KIM JONG UN INSPIRES COMMANDING OFFICERS OF KPA COMBINED UNITS

Pyongyang, April 2 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, met the commanding officers of the combined units of the KPA and inspired them on the spot on April 1 after being told that they had successfully completed their study tour of the revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt. Paektu.

He was accompanied by Choe Ryong Hae, Jang Jong Nam, Pyon In Son, So Hong Chan, Yun Tong Hyon, Ri Pyong Chol, Kim Yong Chol and Pak Jong Chon.

He acknowledged the cheers of the commanding officers and had a talk with them.

He was pleased to hear from them that they learned about the indomitable faith and will of the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners, while following their footsteps, and deeply grasped the ardent patriotism and revolutionary optimism with which they pictured the liberated country to themselves while sleeping on snow.

He highly praised them for having renewed through the study tour their firm pledge to become commanding officers of O Jung Hup type who carry out the revolutionary duties given by the party like those of the anti-Japanese guerilla army, shouting the slogan "Forward, following me!" bearing deep in mind the revolutionary spirit of Mt. Paektu.

He was present at the oath-taking meeting of the KPA commanding officers held in front of the statue of President Kim Il Sung of the Samjiyon Grand Monument. It was attended by the commanding officers of the combined units of the KPA who participated in the study tour.

He made a speech before its participants.

He said that, seeing the photos of tour-making commanding officers in sky-spirit every day, he felt as if he were joining them in the tour, adding he renewed his firm will to successfully implement the behests of Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il by steadfastly carrying forward the Juche revolution started in Mt. Paektu.

The commanding officers of the combined units might have experienced snowstorm in Mt. Paektu during the forced march, sleeping and eating outside just as the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters did, he noted, adding in this course they might have not only deeply grasped the immortal exploits of President Kim Il Sung who ate in the wind and slept in the dews to victoriously lead the great anti-Japanese war but known better about the origin of our revolution and how its tradition was established.

He stressed that the study tour of the revolutionary battle sites in Mt. Paektu area was organized to raise a strong wind of education in the revolutionary traditions throughout the army to complete the Korean revolution in the revolutionary spirit of Mt. Paektu.

The party has very deep trust and great expectation for the commanding officers of the combined units, he said, stressing the need to dynamically wage the struggle to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists with the arms of the revolution, arms of the working class, which originated from the stormy Mt. Paektu.

He indicated tasks and ways which would serve as guidelines for rounding off the combat preparations and bolstering up the fighting capabilities.

There were speeches to evince their resolutions.

The speakers renewed their firm determination to infuse into the service personnel the indomitable revolutionary spirit of the anti-Japanese fighters, who shouted the slogan for wiping out the enemy even if they died a hundred times, true to the noble intention of the supreme commander who called the young commanding officers to the battle sites of Mt. Paektu and to blow up all strongholds of the U.S. imperialist aggressors and other hostile forces once an order is issued.

A letter to all the service personnel of the KPA was adopted at the meeting.

On the same day Kim Jong Un had a photo session with the commanding officers of the combined units who took part in the study tour.

KIM JONG UN ENJOYS PERFORMANCE GIVEN BY MORANBONG BAND

Pyongyang, April 2 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, enjoyed together with service personnel of the KPA a performance given by the Moranbong Band before its performance tour of Ryanggang Province.

The presenter said in an excited tone: After giving the task to make the performance tour of Ryanggang Province, the supreme commander spared time to watch the performance though he was very busy with the work to protect the destiny of the country and its people from the arrogant and reckless moves of the U.S. imperialists and other hostile forces to stifle the DPRK.

He stressed the need to make rousing cheers for socialism and the WPK heard from the town at the foot of Mt. Paektu where the Korean revolution started. He gave the Moranbong Band an important instruction to powerfully encourage the people in Ryanggang Province in their struggle.

Put on the stage were colorful numbers including female solo "O My Motherland Full of Hope", female duet and pangchang "Our Father", female solo and panchang "We Think of the Marshal Day and Night", violin solo and light music "Attraction and Reverence" and female quartet "We Know Nobody but You".

The performers sang high praises of the exploits General Secretary Kim Jong Il performed by dedicating his all to realizing the ideals of the people and bringing happiness to them till the last moments of his life.

They enthusiastically sang songs emphasizing that the country would prosper forever as Kim Il Sung's and Kim Jong Il's Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong Un who is demonstrating the dignity and spirit of the great Paektusan nation before the whole world.

