiling lid stone of Tomb No. 4 in Jinpha-ri.
• North Korea denies defection of generals
  December 14, 2004 ? A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman has denied an International Herald Tribune report that hundreds of the country's generals defected to China. Talking to the state-run news agency, KCNA, the spokesman dismissed the report as an attempt by the United States to achieve regime change and instability in North Korea. "Nevermind the generals, not even a single button of their uniforms has crossed the border," the official was quoted as saying. International media recently reported the disappearance of portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il inside North Korea, while a South Korean intelligence official claimed the North's officials overseas no longer wear badges of the communist country's leader. Both Beijing and Seoul have issued official denials of political trouble in Pyeongyang.
• For North Korea, Openness Proves a Two-Way Street
  As Increased Trade and Communication Bring Outside World In, More Citizens Are Spurred to Leave By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, December 13, 2004; Page A12 SEOUL -- Before his defection 11 months ago, Kim, a 35-year-old with round-rimmed glasses and a self-assured air, enjoyed the relatively blessed life of the North Korean elite. The son of a ranking military officer in a nation where millions died of starvation during the 1990s, Kim owned a television, a refrigerator and larders brimming with savory white rice. His life improved even more after July 2002, when the North Korean government decreed a landmark series of free-market reforms. As a result of those initiatives, Kim had increasing contact with the world outside North Korea, where information is strictly controlled. When trade with neighboring China began to boom, he took advantage of his high position in a state trading company to start a private business selling antiques to Chinese and South Korean buyers.
  "From my Chinese and South Korean clients, I heard about just how rich South Korea really was," said Kim, who in January joined the growing ranks of North Korean defectors when he sought asylum inside South Korea's consulate in Beijing, later resettling in Seoul. He asked that only his last name be used to protect his family, still in North Korea.
• World Day of Human Rights Observed
  Pyongyang, December 10 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today dedicates a signed article to the world day of human rights. Recalling that not a few successes have been made in the field of human rights since this day was set, the article notes that under the Korean-style socialist system centered on the popular masses the Korean people enjoy genuine human rights and are guaranteed all rights.
• Rodong Sinmun on Songun Policy
  Pyongyang, December 10 (KCNA) -- The Songun policy serves as a symbol of dignity and pride of the Korean nation and a banner of victory, says Rodong Sinmun Friday in a signed article. It says: The Songun policy is one for national independence as it makes it possible to defend the national sovereignty and dignity with arms of justice and independently accomplish the cause of national reunification. It also serves as a treasured sword for defending the Korean nation and peace as it makes it possible to avert the aggression and war of outside forces and achieve the security and peace of the country and peaceful reunification with the might of the invincible army.
• Koguryo Porcelain Mirrors Resourcefulness of Korean Nation
  Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- Among the cultural heritage of Korea with a 5,000-year- long history is porcelain reflecting the talent and resourcefulness of the Koguryo people. Paek Sun Nam, a researcher of the Archaeological Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with KCNA that Koguryo porcelain shows the developed pottery culture of Korea in the middle ages.
• North Korea reportedly revises criminal codes
  December 09, 2004 ? Though North Korea is generally regarded as a dictatorial state, the country does have a long-standing criminal code, and now Pyeongyang is undertaking a number legal reforms to adapt laws to be more market friendly. According to the National Intelligence Service of South Korea, the North revised its criminal code last spring in an effort to extend rights to private property. North Korea also adopted new clauses protecting intellectual property, copyrights and trademarks, reflecting an intention to attract foreign investment. "Until now, orders from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and other leadership members were the law in the North," an intelligence official said. "But with these revised codes, law enforcement authorities are able to punish its citizens on reinforced legal grounds." [Economic reform]
• NK Adopts Market-Friendly Criminal Law
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea has strengthened legal measures to protect private property in a recent revision of its criminal law, while stiffening penalties for anti-state crimes, according to a copy obtained by a local broadcaster. [media] [economic reform]
• North Korea toughens laws on dissenters
  By Andrew Salmon International Herald Tribune Thursday, December 9, 2004 Seoul North Korea has revised its criminal code, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said Wednesday, in what appeared to be an effort to deter antistate activities. . The revisions also reduced sanctions against North Koreans who left the country for economic reasons. . South Korea's Ministry of Unification had no comment on the significance of the legal changes. [media] .
• Sources say North's political base gets a makeover
  December 08, 2004 ? The North Korea's Workers' Party, a key power center in the communist nation, has undergone a major shake-up, sources familiar with the internal affairs of the country said yesterday. The country's leader, Kim Jong-il, has directed a broad reshuffling of the party, the sources said. A source who closely follows political affairs in North Korea said the changes in the Workers' Party reflect an effort by Mr. Kim to assert greater power over the country's military. Known as "Dear Leader," Mr. Kim already heads the military as chairman of the National Defense Commission and controls the country's politics as general-secretary of the party. According to North Korea's constitution, the party commands the nation's judiciary, administration and military. The members of the party's Central Committee exercise power equivalent to that of a deputy prime minister in South Korea. The sources said the party's restructuring was carried out between September and November. The purge of Jang Song-thaek, Mr. Kim's brother-in- law and the second highest official of the party after Mr. Kim, triggered the shake-up, the sources noted. Mr. Jang was removed as the party's first deputy director in February after an apparent conflict with Pak Pong-ju, prime minister and the head of the North Korean cabinet in charge of economic reform measures. [Economic reform]
• Historic Relics Discovered in Kaesong Area
  Pyongyang, December 7 (KCNA) -- Historic relics and remains have been unearthed in twelve spots of the first stage construction site of the Kaesong industrial zone, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Among them are rude stone implements in the Paleolithic Age, earthenware fragments in the Neolithic Age and iron scissors, porcelains and broken roof-tiles in the periods of Koryo (918-1392) and Ri Dynasty (1392-1910). Forty historic relics were also excavated. They include a ruined house in the early period of the Middle Ages and four ruined buildings, 19 cellar tombs, 11 limestone tombs, two cremation tombs and one stone tomb belonging to the period of Koryo.
• Ex-South Korean Pastor Works for N. Korean Christian Federation
  DANDONG, China (Yonhap) - A South Korean pastor said to have been kidnapped by North Korea nearly a decade ago is active in the country's cloistered Christian community, a source in the Chinese border city said last weekend. Rev. Ahn Seung-un, 60, disappeared in 1995 in Yanji, a city in China's border province of Jilin, where he was helping North Koreans defect to South Korea after escaping hunger and suppression in their communist homeland. Citing various circumstantial evidence, South Korea accused North Korea of kidnapping the missionary from Seoul's Full Gospel Church, but the North insisted he defected voluntarily. Outside visitors later reported seeing Ahn attend Sunday church services in Pyongyang, the North's capital, but said they could not confirm he was there of his own free will because North Korean officials were always with him. For years, there was no word or report of Ahn in North Korea although Pyongyang officials said privately he was around in the Christian community. ``I saw him on North Korean television in 1999, when a public ceremony on Dangun aired," a frequent traveler to North Korea said, after Ahn's picture was shown to him by Yonhap News Agency. He identified Ahn as the vice chairman of the North's Christian Federation.
• Rodong Sinmun Calls for Struggling On, Guided by WPK's Idea and Line
  Pyongyang, December 2 (KCNA) -- The DPRK has won one victory after another despite the constant moves of the U.S. imperialists against it because the Korean people have been guided by the idea and line set out by leader Kim Jong Il. Their faith in the idea and line is unbreakable as it is growing stronger with the passage of time. Rodong Sinmun Thursday says this in an editorial. Pointing out that the validity, scientific accuracy, truth and tremendous vitality of his idea and line including the policy of building the Party, the state and the army and the policy of building economy and culture have been clearly testified to during the scores of years-long arduous struggle, the editorial continues
• DPRK Preserves Historic Relics Well
  Pyongyang, December 2 (KCNA) -- The historic relics have been preserved through a nation-wide campaign in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In November, a month for preserving cultural relics, many historic relics were repaired with the advent of winter through a mass campaign across the country. In Pyongyang, the Rakrang Earthen Wall was reinforced and a stone monument, explanatory board and caution sign were set up. A resting place for visitors has been built near the Komunmoru relics, the country's oldest primitive one, in Sangwon County, Pyongyang
• Production of Makkolli Put on Scientific Basis
  Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- Scientists of the Fermentation Institute under the Branch Academy of Light Industrial Science of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, have succeeded in putting the production of makkolli (crude liquor), a traditional drink of the Korean people, on a scientific and industrial basis
• Kim Jong-il Aide Gets Medical Treatment
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Cho Myung-rok, often described as the ``No. 3 man'' in North Korea's hierarchy, arrived in China last Monday to get medical treatment for a chronic illness, according to sources in Seoul Thursday. Cho, director of the General Political Department and once one of the closest military advisors to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, is said to suffer from renal failure, already having one kidney removed and the other transplanted in 2001. His health has deteriorated so much that renal dialysis is no longer effective for him, sources said. ``Cho arrived in Beijing on an extra flight from Pyongyang and is reportedly staying in the People's Liberation Army 301 Hospital, which the most upper-class Chinese frequent, '' a source in Seoul said, adding that ``close aides to Kim Jong-il often go abroad to get medical treatment.''
• Kim Jong Il's Boundless Respect for Kim Il Sung Disclosed by Portrait Story
  At an international meeting, there is only a portrait of the Late President Kim Il Sung. Photo shows a panel meeting of the 2nd World Congress of Korean Studies held at the People's Palace of Culture on August 4 and 5. Recently, ill-intentioned stories about problem of our leader's portrait were swirling around the world. Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reported on November 16 that only the late President Kim Il Sung's portrait was hung in the People's Palace of Culture according to foreign diplomats in Pyongyang. Since this report, mass media of the Western world, especially in South Korea, made various conjectures, such as the possibility of a power sift in the DPRK. It is fact that only Kim Il Sung's portrait is now hung on the wall of public buildings for foreigners in the DPRK. This measure means Kim Jong Il's intention to respect only Kim Il Sung. According to persons concerned with the People's Palace of Culture, a measure to hang only Kim Il Sung's portrait on the walls was taken, recently. Meanwhile, two portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are still hanging in every home and public institution. "It was, however, determined to hang only late president's portrait in conference and banquet halls for foreigners," a person concerned with the People's Palace of Culture said. In the DPRK, the problem of portraits was argued in the past and the problem also concerned Kim Jong Il's respect for Kim Il Sung then. When Kim Jong Il was appointed as the successor of the president in the middle of the 1970s, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea took a measure to hang Kim Jong Il's portrait with his father's one, but Kim Jong Il didn't approve it. Kim Jong Il firmly said that they should respect only Kim Il Sung and "I am just a follower of our leader Kim Il Sung. I can't approve of hanging his follower's portrait with the leader." "Now, Kim Jong Il is the supreme leader of the DPRK in name and in reality. However, he thinks that he is an eternal follower of Kim Il Sung as much as before," the person concerned with the People's Palace of Culture said. His words suggests that Korean people recognize the reason why the measure to remove Kim Jong Il's portraits from public buildings for foreigners were removed. Kim Jong Il amended the constitution so as to respect Kim Il Sung as the only Chairman and eternal leader of the DPRK when Kim Il Sung died. The portrait problem showed Kim Jong Il's boundless respect for Kim Il Sung.
• Sanctuary in Mt. Kuwol Registered as International Sanctuary
  The sanctuary in Mt. Kuwol in South Hwanghae Province of the DPRK was registered as an international sanctuary. It was decided at the 18th meeting of the International Coordinating Council for Man and Biosphere Programme of the UNESCO held in Paris on October 29.
• Measures to Prevent Bird Flu in Full Swing in DPRK
  The DPRK is directing great efforts to the prevention of bird flu after the recent recurrence of the epidemic in various Nordic and Asian countries. Kim Hyok Jin, vice-minister of Agriculture, who is also vice-chairman of the National Emergency Epizootic Prevention Committee, told the KCNA as follows. Even a case of bird flu has not been reported in the country. Basing itself on this success, the committee has started the anti-epidemic work again.
• `No AIDS Victim in North Korea'
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter A Pyongyang official has claimed that North Korea has no AIDS victims, a pro-Pyongyang Web site said Tuesday. ``Even though the world is suffering from the rising number of AIDS patients, we don't have a single victim from the disease,'' Choi Ung-jun, a health care official in the North, said during a recent interview with Korea Today, an English magazine in Pyongyang. The interview story, marking World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, was presented by the North's portal Internet site ``My Country'' at www.kcckp.net.
• Koryo, First Unified State That Succeeded to Koguryo
  Pyongyang, November 26 (KCNA) -- Candidate academician, Prof. and Dr. Pak Yong Hae who is working at the History Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences in an article contributed to Rodong Sinmun Friday cites historical facts to prove that Koryo, the first unified state in the history of Korea, succeeded to Koguryo which was a powerful state in the East. Koryo was a feudal state that was founded by its ancestral King Wang Kon in 918 and lasted for nearly 500 years till 1392 with Kaegyong (Kaesong at present) as its capital, the article says, and goes on:
• New mystery: missing badges
  November 25, 2004 ? As Seoul continued to issue official denials of political trouble in Pyeongyang, a senior South Korean intelligence official said yesterday that North Korean officials overseas are no longer wearing badges portraying the communist country's leader, Kim Jong-il. The significance of the change was unclear, but it follows unusual developments in the North, including the removal of portraits of Mr. Kim from public display. "We learned recently that North Koreans at the country's foreign missions and trading companies as well as those guiding foreigners inside the North are not wearing the Kim Jong-il badges," the intelligence official told the JoongAng Ilbo. North Koreans usually wear two badges, honoring the country's present and past leaders, Mr. Kim and his father, Kim Il Sung. North Korea ordered the Mansudae Art Studio, the largest art-producing facility in the country, to stop manufacturing the Kim Jong-il badges late last year, the official said
• Missing portraits said less than meets the eye
  November 22, 2004 ? A pro-Pyeongyang daily published in Japan denied that any change in North Korea's political scene has occurred amid recent reports that portraits of the regime's leader, Kim Jong-il, have been removed from public view. The Chosun Shinbo, a daily owned by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, said on Nov. 20, "It is true that the portrait of Chairman Kim Jong-il was taken down from an international conference site in North Korea, but in ordinary homes and public places, the portraits of both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il continue to be displayed." The paper added, "Speculation by the Western press that [the absence of Kim Jong-il's portrait] is due to internal power struggles is ridiculous."
• North denies portrait reports
  November 20, 2004 ? A senior North Korean official denied yesterday that portraits of the country's leader, Kim Jong-il, had been taken down in public places. In an interview with the China's Xinhua News Agency, Ri Gyong-son, the North Korean Foreign Ministry's public affairs official, said, "It didn't happen before and will never happen." Calling international media reports about the portraits "groundless fabrications," Mr. Ri said "the words are part of a plot by the United States and its allies who want to overthrow the DPRK."
• What's Happening in the North?
  Changes in Personality Cult for Kim Jong-il Draw Concern It seems that something is taking place or might have already happened in North Korea concerning its Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. The International Herald Tribune reported on Thursday that ``Tokyo analysts are debating the significance of an apparent downsizing of the personality cult'' for the North Korean leader. Their explanations range from a demotion of the Stalinist regime's absolute ruler to an official effort by Pyongyang to lower his profile at a time when the North is increasingly in Washington's sights for its nuclear program and human rights abuses, the IHI said.
• North Korea's Kim cult begins to fade from view
