Kim Jong Un looks at bear cubs during a tour of Pyongyang Central Zoo. Among those attendance, standing behind him are: Han Kwang Sang (L), Kim Yang Gon (2nd L) and Jon Il Chun (5th L) (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)
DPRK state media reported on 27 May (Sunday) that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) visited the Pyongyang Central Zoo. He was accompanied by National Defense Commission Vice Chairman and KWP Party Administration Department Director, Jang Song Taek, and KWP Secretary and Director of the United Front Department Kim Yang Gon, as well KWP Deputy (vice) Department Directors Han Kwang Sang, Ri Jae Il, Hwang Pyong So, Pak Chun Hong, Ma Wo’n-ch’un and Cho’n Il-ch’un. KCNA reports:
Kim Jong Un first went round the monument erected to convey the undying leadership exploits of the three commanders of Mt. Paektu down through generations.
He recollected with deep emotion the glorious course covered by the zoo, noting that it had the honor of receiving on-the-spot guidance of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il dozens of times and has creditably fulfilled its mission as a place for joyful rest making visitors laugh and pleasing them and a center for education imbuing them with wide knowledge about animals over the last more than five decades since it was established.
Going round different places of the zoo, he learned in detail about the management and operation of it.
He dropped in at the aquarium to learn about its operation. He asked workers there if there is any problem arising in breeding fish, what measures are taken to provide food and water to it and what species of sea fish are raised.
He was satisfied to hear officials of the zoo say that thorough measures are taken to provide food and the completion of the Nampho-Pyongyang seawater pipe helped settle the issue of seawater, a difficulty in breeding sea water fishes.
He visited the pool for seals and the reptile house. What is important for sprucing up animal houses is to create friendly natural environment to help visitors see animals clearly and learn about their true habitation and provide them with sufficient living conditions, he said.
He went to the gift animal house to watch with keen attention rare animals including Indian constrictor, lemur and flying fox which Jonas Whalstram, director of Skansen Aquarium in Sweden, presented to leader Kim Jong Il.
He dropped in at a shed of wild animals. He met Kim Sun Ok, head of the wild animal work team who has worked at the zoo for 45 years, and Myong Su Il who has tended bears for nearly 30 years and appreciated their efforts.
He also moved to a veterinary hospital built on the initiative of Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un underlined the need to take efficient veterinary, anti-epizootic and treatment measures for animals.
He highly praised the officials and other employees of the zoo for having taken good care of animals and devoted their wisdom and efforts to pleasing visitors by successfully organizing their tour.
He put forth the tasks to be carried out to manage and operate the zoo.
It is necessary to spruce up the zoo and steadily improve its operation.
The zoo should increase the species of animals and bring more giraffes, zebras and other animals from foreign countries and more rare animals.
It is necessary to build a main building symbolic of the zoo at its entrance and modernize all animal sheds in line with the characteristic features of animals, while providing convenience to visitors.
The zoo should have peculiar outdoor and indoor resting places.
A work should be done to improve the greening of the zoo area as required by the new century.
It is necessary to take proper measures for supplying water needed for managing the zoo and tending the animals.
The zoo should set up a new guidepost to meet the need of the zoo.
Kim Jong Un expressed expectation and belief that the officials and other employees of the zoo would creditably fulfill their responsibility and mission as a servant of the people.
Questions about Kim Jong Un’s (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) maternal family lineage have once again floated to the surface. Since his December 2011 accession, official documentary films and essays about KJU have been released and two treatises attributed to him were publicized. However, neither the Korean Workers’ Party [KWP] Propaganda and Agitation Department nor the Party History Institute have released an official biography about him. This should not suggest that the party image makers have not compiled or disseminated information about KJU’s background; biographical data on KJU has been released and discussed in party cell meetings of security organizations. The only reported references to KJU’s lineage are oblique references to a “respected mother” and “Mother of Korea,” believed to be KJU’s mother Ko Yong Hui (Ko Yo’ng-hu’i), found in 2002 Korean People’s Army [KPA] indoctrination literature and in a 2012 poem published in Rodong Sinmun.
For a number of years Ko Yong Hui’s father was believed to be Ko T’ae-mun. Mr. Ko was born on Cheju Island and migrated to the Osaka area with his father. Ko was trained as a judoist and later became a professional wrestler. Through his connections in the Osaka martial arts community, he was recruited by members of Chosen Soren (Ch’ongryo’n; General Association of Korean Residents in Japan) to move to the DPRK with his family in the early 1960s. According to this account, Ko was responsible for introducing judo to the DPRK, which earned him Kim Il Sung’s attention.
In 2006 South Korea’s NIS claimed that Ko Yong Hui was not the daughter of Ko T’ae-mun. The focus of current media reporting is that she was the daughter of Ko Kyo’ng-t’aek. Ko Kyo’ng-t’aek was also born on Cheju Island in the 1920s and moved to Osaka. He worked at a Japanese garment factory before migrating to the DPRK in the early 1960s. In the DPRK he worked at a chemical factory in North Hamgyo’ng Province. Ko Kyo’ng-t’aek was subsequently profiled in a Chosen Soren publication in the 1970s. That profile included a reference to a daughter who, like Ko Yong Hui, was a dancer in the Mansudae Art Troupe.