The performance was warmly acclaimed by the audience for the artistes' cheerful and dynamic voices, unique and enthusiastic instrumental music, perfect ensemble and beautiful melodies representing the spirit of the times.

Kim Jong Un waved back to the cheering performers and audience and congratulated the artistes on their successful performance.

Among the audience were Choe Ryong Hae, Ri Yong Gil, Jang Jong Nam, Pyon In Son, So Hong Chan, Kim Su Gil, Kim Myong Sik, Pak Thae Su, Kim Yong Chol, Jo Kyong Chol and Han Kwang Sang.

Japan Seen Through “Yes” and “No”

Can Japan say “no” to the United States?

Probably, any Japanese with self-respect wants to do it, but the reality hardly tolerates it. Japan is always saying “yes” to the US.

Vain Hope for “Japan That Can Say No”

Narida Kazuo, a Japanese freelancer, wrote in his article titled “Be Japan that can say no.”

“The (Japanese) government turned a deaf ear to its people’s demand for the transfer of the US military bases in Okinawa, assuming servile attitude towards the US. It shows obviously Japan is entirely devoid of independent stand. To become Japan that can say no—it is the primary task set before the government to defend its people and run the state.”

The successive Japanese governments proved the fact.

The Hatoyama-led government of the Democratic Party of Japan (JDP), which took power claiming for the termination of the long-term ruling history of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and for the establishment of relations with the US on an equal basis, resigned in September 2009 with a short life, because it yielded to the US on the transfer issue of the US military base in Japan.

At that time Hatoyama, despite the US pressure, promised to reexamine the bilateral agreement on the issue of transferring the US military base in Futenma which had been signed by former LDP regime, and finish it by May 2010. However, the Japan-US joint statement was issued in May 2010 that the substitute facilities for the US base in Futenma would be relocated in other coastal area in the city of Nago, Okinawa. Accordingly, Hatoyama’s promise to remove the US military base in Futenma outside Okinawa or abroad ended in smoke, making his regime short-lived.

The Noda-led JDP government went counter to public sentiment by allowing the deployment of the “MV-22 Osprey” transport planes in the US military base in Iwakuni.

The “MV-22 Osprey” is under criticism for its instability, and 58 cases of plane accident were reported between 2006 and 2011. The Noda government, notwithstanding that the deployment of this accident-prone aircraft would pose a serious risk to the life and safety of its citizens, gave way to the US pressure.

So is the case with the Abe-led LDP government.

Prior to the visit to the US in February 2013, Abe went to Okinawa and listened to the residents’ demand for the relocation of the US military base in Futenma and opposition to additional deployment of the aircraft. Nevertheless, during his talk to US President Obama in America he expressed his view on pushing forward the Futenma base issue at an early date as was agreed in the Japan-US agreement.

“No” Belongs to the US, “Yes” Only to Japan

It seems an inevitable fate of Japan to answer only “yes” to the unfair demand of the US.

The Japanese authorities describe the bilateral relations between Japan and the US as the political and military alliance on equal terms, but, in fact, Japan is a subordinate to the US that acts at the latter’s beck and call.

That’s why the Japanese governments, though it promised its citizens to eliminate the trouble-making US military base in Futenma from Okinawa, had to give up as it encountered opposition from the US, and had no other choice but to permit the shipment of the US aircraft to Japan. The US stance and assertion are more important and vital to Japan than the urgent demand of its fellow countrymen for the removal of the US military base out of Okinawa, the growing outcry from the victims of sexual assault or robbery committed by the GIs in Japan and the terrible aftermaths of the US plane accident.

The US never tolerates negative answers from Japan, but is rigidly disciplining it to obey unconditionally.

Shortly after the Japanese-US summit talks held in November 2011, the US stated that President Obama welcomed the remarks of Noda, the then prime minister of the Democratic Party of Japan, that all the goods and services would be offered to the free trade negotiations. The Japanese government denied the statement, but the US refused to take it back.

Prime Minister Abe, after coming into power in late 2012, chose America as the first destination in his foreign tour itinerary. But, he was flatly refused by the US on the excuse that it was not ready for talks. Feeling awkward, Abe offered the US a “gift,” that is the lift of the import restrictions of beef from America as the latter demanded.