  Jonathan Watts, east asia correspondent Friday November 19, 2004 The Guardian The world's last major political personality cult could be fading, according to reports from North Korea. Portraits of the country's "Great General", Kim Jong-il, have been removed from several prominent locations in Pyongyang, including some hotels and the People's Cultural Palace, say news agencies and foreign observers. Pictures of the North Korean leader normally hang alongside images of his father, Kim Il- sung, on every major building, in every home, and on every train carriage. "Only a light rectangular spot on the yellow whitewashed wall and a nail have remained in the place where [one] portrait used to be," said a source quoted by Russia's Itar-Tass agency, the only foreign media organisation to have a correspondent in the reclusive communist state. The order to remove the pictures was issued several months ago, the agency said. The empty spaces have prompted much speculation, ranging from suggestions that Mr Kim may have lost his grip on power to the possibility that the frames are simply being refitted. A more convincing explanation is that he may be trying to remarket himself. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the leader recently sent out a directive ordering the removal of some pictures on the grounds that his image had been "lifted too high". Mr Kim is said to be an avid surfer of the internet, and will be aware that the semi- religious devotion he is supposed to inspire in his people is anachronistic and a feature of North Korea widely ridiculed elsewhere in north- east Asia.
• [Photo]Where is 'Dear Leader'?
  Photos from North Korea's state-run magazine Chosun of the People's Palace of Culture in Pyeongyang. In the photo on the left, taken in May, a portrait of the North leader, Kim Jong-il appears, but not in an August photo at right.
• Now you see Kim, now you don't
  November 19, 2004 ? As a guessing game goes on as to why portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il have disappeared from public display, North Korea analysts and foreign diplomats in Pyeongyang suggested yesterday that Mr. Kim appears to be toning down the personality cult surrounding him.
• Rumors Swirl Over Missing Portraits
  By Park Song-wu, Reuben Staines Staff Reporters Speculation surrounding the reported removal of portraits of ``Dear Leader'' Kim Jong-il from some public buildings and homes in North Korea continued to swirl Thursday but government officials, experts and defectors in Seoul dismissed suggestions of a underlying hierarchy shift in Pyongyang's leadership. Evidence has mounted since an initial report on Tuesday of the ubiquitous paintings of Kim being taken down from their usual position alongside those of his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung. In the latest development, a North Korean diplomat who defected to the South last year said Thursday that Kim himself ordered the portraits' removal as early as last year. ``It was a direct order from Kim Jong-il, but no one, not even high ranking officials, had the nerve to follow the order, so the portraits continued to hang,'' he said on condition of anonymity, adding that the removal of the portraits, which diplomats and aid workers in Pyongyang say began in August, may be the result of the order being reissued.
• Kim Jong-il Orders Removal of His Portraits: Source
  By Kim Kwang-tae SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is quietly taking down the portraits of leader Kim Jong-il at all public places and homes in what could signal a major change in the policy of the tightly controlled communist country, a source in Seoul said Wednesday. The order to remove Kim's portraits was issued three weeks ago by the leader himself, who is concerned that he "has been lifted too high," said the source who claims to have "good connections" in North Korea. A spokesman for the National Intelligence Service said his agency was trying to confirm the reported change in North Korea. Just like his father and president Kim Il-sung who died of heart failure in 1994, Kim Jong-il enjoys the status of a demi-God in North Korea. Until now, the portraits of the two Kims were hung side by side on the walls of all public buildings and homes. Based on a telephone conversation with his contact, a North Korean official, the source said that now, only the portraits of the senior Kim are seen at all public buildings and homes. "It's nothing to do with any problem such as incapacitation of (Kim Jong-il)," the source quoted his contact in North Korea as telling him.
• Kim Jong-il portraits reportedly disappear
  November 17, 2004 ? MOSCOW ? Portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il have been removed from public display in the North, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said yesterday from Beijing. In a telephone interview with Tass, an unnamed foreign diplomat in North Korea said guests at receptions hosted by North Korea's Foreign Ministry have been noticing that Mr. Kim's portraits have been missing from event venues, including the People's Palace of Culture in Pyeongyang. The report said portraits of Kim Il Sung, the current leader's father, still remained. The diplomat said a secret order had been issued to remove the portraits of Mr. Kim with no explanation. A South Korean government official said Seoul is trying to confirm the report. "We have begun intelligence analyses to see what this means ? if true," he said.
• Buddhists Enjoy Free Religious Activities in DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 11 (KCNA) -- The Buddhists are enjoying the freedom of religious activities in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. After the liberation of Korea President Kim Il Sung saw to it that the Buddhists found their genuine democratic organization representing their interests to lead a patriotic religious life. Visiting the Pohyon Temple in Mt. Myohyang in May Juche 36 (1947) and October 1949, he indicated the road to be taken by the Buddhists in the liberated country. When temples were destroyed and the believers' living was deteriorated during the three-year- long Korean War started by the U.S. imperialists, the President took steps to restore the ruined temples and stabilize their life even though the country's economic situation was difficult.
• New Books Off Press in DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 10 (KCNA) -- The Literature and Art Publishing House of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has brought out new novels titled "Blessing" and "the Way to the North" along with the book "Korean Music Selection for Piano" (Vols.3 and 4). "Blessing" and "The Way to the North" are based on the activities of unconverted long-term prisoners Ri Jae Ryong and Kim Yong Thae respectively. They show how the heroes kept to the revolutionary principle defying mediaeval torture and persistent appeasement by south Korean fascists. The novels raise as their ideological theme what is the secret for the unconverted long-term prisoners to overcome terrible sufferings and trials beyond human imagination. And the books expound in a profound way that it is their revolutionary conviction, obligation, conscience and ardent love for the country and the nation. They also stress that it is thanks to the trust in and love for them of the fatherland and nation, kith and kin and the deep care of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il.
• Winter Kimchi Prepared in Korea
  Pyongyang, November 9 (KCNA) -- November is a season of preparing kimchi for winter in Korea. Kimchi has been favorite food of the Korean people since ancient times. Kimchi is made in an industrial way in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. But most of the families still like to make it by themselves. Nowadays lorries loaded with vegetables are seen everywhere in streets and villages.
• Rodong Sinmun Calls for Victoriously Winding Up This Year's Work
  Pyongyang, November 8 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun Monday editorially calls for energetically striving to victoriously wind up the work of this year. This year is a significant year which has recorded events to be always remembered in the noble chronicle of the Juche revolution, declares the editorial, and continues: The army and the people of the DPRK boundlessly faithful to the party's leadership launched a vehement offensive from the beginning of this year's work
• Koguryo Tomb Murals in N. Korea Require Moisture Control
  [Yonhap,Oct.25th] North Korea's conservation of wall paintings in ancient tombs are "not bad," but require assistance from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and South Korea to combat humidity problems, a top UNESCO official said Monday. Mounir Bouchenaki, the UNESCO assistant director-general for culture, briefed reporters in Seoul about his five-day trip to the communist state.
• Historic Relics in Kaesong
  Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- Kaesong was the capital of Koryo (918-1392), the first united state of Korea. There are more than 100 historic relics and remains in Kaesong, which played an important role in the middle ages of Korea. They have been preserved in their original state for hundred of decades.
• Sanctuary in Mt. Kuwol Registered as International Sanctuary
  Pyongyang, November 5 (KCNA) -- The sanctuary in Mt. Kuwol in South Hwanghae Province of the DPRK was registered as an international sanctuary according to the decision of the 18th meeting of the International Coordinating Council for Man and Biosphere Programme of the UNESCO held in Paris on October 29. This was the second decision made by the UNESCO. The special sanctuary in the Revolutionary Battle Sites in Mt. Paektu, the most famous mountain in Korea, was registered as an international sanctuary in Juche 78 (1989). The latest decision of the UNESCO made it possible to conduct the work to protect the bio- diversity including the ecosystem and species of animals and plants in this area under the international care.
• Anniversary of UNESCO Observed
  Pyongyang, November 4 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson Thursday dedicates a signed article to the 58th founding anniversary of the UNESCO. Since its foundation the UNESCO has made not a small contribution to human civilization and development and global peace and security in line with its mission and purpose, the article says, and goes on: Considering that it is important to instill peace-loving spirit into the people so as to put an end to all wars and disputes, the UNESCO has identified it as its action principle and made a great deal of efforts for international development in education, science and culture.
  It was with the cooperation and help of the UNESCO that tombs with mural paintings dating back to the period of Koguryo in Korea were registered as a world heritage in last July.
  The DPRK will as ever strive to achieve rapid progress in education, science and culture to meet the intrinsic demand of man as a social being and actively cooperate with the UNESCO in its efforts for world development and security.
• Ceremony of Conveying Certificate of Registration of Koguryo Heritages on WHL Took Place
  The certificate is conveyed to Ri Ui Ha by Mounir Bouchenaki. The certificate of the registration of mural tombs belonging to the Koguryo Dynasty as the world heritages was conveyed to the DPRK. A ceremony of conveying the certificate took place at the Grand People's Study House on October 20. A total of 63 Koguryo tombs with murals including King Tongmyong's Mausoleum and the mural tombs in Tokhung-ri and Yaksu-ri were registered as the world's heritages at the 28th meeting of the World Heritage Committee of the UNESCO in July.
• First Mural Tomb of Palhae Unearthed in Korea
  PYONGYANG, October 22 (KCNA)-- The first mural tomb of Palhae was recently unearthed by an archaeological research group of the Academy of Social Sciences in Kumsong-ri, Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Air Force Unit
  Pyongyang, October 12 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, inspected KPA Air Force Unit 2623. He was accompanied by KPA Generals Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and Ri Yong Chol, member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and first vice department director of its Central Committee. He learned about the unit's performance of the duty before looking round its combat and technical equipment.
  Going round tall trees in the compound, he said it is necessary to put the work to create woodland and greenery on a scientific and technical basis under a long-term plan in order to spruce up the barracks like a park. He taught ways to do so one by one. He dropped in at a flight training hall and met airmen in training. He acquainted himself in detail with their service ranging from their training to their dresses and had a warm conversation with them. Then he took deep care of airmen's service and living, looking round a servicemen's hall, a bedroom, a mess hall, a kitchen, a washroom, a daily provision store and other places. He was greatly satisfied to learn that the unit has provided best conditions for servicemen's living and built modern entertainment and logistic facilities to suit the characteristic feature of the airmen, in particular. He underlined the need for the commanding officers to show special care for the airmen's living.
• North Korea - A Day in the Life of
  Dutch film
• Dutch commentary on "North Korea - A Day in the Life of"
  The entire film, as well as the reaction of the North Korean "actors" when he screened the film there, can be viewed online at the Dutch TV station VPRO's site: http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/18793755/ (The links are on the right hand side, titled "Video" - the first one is the 48min film itself, the second one are pictures from the screening in North Korea). The film is in Korean (and some English), with Dutch subtitles.
• Foundation Day of Korea Celebrated
  Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) -- A function was held in front of King Tangun's Mausoleum Sunday to commemorate the Foundation Day of Korea. Present there were Kim Yong Dae, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly who is chairman of the National Reconciliation Council, Ryu Mi Yong, chairperson of the Council for the Reunification of Tangun's Nation (CRTN), O Ik Je, vice-chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, officials concerned and overseas Koreans visiting the socialist homeland. A memorial service for King Tangun took place first.
  Recalling that President Kim Il Sung found the ancestral father of the nation and leader Kim Jong Il rebuilt his grave into a grand mausoleum,
• Legend on Formation of Koguryo
  Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) -- There are many legends on Koguryo (277 B.C.-668 A.D.), a powerful nation in the East. The legend on the formation of Koguryo is one of them. It serves as important data in the study of history as it reflects the course of the building of Koguryo by Jumong and the then social life. The oldest one of the legends is the story about the national building inscribed in the stone monument to the King Kwanggaetho's Mausoleum erected in Jian, Jilin Province, China in the year 414.
• 9th Pyongyang Film Festival Held
  World Film Fest Attracts Movie-Loving Koreans
• 56th Foundation Day of DPRK Commemorated
  Evening Galas, Banquets and Other Colorful Events Held
• N-S Joint Photo Exhibition to Mark Registration of Koguryo Relics on World Heritage List
  A North-South joint photo exhibition hailing the registration of Koguryo relics as the World Cultural Heritage took place at the Mt. Kumgamg resort on September 11. On display there were 70 photos showing mural paintings at 15 tombs dating back to the period of Koguryo out of those registered as the World Cultural Heritage in July including the Tomb of King Tongmyong, the Tokhung-ri Tomb, the Susan-ri Tomb and the Yaksu-ri Tomb.
• Adherence to Juche Character and National Identity Urged
  Pyongyang, September 30 (KCNA) -- Juche character and national identity must be firmly maintained in the revolution and construction, if all the moves of the imperialists and reactionaries are to be frustrated, the independent development of the country and the nation be achieved and the cause of global independence be accomplished, says Rodong Sinmun in a signed article
• Exhibits Showing Might of Koguryo
  Pyongyang, September 30 (KCNA) -- The Korean Central History Museum in Pyongyang is visited every day by some 1,000 people. Several thousand pieces of relics showing the long Korean history from the primitive age to modern times are displayed in 19 rooms of the museum. Among them are more than 400 pieces of relics belonging to the period of Koguryo (B.C.277-668 A.D.). They show well the might of Koguryo, which existed as a powerful state in the East in the mediaeval history of Korea. It has been proved by the historical documents -- "Samguksagi" of Korea and "Bei Shi", "Wei Guishu" and "Tang Huiyao" of China-- in a scientific way that Koguryo had existed from the 3rd century before Christ.
• 'Revered' Wife of North Korean Leader Reported Dead
  By Anthony Faiola and Joohee Cho Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, August 27, 2004; Page A18 TOKYO -- South Korean officials said Thursday they were investigating reports that the woman considered to be North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's most influential wife has died after a long battle with breast cancer. News that Ko Young Hee -- idolized in North Korea as the nation's "revered mother" -- apparently succumbed to her illness was first reported Wednesday on the Web site of an investigative journalist for Chosun, a monthly South Korean magazine based in Seoul. South Korea's government-owned KBS Television followed up Thursday with a similar report, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Beijing. Officials in Seoul said they were still trying to confirm the death. Ko, 52, has been viewed as the foremost of at least three women considered to be among Kim's wives or consorts, though it remains unclear whether he officially married any of them. Little is known about Ko, but details about her life were provided by U.S. and South Korean intelligence analysts who specialize in North Korea.
• Song Ho Gyong Dies
  Pyongyang, September 20 (KCNA) -- Song Ho Gyong, deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, vice-director of a department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and vice-chairman of the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee (KAPPC), died of a long illness on September 19, Juche 93 (2004) at the age of 63. KAPPC issued an obituary on Sunday.
• Senior NK Official Dies
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter A senior North Korean official who contributed to inter-Korean relations has died of a chronic disease, Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA reported Monday. Song Ho-kyong, vice chairman of the North's Asia- Pacific Peace Committee, passed away at the age of 63 on Sunday, the North's mouthpiece reported without providing any further details. The committee is in charge of managing economic projects involving South Korea
• NK Intensifies Border Security
  TOKYO - North Korea has deployed a unit of elite combat soldiers along its border with China in a bid to crack down on defectors, a Japanese daily reported Sunday. Citing a Chinese state journal on international affairs, the Yomiuri Shimbun said that the unit, which is under the control of Pyongyang's National Defense Commission, has been moved from the country's border with South Korea. The porous border between China and North Korea has been a major channel for North Koreans to flee from the communist regime. China has installed surveillance cameras every one kilometer along its border with North Korea in Jilin Province to monitor such defections, the newspaper said.
• Wax Statues of Tangun and Madam Displayed
  Pyongyang, September 16 (KCNA) -- Wax statues of Tangun and madam have newly been displayed at the Korean Folklore Museum. Tangun is the father of the Korean nation and the founder of Kojoson (ancient Korea), the first state in the East (early 30th century B.C.-108 B.C.) The wax statues were created by the Mansudae Art Studio on the basis of their portraits. The heights of the statues are 190 cm and 172 cm respectively. They are clad in folk silk dresses. The display enables the visitors to see the figures of Tangun and madam who had long been considered to be a myth, and get a good understanding of the fine tradition of national costume belonging to the ancient Korea.