Office buildings of the KWP United Front Department. The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea is subordinate to UFD (Photo: Google image)
The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK; formerly known as Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland) released a statement on 5 April (Thursday) saying that an attempt to intercept the U’nha-3/Kwangmyo’ngso’ng will be construed as “an act of war.” KCNA reports:
A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea issued the following statement on Thursday: The South Korean puppet forces recently bluffed that they would “intercept” the DPRK satellite Kwangmyongsong-3, disclosing their attempt to make a fresh military provocation.
The group of traitors aligned with the U.S. is saying that it would track the orbit of the DPRK’s satellite projectile with the mobilization of war hardware including various monitoring machines, missiles and Aegis destroyer, and intercept the satellite in case its debris fall out.
The U.S. is now busy making the emergency transfer of an ultra-modern maritime radar base “SBX-1″ from Hawaii for the purpose of tracking and monitoring satellite and backing its interception. Meanwhile, Japan is making reckless remarks that it would intercept the DPRK satellite if its propeller body drops on Japan’s archipelago.
The puppet military warmongers worked out the “plan for mounting strike on corresponding targets” while talking about “assault” and “possibility of provocation” from someone. They did not hesitate to let loose a spate of such balderdash as “striking Pyongyang”.
The military warmongers including Kim Kwan Jin, puppet minister of Defence, openly blustered that they would attack Pyongyang if Seoul is attacked, claiming that now it has become possible to independently “punish” in line with the “right to self-defence”. They used to say in the past they could not but restrain themselves in the face of attack by the north due to the belligerence regulations of the Armistice Agreement and the relations with the “UN Command”.
The reckless racket for provocation kicked up by the puppet group of traitors is a dangerous act of causing an all-out war as it is a last-ditch effort of persecution maniacs.
The DPRK’s peaceful satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 is for the development of science and technology, whose legitimacy and transparency will be fully ensured in the whole course of its launch. The world already knows about this.
Several decades have passed since mankind launched the first satellite and thousands of satellites were put into outer space ever since. But there was no one who stoked confrontation recklessly trying to intercept the satellite for peaceful purposes.
A saying goes “only stick is seen by crazy dog”. Those obsessed by the idea of escalating confrontation with the DPRK and hostility towards it seem to regard the DPRK satellite as a nuclear war-head.
To intercept the satellite for peaceful purposes is just an act of war and it is bound to entail tremendous catastrophe.
What matters is whether the provocateurs are concerned about the consequences.
Their call for “strike at Pyongyang” is just hysteria of the puppet war-like forces.
Nobody should dare encroach upon the sky above
Pyongyang, sacred capital of the DPRK, and they are gravely mistaken if they think they can survive after attacking Pyongyang.
It would mean the miserable end of the puppet group and end of everything in South Korea.
Nevertheless, the puppet group is kicking off the racket of military provocation under the pretext of “interception” and “strike”, asserting that it would not rule out a war and going in league with its master. This is nothing but a ridiculous bid to hamstring the DPRK satellite launch at any cost and comfort its clan in fear of the powerful retaliatory strike by the DPRK.
Lurking behind this is the ulterior intention of the puppet group to justify the confrontation and war moves through the aggravation of the situation, intensify the anti-DPRK smear campaign, calm down the discontented south Koreans, divert elsewhere the public opinion and thus tide over the ruling crisis and create a favorable atmosphere for the “general election”.
The reality more vividly shows that South Koreans can neither lead a happy life even a single day nor escape from the danger of a war as long as such confrontation maniacs as Lee Myung- bak group are allowed to exist in south Korea.
The group of traitors should be well aware of what the “interception” and “strike at Pyongyang” would mean.
The army and people of the DPRK will never pardon the enemies’ attempt of reckless military provocations.
Whoever intrudes into the territorial air and seas even an inch under any pretext and intercepts the DPRK satellite or collects its debris will meet immediate, resolute and merciless punishment by the DPRK.
The DPRK will mete out the unimaginable and the most miserable punishment to its rival if it dares fire into the sky above the DPRK, Pyongyang, in particular.
The cause of war must be rooted out without mercy.
The group of traitors had better bear in mind the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless provocations.
Meanwhile, on 6 April (Friday), KCNA added another essay to its growing collection of news items and writings on what it terms “peaceful development and use of space.”
Several countries have become more brisk in their moves to develop and use the outer space since the outset of 2012.
On Feb. 6, China opened to public a video footage of the moon that has 7m-resolving capability, taken by the lunar satellite “Change 2″.
The State Administration of Science and Technology for National Defence of China said no country has ever made public a video footage of the moon that has 7m-resolving capability and contains its whole surface.
With a plan to launch 21 rockets with 30 satellites atop this year, China has already succeeded in launching four of them.
China set higher goals such as launching and operating its own space station and blasting off a satellite to prospect Mars till 2020 and has made positive efforts to put them into practice.
Russia announced an 18-year plan for developing space at the beginning of this year and has stepped up the work for development and use of the space.
It envisages a manned flight to the moon and landing on it as well as a long-term research.
It also contemplates operating a research center on Mars and manufacturing a transport spaceship that can be used several times to increase the efficiency of the international space station.
Russia has pressed ahead with the work to increase its satellites on the orbit and decrease the danger of meteorites and comet likely to affect the earth.
Iran succeeded in putting satellite Navid into its planned orbit in February this year in the wake of the successful launch of its first satellite in June of 2011. It is said that the weight of Navid is over treble that of the first one.
