Translate

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

DPRK rich in rare earth resources

A series of scientific research projects have been undertaken in the country to develop and make effective use of rare earth resources.
Rich natural resources are material wealth and priceless asset for rapidly developing the national economy.
The rapid development of the frontier technologies throughout the world is sparking fierce scramble for securing natural resources.
Rare earths are called seasoning powder of industry, vitamins of materials and “treasury of new materials” for the distinctive role they are playing in developing the economy and cutting-edge technologies.
In particular, they are highly regarded as strategic resources of the 21st century as they are used as core materials in making state-of-the-art equipment.
The DPRK has abundant rare earth deposits.
The estimated deposits of rare earths in the country amount to tens of millions of tons in content.
Statistics show that the world deposits of rare earths are 150 to 160 million tons in content and it is predicted that the country would be advanced in the world ranking in terms of estimated amount of deposit.
The Korean rare earth resources are mostly distributed in North Pyongan, Kangwon and South Hwanghae Provinces.
Rare earth(RE) ores are bastnaesite, monazite and britholite. There are also pyrochlore and other ores containing RE and other rare elements.
The country has a dozen large deposits in which bastnaesite, britholite, monazite and ilmenite with zircon, and fergusonite are main minerals.
The Jongju deposit, for example, in a britholite deposit containing some ten RE minerals and it has over a dozen million tons of rare earths.
In the past experts established an industrial method of processing bastnaesite and developed RE microelement fertilizers and different kinds of additives for stockbreeding, fish culture, sericulture and for the cultivation of tree samplings, medicinal herbs and muchroom, RE welding rods, RE dyeing additives, RE plastic stabilizers, RE metal refining agents, RE permanent magnet, RE alloys and RE medicines and medical appliances.
They have recently launched a joint research project on the chemistry of RE materials and its application. It includes research into RE compounds and materials by quantum chemistry, RE-titanic dioxide(TiO2)photo catalyst, RE-zeolite catalyst and other catalysts, RE fluorescent materials and long-life afterglow materials, bio-functional substance in the form of RE-organic complex and the making of RE nano materials by using supercritical fluid.
Research is also going on to comprehensively process britholite, pyrochlore and other useful mineral resources abundant in the country and collect all valuable elements such as zirconium, niobium, tantalum and apatite as well as rare earths.
The country is promoting the development of new kinds of high-tech products urgently needed for the national economic construction and the improvement of the people’s living standard through the development of RE functional materials and making effective use of them.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Life devoted to Women’s Emancipation
Kim Jong Suk (December 24, 1917 – September 22, 1949), who is held in high esteem by the Korean people as an anti-Japanese heroine, was an outstanding woman activist who devoted her whole life to women’s social emancipation and the development of their movement.
In the days fo the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism (1905-1945), she led the Korean women to turn out in the struggle for the country’s liberation and the women’s emancipation.
Kim Jong Suk participated in the anti-Japanese war commanded by Kim Il Sung, founding father of socialist Korea, winning the fame as an anti-Japanese heroine and woman general of Mt. Paektu. Thanks to her warm care, many women were trained to be excellent revolutionaries.
It happened when she was engaged for several months from April 1937 in underground activities in Taoquanli, northeast China. She taught the village women, who had been under darkness and ignorance, their letters, brought home to them the fundamentals of the revolution, and formed the Anti-Japanese Women’s Association by involving them. Saying that in order for the women to be freed from rightlessness and inequality and achieve social emancipation they should turn out in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle led by Kim Il Sung , she ensured that they assisted the KPRA (Korean People’s Revolutionary Army) in every way. Along with this, she made sure that they played a big role in reconnoitring the enemy movements for successful military operations of the KPRA. Exploits of Kim Jong Suk and other women were permeated in the victorious Phochonbo Battle on June 4, 1937, which announced to the world that the Korean nation would not live as slaves of Japanese imperialism and would surely win back their country’s independence by fighting Japanese imperialism.
In the early 1940s, when military and political training for final battle for national liberation was underway, she stood in the van of such drills as parachuting, river-crossing and skiing, which even men soldiers, found difficult, encouraging women guerrillas to gain excellent marks.
After the country’s liberation(August 1945), she, while actively assisting Kim Il Sung in his work, motivated women to turn out in the effort for building a new society.
Just from the stage of formulating its programme after the country’s liberation, the Korean women’s movement encountered various assertions: some insisted that the theory of defending human rights and the programme advocated by women the socialist women campaigners of the past should be copied mechanically. Having learned of this fact, she presented her view that the foremost task of the Democratic Women’s Union of North Korea was to enlist women in the effort to found the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the major political task of the Worker’s Party of Korea. She enlightened officials of the women’s union, saying that the programme of the union should contain such issues as thorough liberation of women from the colonial and feudal exploitation, elevation of their political and economic positions, abolishing of the feudal evils of maltreating women and their emancipating from centuries-old ignorance and darkness. The first programme drawn up under her deep care won the unanimous approval at the First Conference of the DWUNK held in May 1946, and the Korean women and the DWUNK organizations were able to confidently advance with their clear objective.