• 9th Pyongyang Film Festival Opens
  Pyongyang, September 13 (KCNA) -- The 9th Pyongyang Film Festival opened Sunday at the Pyongyang International Cinema House. Present at the opening ceremony were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, officials concerned, script writers and screen actors and actresses, working people in the city, delegations and delegates from different countries and a delegation of the General Association o f Korean Residents in Japan.
• Pyongyang Intl. Books Fair Opens
  Pyongyang, September 13 (KCNA) -- The 4th Pyongyang International Scientific and Technological Books Fair was opened at the Grand People's Study House Sunday. The fair drew at least 10 countries and 27 bodies under the in ternational organizations. Put on display are valuable scientific and technological books and materials on many fields.
• The 2nd World Congress of Korean Studies
  Scholars Hold Meeting to Presenting Results of Research in Korean Issues
  The Second World Congress of Korean Studies was held in Pyongyang from August 4 to 5, participated in by more than 350 scholars, specialists and researchers of Korean studies. The congress was the academic meeting of scholars and researchers who study Korean issues including Korean politics, economics, history and literature. The academic meeting was participated in by 330 Korean scholars and researchers, 300 from the DPRK and 30 from overseas. A total of 22 foreign scholars also attended the two-day meeting. A total of 150 theses were read in the congress. Panel meetings were held in nine sections, such as philosophy, sociology and politics, economics and law, history, literature, linguistics, ethnic art, pedagogy and culture, science and technology. The first congress was held in Seoul, South Korea. South Korean scholars were unable to attend the meeting, because Pyongyang has restricted the entry of South Koreans into North Korea as a countermeasure against Seoul's ban on the visit of South Korea's civilian party to North Korea on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the late President Kim Il Sung.
• Koguryo Tile Tomb Discovered
  Pyongyang, September 2 (KCNA) -- A tile tomb belonging to Koguryo (B.C.277-A.D.668) has been discovered in Woldang-ri, Sinwon County, South Hwanghae Province, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The tomb was found in the mid- slope of a mountain. The floor, walls and cover of the chamber were made with tiles.
• National Angling Contest Held in Pyongyang
  Pyongyang, September 7 (KCNA) -- A national angling contest took place in Pyongyang on September 6, the 45th birthday of the Korean Anglers Association. The picturesque parade of the Taedong River between the Tower of Juche Idea and Taedong Bridge was crowded with more than 50 contestees, members of the association, anglers and spectators. The contest was also attended by officials from ministries and national institutions.
• 'Revered' Wife of North Korean Leader Reported Dead
  By Anthony Faiola and Joohee Cho Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, August 27, 2004; Page A18 TOKYO -- South Korean officials said Thursday they were investigating reports that the woman considered to be North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's most influential wife has died after a long battle with breast cancer. News that Ko Young Hee -- idolized in North Korea as the nation's "revered mother" -- apparently succumbed to her illness was first reported Wednesday on the Web site of an investigative journalist for Chosun, a monthly South Korean magazine based in Seoul. South Korea's government-owned KBS Television followed up Thursday with a similar report, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Beijing. Officials in Seoul said they were still trying to confirm the death. Ko, 52, has been viewed as the foremost of at least three women considered to be among Kim's wives or consorts, though it remains unclear whether he officially married any of them. Little is known about Ko, but details about her life were provided by U.S. and South Korean intelligence analysts who specialize in North Korea.
• Ninth Pyongyang Film Festival to Be Held
  Pyongyang, August 19 (KCNA) -- The 9th Pyongyang Film Festival of Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries will be held in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from September 12 to 20. More than 30 countries will participate in the festival with 90-odd feature and documentary films.
• Rodong Sinmun on Unique Idea and Theory in Socio- Class Relations
  Pyongyang, August 13 (KCNA) -- A major characteristic in socio-class relations at present is that a big change has taken place in the position and role played by social communities in the process of the development of the times and history, says Rodong Sinmun Friday in a signed article. This big change can be explained by the fact that the revolutionary army has emerged the driving force and the core force of the revolution, the article says, and goes on: The working class has played a role as the driving force of the revolution in the past. But the times have advanced and socio-historical conditions have changed. The working class today is fundamentally different from that in the period of industrial capitalism and proletarian revolution in view of the environment of the times, labor and social position of the working class and the actual situation of the working class movement today. The revolutionary army has the highest revolutionary and militant spirit and the strongest sense of organization than any other group. [Songun]
• Old Earthen Steamers Unearthed in DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) -- Two earthen steamers were discovered at sites of houses in the Neolithic era, relics in Masan-ri of Pongsan County, North Hwanghae Province, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. They, which are believed to date back to 7,000 years ago, were unearthed at Nos.5 and 21 of 12 house sites belonging to the middle of the Neolithic era. They were made by mixing clay with asbestos. They show well the traditional features of the culture of the Pyongyang area in the Neolithic era.
• Second World Congress of Korean Studies Opens
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- The Second World Congress of Korean Studies opened in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Present there were vice-premier of the Cabinet Ro Tu Chol, President of the Academy of Social Sciences Thae Hyong Chol, senior officials in the fields of science and education and officials concerned. Attending it are the DPRK delegation, delegations and delegates from China, Russia, Japan, Spain, the United States, Australia and other countries, delegations and delegates of overseas Koreans.
• Koguryo Heritages, Korean Nation's Pride Become Common Asset of Humankind
  Once Deferred Registration The DPRK ratified the treaty of world heritages in July 1998 and joined the ICOMOS in October that year. In the DPRK, the administration work on cultural heritages had been entrusted to the Preservation and Administration Bureau of Culture under the umbrella of the Culture Ministry, but in February 2002, the Bureau reorganized into the Preservation and Guidance Bureau of Culture, an independence organization. Therefore, the DPRK became able to focus on the work for registration of historical heritages of the DPRK on the world heritage list.
• 51st Anniversary of Victory in Korean War Commemorated
  July 27 is the anniversary day of the Korean people's victory in the war against U.S. aggression. The 51st anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War (Korean War) was commemorated in the DPRK. Various events were held in Pyongyang. July 27 is a legal holiday in the DPRK. Television broadcasts documentary films of the war and songs which had been sung in time of the war were broadcast.
• 10th Anniversary of Kim Il Sung's Demise
  Memorial Events Held in DPRK The 10th anniversary of the death of President Kim Il Sung was commemorated in the DPRK. Various events were held early in July all over the country. pyongyangites pray silently in front of Pyongyang station.
• 10 Years of DPRK with SONGUN Policy
  Ten years have passed since Kim Il Sung's heart stopped beating. All people of the DPRK suffered from grief then, but by and by people have changed their grief and tears into power and courage in the past 10 years. Various difficulties occured in these 10 years in the DPRK such as natural disasters and the U.S.'s hostile policy against the DPRK. Whenever the DPRK met with a difficulty, people overcame it with Kim Jong Il's great leadership and his Songun (army-first) policy.
• Koguryo Heritages registered on World Heritage List
  Suzhou-- The 28th session of the World Heritage Committee was held in Suzhou, China, from June 28 to July 7. At the session, the "Koguryo Heritages" were registered on the world heritage list. It was the first time that heritages in the DPRK were registered on the world heritages list.
• Dels. and Delegates Arrive to Attend 2nd World Conference on Koreanology
  Pyongyang, August 3 (KCNA) -- Delegates of Russia, the United States, China, Australia, Japan, Spain and other countries arrived here today to attend the 2nd World Conference on Koreanology. Also arriving were delegates of Koreans from the United States, China Japan, Spain and other countries. Earlier, a delegation of the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences of China and a delegation of Korean social scientists in Japan arrived here.
• Children Received at Songdowon International Children's Camp
  Pyongyang, August 2 (KCNA) -- Joyful camping of schoolchildren from different countries began at the Songdowon International Children's Camp. A ceremony for receiving campers was held on August 1. Kil Chol Hyok, secretary of the Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, Chae Il Ryong, vice-chairman of the Kangwon Provincial People's Committee, and other officials concerned were present there with schoolchildren's camping groups from China, Russia, Mongolia and Tanzania, camping groups of Korean schoolchildren from China and Russia and host Korean schoolchildren.
• Anniversary of Promulgation of Law on Sex Equality Observed
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- Papers Friday dedicate editorials to the 58th anniversary of the promulgation of the law on sex equality. Rodong Sinmun says that the Korean women are proud of having led a worthy life generation after generation under the care of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il. The promulgation of the law on July 30, Juche 35 (1946) freed the Korean women from all sorts of age-old fetters and social inequality and enabled them to devote all their wisdom and energies to the drive to glorify the country, the homeland with the equal rights with men, the paper notes, and goes on:
• NORTH KOREA: BEYOND THE DMZ
  Film by JT Takagi & Hye Jung Park / Edited by Dena Mermelstein (56 min./Color/2003)
• Koguryo Tombs with Mural Paintings, World Cultural Heritage
  Pyongyang, July 19 (KCNA) -- The tombs with murals belonging to the period of Koguryo (277 B.C. to 668 A.D.), the first feudal state of Korea, were registered at the 28th meeting of the World Heritage Committee of the UNESCO held at Suzhou, China as cultural heritage of the world. They include King Tongmyong's mausoleum and over 60 tombs with murals including those in Tokhung-ri and Yaksu-ri. They are precious cultural wealth of the Korean nation showing its time-honored history and wisdom.
• Over 7.9 Million Servicepersons and People Visit Kim Il Sung's Statues
  Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- An endless stream of officers and men of the three services of the Korean People's Army and people from all walks of life across the country flowed to the statues of President Kim Il Sung, revolutionary museums and revolutionary sites in humble reverence on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his demise. At least 7.9 million servicepersons, party members, working people, school youth and children across the country visited his statues, laid more than 7,300 floral baskets and over 3.6 million bouquets and flowers before them and paid deep homage to him.
• World No Tobacco Day Marked
  Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- An event was held at the People's Palace of Culture Monday to mark the "World Day of No Smoking". Choe Chang Sik, vice-minister of Public Health, made an inaugural speech and then followed a congratulatory speech by Eigil Sorensen, representative of the World Health Organization here. Noting that the theme of the "World Day of No Smoking" is "Control over tobacco and poverty", speakers said that smoking is harmful to health and has a baneful impact on the efforts to lead a more civilized life.
• No-Smoking Campaign in DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 31(KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has joined the world- wide trend towards the building of a new world without tobacco in the new century. Smoking has become one of the world's serious problems as it endangers human existence, destructs the ecological environment of nature and gives great damage to the socio-economic activities.
• Rebuilding, Rumors Robust 5 Weeks After N.Korea Blast
  By REUTERS Published: May 27, 2004 Filed at 6:17 a.m. ET SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korean workers are rapidly rebuilding the town destroyed by a deadly train blast last month, but the rumor mill about the explosion is working just as fast. [media]
• Ancient Korea, First State in East
  Pyongyang, May 10 (KCNA) -- Ancient Korea was the first state in the East which existed from the early 30th century B.C. to 108 B.C. in a vast area of northeastern Asia. Pyongyang was the capital of the state and Tangun is the founder of the country.
• Witness Says Report on DPRK's BC Weapon Testing Is Fabrication
  "We Make False Documents of Showing Chemical Weapons Testing on Prisoners"--Summary of Testimony of Kang Family At a press conference in Pyongyang on March 30, Kang Byong Sop (second from the left most) and his family talk about the detail of the forged documents on "the chemical weapons test by the DPRK." An alleged report that chemical weapons were tested on prisoners in the DPRK proved false. Kang Byong Sop, 57, who leaked documents on the alleged chemical weapons test by the DPRK, appeared with his family at a press conference in Pyongyang on March 30 and said that the evidence was a fabrication. He testified that the evidence he supplied, which was first reported by the BBC, was in fact faked by his son who was escaped to South Korea. [human rights] [media]
• National Symposium Marks Anniversary of Koguryo
  Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- A national symposium was held at the Grand People's Study House Tuesday to mark the 2280th anniversary of the founding of Koguryo. Kim Jong Yong, vice-president of the Academy of Social Sciences, made a report titled "Koguryo was strong country that had existed for a thousand years in Korea in middle ages" to be followed by speeches. The reporter and speakers referred to the fact that the history of Koguryo, a sovereign state that occupies an important place in the history of Korea, was seriously distorted by hack historians of the Japanese imperialists in the past.
• Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, May 3 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, inspected KPA Unit 4302
• . First Report of N. Korean Leader After Train Blast
  By REUTERS Published: May 3, 2004 Filed at 3:33 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's leader made his first appearance since last month's deadly train explosion, according to official media that also kept up rhetorical attacks against Washington despite a U.S. offer of emergency aid. Kim Jong-il inspected a military unit and met soldiers, the official KCNA news agency said in a report on Monday that did not mention when the inspection by the elusive leader took place. .. Kim was ``satisfied to see all officers and men of the unit trained as match-for-hundred fighters capable of successfully undertaking any combat duty under any circumstances,'' KCNA said. As the United States awaited word on whether Pyongyang would accept the U.S. offer of help, the North denounced Washington's decision to keep its listing of the North as a state sponsor of terrorism.
• The Korean Civil Society Statement on human rights
  The Korean Civil Society Statement Regarding The North Korean Freedom Act of 2003 and North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004
  By MINBYUN (Lawyers for a Democratic Society), SARANGBANG Group for Human Rights, Good Friends, Center for Peace and Disarmament of the PSPD (People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy), Catholic Human Rights Committee in Korea, The Human Rights Committee The National Council of Churches in Korea, Civil Network for A Peaceful Korea, Solidarity for Peace & Human Rights, Korean House for International Solidarity, DASAN Human Rights Center, Korea Reunification Alliance for 6.15 Joint Declaration Attainment and Peace in Korea.
  Korean civil society is watching with grave concern the development of the North Korean Freedom Act of 2003, and the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, now pending in the U.S. Congress. If passed, both bills will have significant impact on future negotiations over human rights issues in North Korea. In reviewing the North Korean Freedom Act in particular, we have concluded that the proposed bill will negatively affect the fragile dialogue process under way to establish sustainable peace on the Korean peninsula while jeopardizing the chance to improve human rights conditions in North Korea.
• 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival Opens
  Pyongyang, April 10 (KCNA) -- The 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival was opened with splendor at the April 25 House of Culture here today. The festival has brought together government cultural delegations from different countries, prominent figures related to culture, winners of international and national concours, art groups, acrobatic troupes and famous actors and actresses from over 40 countries and overseas Korean artistes.
• Premiere of 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival Held
  Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) -- Premieres of the 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival took place at theatres in Pyongyang�@Sunday. Performances were given at the Mansudae Art Theater, the Ponghwa Art Theatre, the Pyongyang Grand Theatre, the Pyongyang�@International Cinema House, the Moranbong Theatre, the Yun I Sang Concert Hall, the Central Youth Hall and the Central Workers Hall.
• Korea, Cradle of Humankind
  Pyongyang, April 13 (KCNA) -- Korea, which boasts of many picturesque rivers and mountains, is one of the several cradles of humankind in the world. It has been proved by many relics and remains belonging to the beginning period of humankind discovered in Pyongyang and other areas of the Korean peninsula.
• DPRK Orders and Medals Awarded to Foreign Figures
  Pyongyang, April 16 (KCNA) -- A ceremony was held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall yesterday to confer orders and medals of the DPRK on visiting foreign figures on the occasion of the Day of the Sun.
• 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival Closes
  Pyongyang, April 18 (KCNA) -- The 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival that was opened here on April 10 on the occasion of the�@Day of the Sun, an auspicious holiday common to humankind, closed. A closing ceremony took place at the April 25 House of Culture Sunday.
• Message of Thanks to Participants in April Spring Friendship Art Festival
• World Day of Health Observed