Vietnam, Venezuela, India, Nigeria, Argentina, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Turkey, Poland and many other countries have shaped aggressive space policies and development plans to suit their actual conditions and foundations and set about conquering space. Cooperation and assistance are being boosted among them.
Some countries in the world are taking bold approaches towards establishing and reinforcing their own global position systems, independent on the U.S. GPS.
China that planned to complete the global position system “Beidou” till 2020 is set to operate the system late this year.
Russia is also mulling reinforcing its own global position system “Glonas”.
It successfully blasted off space vehicles needed to establish the system late last year, making it possible to send position signals nonstop throughout the globe.
Russia aims at making “Glonas” superior to GPS. It is assertion of Russia that “Glonas” should not be inferior to GPS in all indexes but should be better than the latter.
The European Union invested a huge amount of fund in research and development of satellite flight in an effort to build infrastructure for the Galileo global position system and improve the service for flight.
It is said that the system is likely to go fully operational by 2018 and compete with the GPS and “Glonas”.
The facts go to prove that the global space science and technology have made rapid progress and it has become a trend in the 21st century to develop the outer space, common wealth of mankind, for peaceful purposes.
The international community’s approach towards peaceful development and use of the space will get more brisk and multi-polar.
Kim Jong Un (2nd R) looks through binoculars across the DMZ into South Korea during an inspection of sites in and around P'anmunjo'm. Also in attendance is Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (L) and Gen. Kim Yong Chol (R). Since 2009 Gen. Kim has managed military intelligence operations against South Korea. Closely linked to Kim Jong Un's succession, he was promoted to 4-star general in February 2012. (Photo: KCNA)
DPRK state media reported on 4 March (Sunday) that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) inspected P’anmunjo’m, a DPRK settlement near the demilitarized zone on the DPRK-ROK border. According to KCNA Kim Jong Un told service personnel stationed there to “maintain the maximum alertness as they are standing in confrontation with the enemies at all times.” Attending to his visit were Gen. Pak Jae Gyong, Gen. Kim Yong Chol and Col. Gen. Jo Kyong Chol.
Kim Jong Un (3rd L) visiting P'anmunjo'm. Also in this image are: Kim Yang Gon (5th L), Pak Pong Ju (6th L), Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (7th L), Kang Sok Ju (4th R), Jang Song Taek (3rd R) and Kim Ki Nam (2nd R) (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)
Kim Jong Un (1st row, C) poses for a commemorative photograph near a monument of the autograph of Kim Il Sung, his grandfather, the late DPRK President and country founder. Also seen in this image are: Mun Kyong Dok (1st row, L), Choe Ryo'ng-hae (1st row, 2nd L), Pak To Chun (1st row, 3rd L), Jang Song Taek (1st row, 4th L), Kim Yang Gon (1st row, 2nd R), Kim Ki Nam (1st row, 3rd R), Ri Jae Il (2nd Row, 2nd L), Han Kwang Sang (2nd row, 5th L) Pak Pong Ju (2nd row, C), Gen. Kim Yong Chol (2nd row, 6th R), Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (2nd row 5th R), Col. Gen. Jo Kyong Chol (2nd row, 4th R) and Hwang Pyong So (2nd row, R) (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)
Also attendance were Kim Yang Gon (KWP Secretary and Director of the United Front Department), Jang Song Taek, Kang Sok Ju (DPRK Cabinet Vice Premier), Kim Ki Nam (KWP Secretary and Director of Propaganda), Pak To Chun (KWP Secretary of Military Industries), Mun Kyong Dok (KWP Secretary), Choe Ryo’ng-hae (KWP Secretary), Ri Jae Il (KWP Propaganda Senior Deputy Director), Hwang Pyong So (KWP Organization Guidance Deputy Director), Pak Pong Ju (KWP Light Industries Deputy Director) and Han Kwang Sang (KWP Finance and Accounting Deputy Director).
KCNA reports:
He was greeted on the spot by commanding officers of the unit standing guard over Panmunjom.
After receiving a report on the unit’s performance of combat duty, he went to the dangerous forefront.
He first visited the Monument to President Kim Il Sung’s Signature standing sublimely at Panmunjom.
He had a photo taken with the officials accompanying him before the monument.
Then he went up to the balcony of the Phanmun Pavilion to learn in detail about the enemy movements.
He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that all the soldiers on the outpost duty were following every move of the enemies with vigilance and performing their combat duties in a responsible manner with strong class resolution to defend the socialist country at the cost of their lives. He highly appreciated their feats.
He told the soldiers on the outpost duty at Panmunjom to always maintain the maximum alertness as they are standing in confrontation with the enemies at all times.
He met those soldiers who had finished their combat duties and had a photo taken with them.
He went round several places of Panmunjom including the Phanmun Pavilion, the Thongil House, the conference room of the armistice talks and the hall where the armistice agreement was signed.
He stressed the need to preserve and manage well the conference room of the armistice talks and the hall where the armistice agreement was signed associated with the history of the great Fatherland Liberation War in which the KPA defeated the imperialist allied forces and the Phanmun Pavilion and the Thongil House which reflect the will of the Korean people to reunify the country in order to show them to the generations to come who will live in the reunified country.