Kim Jong Suk also paid her deep attention to building up the DWUNK and rallying the broad sections of women around it. She said to officials of the union that the DWUNK should be political organization in which all Korean women, who loved the country, were rallied as one to strive for the building of a new country, adding that if women who accounted for half of the total population were united as one they could display their great strength. As a result, the union whose membership numbered 150 000 as of November 1945 increased to a million by late 1946.
With a great importance attached to improving the women’s political and ideological standards, she used to go deep among them to conduct the explanatory and publicity work.
She visited many factories, including the Pyongyang Cornstarch Factory and the then Pyongyang Silk Mill, to arouse women in the efforts to build a new country. She took a lead in the Pothong River improvement project, the first nature-harnessing project in liberated Korea, with a pannier on her back, arousing women in the patriotic work and, through this, encouraging them to display their strength.
True to Kim Il Sung’s instructions that it would be advisable for the women’s union to train women officials needed for nation building, she actively helped the work to set up model technical school for training women officials and technicians. Thus, competent women officials were trained in a short period in the liberated country to become pillars for the building of a new society.
The undying exploits she achieved for women’s emancipation and the strengthening and development of the women’s movement will shine forever with the history of ever-prospering socialist Korea.


Supreme Commander and Soldier’s Families
The relationship between Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il and soldiers’ families in the DPRK is one between parents and their children, in which they share the same destiny.
Followings are few examples.
Family with Eight Officers
There is a family whose eight sons are serving in the army.
The eldest, Pak Yong Chol, determined to defend his motherland and fellow people with arms throughout his life like his father, became an officer of his father’s former unit; the second son, following in the steps of his elder brother, also became an officer; the third volunteered for service in the army when the situation in the Korean peninsula was brought to the brink of war owing to the incident caused by the Pueblo, US armed spy ship which had intruded into the Korean territorial waters and been captured by the People’s Army; and the fourth refused the recommendation to a university after military service, and decided to continue serving in the army; the other four younger brothers also became officers in keeping their family tradition of defending the country.
In October 1992, when the youngest brother was assigned to a post in the frontline and so all eight brothers became officers, they wrote to Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il a letter reading as follows in part:
“ We will only trust and follow you and cast our lots with you whatever howling wind may blow and even if the sky and land may change hundreds of times. It is our determination to remain as eight officers who defend you, the Supreme Commander, with arms of the revolution in our hands forever. If harsh ordeals crop up, we, eight brothers, will become a bulwark and shield that defend you at all costs, and in a decisive battle we will bravely fight the enemy at the risk of our lives, shouting ‘Long live General Kim Jong Il.’
“ ‘Let’s be eight human rifles and eight human bombs that defend the respected Supreme Commander!’ This is our faith and oath. …”
The Supreme Commander, after reading their letter, raised the eight brothers as pioneers of soldiers’ families, saying that they greatly encouraged him.
Afterwards, many soldier’s families, such as Ri Chong Song and his four brothers, Li Jong Un and five brothers, and Ri Jang Ung and his six brothers and sister, were born in Korea.
A Blessed Soldiers’ Family
One November day in 1997, Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il gave field guidance at a women’s coastal battery. While looking round the company with affection, he learned that a daughter of a former artillery woman, who had presented a bouquet of flowers to President Kim Il Sung 25 years ago on his inspection of the company, was serving in the same company.
Pleased, he called her to his side and asked how old she was and what her parents and brother and sister were doing. She answered that her father was on officer, her mother was working as a civilian in an army unit, and her brother was serving in the army. The Supreme Commander highly praised her family, saying that it was the manifestation of patriotism that all her family members were guarding the post of national defence. He was so proud of the girl for defending her mother’s former post that he posed for a photograph with her.
That day he said to officials that all the members of society should take their cue from the girl’s family for national defence, and that he would meet her parents later.
One week later, busy as he was, he met the girl’s mother, Om Pok Sun, and her father and inquired into their work and life, and even the future of their youngest daughter, still a secondary-school student.
In February 2000 he met the family again; by now, the youngest daughter had enlisted in the army, Om Pok Sun reenlisted in the army. He highly praised them for serving in the army, and posed for a souvenir photograph with them.
The family of Om Pok Sun is now as a model of revolutionary soldiers’ families in the DPRK.
There are many such families in the country.

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Answers to Questions Raised by ITAR-Tass of Russia
October 13, 2011
I offer my thanks to ITAR-Tass for having put a written question as to my successful visit to the Siberian and Far East Regions of the Russian Federation.
You have asked several questions and I am going to answer them by groups for the sake of convenience.