  Pyongyang, April 7 (KCNA) -- April 7 is the "World Day of Health". On this day a function on the subject of "Safety on Roads" was held at the March 1 Bus Station of the Pyongyang Passenger Transport Complex today
• Pong Su crew apply for bail
  April 19, 2004 - 4:05PM The owners of the North Korean freighter involved in the importation of Victoria's largest intercepted haul of heroin today offered $1 million bail surety for the captain, chief mate and chief engineer. The Pong Su allegedly carried 125kg of high-grade heroin worth $164 million into Australian waters. Twenty-seven other crew members aboard the freighter also were accused of helping to import the heroin, but were discharged last month because of insufficient evidence. The ship's captain and six others - including an on-shore party - have been committed to stand trial. The captain, Song Man Sun, 65, chief mate Ri Man Jin, 50, and chief engineer Ri Ju Chon, 50, who have pleaded not guilty to aiding and abetting the importation of heroin, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court today to apply for bail. Acting for the men, Peter Faris, QC, told the court they should be granted bail because all were of ill-health and were finding life within Barwon Prison "very difficult". He said the company which owns the freighter would provide a $1 million cash surety and the men would be housed in the North Korean embassy in Canberra. He said the embassy would be responsible for the men reporting to the Australian Federal Police at least once or twice daily. Mr Faris acknowledged that in theory Australian justice departments had no rights to access the men if they were at the embassy, which is viewed as North Korean land. But he said there were "nil chances" of the embassy breaking their agreement. "The reason they have the embassy here is promote good relations and it would be a major diplomatic incident if they were not offered up."
• Misery and Terror: Systematic Violations of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in North Korea
  Situation Report on the occasion of the examination by the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of the second periodic report of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. April 14, 2004 International Human Rights NGOs have no access to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which means that any attempt to monitor the human rights situation in the country is extremely difficult. The only way to bypass that difficult is to gather testimonies from North Korean refugees who fled the country and succeeded in resettlement in a third country. Local human rights NGOs are non existent in the DPRK because of the severe repression exercised by the authorities against all forms of criticism with regard to the official policy. That situation explains why recent sources on the real human rights situation in the DPRK are very scarce. The present report has been elaborated on the basis of written sources, including testimonies by people who fled the DPRK; accounts by humanitarian NGOs who carried out humanitarian activities in the DPRK have been taken into account as well. [human rights]
• Posters for 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival Published
  Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- Posters have been published on the threshold of the 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival to open on the occasion of the Day of the Sun. They include posters depicting Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia and pigeons flying over beautiful flowers in full bloom, carrying a slogan "Let's Loudly Sing the Song of Independence, Peace and Friendship!" and vividly portraying smiling artistes holding aloft the logo of the festival. There are also posters depicting artistes from many countries of the world enthusiastically singing songs and playing a variety of musical instruments. Some posters dealing with elegant dances of artistes and acrobats' skillful performance in the air indicate that colorful numbers will be staged during the festival.
• New School Year Starts in DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- The new school year has begun Thursday in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Opening ceremonies were held at all schools throughout the country including Kim Il Sung University, Kim Song Ju Primary School, Pyongyang Middle School No. 1. The ceremony places were decorated with streamers welcoming the newcomers and colorful flowers. Teachers, pupils, students and parents threw confetti over them when the newcomers were entering schools.
• Second Session of 11th SPA of DPRK Held
• Truth behind False Report about "Experiment of Chem. Weapons on Human Bodies" in DPRK Disclosed
  Pyongyang, March 30 (KCNA) -- Kang Pyong Sop and his family who are makers of false documents about the "experiment of chemical weapons on human bodies" in the DPRK called a press conference at the People's Palace of Culture here Tuesday to clarify the truth behind the false report about this experiment in the DPRK released by media of south Korea and the West. He said: There are five members in my family including myself, my wife, two sons and a daughter who is married. The documents on "experiment of chemical weapons on human bodies" widely misused by enemies were false documents fabricated by my first son Kang Song Guk, who defected to the south seven years ago, and my family, he said, disclosing the truth of the case before Korean and foreign journalists as the maker, observer and witness of those false documents. [Human rights] [black]
• N. Korean News Agency Says Witness Lied
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 30, 2004 Filed at 10:47 p.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A North Korean engineer credited with smuggling out documents on alleged gas chamber experiments in the isolated communist state said Tuesday that the papers were fake. Kang Pyong Sop, 59, said he was tricked into handing fabricated documents over to South Korean human rights activists, according to the North's state-run KCNA news agency. Rights activists in February released papers they said were from Kang that verified North Korea was conducting gas chamber experiments on political prisoners. However, there was no way to confirm the documents' authenticity. It was unclear under what circumstances Kang held the news conference. ``The documents on 'experiment of chemical weapons on human bodies' widely misused by enemies were false documents fabricated by my first son Kang Song Guk -- who defected to the South 7 years ago -- and my family,'' Kang said on Tuesday, according to KCNA. Rights activists had said that Kang, an engineer at the North Korean chemicals complex, was arrested with his wife and a son by Chinese authorities while trying to cross from China to Laos on Jan. 3 in an attempt to defect to South Korea, where Kang's son Song Guk had already gone. Kang said he met Song Guk in China in November, and the son gave him fake, blank official documents and asked him to write in the accounts of gas chamber experiments. The son claimed such documents could fetch ``a huge sum of money'' from South Korean human rights activists, Kang said. [Human rights]
• Defector returned to N Korea
  A North Korean man who leaked evidence that chemical weapons were tested on prisoners has apparently been handed back to North Korea by China. Kang Byong-sop, detained in China in January, appeared at a press conference in Pyongyang with his family, according to China's Xinhua news agency. He said the evidence he supplied, which was first reported by the BBC, was in fact faked by his son, Xinhua said. Before his return, rights groups said Mr Kang could face torture or death. The evidence provided by Mr Kang, a so-called letter of transfer, appeared to authorise chemical weapons testing on political prisoners. I am quite happy that he's still alive
  The letter was featured in a BBC documentary broadcast in February, whose allegations were dismissed by North Korea as US-inspired propaganda. Mr Kang, 58, was stopped in January in China's Yunnan province as he tried to cross into Laos, according to human rights activist Kim Sang-hun. In February, Mr Kim called on the UK and other governments to stop China from handing Mr Kang to North Korea, where he would face an uncertain future. "I said then, if he was taken back to North Korea he would be forced to make a press statement; it's what I anticipated," Mr Kim told BBC News Online on Wednesday. At the Pyongyang press conference, Mr Kang said his eldest son, who had escaped abroad, had faked the transfer document in order to make money from human rights organisations. Mr Kang and his family said they felt sorry that the fake materials were misused by foreign media "to attack the fatherland", Xinhua reported. Mr Kim stood by the document's authenticity. "I can understand what they can say, but I have my own views," he said. But he said he was happy that the press conference showed Mr Kang was still alive, and said human rights organisations would keep a watch on North Korea. 'Propaganda' Pyongyang has described claims it used political prisoners to test gases for chemical weapons as "US propaganda". [Human rights]
• Architectural Festival in Pyongyang
  Pyongyang, March 26 (KCNA) -- The Fourth May 21 Architectural Festival, which was opened on March 23 at the People's Palace of Culture, is going on until Friday, the 50th anniversary of the Korean Union of Architects. The festival has been visited by a large number of people including local architects and foreigners.
• Degree of Doctor of Linguistics Awarded to Chinese Correspondent in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 26 (KCNA) -- Zhao Jiaming, chief correspondent of the Bureau of the Chinese People's Daily in Pyongyang, was awarded the degree of doctor of linguistics of the DPRK for having made a great contribution to the improvement of the translation level and skill by systematizing the grammatical study of the Korean-Chinese contrastive translation
• New Photo Book Reveals Korea as it Was 100 Years Ago
• Second Session of 11th SPA of DPRK Held
• Arms budget in North is increasing, estimate says
  North Korea has expanded its defense spending since its leader, Kim Jong-il, gave the communist country's military top priority several years ago, according to South Korean government internal reports that were revealed yesterday
  The North also conducted three civil defense drills, including one for a scenario in which it was under a nuclear attack, according to the reports.
  Last year, North Korea spent 15.7 percent of its budget for military projects," a South Korean government official told the JoongAng Ilbo. "For two consecutive years, its defense expenditures exceeded its target." The unification ministry here, however, believes that the North's military expenditures are actually far larger than the official 15 percent of the budget. Its estimate is 30 percent, including spending on export industries.
• No Other Country But DPRK Deals Blow to U.S., Says U.S. Public Figure
  Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- John Paul Cupp, chairman of the U.S. Group for the Study of Songun Politics, in an article headlined "Developing countries have the right to possess weapons of mass destruction" dedicated to Internet homepage on March 10 said that no other country but the DPRK deals a heroic and principled blow to the U.S. He went on: The developing countries have the right to possess weapons of mass destruction. If Iraq had had weapons of mass destruction as a deterrent, it would not have been as it is. [Bizarre]
• International conference tackles Goguryeo dispute
  Korean and foreign scholars yesterday explored the red-hot issue of which country has a historical claim to the Goguryeo Kingdom, during an international conference at the Seoul Museum of History in downtown Seoul. The two-day conference, with 20 scholars from six countries in attendance, including Japan, Russia and the United States, was designed to provide a balanced view on the debate raging between Korea and China over the ancient kingdom, which existed from 37 B.C. to A.D. 668
  Sun Jinji, a research fellow of the Shenyang East Asia Center, argued in a paper submitted to the conference that China and Korea shared the history of the Goguryeo Kingdom. "There is no denying that China now occupies two-thirds of ancient Goguryeo territory, and North Korea one-third. Therefore, the two countries jointly succeed the ancient kingdom," Sun said. The Chinese scholar, who canceled his visit to Seoul, said in his paper that Goguryeo belonged to China given that its kings received formal royal titles from the central Chinese government. But Korean scholars have been countering such arguments, saying the tribute-investiture system was just a formality and that if the same logic applied to other countries, Silla, Baekje and Japan should be incorporated into China's history as well. [Koguryo]
• Foreign Diplomats Visit Ponghwa Revolutionary Site
• Idea of "Aim High!" Carried Forward through Centuries
  Pyongyang, March 22 (KCNA) -- March 23 is the 87th anniversary of the formation of the Korean National Association (KNA) by Kim Hyong Jik, an outstanding leader of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement of the Korea
• 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival to Be Held
  Pyongyang, March 21 (KCNA) -- The 22nd April Spring Friendship Art Festival will be held in Pyongyang on the occasion of the Day of the Sun. This festival will be an international art one to significantly commemorate the Day of the Sun reflecting the unanimous will and desire of the progressives and artistes of the world to highly praise the immortal revolutionary exploits performed by President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il in realizing the human cause of independence and glorify them century after century. The festival will bring together at least 80 art troupes and circus groups of international and national concours prize winners and famous actors and actresses from more than 40 countries on the five continents, art troupes of overseas Koreans and Korean artistes. Vocal music, instrumental music, dance, circus and other colorful numbers will be on the stage. The festival will contribute to strengthening the friendship and solidarity and cultural exchange and cooperation between the peoples and artistes of various countries of the world in the idea of independence, peace and friendship and give a strong impetus to the struggle of the Korean people in launching the revolutionary offensive on all fronts of building a great prosperous powerful nation true to the Songun revolutionary leadership of Kim Jong Il.
• Measures to Prevent Yellow Sand Damage Taken in DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 17 (KCNA) -- Health of people and natural environment have been damaged seriously by storms of fine yellow sand in some areas of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Such phenomena, caused by cutting down of trees at random and desertification by global warming in different regions and countries, are characterized by difficulty to predict their strength and frequency. This year such phenomena have come much earlier than previous years, the first seen on February 25 and the second on March 10.
• Quarantine Measures against Bird Flu in DPRK
  Migratory birds live in the DPRK in the period from the end of February to April. Therefore, the places where migratory birds stay are closely watched and germs and virus contained in dead birds are examined strictly in a responsible manner. Necessary measures have been taken to prevent virus from coming to the country through storms of fine yellow sand. Anti-epidemic measures against the bird flu are being taken at the chicken, duck and ostrich farms, too. Particularly, strict washing, sterilizing and checking of poultry are being conducted in the March-April months of veterinary and hygiene. Quarantine and hygienic check-up are being conducted at ports and airports and in border areas and demarcation line areas to prevent the bird flu from infiltrating into the country from outside. Especially, processed poultry and fodder have to undergo a through examination. The Institute if Veterinary under the Academy of Agricultural Science is making research into separating and confirming the virus in case the bird influenza is reported, in close contact with hygienic and anti-epidemic institutions. The government is also strengthening cooperation with international organizations to prevent the bird flu.
• KCNA Blasts U.S. Political Plot
  Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- The U.S. Department of State in a recent "annual report on drug control" groundlessly charged that the DPRK considers drug smuggling as a "state policy." This is a base and despicable political plot of the U.S. to tarnish the international image of the DPRK at any cost and internationalize and legalize "sanctions" and "blockade" against it. Some time ago the Australian Court, handling the case of the DPRK trading cargo ship "Pongsu," admitted that "the state was not involved in it" and instructed the release of its crewmen for the lack of evidence. This suffices to clearly prove that the U.S. assertion that the DPRK conducts "drug smuggling" as a state policy is a whopping lie.
• The Dear Leader, On a Platter
  Sushi Chef's Book Details Kim Jong Il's Many Purported Indulgences By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, March 16, 2004; Page A11 TOKYO -- For North Korea's ruler, Kim Jong Il, the latest tell-all book on the shelves in Japan is the rawest of betrayals: the confessions of the Dear Leader's own sushi chef. [Black]
• DRUG-SMUGGLING SHIP 'NON-GOVERNMENTAL': PYONGYANG
  June 11 2003 North Korea yesterday said a North Korean ship held in Australia for suspected drug smuggling was irrelevant to the government, repeating its claims that the case was part of a US-led smear campaign against Pyongyang. The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the Pong Su freighter was a "non-governmental" vessel and its owner was ignorant of the alleged crime.
• Media watchdog looks at 2 Koreas
  The International Press Institute released its World Press Freedom Review for 2003 on Wednesday, in which it asserted that violations of freedom of the press still prevail in South Korea.
  Regarding North Korea, the report stated, "there exist hardly any freedoms in North Korea, and especially not freedom of the media."
• Seminar on Kim Jong Il's Idea of Socialist Patriotism Held
  The core of socialist patriotism is intense loyalty to President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the speakers said, adding that the devoted defence of the headquarters of the revolution represents the most ardent love for the socialist motherland and the most vivid expression of patriotism.
• International Narcotics Control Strategy Report -2003 North Korea
  I. Summary For decades North Koreans have been apprehended for trafficking in narcotics and engaging in other forms of criminal behavior, including passing counterfeit U.S. currency. During 2003, there was one major heroin trafficking incident linked to North Korea. The "Pong Su," a vessel owned by a North Korean enterprise, was seized by Australian Federal Police (AFP) and other Australian security forces in mid-April 2003 after apparently delivering 125 kilograms of heroin to criminals at an isolated beach near Lorne, Australia. Another incident with a connection to North Korea occurred in June in Pusan, South Korea, where customs authorities seized 50 kilograms of methamphetamine from a Chinese vessel that had stopped at the port of Najin, North Korea, before arriving in Pusan. There were no methamphetamine seizures linked to North Korea in Japan in 2003. The "Pong Su" seizure and numerous drug smuggling incidents linked to North Korea over the past several decades, reflect official involvement in the trafficking of illicit narcotics for profit, and make it highly likely, but not certain, that P'yongyang is trading narcotic drugs for profit as state policy.
• Pong Su crew to sue