Underlining the need to glorify generation after generation the feats heroic Korea performed by winning victory in the war fought to beat back the U.S.-led imperialist allied forces, startling the world, he emphasized that if a fight occurs in the future, the army and people of the DPRK will force the enemies to sign a paper of surrender, not simply putting signature on the armistice agreement, their knees bent.
Going round a bedroom, mess hall and gymnasium of the soldiers standing guard over Panmunjom and other places, he learned in detail about their service and life.
He put forth the important tasks which would serve as guidelines for increasing the combat capability of the unit.
The Korean people can sleep well and he feels reassured as the soldiers on the outpost duty are defending the gate of the country as firm as an iron wall, he said, adding that he fully believes in them.
He gave them a pair of binoculars, an automatic rifle and a machine gun as souvenirs and had a photo session with them.
The late DPRK leader Kim Jong Il inspects an area near P'anmunjo'm on 24 November 1996, five days after the DPRK closed its liaison office there. Seen in this image are the late VMar Jo Myong Rok (R), Jang Song Taek (2nd R) and Gen. Hyon Chol Hae (4th R) (KCNA file photo)
Service members of the KPA gather for a mass rally on Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang, broadcasted on state television on Sunday, 4 March 2012. (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)
Chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff, VMar Ri Yong Ho, delivers the keynote speech during a mass rally held in Pyongyang on 4 March 2012. Also on the rostrum in this image are: KWP Secretaries Mun Kyong Dok (2nd L) and Kim Yang Gon (3rd L); NDC Vice Chairmen Gen. O Kuk Ryol (4th L), VMar Ri Yong Mu (5th L) and VMar Kim Yong Chun (6th L); DPRK Cabinet Premier Choe Yong Rim (7th L); and, KWP Secretaries Kim Ki Nam (8th L) and Choe Tae Bok (9th L) (Photo: KCNA)
Kim Jong Un’s visit occurred before Korean People’s Army [KPA] personnel and DPRK citizens gathered for a mass rally in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang. Choe Sang Hun writes in theNew York Times:
Such rhetoric notwithstanding, North Korea struck a deal last week with its sworn enemy, the United States, agreeing to suspend its nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors to monitor activities at its main nuclear complex. In return, North Korea will receive 240,000 tons of food aid from Washington.
But the country spurned a repeated call by Washington to improve ties with South Korea, and has instead kept up its criticism of the South, where elections later this year will serve as a referendum on President Lee Myung-bak’s policies toward the North.
Over the weekend, North Korea escalated its militaristic rhetoric and threats, criticizing a joint American-South Korean military drill. It also seized on a poster in a South Korean military barracks that was leaked last week. That poster said: “Let’s beat Kim Jong-il to death! Let’s strike Kim Jong-un to death!”
On Sunday, North Korean television broadcast a rally of 150,000 people in the capital of Pyongyang vowing to punish the South for insulting their leader.
Photographs by the North Korean media showed soldiers and railroad workers shaking their rifles and fists under slogans like “Let’s tear the traitor Lee Myung-bak to pieces!” or “Let’s beat the psychopathic traitor Lee Myung-bak to death!”
Also on Sunday, the North’s foreign ministry accused Mr. Lee of trying to disrupt American efforts to engage the North.
South Korean officials stood by their policy of not responding to these invectives, which they considered propaganda aimed at driving a wedge between Washington and Seoul and inciting a political dispute within the South in an election year.
Another view of the rostrum overlooking Kim Il Sung Square where VMar Ri Yong Ho (8th L) delivers a speech to a mass rally. In this image are: Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (L), Minister of People's Security Gen. Ri Myong Su (2nd L), Ministry of State Security Political Bureau Director Col. Gen. Kim Chang Sop (3rd L), NDC Member and Minister of State Security Gen. U Tong Chuk (4th L), NDC Member and KPA General Political Department Deputy Director VMar Kim Jong Gak (5th L), KWP Secretary and Director of General Affairs Tae Jong Su (6th L) and NDC Member and KWP Secretary of Military Industries Pak To Chun. (Photo: KCNA)
Prior to Kim Jong Un’s inspection the National Defense Commission [NDC] Policy Department held a press conference in Pyongyang. The Associated Press reports:
On Saturday, a spokesman for North Korea’s National Defense Commission told a news conference that the United States must halt the joint military drills if it is serious about peace on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea calls the U.S.-South Korean war games a threat to peace at a time when U.S. and North Korean officials are holding talks aimed at improving relations.
The U.S. and North Korea announced last week that Washington had agreed to provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid in exchange for a freeze of North Korea’s nuclear activities. A U.S. envoy is scheduled to meet with North Korean officials in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss the distribution of food.
The deal is seen as a first step toward resuming six-nation nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks suspended in 2009, and a tentative move toward improving the tense relationship between the wartime foes. The six-nation talks involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
“Talks and military exercises are contradictory,” Maj. Gen. Kwak Chol Hui, deputy director of the National Defense Commission’s Policy Department, told the news conference Saturday in response to a question from The Associated Press.
North Korea considers the drills an additional affront because they are being staged during the semiofficial 100-day mourning period following Kim Jong Il’s Dec. 17 death.
Across Pyongyang, vans mounted with speakers drove through the streets Saturday broadcasting the statement denouncing South Korea. State media reported that 1.7 million young North Koreans signed up for military service in a 24-hour period and that hundreds of thousands signed petitions calling for revenge. The figures could not be confirmed independently.