First, I would like to refer to my impression of the Russia visit and the prospects of the development of the DPRK-Russia relations.
I am very glad to have visited Russia, a friendly neighbour, in August and met President Dmitri Anatoliyevich Medvedev.

I cannot forget the fact that President Medvedev travelled thousands of kilometres to Ulan-Ude from the capital of Moscow to warmly welcome us and officials from Moscow and local areas and the Russian people accorded us warm hospitality everywhere I visited. And I pleasantly recollected the days of the early new century when I met former President Vladimir Putin on several occasions and deepened friendship between us.
I was deeply moved as I visited again after nearly a decade the meaningful Far East and Siberian regions bearing vividly the noble traces of the great President Kim Il Sung who had established the precious traditions of the DPRK-Russia friendship and made an undying contribution to strengthening and developing them.
During the third visit to Russia in the new century we looked round the Bureya Hydropower Station, a giant power producer in the Russian Far East, Lake Baikal, a scenic attraction of Siberia, different cities and economic and cultural facilities and in the course of this we witnessed the achievements the Russian government and people were making in building a powerful state with deep emotion and had a better understanding of the thoughts, feelings and customs of the brave and diligent Russian people.
To continue to develop in depth the history and traditions of the DPRK-Russia friendship accords fully with the interests of the peoples of our two countries and is of great significance in defending peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
The DPRK-Russia summit meeting and talks held in Ulan-Ude marked an important occasion in further expanding and developing the traditional relations of bilateral friendship and cooperation in conformity with the aspirations and wishes of the peoples of the two countries. At the summit meeting and talks we reached a common understanding that to develop bilateral relations of economic cooperation in different fields including the building of gas pipeline and the linking of railways accords with the interests of the peoples of the two countries and will go a long way towards regional prosperity. Accordingly, the two countries are now briskly pushing ahead with the practical measures to achieve cooperation in the energy sector, including the building of the gas pipeline.
I am confident that the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries will be further expanded and cemented in all the fields of politics, the economy, culture and military affairs on the basis of the agreements reached at the recent summit meeting and talks and the spirit of the DPRK-Russia Joint Declaration, the DPRK-Russia Moscow Declaration and the DPRK-Russia Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation. The government of our Republic highly values the traditional DPRK-Russia friendship and will make joint efforts with the Russian side to steadily consolidate and develop the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries and the two peoples.
Next, I would like to speak on the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula and the resumption of the six-party talks.
To make the whole Korean peninsula nuclear-free was the behest of the great President Kim Il Sung, and it is the consistent stand of the government of our Republic.
The nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula arose as a result of the United States constantly threatening the sovereignty and security of our people.
Sovereignty is the lifeline of a country and nation. We have possessed nuclear deterrent to protect our sovereignty from the blatant nuclear threat of the United States and its increasingly hostile policy.
As agreed at the recent summit talks, there is no change in our principled stand to strive to make the whole Korean peninsula nuclear-free by resuming the six-party talks as early as possible with no strings attached and implementing the September 19 Joint Statement in an all-round and balanced way on the principle of simultaneous action.
We will make continued efforts with the Russian side to oppose high-handed and arbitrary practices on the international arena, establish a fair international order and defend peace and security of Asia and the rest of the world.
As for the prospect of normalizing relations between our country and the United States and Japan, it depends entirely on the standpoint and attitude of the United States and Japan.
It is a consistent foreign policy of our Republic to further develop relations favourably with all the countries that are friendly to it in conformity with the ideals of independence, peace and friendship.
In the new century, too, as it did in the past, the United States is persistently pursuing policies hostile towards the DPRK, while stepping up its pressure on it in all aspects and driving the situation to a dangerous line.
As the present reality testifies to the history of antagonistic DPRK-US relations, any sort of US acts of hostility and manoeuvres of invasion and disintegration will cut no ice with us and always meet with failure.
If the US, though belatedly, abandons its policy hostile to the DPRK and approaches it with good faith, we are willing to improve our relations with it.
What is primary in promoting relations between our country and Japan is that Japan should atone for the crimes it committed against our country and people in the past.
If Japan takes a resolute step towards the redress for its dubious past and the abandonment of its policy hostile towards us, it may lead to the normalization of the bilateral relations.
Russian friends displayed much interest in the fact that our people are making epochal progress in their efforts to build a thriving country.
During my visit to Russia, President Medvezev conveyed his kind greetings to our people who are making devoted efforts to effect fresh changes in their efforts to build a thriving country to mark the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung, expressing his support for the positive measures we have taken to develop the country’s economy and improve the people’s standard of living as well as his conviction that our people will achieve greater successes in their drive to build a prosperous and powerful country. This serves as a great encouragement to our cause.
Today our people are all out to implement the cause of building a prosperous and powerful socialist country, the lifetime wish of President Kim Il Sung, and particularly they are directing all their efforts to improving their standard of living.