  5 March , 2004 18:14:00 Reporter: Rachel Carbonell MARK COLVIN: Seven people are to stand trial for heroin trafficking as a result of the Government's seizure last April of the North Korean cargo ship the 'Pong Su'. Three of them are crew members of the ship, including the captain. But 27 other crew members were cleared in a Melbourne court today of any involvement in heroin trafficking. And now they plan to sue the Federal Government for inappropriately detaining them. The 27 are being held in an immigration detention centre and waiting to be sent home. Lawyers for them say there was never any evidence that the men were involved in drug trafficking, or that the alleged drug trade was linked to the North Korean regime.
  The whole motivation for the charging of all 30 crew members probably had political overtones. The ship was seized in fairly dramatic circumstances, as you'd probably remember, and once the crew were... or once the ship was brought to Australian waters, and once the crew were arrested, charges were laid against them, and I don't think anybody every bothered to really seriously analyse the evidence against the individuals in a genuine fashion.
  RACHEL CARBONELL: This week the US State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report cited the Pong Su incident as evidence the North Korean dictatorship is highly likely to be involved in state-sponsored drug trafficking. The US has long held the view that North Korea is involved in international drugs and arms trading to prop up its regime and sponsor nuclear weapons development. Rainer Ellinghaus says the AFP admitted in court there was no evidence the Pong Su was in any way linked to the North Korean administration. RAINER ELLINGHAUS: Well, it's an easy allegation for the Americans to make, but in circumstances where our own Federal police concede that there's no allegation that the North Korean Government was involved, I find it extraordinary that the USA is still playing that line in terms of making allegations against the Pong Su in the context of it somehow having something to do with the North Korean Government. The ship was in fact a ship on charter. It's owned by a private entity in North Korea, and I cannot see how it can be alleged even by the wildest stretch of the imagination that the North Korean Government was in any way involved.
• N. Korea drug-trade charges in question
  Evidence shaky in case cited by U.S. By Cam Simpson Washington Bureau Published March 10, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Days after the Bush administration asserted that the North Korean government most likely is dealing drugs as a matter of state policy, questions about the evidence underlying a key piece of that case are emerging from official Australian sources.
  In addition to Friday's ruling by Magistrate Duncan Reynolds, a lead investigator from the Australian Federal Police testified that a Southeast Asian organized crime figure--not the North Korean government--arranged the shipment, according to court transcripts. Other evidence, records show, also suggests the heroin was produced in the Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia, not in North Korea.
  Damien Appleby, a lead investigator for the Australian Federal Police, which is akin to the FBI, testified in November that his bosses ordered him to brief several U.S. officials on the details on July 24, 2003, in Canberra, the Australian capital.
  Appleby testified that a Macao-based drug boss made all of the arrangements to charter the ship from Malaysia. Phone traffic reconstructed by Australian Federal Police investigators also showed that the organized crime figure was constantly on the move in Southeast Asia while the ship was en route. "My own view on it," Appleby testified, is that "it's just organized crime." Asked by Peter Faris, an attorney representing the crew, specifically about Pyongyang's involvement, Appleby said, "I've got no evidence of any government involvement in it."
  Ranier Ellinghaus, another lawyer for the crew, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. last week that continued U.S. allegations linking the heroin to Pyongyang are extraordinary given the evidence presented in court. "I cannot see how it can be alleged, even by the wildest stretch of the imagination, that the North Korean government was in any way involved," he told the network.
  also at Kansas City Star
• KCNA on False Report of Amnesty International
  Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- Amnesty International in a recent report titled "poverty of right, human rights and shortage of food in DPRK" pulled up the DPRK. In the report it claimed that the north Korean government is not performing its duty for protecting the right of inhabitants to food. It went to the lengths of setting forth a "recommendation".
  It is a well-known fact that in recent years the Korean people have suffered from the shortage of food owing to the evermore undisguised U.S. sanctions and blockade and natural disasters. The U.S. has escalated economic sanctions against the DPRK in the air, on the sea and in other various aspects and worked hard to isolate and stifle the DPRK, obstructing regular cooperation with international organizations
  If the Amnesty International is truly interested in human rights and wants to perform its function properly, it should call into question such illegal Iraqi war provoked by the U.S. and its mass killings of civilians before anything else and call it to account in view of international law. [human rights] [victim]
• Women Play Great Role in DPRK
  Women account for 20.1 per cent of the deputies to the SPA and a lot of women are deputies to provincial, city and county people's assemblies.
• National Meeting Held to Mark International Women's Day
• 2nd Session of 11th SPA to Convene
• Kim Jong Il's 62nd Birthday Celebrated in DPRK
• Koguryo Heritages to be Registered on World Heritage List
  DPRK is Active in Project
• Day of Tree Planting Marked
• Rodong Sinmun Calls for Turning Country into Greenery and Woodland
  Pyongyang, March 2 (KCNA) -- 58 years have passed since President Kim Il Sung together with leader Kim Jong Il and anti-Japanese war hero Kim Jong Suk climbed Moran Hill on March 2, Juche 35 (1946) to kindle the first torch of tree planting in Korea. Papers here today devote editorials to this day. Rodong Sinmun editorially calls on all the officials, Party members and other working people to turn out in the spring tree planting as one with fervent patriotic enthusiasm to bring about a revolutionary turn in turning the whole country into greenery and a thick woodland in this significant year.
• Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il Inspects KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, March 2 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, inspected KPA Unit 252 honored with the title of O Jung Hup-led Seventh Regiment.
• VIDEO SHOWS HARSH LIFE IN N. KOREAN CAMP - JAPAN TV
  February 27, 2004 By REUTERS Filed at 7:14 a.m. ET TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese television aired on Friday what it said was rare footage of a North Korean prison camp for political prisoners, as six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program bogged down in Beijing. The footage on Japan's Fuji Television Network, said to have been smuggled out of the communist state, showed poorly dressed men and women laboring in snowy fields. Prisoners in drab gray uniforms, the men with their heads bared and the women wearing only scarves despite temperatures said to be well below freezing, harvested cabbages and hauled heavy loads in the infamous Yodok 15 prison camp. Fuji Television said the video was obtained from a defector who managed to secretly film the labor camp, located 100 km (62 miles) north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. In one scene, women working in a snowy field furtively stuff cabbage leaves into their mouths, stopping when a guard -- dressed in a heavy coat and fur cap -- steps near. Other footage showed pairs of men and women carrying what the daily Sankei Shimbun said were canisters of human waste slung from a pole across their shoulders. Guards with rifles patrolled around the fenced-in camp, which had rows of barracks set together in the midst of bleak countryside. A report in October by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said North Korea had between 150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners working as slave laborers in prison colonies. North Korean authorities have consistently denied these camps exist or that human rights violations have occurred. The report said many prisoners were given just enough food to be kept perpetually on the verge of starvation and forced to do back-breaking labor such as mining for iron ore. Talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program went into their third day on Friday as top envoys from the United States, Russia, Japan, China, and both Koreas struggled to reach an agreement.
• The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps
  Prisoners' Testimonies and Satellite Photographs David Hawk U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
• NORTH KOREA'S SURREALITY TV
  KIM TALKS FOOD AND FASHION From Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Chinoy Tuesday, February 24, 2004 Posted: 0537 GMT ( 1:37 PM HKT) (CNN) -- It is a safe bet that television viewers in North Korea will not hear much about upcoming talks in Beijing aimed at curbing the secretive nation's nuclear ambitions.
• DPRK AND THE BBC'S EVIDENCE
  Financial Times, 15 February 2004 Has the BBC got it wrong again, in another part of the axis of evil? Weeks after its two top bosses resigned over a discredited report on Iraq, the British broadcaster is facing scrutiny over a documentary about North Korea. The programme grabbed headlines around the world this month with its claim that the communist state was testing chemical weapons on prisoners in secret gas chambers. However, debate rages in Seoul about the authenticity of the BBC's evidence. Central to the case is an official-looking North Korean document referring to the chemical tests. However, some experts believe the document is bogus, saying the official stamp is too small and the type of paper is wrong. They suspect it was forged by defectors.
  That South Korea's government is among the sceptics is hardly surprising: Seoul is often accused of ignoring its neighbour's bad behaviour to keep cross- border relations smooth. More noteworthy are the doubts of some human rights campaigners and journalists usually critical of Kim Jong-il's regime. One well- known current affairs magazine saw the document before the BBC broadcast but missed the scoop because it wanted more verification. Olenka Frenkiel, the journalist responsible for the documentary, says the evidence was checked as rigorously as possible. Defending her story on CNN, she said: "If you put yourself in the 1940s and testimony was coming out of what was happening in occupied Europe and you said, well, we can't really prove it ... Now, that doesn't look like a very strong position."
• Britain Voices Concerns Over N.K. Human Rights Violation Reports
  LONDON, Feb. 16 (Yonhap) -- Britain said Monday it has called in the North Korean ambassador to London to voice concerns over claims of grave human rights violations in the communist state, urging the North to allow independent monitors access to the country
  Kwon Hyuk, one of about 4,000 North Korean defectors living in Seoul, testified that he had watched families being put in glass chambers and gassed. They were left to die while scientists took notes, according to the North Korean defector. However, Seoul officials here have raised questions about the credibility of the report, claiming Kwon did not work as a military attache at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, as was reported.
• Six in 10 Koreans Support US Military Presence
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter More than six out of 10 Korean people suport the continued presence of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), a survey showed on Sunday. According to a poll of 1,000 people conducted by The Korea Times and Media Research Institute, a majority of respondents (61.4 percent) said the U.S. forces should remain on the Korean peninsula, while 36.9 percent said that they should leave in stages or all at once. However, 46.3 percent of respondents picked the U.S. as the biggest barrier to national unification. North Korea came in the second with 25.1 percent, followed by China (9.4 percent) and Japan (6.0 percent).
• Dancing Parties Held
  Pyongyang, February 16 (KCNA) --The Ministry of the People's Armed Forces gave a dancing party at the Jonsung Square to celebrate February 16, the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il, on Sunday. The dancing party of officers and men of the three services of the Korean People's Army began amidst the playing of the immortal revolutionary paean "Song of General Kim Jong Il", rocking the square. The square turned into a sea of celebrating dance by the participants to the tune of songs such as "Congratulations to February holiday,""Song of best wishes" and other songs. _ Generals of the Korean People's Army joined the dancing soldiers, adding to the atmosphere of the dancing party.
• Birthday of Kim Jong Il Celebrated
• Lawmakers slam leniency on N.K. abuses
  [Human rights] [Defector reports] Opposition lawmakers yesterday lashed out at the government for what they called its leniency toward North Korea's human rights abuses, making reference to recent allegations that the communist state tested chemical weapons on political prisoners. The Seoul government has dismissed as groundless the allegations raised by North Korean refugees, saying they often make unauthenticated statements.
• N Korea celebrates Kim's birthday
  North Korea is marking the 62nd birthday of its leader Kim Jong-il with its usual fare of eulogising speeches and congratulatory editorials
• Former Unconverted Long-term Prisoner Dies
• `NK Used Prisoners to Test Chemical Weapons'
  By Soh Ji-young Staff Reporter A group advocating on behalf of North Korean defectors on Thursday disclosed a document which it claims proves that North Korea tested chemical weapons on political prisoners. The Citizens' Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees revealed the document in a press conference in southern Seoul.
  However, government officials and North Korean experts raised doubts about the documents, saying that they have yet to confirm whether the claim is true or not.
• N. KOREA 'TESTS WEAPONS ON HUMANS'
  Thursday, February 12, 2004 Posted: 1119 GMT ( 7:19 PM HKT) LONDON, England -- Human rights campaigners say they have obtained documented evidence that North Korea tests chemical weapons on prisoners. Kim Sang Hun, a South Korean activist, told reporters in London Wednesday that a North Korean defector saw evidence of human experiments and stole papers documenting the tests. "Crimes guided by the government are not crimes, so they can openly declare it," Kim told the news conference, organized by the rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide. ..//..
  He identified the defector as senior electrician Kang Byong-sop and the plant as the Vinalon Unified Factory in Hamhung, North Korea, which Kim described as one of the country's largest chemical weapons plants ..//..
  South Korean officials said they could not confirm the BBC report, and other defector groups in Seoul could also not confirm such claims, AP said. ..//..
• China Should Not Deport Refugee
  A U.S.-based human rights organization has urged the Chinese government not to return a North Korean refugee, who claims to have witnessed the use of gas chambers in the North. ?This refugee is the source of the serious allegation that the North Korean Camp 22 operated a gas chamber, and his deportation would be tantamount to death sentence,? said Rabbi Araham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center.
• Man arrested for leaking N.K. experiment information
  [human rights]
• Many Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia Greenhouses Built in DPRK
• Ancient Log Tomb Discovered in Korea
• North Korean Human Rights Crisis
  {Victor Fic}
  Do you think that the report is true?
  VF: I cannot say for sure. After all, recently the BBC was caught engaging in some shoddy reporting related to Tony Blair's claims on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. And of course the U.S. itself seems to have exaggerated the same issue. All this indicates that mistakes get made when we are dealing with closed dictatorships. It is hard to verify accusations. But many people are inclined to accept the charges against the North because its track record is so bad. We know that a famine there has killed about a million people, and that maybe 200,000 prisoners are in labor camps or gulags. As a result, many critics of the North will likely accept the BBC report. What we have to do is follow up as best we can.
• "Let's Glorify This Year as a Year of Proud Victory Through Revolutionary Offensive on All Fronts of Building a Great Prosperous Powerful Nation Under the Party's Leadership"
  New Year Joint Editorial of Rodong Sinmun, Josoninmingun, Chongnyonjonwi
• Lunar New Year's Day Marked in DPRK
• BBC charges trigger North venom at U.S.
  North Korea leveled a blast at the United States after an interview by the British Broadcasting Corporation of a North Korean defector who said prisoners had been used in chemical weapons tests in the North.
• Brisk Preventive Work against Bird Flu in Korea
• Spokesman for DPRK FM Lambastes U.S. Smear Campaign against DPRK
  [human rights] [drugs]
  Pyongyang, February 5 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea today gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA as regards the U.S. ridiculous smear campaign against the DPRK. These days the United States is busy holding a Congressional hearing from "north Korean defectors," spreading a sheer lie that north Korea tested a chemical weapon on prisoners, the spokesman said, and went on: _
  The U.S. let loose a string of balderdash against the DPRK over "the issue of drug", "the issue of counterfeit money" and "the issue of north Korean defectors". Not content with this, it is spreading a lie about the "test of chemical weapons on prisoners".
  This shows what a base anti-DPRK smear campaign the Bush group is engaged in.
  The U.S. seems to have no more material for conducting such a campaign.
  It is a trite method of the present U.S. administration to use those defectors for inventing lies and justifying a war of aggression under that pretext. This was clearly evidenced by the U.S. war of aggression against Iraq.
• South to urge North to defend Goguryeo
• U.S. Jewish Group Demands Investigation into Alleged NK Gas Chambers
• More Relics Unearthed in Pyongyang
• Picture Album about Tangun Printed
• NK Hardliner Park May Have Died
• 'N.K. tests chemical arms on prisoners'
  (BBC Online News) [Human rights]
• Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag
  [human rights]
• China, Korea Dispute Ancient Kingdom
  [Koguryo]
• SNU to Expand Exchanges With Universities in Southeast Asia
• Within prison walls
  [Human rights]
• Was Rubens' 'Korean Man' Actually Korean?
• The Forgotten Glory of Koguryo
  {Lee Wha Rang }
  Koguryo, one of Korea's ancient three kingdoms, existed for 700 years ruled by 26 wise kings. All kings strove to better people's welfare and strengthen the military. Koguryo had to fight invaders from north and its citizens were well organized and train ed in the art of warfare. It developed unique culture and remarkably advanced educational, socio-political and military systems.
  With the emergence of a unified China, Koguryo became under military forays by the Chinese and was forced to move its capital to Pyongyang, far away from the Chinese border.
  map
• Five-thousand-year-long History of Nation, Pride of Korean People
• DPRK Major News in 2003
• Koguryo Tombs May Become World Heritage
  [China]
• North Korea: Beyond the DMZ
  Movie review