Meanwhile, in another indication of his status in the central leadership, a documentary film on Kim Jong Un’s military inspections and other public activities during January 2012 has been released.
DPRK Ambassador to Cuba Jon Yong Jin (L) shakes hands with Cuban Vice President Maria Bejerano (R), whilst presenting his credentials on 13 February 2012 (Photo: Granma)
On 13 February 2012, Jon Yong Jin presented his credentials to Cuban Vice President Gladys Bejerano (a.k.a. Gladys Maria Bejerano Portela). For a number of years Jon served as vice chairman of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, with a portfolio for science and technology. According to ROK media Jon is a nephew of National Defense Commission Vice Chairman Jang Song Taek. Jon was appointed DPRK Ambassador to Cuba by the Supreme People’s Assembly [SPA] Presidium in January 2012. After presenting his letter, Jon met with Bejerano as well as Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez (a.k.a Bruno Eduardo Rodriguez Parrilla).
Ambassador Jon (R) presents his letter to Maria Bejerano (L), one of Cuba's vice presidents on 13 February 2012 (Photo: Granma)
KCNA reported on 18 February on Jon’s arrival in Cuba:
Gladis Maria Bejerano Portela, vice-president of the Council of State of Cuba accepted credentials from Jon Yong Jin, DPRK ambassador to his country, on Feb. 13.
He said: I, on behalf of the Cuban party, government and people, express once again deep condolences over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il to our regret.
Kim Jong Il was a close friend of the Cuban people. He always paid deep attention to the steady development of the fraternal relations between Cuba and the DPRK.
We hope that the Korean people will register greater successes in the efforts to build a thriving socialist nation under the wise leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong Un.
The Cuban government will in the future, too, develop the friendly and cooperative relations in an overall way in all fields, cherishing deep the comradely obligation with the DPRK as intended by the supreme leaders of the two countries.
On 17 February 2012 Hyon Hak Bong presented his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II (Photo here). A former deputy director-general in the DPRK’s Foreign Ministry, Hyon was appointed DPRK Ambassador to the UK by the SPA Presidium in early December, prior to Kim Jong Il’s death. According to the Court Circular: “His Excellency Mr. Hyon Hak Bong was received in audience by The Queen today and presented the Letters of Recall of his predecessor and his own Letters of Credence as Ambassador from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the Court of St. James’s. Mrs. Choe Jin Ok was also received by Her Majesty.”
KCNA reports:
Hyon Hak Bong, DPRK ambassador to the UK, on Feb. 17 presented his credentials to Elizabeth II, queen of the UK.
She wished the dear respected Kim Jong Un great success in his work to build a thriving nation and improve the standard of people’s living.
She hoped everything will go on well in the DPRK under the leadership of Kim Jong Un.
Noting that the bilateral relations have developed on good terms over the last ten odd years since diplomatic relations were established between the two countries, she hoped that the two governments would positively cooperate with each other in various fields.
Orascom Telecom head Naguib Sawiris (L) shakes hands with Ri Kwang Gun (R), chairman of the DPRK Joint Venture and Investment Commission, after his arrival in the country on 1 February 2012. Seen at the far left behind Sawiris is Ri Chol, former DPRK Ambassador to Switzerland. (Photo: KCNA)
Kim Jong Il (6th L) stands for a commemorative photo following his inspection of KPA large combined Unit #233. (KCNA-Yonhap)
A view of Kaemori, South Hwanghae Province (Photo: Google image)
Kim Jong Il traveled to South Hwanghae Province and inspected two Korean People’s Army [KPA] units, one day after the KPA Supreme Command issued a report that threatened “a sea of fire” in the south. DPRK media reported on 26 November that he inspected KPA Air Force (KPAF) Unit #1016 and KPA large combined unit (taeyonhap pudae) #233, described by KCNA as being in “the western sector of the front.” KCNA reports:
He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the commanding officers and servicepersons of the unit have turned all operational theatres into impregnable fortresses to devotedly protect the Party, the revolution, the country and its people and firmly guarantee the great revolutionary surge with a powerful military force and are fully prepared to beat back any enemy’s surprise invasion in good time.
He praised them for standing firm guard over the forefront of the country with strong fighting spirit and faith in sure victory to wipe out all enemies on this land with just retaliatory blows and get the Korean people’s long-pent up grudge settled without fail if they disturb the DPRK’s legitimate exercise of sovereignty through reckless saber-rattling.
He expressed expectation and conviction that all servicepersons of the unit would boost its combat capability in every way to cope with the enemies’ provocations and consolidate all its defense theatres as firm as a rock, thus performing laudable military feats on the sacred road of defending the country.