We will brilliantly achieve the cause of building a thriving nation without fail on the strength of single-hearted unity of the Party, army and people, and the solid potentialities of our independent national economy.
It is my greatest wish to enable our people to live with nothing to envy at the earliest possible date, and it is my greatest pleasure to work energetically, sharing my joys and sorrows with our people, on the road of translating my wish into reality.
Availing myself of this opportunity, I extend again my friendly greetings to the Russian government and people and wish them great success in their efforts to build a powerful state.
Since WPK Conference
A little more than one year has passed since the Conference of the Worker’s Party of Korea was held in September 2010. What has taken place in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea over the period is in the limelight of the world community. It is because in the past a Party conference would always be followed by events of great significance.
The WPK would call a conference, when necessary, between the intervals of Party congresses in order to either discuss urgent issues concerning its lines and policies, strategy and tactics or decide organizational issues. It called its first conference in March 1958.
In those days, the Chollima Workteam Movement was sweeping the whole country as a campaign to educate the working people in socialist ideology and bring about innovations in economic construction by giving free rein to mass heroism. The movement resulted in such miracles that the Korean working people rolled 120 000 tons of steel plate by using a blooming mill with a 60 000-ton capacity and produced 270 000 tons of pig iron at a blast furnace with a 190 000-ton capacity.
The Party conference held in this situation put forth specific tasks of the Five-Year Plan (1957-1961) for laying the foundations of industrialization and the ways to implementing them, and adopted relevant decisions. The conference opened up a bright vista for the Korean people and instilled greater conference and courage into them.
After the conference the DPRK further promoted the drive to transform the relations of production in urban and rural areas along socialist lines, thus finishing the agricultural cooperativization in August that year to be followed by the completion of socialist transformation of private handicraft economy and individual trade commerce. Consequently, a socialist system was established in Korea. The above-said movement was launched more vigorously throughout the country to carry out the Five-Year ahead of schedule, with the result that eye-opening achievements were made in the overall economic construction, including the establishment of heavy industry centers based on machine-building industry.
The WPK called its second conference in October 1966.
The conference adopted as its decision the line of simultaneously carrying on the building up of the economy and defense under such grave situation that the US became evermore pronounced in its moves for aggression, giving rise oo the Cuban Crisis and the Incident of Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam.
All the Korean people turned out in implementing the WPK’s line to the letter.
Rapid progress was made in industrial production during the period of the First Seven-Year Plan; by the end of the plan the DPRK was in a position to turn out in only 12days the goods manufactured in one year of 1944 before Korea’s liberation. The Korean people carried out the historic tasks of industrialization in a matter of 14 years(1957-1970), thus striking the world with admiration.
The DPRK made marked achievements in the defense upbuilding as well, thus consolidating its defense capabilities in every way. The fact is well proved by the following incidents: In January 1968 the US armed spy ship Pueblo was captured while intruding into the territorial waters of the DPRK. EC-121, a large US espionage plane, was shot down in April 1969. Whenever such incidents happened, the US made much ado as if to start a war at once by developing huge armed forces including nuclear aircraft carriers around the Korean peninsula. Their attempts, however, ended in failure every time, overpowered by determined will and inexhaustible military power of the DPRK, which returns retaliation for “retaliation” and all-out war for all-out war.
These facts foretell a new event in DPRK, in that the third conference of the WPK was held in September 2010.
The new event may be that the DPRK will open the gates of a prosperous and powerful country in 2012, marking the centenary of birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung, the founding father of socialist Korea.
As a matter of fact , the Korea is registering miraculous economic achievements with each passing day after the WPK conference.
In December 2010, the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex perfected a new steel-making system of using no cokes and is now normalizing its production on a high track. Coal gasification projects have been brought to completion, thus mass-producing fertilizers, by relying on coal abundant in the country. The Huichon Ryonha General Machine Factory, a producer of high-performance CNC machine tools, has facelifted itself into a plant of green architecture type. The construction of the Huichon Power Station, a gigantic project which would take more than ten years, is nearing its completion, only three years after its groundbreaking. The Pyongyang Wheat garments, have been reconstructed on a modern basis, opening up an avenue to bring about a fresh turn in improving the people’s standard of living. Fish farms breeding sturgeon, rainbow trout and other rare fishes and large-size fruit farms have been set up in several parts of the country.
New achievements are being made in the sectors of cutting-edge technologies, including IT, bioengineering and nano technology, on the basis of experience of having held supremacy of CNC technology
The construction of modern dwelling houses including 100 000 flats in Pyongyang, road-building, landscaping and other land management work are in swing in all parts of the country, with the result that the country is facelifting its appearance as befits a prosperous and powerful nation.
The international community will witness a new event that the Korean people open the gates of a thriving nation in 2012 under the leadership of the WPK.