There is another case. In 2004 Japan agreed with Iran on the joint project of developing an oil field in southwest Iran. This project, too, was aborted, when the US demand for abandoning a nuclear plan met with a strong opposition of Iran in 2006, and, consequently, it urged Japan to withdraw from the oil field. Japan had to bow to the American pressure, which inflicted a telling blow to its economy.

How can this country be called a sovereign state? And this country is bidding for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council.

ETERNAL CHAIRMAN OF NATIONAL DEFENCE COMMISSION

Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) is the eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission (NDC) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Chairman Kim Jong Il laid firm foundations for the prosperity of the DPRK by establishing a new state structure with the National Defence Commission as its pivot and legalizing Songun politics.

In the closing years of the last century socialist Korea had to face the severest trials in its history caused by the sudden demise of President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), its founding father. Anti-socialist offensive of imperialists was directed to the DPRK after the collapse of socialism in several countries, and natural disasters hit the country for several consecutive years. Taking advantage of this situation the US and its followers unveiled their attempt to militarily stifle the DPRK.

The critical situation of the 1990s demanded urgently a new state structure should be established based on the army-first principle.

Shouldering the destiny of socialist Korea Chairman Kim Jong Il ensured that the government should direct all its efforts to strengthening the military power of the country and, on its basis, ceaselessly build up the overall national power. To this end, the DPRK’s Socialist Constitution was revised so as to attach importance to national defence, and a new state structure was set up in which the NDC, being responsible for the defence affairs related to the supreme interests of the state, is the highest defence leadership body of state power, and the organ of overall defence administration that commands the entire armed forces of the country, organizes and guides the defence-building industry.

The establishment of the new state structure provided a sure guarantee for the full embodiment of Songun politics in the DPRK and a new turning point for the building of a socialist country.

The consequent reality on the Korean peninsula, the whole course of showdown between the US and the DPRK which drew the world attention in particular, proved that the state structure of attaching importance to national defence established by the NDC Chairman was the most advantageous one which enables the country to defend the sovereignty and dignity by consolidating the overall national power in every way amidst any trials and ordeals.

Chairman Kim Jong Il developed the DPRK into a power with invincible military capabilities.

Since the last decade of the previous century when he began to embody Songun politics to cope with the worst trials the country faced, he built up the army as the one strong in idea and faith and prepared thoroughly for both offensive and defensive through his ceaseless inspections of army units. The number of army units he inspected from 1995 to 2011, the last year of his life, reached over 2 490.

He ensured that the self-reliant defence industry of the country was put on a solid basis of the cutting-edge science and technology by directing preferential efforts to its development, while building up the civilian defence forces to be invincible and turning the whole country into an impregnable fortress.

As the DPRK has prepared its nuclear deterrent countering the reckless threat of preemptive nuclear attack of the US, this put an end to the era when the US, a nuclear super power, would threaten and blackmail the former with atomic bombs and provided a sure guarantee for defending the peace and security not only in the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia but in the rest of the world.

Chairman Kim Jong Il consolidated the country’s political and ideological position as firm as a rock and ushered in a new era of the building of a thriving socialist country.

He ensured that the army and people were fully equipped with the Juche idea and the Songun idea and makes the whole people learn after the revolutionary soldier spirit, thus placing the traditional army-people unity onto the highest level. As a result, single-hearted unity of the whole society has been consolidated rock-solid with which all the service personnel and people are rallied firmly around their leader and share the same idea and destiny.

Through his ceaseless on-the-spot guidance flames of industrial revolution in the new century have been kindled and the potentialities of the self-reliant industry of the country developed to the maximum. Moreover, the whole country has been spruced up and modern production bases for the improvement of the people’s living standards mushroomed. Large-scale projects of land realignment, gravitational waterway construction and reclamation of tidelands changed radically the appearance of the country. A new iron production system without using cokes and scrap iron was introduced in metallurgical industry, one of the major sectors of the economy, and the production lines in the chemical industry, including those of vinalon and fertilizers were modernized, fed by the resources abundant in the country.

In the course of realizing his intention of breaking through the cutting edge, the introduction of CNC technology to the machine-building industry is attaining a higher standard, and medium- and small-sized hydroelectric power stations as well as large ones have been erected and are under construction across the country.

As science and technology develop, the DPRK is now being recognized as a manufacturer and launcher of artificial satellites, which are only a few in the world.