This photo shows a graveyard (circled in red) in the North Korean border county of Kangnyong in South Hwanghae Province. The photo was taken from an observatory on South Korea's western border island of Yeonpyeong on Nov. 21, 2011, the first anniversary of North Korea's indiscriminate bombardment on the island. Scores of tombs were built recently in the graveyards, sparking off assumptions that they might be coastal positions. (Yonhap)
Kim Jong Il visits a stone factory in an image broadcast on KCTV 26 November. Also seen in attendance are Kim Jong Un (R) and Gen. Hyon Chol Hae (2nd R) (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)
Kim Jong Il’s visit to the area followed reports that the KPA added or reinforced a number of coastal artillery positions. According to ROK media, some coastal artillery guns may have been placed and concealed in a cemetery in Kangryong County. Incidentally, Kim Jong Il was reported to have visited a stone factory on 25 November. During his KPA inspections KJI was reported to be accompanied by Pak Jae Gyong, Kim Won Hong, Jang Song Taek, Kim Jong Un, Ri Yong Ho, Hyon Chol Hae and Kim Kyong Ok. Also reported to be in attendance were “staff members of the KPA Supreme Command.” On 24 November (Thursday) the KPA Supreme Command published a report denouncing ROK military exercises held in the West Sea:
The military warmongers dared to announce that the rehearsal is aimed to remind the DPRK of victims and lesson from the Yonphyong Island Shelling and review their “perfect readiness for counteraction.”
It is also intended to show their will to decisively punish “not only the base of provocation but also commanding posts of all echelons including supporters in the north” with the combined forces of three services in case the DPRK starts a military action, they asserted.
As for last year’s Yonphyong Island shelling, it was a legitimate self-defensive step against the provocateurs who dared to make a clumsy fire on the inviolable territorial waters of the DPRK despite its army’s advance warning.
This being a hard reality, they launched the anti-DPRK war rehearsal far from drawing due lesson on the first anniversary of the shelling. It is little short of a new political and military provocation to the army and people of the DPRK.
Such disgusting behavior by the military warmongers, who go recklessly without knowing about the present trend of situation and their domestic condition, will arouse criticism and ridicules from among the people at home and abroad.
They should not forget the lesson taught by the Yonphyong Island Shelling one year ago.
They should be mindful that If they dare to impair the dignity of the DPRK again and fire one bullet or shell toward its inviolable territorial waters, sky and land, the deluge of fire on Yonphyong Island will lead to that in Chongwadae and the sea of fire in Chongwadae to the deluge of fire sweeping away the stronghold of the group of traitors.
The DPRK revolutionary armed forces are in full readiness to go into a decisive battle to counter any military provocation.
This report was one of several missives issued by the DPRK during the week that marked one year since the 23 November 2010 Yo’np’yo’ng Island artillery shelling incident which resulted in the death of two ROK Marines and two civilians. According to Yonhap, the first mention of the anniversary appeared in a 22 November essay on Urminjjokkiri which said West Sea exercises were “clearly an attempt to create another military provocation like the Yeonpyong-do incident, and ultimately carry out an all-out attack on the North.” This essay was similar to information bulletin #987 released by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea [CPRK]:
They are seriously mistaken if they think they will go scot-free after they commit provocation in the future, too.
The puppet group is kicking off the sinister confrontation racket, instead of drawing due lesson from last year’s Yonphyong Island shelling case. Such action will bring itself to shame and reveal its colors as a war hawk more glaringly.
The reality clearly shows that “flexibility of the policy toward the north” much touted by the group is no more than wordplay to deceive the public opinion.
The puppet group has only the extreme hostility toward fellow countrymen and sinister intention to go for confrontation and war with the DPRK.
Its reckless confrontation moves are a last-ditch effort to arrest the daily growing demand of the South Korean people for switchover in the policy toward the north, quell the desire for reunification through alliance with the north and free itself from the wretched plight into which it has been driven at home and abroad due to its serious ruling crisis.
The army and people of the DPRK are now in full readiness to go into action and annihilate the enemy, with surging indignation at the evermore pronounced anti-DPRK smear campaign and war moves of the puppet group.
ROK officials did not respond to the DPRK’s statements. Yonhap reports:
“We don’t find it worth responding to North Korean rhetoric that flies in the face of common sense,” a military official said on the condition of anonymity. “If North Korea wants to engage in dialogue, it should stop clinging to irrational logic and immediately apologize for its torpedoing of the Cheonan warship and its shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.”
The official was referring to two deadly armed provocations by North Korea last year, which killed 50 South Koreans, mostly soldiers.
Another official at the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, also made a similar comment on the North’s latest harsh rhetoric.
On Thursday, the North’s military threatened to turn Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea’s presidential office, into “a sea of fire.” It came a day after South Korea held military exercises in the Yellow Sea to mark the first anniversary of the Yeonpyeong shelling.
The South Korean official said these exercises only strengthened the military’s defense posture and its determination to strike back against future North Korean provocations.
“If North Korea provokes again, our forces will thoroughly punish them and make them regret their action,” the official said.
Sources said North Korea put its forces on heightened alert as South Korea staged exercises in the Yellow Sea.
Kim Jong Il met with PRC Ambassador to the DPRK, Liu Hongcai, and personnel from the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang on 31 October (Monday). According to KCNA, Ambassador Liu talked about Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to the DPRK during 24-25 October, as well as Kim Jong Il’s two trips to China in May and August. KJI hosted a dinner reception for Liu and the embassy staff members who accompanied him. According to KCNA, KJI was joined by Kim Kyong Hui, Kim Jong Un, Jang Song Taek, as well as chief of the KPA General Staff,VMar Ri Yong Ho, CC KWP Secretary and United Front Department Director Kim Yang Gon, and CC KWP Secretary and International Department Director Kim Yong Il. The commemorative group photograph also showed in attendance: CC KWP Secretary and NDC Member, Pak To Chun and KPA Generals Pak Jae Gyong, Kim Kyong Ok, Kim Won Hong and Hyon Chol Hae.