• First revolutionary organization of peasants in Korea
  [Kim Il Sung] [History] [Japanese colonialism]
• Rodong Sinmun observes International Women's Day
• Korean women's important role in society
• Thae Son Hui, Korea's first woman pilot
• Many cultural relics unearthed
• North Korea to Open Parliamentary Session March 26
• SPA to meet
• Kanggye History Museum
  [Heritage]
• Meeting of activists in movement for title of O Jung Hup's Seventh Regiment of KPA
  [Role of NK military] [Juche]
• Anecdote about Kim Il Sung
• DPRK Celebrates 61st Birthday of Kim Jong Il
• Anecdote about Kim Jong Il
  [Heritage]
• DPRK vows to implement declaration of Copenhagen Summit on Social Development
• Korean-style buildings
  [Heritage]
• North Korea's 'Hollywood' A Show Of Its Own
  [Culture war] [ewa] Korean Film Studios
• North Koreans celebrate birthday of 'dear leader'
  {James Brooke} [Bizarre] [Spin] [Kim Jong Il]
• Kim's birthday draws public devotion
  [Kim Jong Il]
• Act III: A Son Begins To Rise In North Korea
  [Kim Jong Il] [Kim Jong Chul]
• NK Prepares TV Drama About Choson Kingdom
  [Heritage][Nationalism]
• Iron will of brilliant commander
  [Kim Jong Il]
• Koreans pledge to remain faithful to Kim Jong Il
  [Kim Jong Il]
• Korean Females' Legs Get Longer
• Kim Jong Il inspects military academy
  [Military economy]
• Tribute paid to Kim Il Sung on Lunar New Year's Day
• DPRK boasts single hearted unity more powerful than nuke
  [Bluster] [Kim Jong Il] [James Kelly] [Culture gap]
• N Korean defector's warning for leader
  [Defector report] [Collapse]
• Influx Of Western Culture Worries N. Korea
  [Culture war] [Subversion]
• Kim Jong Il visits KPA unit
• Increase of self-reliant defence capability called for
  [China] [Russia] [Juche]
• Joint editorial
• New Year Editorial Stresses Giving Top Priority to Military Affairs
  [Role of NK military]
• Pyongyang full of vigor
  [Daily life]
• Dolmens of different shapes discovered
  [Heritage]
• Rodong Sinmun on Kim Jong Il's dynamic steermanship
  [Kim Jong Il]
• Half of Koreans Surnamed Kim, Lee, Park
• Tigers on prowl in North
• Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit
  [NK military]
• Kim Jong Il stresses need to firmly defend territorial airspace of country
  [Role of NK military] [Kim Jong Il]
• Kim Jong Il inspects 207 units last year
  [Kim Jong Il][Role of NK military]
• Brinkmanship: A Family Trait
  [Kim Jong Il] [Inscrutable]
• Sanctuary for coots
• Strict implementation of army-based policy called for
  [Role of NK military] [Railways]
• Rodong Sinmun on army-centered policy
  [Nationalism] [Role of NK military]
• Dolmens discovered in Korea
  [Heritage]
• Kim Jong Il enjoys art performance
• Show of controversial U.S. film protested
  [Culture war][Joint Korean]
• Bond stirs some here but shakes others
  [Culture war]
• Islamic Korea :
  [Religion] Muslim society in Korea is developing and growing
• Children playing in the snow in Pyongyang
  [photo]
• NK Editorial Avoids Mention on Nuclear Issue
  [Spin]
• Joint New Year Editorial issued in DPRK
  [NK US policy] [Joint Korean] [NK Strategy]
• Joint New Year Editorial issued in DPRK
• North Korea's New Year Message
  [NK US policy] [Joint Korean][NK Strategy]
• North Korea's New Year Message
  [NK US policy] [Joint Korean][NK Strategy]
• Joint symposium on changing English name of country
  [Japanese colonialism] [Motherland] [Japan Korea issues]
• Defending socialist system of Juche called for
  [Juche][Socialism/Capitalism]
• "Die Another Day" Film Review/Commentary of Bond film
  {Jin Kyoung Jun} [Culture war] [Culture gap]
• Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Exposure and Education Program
  [Media] [Diaspora] [Joint Korean]
• Old map in Arabic on East Sea of Korea discovered
  [Motherland][Japan Korea issues]
• More animals in zoo
• Jo Ju Gyong, world-famous mathematician
• Kim Jong-il steps up regional inspection
• Kim Jong-il inspects army base
  [NK military]
• Slogan of Kirgyz party organ changed
  [Bizarre]
• Even in death, mother of North heir is a mystery
  [Kim Jong Il]
• North to give capital a facelift
  [Military economy]
• Over 15 percent of N.K. parliamentary officials from the army
  [Role of NK military]
• Seoul official says North to cut its forces by 10%
  [NK military]
• Political gatherings for women in Pyeongyang
• NK to Reduce Armed Forces by 500,000
  [NK military]
• Kim Jong-il inspected North Pyeongan province Saturday
• First Russian Orthodox Church to be established in Pyeongyang
  [Religion]
• Films Starring Madonna, Gong Li Highlight Pyongyang Film Festival
  [Cultural relations]
• Finger-pressure therapy proves successful in esthesia
• Master of Korean painting
  [Heritage]
• Kim Jong-il visits military farm
  [Military economy][Agriculture]
• Socio-historical movement elucidated by Juche idea
  [Juche]
• Rodong Sinmun calls for glorifying era of army-based policy
  [Juche] [Role of NK military]
• Historic relics of DPRK
  [Heritage]
• Immortal Juche idea
  [Juche]
• North Korean officials, once out of favor, return to prominence
  [Corruption]
• Pyeongyang film fest ends
  [Cultural relations]
• North Korea's first-ever nationwide fishing competition at Daedong River on Thursday, September 12
  [photo]
• Precious historic relics presented to state
  [Heritage]
• Historical relics unearthed
  [Heritage]
• Changes in school names may signal more reforms in North
  [Education]
• Very popular song composed by Kim Jong Il
  [Kim Jong Il]
• N.K. children read 'The Diary of Anne Frank'
  [Opening]
• Pyongyang Film Festival in successful progress
• DPRK has rosy future
  [Juche]
• Wreaths laid at martyrs' cemeteries and monument to victory in war
• Madonna's "Evita" featured in Pyeongyang film festival
• Kim Jong Il appreciates friendship concert
• Third Pyongyang Flower Show opens
• Anniversary of "Theses On Socialist Education" observed
  [Kim Il Sung] [Juche] [Education]
• Pyongyang Film Festival takes off
  [Cultural relations]
• Kim Jong-il attends concert
• Lee Min - the Unsung Heroine of the Korean Independence War II
  [History][Kim Il Sung] [Kim Jong Il]
• Pyongyang Film Festival opens
  [Cultural relations]
• Anniversary of Koryo Songgyungwan Academy commemorated
  [Heritage]
• Foreign delegations and delegates here
  (Pyongyang Film Festival)
• About the 'wave of defectors' and 'capitalist experiments' in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
  [pro-Pyongyang] {Alejandro Cao de Benos de Les y Perez}
• Pyongyang Film Festival
  [Cultural relations]
• Socio-historical principles of Juche idea
  [Juche]
• Kim Jong-il watches propaganda unit's performance
• Unconverted N.K. prisoners pledge loyalty
• Propaganda unit performs for North's leader
• Kim's "Son" Tried Japan's Soaplands
  [black]
• Exhibit counters myth of Korea as 'hermit kingdom'
  [History]
• North leader's son climbing party ladder
  [Kim Jong Il]
• Lee Min - the Unsung Heroin of the Korean Independence War
  [History] [Kim Il Sung] [Japanese colonialism] [National Security Act]
• Youth urged to continue to remain loyal to Kim Jong Il
• Nurturing the Root of the Revolution
  [Kim Il Sung] [Kim Jong Il] [History]
• Efficient engine for building powerful nation
  [Juche]
• U.N. Estimates N.K. Population at 23,078 Million
• Global warming and its consequences in Korea
• Invincible KPA air force
  [NK military]
• Oun Revolutionary Site
  [Kim Jong Il]
• N.K. Catholics Are Having Prayer Meeting Every Week: Jang Jae-on
  [religion]
• NK Government Under Military Control
  [Role of NK military]
• Rodong Sinmun on army-based policy
  [Role of NK military]
• Philosophical principle of Juche idea
  [Juche]
• Health-promoting drinking additive "Huimang"
  [Health]
• Valuable cultural heritage
  [Heritage]
• North Korean students at physics class.
  [photo]
• Traffic police women in city of Pyeongyang
  [Daily life][photo]
• Ondatra zibethica bred
  [Health]
• New clone cell breeds produced
  [S&T] [Health]
• Pyongyang film festival to be held
• 'Baekdu Tiger Cloning Project' - First Step to Ecological Cooperation
  [Joint Korean]
• Strategic line for Korea's future
  [Role of NK military]
• North Korean children at Pyeongyang Mangyongdae School going on a boat ride.
  [photo]
• Maritime sports brisk in Korea
• Pochonbo Electronic Band
• North sends entertainers to provincial areas
• International women handball tournament held
• Traditional architectural decoration in Korea
• Rodong Sinmun opens 'juche' ideology department
• Kim Jong-il happy with efforts in trade, Military
• 1000 Killed in Explosion at Underground Munitions Factory
  [Korean War effect]
• School attendance just 20% in North
  [Education] [Defector report]
• Birth anniversary of Kim Hyong Jik observed
  [Heritage]
• Kim Jong Il visits Kumsusan Memorial Palace
  [Confucianism]
• Subdued mood marks death anniversary of N.K. founder
  [Confucianism]
• Kim Jong Il inspects A.A. Artillery Academy
• Kim Il Sung's extraordinary writing ability
  [Kim Il Sung]
• Kumsusan Memorial Palace visited by endless stream of people
  [Kim Il Sung]
• President Kim Il Sung's statues visited by endless crowd of people
  [Kim Il Sung]
• N.K. leader increases army inspections
  [role of NK military]
• Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit
• Kanggye feudal office building in Korea
  [heritage]
• DPRK government releases memorandum
  [Kim Il Sung]
• Founder of Taekwon-Do Dies
  [motherland]
• New Korean Encyclopedia Completed
  [heritage]
• Ceremonies to mark death of late N.K. leader underway
• Modernized Arirang dance rediscovers emotive beauty of Korea's folk tradition
  [motherland]
• Many heroes and heroines produced during Korean War
• Ryangchon Temple
  [heritage]
• Local 'Elections' in North Korea
• First complete collection of codes of legal procedure
  [heritage]
• New stamps printed
• North Korean students at nation's top-notch Mangyungdae Revolutionary School studying English.
  [photo][opening]
• Proverbs are another weapon in North Korea's arsenal for its fight with U.S., South Korea -AP
  [heritage]
• North Korean "Christians" leaving Pongsu church in Pyeongyang after their Sunday sermon on June 16.
  [photo][religion]
• Pyongyang Successfully Develops Top-notch Tank
  [NK military]
• Dancing class for school girls in North Korea
  [photo]
• Married couple of doctors
  [academic]
• Kim visiting fewer army bases this year
• Pyongyang Circus
• International book exhibition opens
• Tano festival in Korea
  [heritage]
• Daily life of teenage Arirang performers
• Role of military disputed in North in early '90s
  [role of NK military]
• Kim Jong-il watches performance by army families
• Songs in period of enlightenment
  [heritage]
• Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit no. 156
• Historical remains and relics well preserved in DPRK
• Kim Jong Il gives field guidance to various places
• Kim Jong-il visits Hamhung region
• North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-il on military inspection to KPA unit no.165 on Thursday May 6. [photo]
• First Pyongyang atlas
• Kim Jong-il tours provincial areas
• World Day of Environment observed
• Travel Restriction Ties down People within a District
• Kim Jong-il visits Buddhist temple
• Success made in preservation of national cultural heritages
• Kim Jong Il visits Ryangchon Temple
• Joint plenary meeting of religious organizations held
• Ancient history of silk production
• North Korea's Chairman of National Defense Commission Kim Jong-il at Korean People's Army unit no. 823 on Sunday, June 2nd. [photo]
• North Korea's 'National Wrestling Match' on Tano
• North Korean Organization for the Handicapped
• Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit no. 823
• Chairman Kim Jong-il receives wife of old hero
• International Children's Day observed in DPRK
• Pyeongyang recommands traditional Hanbok dress
• World Day of No Smoking observed
• Compiling and publication of large Korean encyclopedia reviewed
• Hello Korea] Paucities of Korean Sources
• Child miraculously cured of serious burns
• Full Text] Amnesty International's Report on North Korea
• Central and Regional Colleges and Universities
• Boy's cap bears an unexpected logo