Exploits performed by Chairman Kim Jong Il will shine forever along with the prosperity of the DPRK.　

THE SPECTRE OF TOJO

In December 1948 Tojo Hideki, the vicious war criminal who had done great harm to mankind as much as Hitler had, was hanged after having been indicted and tried before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. But at present, the international community feels as if Tojo has been resurrected, seeing the spectra of Tojo through Abe Shinzo, prime minister of Japan.

HARRY POTTER

The moment it was reported that Prime Minister Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine on December 26, 2013, a year after his assuming power, the international community was thrown into great turmoil: Japanese PM’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Tojo Hideki and other Japanese A-class war criminals of World War II were enshrined, was nothing less than an open declaration of the revival of Japanese militarism.

Prior to it, Japanese prime minister had presented Cleyera japonica Thuab on the occasion of the annual spring and autumnal festivals and also August 15, the day of Japan’s defeat in the WWII. Following the collective visit of his political aides to the shrine in question, the prime minister himself officially visited it, turning a deaf ear to the international criticism.

Chinese ambassador to Great Britain criticized Japanese PM’s deed, citing the world’s best-selling Harry Potter series by a British writer as an example. Pointing out that in the Harry Potter series a wicked sorcerer kept his evil soul in a container; he said that if Japanese militarism is that wicked sorcerer the Yasukuni Shrine is the very container that keeps its evil soul, the darkest part of the Japanese spirit. He strongly denounced that Abe’s attempt to change the interpretation of the history without correctly reflecting it posed a serious threat to the world peace.

It is as clear as day what the present Japanese PM would have talked with the spectra of Tojo Hideki, the notorious militarist and the architect of the Pacific War, enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine, and that after 65 years when Tojo was executed: He must have promised that he will revive militarism and realize the wild dream of reinvasion without fail.

It is little wonder that he must have done so, taking into consideration that his maternal grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, was also a militarist and indicted, together with Tojo, for his war crimes.

SOUL OF TOJO

Setting to work in 2013, his first year in office, Abe sang out Kimigayo, a song symbolic of militarism, and said it was the first step toward restoration of Japan. At the beginning of this year he stated that he would push forward taking measures to bring back a strong Japan and revise its constitution. By saying so, he revealed before the world the true nature of a war state, throwing away the veil of “peaceful state,” and made an official announcement of Japan’s ambition to realize militarization and reinvasion.

Referring to the issue of comfort women, an A-class anti-human crime former imperial Japanese army committed during WWII, he argued that there was no proof that the former Japanese soldiers had forced women into becoming “comfort women” by breaking into private houses. It enraged the world people with conscience. Asserting that the judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was not righteous one the international community had made on the Japanese militarism, he also went to extremes of impudently saying that there was not yet a definition of aggression and the academic circles were still in hot dispute over it.

He further made such absurd remarks that the incumbent government had not the slightest intention of carrying forward the former statements by his predecessors Murayama and Kono which expressed remorse and apology for the past Japanese act of aggression, but was preparing a new, “future-oriented” statement on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII (2015).  Abe’s conception of “future-oriented” immediately conjures up for everybody the “future” for reproduction of Japan’s past history of aggression and “orientation” toward realization of its old dream of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

His ensuing moves proved his words: No sooner had he taken office than he was on a headlong rush to legalize the building of a military giant and overseas aggression, advocating shifting away from the postwar system and revising its pacifist constitution. Availing himself of every opportunity, he insisted that the constitution should be interpreted in a more favorable way for “possessing striking power against the enemy’s military bases” and “exercising right of collective self-defence.” He instigated the Liberal Democratic Party to present the draft for constitutional revision, even making threats that he would not hesitate from dissolving the Diet if it would stand against it. He made reckless remarks that if they would like to call him a militarist, they had better do so.

In December 2013 new defence programme guidelines and a mid-term defence programme were adopted at a Cabinet meeting together with the national security strategy, the first of its kind.

Many people in Japan are worrying that the great military leap envisaged by the Abe-led regime would cause further tensions between Japan and its neighbouring countries and add more factors to the instability in the region.

Foreign experts, too, are expressing their apprehension that Japan is seeking hegemony in the region and the eligibility for war, and warning that if it fails to realize its fault and continues to be in hot pursuit after confrontation, it will surely be doomed to failure.

It is a pity; however, that Abe who is haunted by the spectra of Tojo is deaf to all these warnings.