KCNA reported:
The ambassador said that new landmark events took place in the relations between the two parties and countries in this meaningful year, the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the Sino- DPRK treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, further promoting their development.
He noted that General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited China in May and August, performing immortal feats in consolidating and developing the traditional Sino-DPRK friendship.
Li Yuanchao, member of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the C.C., the CPC who is head of its Organization Department, Zhang Dejiang, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the CPC and vice-premier of the State Council of China, Meng Jianzhu, State councilor and minister of Public Security of China, and other senior officials of the Chinese party and government visited the DPRK in this meaningful year, he said, adding: They were received by Kim Jong Il and had in-depth discussions and reached effective agreements with Korean comrades on the important issues arising in boosting the friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties and countries in different fields including politics, economy and culture.
Liu Hongcai and the staff members of the embassy expressed heartfelt thanks to Kim Jong Il for sparing precious time to meet them again though he was very busy steering the building of a prosperous and powerful nation and manifested their will to make positive efforts for the steady development of the Sino-DPRK friendship.
Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), met the Chinese ambassador to the DPRK on Monday and praised the Chinese embassy for its contribution to the development of Sino-DPRK relations.
According to a report of DPRK’s official KCNA news agency, Kim highly appreciated the positive efforts made by the Chinese embassy to contribute the development of the DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations.
Ambassador Liu Hongcai conveyed warm greetings from Chinese President Hu Jintao to the DPRK leader.
Liu said Kim’s two visits to China this year had played an important role in consolidating and developing the traditional China-DPRK friendship.
The DPRK leader also hosted a dinner for Liu and staff members of the embassy.
Also present at the meeting were Kim Jong Un, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), Ri Yong Ho, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK, and some other DPRK officials.
The meeting and dinner with Liu ended a particularly busy October for Kim Jong Il. It aoccurred one week after KJI met with Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang and as the Chinese finalized preparations for the launch of the Shenzhou 8 space vehicle. KJI’s meeting with Liu also took place the same day DPRK Senior (First) Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kim Kye Gwan, was scheduled to meet with Chinese 6 Party Talks representative Wu Dawei in Beijing; incidentally, newly appointed 6PT ROK envoy Lim Sung-nam was slated to meet Wu on Tuesday (1 November). China Daily reports:
According to the press release, a number of top leaders of the DPRK joined Kim at the dinner, including Kim Jong-un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), and Ri Yong-ho, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK.
Liu Jiangyong, a specialist on Northeast Asia studies at Tsinghua University, said, based on the guest list, “Kim took almost all the main leaders in the DPRK to the dinner”.
“The move reflects the consensus reached in the DPRK leadership on the high importance they attach to China. Also we can see they’re quite satisfied with Li’s visit and the work of the ambassador,” Liu said.
The DPRK thanked China for its positive attitude on continuing and developing bilateral relations, highlighted by Li’s visit, Liu said.
Zhang Liangui, a professor at the Research Institute for International Strategic Studies, which is affiliated with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said Kim has a tradition of showing hospitality to Chinese ambassadors to the DPRK, and even visited the Chinese embassy to celebrate the Lantern Festival.
Zhang noted the event was also possibly linked to Kim Kye-gwan’s China tour. The Foreign Ministry said on its website that Kim met Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun and China’s top envoy for Korean Peninsula affairs Wu Dawei, without providing details.
“It’s highly likely that Kim Kye-gwan notified Beijing about his talks with Stephen Bosworth,” Zhang said. Kim said after the talks with Bosworth that “big progress” had been made and the two sides had agreed to meet again.
Kim and top Chinese diplomats may also have discussed the resumption of the Six-Party Talks, Zhang said.
This latest DPRK-PRC interaction also took place several days after the premiere of the P’ibada Opera Troupe’s staging of Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai) at Dongfang Theater in Changchun on 25 October. The P’ibada Opera Troupe will give 30 performances of the opera during a three month tour of 12 Chinese cities. Among the officials in attendance at the opera’s opening night was the newly appointed DPRK Consul in Shenyang, Kim Kwang Hun.
Kim Jong Il shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Le Keqiang (Photo: Xinhua/KCNA)
Taking time from a recent spate of KPA field inspections and on-the-spot guidance visits, Kim Jong Il met with Chinese Vice Premier Le Keqiang and a delegation of senior PRC officials on Tuesday (25 October). Le arrived in the DPRK on Sunday (23 October) where he was greeted on the tarmac by DPRK Vice Premier Kang Sok Ju, CC KWP Secretary and International Department Director Kim Yong Il, CC KWP Secretary Mun Kyong Dok and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Song Gi. On Monday, Le had separate meetings with DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim and SPA President Kim Yong Nam. Le met with KJI and attended a banquet. Along with KJI, other members of the DPRK central leadership who dined with Le included Jang Song Taek, Kim Jong Un, VMar Ri Yong Ho, Kang Sok Ju and Kim Yang Gon.