• New magic theatre appears in DPRK
• Kim Jong Il's hobbies
• 368,000 km-long train journey
• N.K. leader's son Kim Jong-nam spotted in Moscow
• Kim Jong Il inspects KPA flying unit no. 858
• N.K. military drill involved missile units
• A lone policeman guards a deserted highway in the outskirt of Pyongyang, 13 May 2002. [photo]
• North Korean children accompanied by their teacher walk along a street in Pyongyang 29 March 2002 [photo]
• Future promising calligrapher
• Book "Artistic Study of Korean Cultural Relics" published
• A newly wed North Korean couple get their photograph taken with the background of capital Pyongyang 13 May 2002. [photo]
• Officers in North move easily between army and civilian posts
• A just married North Korean couple posing in front of Kim Il Sung Stadium, Pyeongyang [photo]
• Koguryo tombs
• A Sunday in the North: fishing, picnics, banter
• Secrets of success: 'Comrade Kim Jong-il's way'
• High vigilance against imperialists' ideological and cultural poisoning
• Remains "Namgyong"
• KPA vice marshal on people's defence forces of the DPRK
• Pyeongyang emphasizes civil defense forces
• DPRK Celebrates Late President's Birthday
• Korean People's Army Celebrates Its 70th Birthday
• Kim Jong-il visits navy headquarters
• Recent Studies on Turtleship Alter Long-Held Beliefs
• Dear leader gets new top aide
• N.K. ambassador to Egypt was misidentified
• N.Korea Marks Armed Forces Day -AP
• Reception given [anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle in China]
• Kim Jong Il waves from the balcony during a parade 25 April 2002 [photo]
• Worker and Peasant Red Guard to lead the way in army parade
• Kim Il Sung's ceaseless field inspection of KPA units
• Pyeongyang looks to make a statement with parade
• Grand military parade expected in Pyeongyang
• 20th April Spring Friendship Art Festival opens
• Kim Jong Il visits Kumsusan Memorial Palace
• 5th session of 10th SPA of DPRK held
• Report on work of DPRK cabinet made at SPA session
• Book "Secret of Prime of Life at Sixty"
• New school year begins
• Korean academy of medical science
• Anthropolites discovered in Korea
• Total of 1.24 billion people visit Kim Il Sung's Statue
• Every nook and corner of country visited by President Kim Il Sung
• Harmony the key in North's military promotions this year
• Father's birthday to highlight the son
• Younger son may be heir to Pyeongyang throne
• Kim Jong-il watches choir honor his father
• Starbucks mocha and flat-screen TVs in Pyeongyang? Sure, if you're connected
• North celebrates new enlistees
• N Korea embraces home-grown medicine
• 'Dear leader' visits exhibition hall of gifts made in his honor
• Gifts on the way for late leader's birthday
• Kim Jong-il visits flight school
• Kim encouraging military leaders to play chess
• N.K. leader simply overloaded with duties
• Kim Jong-il pays respects on father's birthday
• North gives top military personnel promotions
• Kim Jong-il continues tour of army bases
• North Korea awards medals to celebrate birthday of late founding leader -AP
• Tenth SPA meets for Fifth Session
• For N.K. leader, hospitality is calling on visitors in evening
• Ancient hunting site unearthed
• Changgwangwon Juvenile Sports School
• North's revolutionary generation dying off
• North to strengthen civil defense forces
• Exhibition of historical paintings
• Kim Jong-il continues tour of army bases
• International Women's Day marked
• Kim Yong-sun accompanies Chairman to army inspection
• SPA session of DPRK to be convened
• North Korea: Militarized from A to Z
• North to hold Supreme People's Assembly
• Engine ejection system for Taepodong missile in North Hamgyong (photo)
• Satellite pictures of North's missile facilities Unveiled
• Hoeryong city people's library
• North Korean magazine profiles Kim Jong-il
• N.K. official reappears at leader's side
• Efficacious anti-cancer injection developed
• Unjong Health Complex
• Birthplace of Kim Jong Il
• Kim Jong-il visits another army division
• DPRK Commemorates Kim Jong Il's 60th Birthday
• Jangjasan Children's Camp opens
• Book on Buddhism published in DPRK
• Anecdotes about Kim Jong Il during his Russia visit
• Pyongyang Proposes to Mark 2002 as Year of Promoting National Unity and Reunification
• North spends big on birthday supplies
• New miracle in DPRK
• Synchronized swimming exhibition
• Natural wonder on February holiday
• The mass gymnastic play 'Under the Banner of Army-first Policy' in the wake of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il' s birthday on Saturday, February 16.
• NK Leader Celebrates 60th Birthday Today
• North Korea Leader Turns 60 -AP
• National meeting held to mark February 16
• Brief history of Kim Jong Il
• Mass gymnastic display given
• Baribong, biggest rock-ridge in Geumgang Mountain is inscribed 'Great General Kim Jong-il' in its breast to commemorate 60th birthday of North Korean leader Kim that drops on Feb. 16
• Industrial art exhibition opens
• Korean national fashion show opens
• A book about Kim Jong-il Written by Far Eastern Russia's Representative
• National oratorical contest of agricultural workers held
• NK Tests New Engine for Taepodong II
• Fresh Jeju air available in cans
• DPRK in festive mood
• Times Colloquy] `Fighting?' (language}
• Kim Jong-il urges army unit to follow 'revolutionary spirit'
• North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-il conducting on spot guidance to KPA unit no.179 on Saturday, February (photo)
• Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit no. 1200
• Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit nos. 179 and 779
• NK Leader Inspects Military Units
• Kim Jong-il visits army units
• Kim Jong Il inspecting PLA unit
• Kim Jong Il's Plan to Build Powerful Nation
• Great Korean Encyclopedia
• King Wang Kon's mausoleum
• New universities to be founded in DPRK
• 10 best players selected in DPRK
• Rodong Sinmun on army-based policy
• SNU professors oppose wider use of English, more foreign faculty [ROK]
• Pyongyang's appearance to change
• Clergyman Seeks Ban on Movie About Jesus Christ [ROK]
• Buddhist rituals held
• Joint meeting of DPRK government, political parties and organizations
• Labor protests to rally in 15 countries for release of Korean activists [ROK]
• People called upon to work in fighting spirit displayed in 1950s
• Over 30,000 literary works created in decade
• Learn something useful, underscores North
• NK embroidery of Last Supper
• Korean literature and art have long history
• Pyeongyang citizens allowed free food for New Year
• "Glorify This Year That Greets the 90th Birthday of President Kim Il Sung as a Year of a New Surge in the Building of a Powerful Nation." [Joint new year editorial]
• Koryo Songgyungwan
• Personnel shakeup underway in the North
• Dignity of Juche Korea demonstrated
• Kim Jong Il sends rare squids to Kim Il Sung University
• This year described as year marked with highest national pride
• Joint editorial on New Year published in DPRK
• New Year's message repeats old refrain
• Secretary for inter-Korean affairs resurfaces
• NK Gives Top Priority to Inner Unity in New Year Message
• North Korea Vows to Build Its Army -AP
• North Korea Creates Border Garrison -AP
• Kim inspects memorial hall and army units
• Kim Jong Il visits Kumsusan Memorial Palace
• NK OKs Amnesty on Founder's Birthday
• Pyeongyang to grant amnesty to prisoners at Kim Il-sung's birthday
• Amnesty to be granted in DPRK
• North Korea offers amnesty
• N.K. commemorates Kim Jong-il's inauguration as chief commander
• 10th anniversary of Kim Jong Il's election as supreme commander of KPA
• Propaganda and traditions mix in Web-based DPRK calendars
• North Korea tightens grip on overseas workers
• North Korea Cabinet, Generation Shift to 40s
• Destruction of statues of Tangun denounced
• Blasphemy against Tangun under fire
• Cabinet reshuffle took place at Ruling Workers' Party, September
• 300th birth of triplets at Pyongyang Maternity Hospital
• Collection of Acacia seeds brisk
• Chongryu Restaurant
• Korean nation of same stock
• Guarding against capitalist way of life called for
• Over ten parks under construction in Pyongyang
• North Korea Puts Weight on Fundamental Studies
• No Objective Tests for in North Korean Students
• NK TV Introduces Cinderella
• ILO to send fact-finding group to S. Korea
• New antiseptic for Kimchi produced
• N.K. Vice-Chairman Jo Again Hospitalized in Paris
• North Korea Teems With Heroes - AP
• North Skips the Reporting Convention on WPK Foundation - Again
• Famous botanical garden in DPRK
• Minju Joson marks world day of teachers
• North Korea Celebrates 56th Anniversary of WPK
• Foundation day of Korea marked
• Summary of Events, Jan-June 2001 [Erich Weingartner]
• Prevention of capitalist ideological poisoning called for
• Kim Jong Il visits military dog training camp of Ministry of People's Security
• New elements of Koryo Insam discovered
• Rodong Sinmun on guiding idea in era of independence
• Anecdotes about President Kim Il Sung
• Women Banned from Bicycle-Riding
• Nurseries in North Korea
• Great benefits go to women in DPRK
• International Day of Ozone Layer Protection observed
• Kim Jong Il inspects South Hamgyong Province
• Amnesty International Vows to Support Pvt. Lee Jae-hyun
• Historical relics unearthed in DPRK
• Family of 24 tractor-drivers
• Korean folksong art festival held in Uzbekistan
• Second National Program Contest in Education held
• Early Korean village, independence movement hubs found in Russia
• DPRK swimmers carry off gold medals at Asian swimming championships
• Berkeley dean sees growing interest in Korean studies
• Taedong River-crossing competition held
• President Recalls Attempt of Abduction 28 Years Ago[Kim Dae-jung]
• Anecdotes about Kim Il Sung
• Material Evidence Critical for North Korean Human Rights
• All Korean people wait for Kim Jong Il's return home
• Anecdotes about President Kim Il Sung (5)
• I made pizza for Kim Jong-il
• Part 2: Hot ovens at the seaside By Ermanno Furlanis
• Signal successes made by Korean women scientists
• 55th anniversary of Law on Sex Equality observed
• Women regarded as flowers in Korea
• Pyongyang Lauds 55th Anniv. Of Gender Equality Law Adoption
• Interview with Chang Byong Tae, Rector of Korea University
• [Cultural dimensions] Changes in English education in N. Korea
• Higher education at the factory
• Anecdotes about President Kim Il Sung
• Population strategy
• Pyongyang Preparing 2 Key Anniversaries Next Year
• Kim Jong Il's on-site guidance
• DPRK shooters come first at Asian trap shooting championships
• Wonder takes place
• Book Donation by Patriots
• Hong Chang Su Awarded Title of Hero of DPRK
• Kim Jong-il Uses Chopper for Travel
• Anecdotes about Kim Il Sung (3)
• Rodong Sinmun on national self-respect
• Five-storey pagoda at Jahye Temple
• Anecdotes about President Kim Il Sung (1)
• Hong Successfully Defends WBC Title in Seoul
• Foods good for health produced
• Multimedia program "Korean Stamp" developed
• Cultural heritages well preserved
• Dolmen
• Day of bio-diversity observed
• CIA: Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments - North Korea
• Establishment of new information order called for
• Calabash-shaped pot from Tangun's Korea
• World Day of Red Cross and Red Crescent marked
• China Top N. Korea in Table Tennis
• Pyongyang 'poisoning the country'
• Kim Jong Il sees light comedy
• Kim Jong Il congratulates servicemen on KPA birthday
• Korean People Commemorate Late President's 89th Birth Anniversary
• Artists' Groups of World Gather in Pyongyang
• PK's Interview with Kim Ryon Ja, South Korean Pop Singer
• Korea's illustrious man St. So San
• Rodong Sinmun on comradeship
• Work to preserve cultural relics brisk
• Kim Jong Il inspects artillery battalion of KPA unit no. 3427
• Kim Jong Il visits unit no. 2629 of KPA
• Kim Il-sung Birthday Celebrated in North Korea
• FILA to Sponsor N. Korean Sports Teams
• NK Leader Attends Concert by ROK Singer
• Pyeongyang Hosts Int'l Art Festival
• Kim Jong Il Meets South Korean Singer
• Kim Jong Il inspects unit no. 884 of airforce
• Dental material research institute set up
• Foreign delegations and artistes here
• New school year to begin