Kim Jong Il receives presents from the Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Le Keqiang (L) with other members of the DPRK central leadership in attendance (Photo: KCNA)
A decorative panel, among the gifts presented to Kim Jong Il, by the Chinese delegation during their visit during 24-25 October 2011 (Photo: KCNA)
Chinese Vice Premier Le Keqiang toasts with Kim Jong Il during a banquet he hosted for the Chinese delegation(Photo: KCNA)
On Monday (24 October), Le visited the Friendship Tower where he placed a wreath and signed the guest book. He also toured a Chinese language class and the e-library at Kim Il Sung University. KCNA reports:
After the DPRK military band played the national anthems of both countries, Li entered the tower where he skimmed through the martyrs’ book, watched the wall paintings describing how the Chinese volunteers joined the war and helped the DPRK people with construction.
Li said during the visit that peace does not come easily, so the achievements of construction should be treasured even more.
As a symbol of China-DPRK friendship, the Friendship Tower was completed in 1959.
Also on Monday, Li visited Kim Il Sung University where he observed Chinese-language studies and chatted with teachers and students.
Li said the future of the China-DPRK ties depends on the youths of both countries, encouraging DPRK students to promote cooperation between the two countries and pass down China-DPRK friendship from generation to generation.
Li toured the e-library of the university and donated education facilities and books. He arrived here on Sunday for an official goodwill visit to the DPRK
Le’s visit to Pyongyang, which will be followed by a trip ROK during 26 to 27 October, occurred amid other activities and events between the DPRK and PRC. On 21 October (Friday) the P’ibada opera troupe departed to Beijing for a three month tour through China of its production Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai). A delegation of Chinese media officials visited the DPRK at the beginning of the month for five (5) days and (collectively?) commented they “were deeply moved by the profound friendship between China and the DPRK sealed with blood.” On 18 October, Chinese press reported that officials of its Railways Bureau completed an inspection of the China-DPRK Friendship Bridge, which links Dandong to Sinuiju, North Pyongan. The month-long inspection found the 70-year bridge safe for traffic. PRC Ambassador to the DPRK, Liu Hongcai, along with his wife and embassy officials, took part in crop harvesting at the DPRK-China T’aegam Friendship Farm in Sunan District in Pyongyang on 13 October. On Saturday, Liu told Xinhua:
He pointed out that the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries has shown great potential, with bilateral trade and investment volume reaching new highs.
The bilateral trade volume was 3.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of this year, registering a year-on-year increase of 87 percent, the ambassador said.
Liu stressed that the DPRK’s increased emphasis on economic development and improving people’s living standard is broadening its foreign economic cooperation and attracting more Chinese enterprises to do business and invest in the country.
Liu expressed his belief that Chinese Vice Premier Li’s upcoming visit will further strengthen political mutual trust between the two countries, deepen the bilateral economic and trade cooperation, help promote the China-DPRK friendship and cooperation to a higher level, and make positive contribution to the maintenance and promotion of regional peace and stability.
The DPRK has not restricted its external contacts to the Chinese. In Bangkok, Thailand, US and DPRK officials agreed on the resumption of recovery missions of US service members killed during active hostilities of the Korean (Fatherland Liberation) War. In Geneva, the US and DPRK concluded its two-day interaction. Neither a significant breakthrough nor announcement was expected, but outgoing special envoy Stephen Bosworth said the two countries “narrowed our differences.” Heading the DPRK’s delegation in Switzerland was senior (first) vice minister of foreign affairs, Kim Kye Gwan, distinctly not present in Pyongyang to participate in the meeting with a senior official from his country’s closest ally. AFP reports:
The parties were able to narrow some differences, although more time was needed to reach an agreement, Stephen Bosworth, outgoing US special representative told reporters following the talks.
“We had some very positive and generally constructive talks with the DPRK delegation. We narrowed differences on several points and explored differences on other points,” he said.
Bosworth noted that there remained sticking points, “not all of which can be overcome quickly.”
However, “I am confident that with continued efforts on both sides we can reach a reasonable basis of departure for formal negotiations for the return of the six party process,” he added.
Together with his successor Glyn Davies, Bosworth met the North Korean delegation led by first vice minister Kim Kye-Gwan over two days in Geneva. The meeting, which took place first at the US embassy on Monday, rotated to the North Korean mission on Tuesday.
It coincided with a visit by China’s vice premier Li Keqiang to Pyongyang, where he met North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, according to Chinese state media.
Kim told Li that Pyongyang “hopes the six-party talks about the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula should be restarted as soon as possible”, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported early Tuesday.
The “principle of simultaneous action” should apply, it quoted Kim as saying — a reiteration of the North’s stance that the negotiations should begin again without preconditions.
Korean People's Navy (KPA Navy) Senior Vice Admiral Kim Myong Sik, commander of the East Sea Command (Photo: KCNA)
From Geneva, Kim Kye Gwan traveled to Moscow. His arrival occurred a week following additional DPRK interactions with the Russian Federation. On 20 October the KPA Navy’s commander of the East Sea (of Japan) fleet visited Vladivostok. Senior Vice Admiral Kim Myong Sik met with senior officials of Russia’s Pacific Fleet, in addition to visiting other areas in the vicinity. Kim’s meeting focused on finalizing preparations for a visit by a DPRK vessel to visit Vladivostok in November, as well as discussing a joint naval drill between the two countries. In Pyongyang, Oleg Kozhemyako met with DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim on 19 October (Wednesday) and attended a dinner with Kim Jong Il.
Kim Jong Il poses for a commemorative photo with a delegation from the Amur Region of Russia during their visit to the DPRK (Photo: KCNA)