  Pyongyang Marathon
  

• DPRK Runners Win Golds in Pyongyang International Marathon
• 14th Int'l Marathon Race for Mangyongdae Cup held
• 14th International Marathon Race for Mangyongdae Prize to be held
• North Korea opens up for Pyongyang Marathon
• North Korea allows foreign runners in for marathon
• Pyongyang Marathon Goes International

• North Korean Set to Play in K-League
• Seafowl refuges
• NK Head Makes 1st Appearance in 35 Days
• Kim Jong Il enjoys performance given by Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
• Octagonal 13-storeyed Pagoda of Pohyon Temple
• Seed Theory: Pyeongyang¡¯s Latest Catch Phrase
• Surnames: microcosmic icon of Confucian order
• Signal success in study of paleozoic fossils
• Adherence to theory of seed called for
• Tree-planting movement called for
• Spring tree planting begins
• Area under giant chestnut trees on steady increase
• 620 million-year-old fossils unearthed in DPRK
• Rodong Sinmun on noble moral trait
• DPRK women table tennis players prove successful
• New measure taken to improve common education
• Korean People Celebrate Kim Jong Il's 59th Birthday
• New Relics of "River Taedong Civilization" Found in Pyongyang
• N. Korea changes portraits of leaders with new ones
• 21st century described as century of global independence
• Rodong Sinmun on Kim Jong Il's outstanding leadership
• Devotedly defending leader, practical slogan
• Top 10 Sites Offer Info on NK online
• Rodong Sinmun calls for checking ideological and cultural poisoning of Imperialism
• Hospitals under construction
• Swamps conserved in DPRK
• New relics discovered
• Imperialists' loud-mouthed "human rights" and "humanitarianism" under fire
• DMZ To Be Designated As UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
• This year's slogans in DPRK
• AU Chief To Lead Group to N. Korea; Trip Could Bring First Exchanges Between Colleges
• Culture gap splits North, South children
  [refugee reception] [Culture gap]
• Kim Jong Il pays homage to Kim Il Sung
• Joint New Year editorial of newspapers
• Day of Buddha's attainment of great wisdom marked
• Rodong Sinmun calls for earlier national reunification
• North Korea vows to build powerful nation in 2001, seeks (ties with South)
• Christmas masses held
• Kim Jong Il's endless trips for on-site guidance
• DPRK History Society Asserts Illegality of "Ulsa Five-Point Treaty"
• Korean Animation Films Amazing World (DPRK)
• [Heraldscope] Globalization, CNN and `rogue states`
• NK Sees Fierce Competition for College Entrance
• Koreans, Japanese join to attack biased texts
• Reception given on Day of UN
• DPRK Wins Asia Taekwon-Do Championships
• DPRK Hails End of "Arduous March"
• Pyongyang-Nampo Motorway Completed
• WPK strengthened under banner of DIU
• North Korean Celadon Showcased in Ceramics Fair
• Evening gala and torchlight procession mark anniversary of WPK
• A citizen waves a flag imprinted with the picture of the Korean peninsula, (photo at KWP celebration)
• Parade highlights Workers' Party anniversary
• 55th Anniversary of NK Workers' Party Kicks Off
• North Korean Party Congress not expected to open this year
• DPRK Ends up Sydney Olympics with 1 Silver, 3 Bronze Medals
• Samsong temple shines again
• Foundation day of Korea marked
• Early snow on Mt Paektu (photo)
• North Korean Athletes Show Their Power at Sydney
• National flag of DPRK
• Flag exhibit shows new face of unified Korea: Visual art students display 49 designs as graphic icon of one Korea in experimental exhibition

• Kim Jong Il's New Direction

• Shining victory of line of building new-type government

• NK's Opening Won't Imperil Kim Jong-il's Power_President Kim tells American Experts on Korea

• Light industry goods well received

• Ceremony of handing over "no smoking torch" in southeast Asia held

• Popular education system in DPRK

• Kim Jong Il visits Jagang Province

• Pyongyang, time-honored city

• Concerned Koreans Abroad Assume Stewardship of Mt. Kumgang

• National Geographic Promises to Use East Sea

• To Stand on Big Sydney Stage in Limelight :DPRK Ready for Sydney Olympics

• Signal successes made in universal compulsory 11-year education

• Joint Meeting of DPRK Government, Parties and Organizations Held

• UNESCO chief visits North Korea

• Koguryo Relics Likely to Be Named World Cultural Heritage

• North Korean youths portrayed in novels as Individualistic

• DPRK Starts 'No Smoking' Campaign

• Kim Jong Il: Improving the Layout of the Field Is a Great Transformation of Nature for the Prosperity of the Country, a Pacific Work Of Lasting Significance

• DPRK satellite TV broadcasting

• NORTH KOREA'S MUSUDAN-RI LAUNCH FACILITY
• Failed 1995 Military Coup In North Korea Revealed
• North Korean financial institutions