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Sunday, May 24, 2015



Major Obstacle to Korea’s Reunification
Seven decades have passed since Korea was divided into the north and the south.
It is a tragedy that Korea, a homogeneous nation which had lived for 5 000 years in one territory with the same blood and one culture, has been suffering national division for such a long period.
What then is the obstacle in the way of Korea’s reunification? In short, it is the US.
In August 1945 when Japan was defeated in the Second World War the US drew a line along the 38th parallel across the Korean peninsula to artificially divide it into two.
Upset by the aspiration of the Korean people to establish an independent, democratic and unified government, the US enforced separate elections in the south of Korea in 1948 to divide the country permanently.
In June 1950, it egged the south Korean army on to ignite a war against the DPRK, bringing the Korean peninsula into the holocaust of fratricidal war.
In the early 1960s when the tendency towards the reunification in alliance with the north gained momentum in south Korea under the slogan, “Let’s go to the north, come to the south, let’s meet at Panmunjom!” the US instigated military rogue Park Chung Hee to stage the May 16 military coup, putting a spoke in the wheel of the reunification movement of the north and south.
John Allen Dulles, former director of the Central Information Agency, openly said that the most successful of the overseas operations of the CIA during his tenure was the military coup in south Korea.
In the 1970s when the July 4 Joint Statement on achieving national reunification on the principle of independence, peace and great national unity was signed between the north and the south the US came out with the theory of “simultaneous entry into the UN by the north and south of Korea,” clamouring about “two Koreas.”
In the 1980s when the north and south started dialogue through various channels and exchanged art troupes and home-visiting groups, it advocated the “cross recognition” of the north and south and staged the north-targeted Team Spirit joint military drills.
In the 1990s when the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression, Cooperation and Exchange was adopted between the north and south, it kicked up a racket of the north’s nuclear crisis, hindering the development of inter-Korean relations and the reunification movement.
In the 2000s the north and south held two rounds of historic summit meeting for the first time in the history of Korea’s division and adopted the June 15 Joint Declaration with the ideal of By Our Nation Itself as its gist, and the October 4 Declaration as its action programme. At that time, too, the US pressurized the south Korean authorities to sabotage their implementation.
Whenever a sign of improved relations was shown between the north and south, the Americans would deteriorate the situation on the Korean peninsula and cast a chill over their improvement by waging frenzied war rehearsals.
The US-south Korean joint war exercises have reached the extreme in the new century.
Due to their largest-scale military drills waged throughout last year and skirmishes in the West Sea of Korea, all the scheduled dialogues and exchanges for the reunion of separated families and high-level talks have been suspended.
At the outset of this year the DPRK set forth bold and audacious proposals to open up a broad avenue to the independent reunification in this year of the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation and has taken sincere measures to this end. The US, however, pursues outrageous confrontation policy, driving inter-Korean relations into an irrecoverable catastrophe.
Typical examples are the large-scale Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military drills the US has forcibly waged in defiance of the strong protest and denunciation by the international community.
The drills aimed at the removal of the DPRK’s leadership and “occupation of Pyongyang” through sudden preemptive strikes, involved huge forces including the US ground, naval and air force strike groups, several hundred thousand south Korean troops and the US-led combined force, and latest military hardware. This has created grave challenge to north-south relations in Korea which was overflowing with aspiration after reunification at the start of this year.
It stands to no reason to talk about reunification and dialogue where gunfire is rampant.
Whenever the inter-Korean relationship has shown a sign of improvement, the US would act in this way.
It is not accidental that the south Korean media branded the US as a wirepuller of the inter-Korean relations that would go astray whenever they seemed to be improving.
The 70-year-long history of national division clearly shows that the improvement of inter-Korean relations and all the reunification processes have been hindered by the US interference.
The issue of Korea’s reunification is not limited to the region, but is directly related to the world peace and security.
That’s why Korea’s peaceful reunification must be achieved at an early date and the US must stop its moves against it at once.

Let’s Open Up a Broad Avenue to Independent Reunification
“Let the whole nation join efforts to open up a broad avenue to independent reunification in this year of the 70th anniversary of national liberation!”—this is the slogan put forward by supreme leader Kim Jong Un in his New Year Address for 2015.
In retrospect, seventy years have passed since the Korean nation was divided by outside forces.
In those decades the world has made a tremendous advance and the times have undergone dramatic changes, but the Korean nation has not yet achieved reunification, suffering the pain of division. It is a deplorable fact known to everyone and it is lamentable to everyone. No longer can it bear and tolerate the tragedy of national division that has continued century after century.
Last year the DPRK put forward crucial proposals for improved inter-Korean relations and national reunification and made sincere efforts for their implementation. Its efforts, however, could not bear due fruit owing to the obstructive moves by the anti-reunification forces within and without; instead the north-south relations have been on a headlong rush to aggravation.
It is a steadfast will of the Korean leader that however complicated the situation may be and whatever obstacles and difficulties may stand in its way, Korea will unfailingly achieve national reunification, a lifetime wish of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il and the greatest desire of the nation, and build a dignified and prosperous reunified country on this land.
In his address he put forward three tasks to open up this year a broad avenue to independent reunification by concerted efforts of the whole Korean nation.
First, the danger of war should be removed, the tension eased and a peaceful environment created on the Korean peninsula.
The large-scale war games ceaselessly held every year in south Korea are the root cause of the escalating tension on the peninsula and bringing the danger of nuclear war to the Korean nation. It is needless to say that there can be neither trustworthy dialogue nor improved inter-Korean relations in such a gruesome atmosphere in which war drills are staged against the dialogue partner.
To cling to nuclear war drills against the fellow countrymen in collusion with aggressive outside forces is an extremely dangerous act of inviting calamity.
The DPRK will resolutely react against and mete out punishment to any acts of provocation and war moves that infringe upon its sovereignty and dignity.
The south Korean authorities should discontinue all war moves including the reckless military exercises they conduct with foreign forces and choose to ease the tension and create a peaceful environment on the Korean peninsula.
The United States, the very one that divided the Korean nation into two and has imposed the suffering of national division upon it for 70 years, should desist from pursuing the anachronistic policy hostile towards the DPRK and reckless acts of aggression and boldly make a policy switch.
Second, the north and the south should refrain from seeking confrontation of systems while absolutizing their own ideologies and systems but achieve great national unity true to the principle of By Our Nation Itself to satisfactorily resolve the reunification issue in conformity with the common interests of the nation.
If they try to force their ideologies and systems upon each other, they will never settle the national reunification issue in a peaceful way, only bringing confrontation and war.
Though the people-centred socialist system of its own style is the most advantageous, the DPRK does not force it on south Korea and has never done so.
The south Korean authorities should neither seek “unification of systems” that incites distrust and conflict between the north and the south nor insult the other side’s system and make impure solicitation to do harm to their fellow countrymen, travelling here and there.
The north and the south, as they had already agreed, should resolve the national reunification issue in the common interests of the nation transcending the differences in ideology and system.
Third, they should briskly hold dialogue, negotiations and exchanges and make contact to relink the severed ties and blood vessels of the nation and bring about a great turn in inter-Korean relations.
It is the unanimous desire of the fellow countrymen for both sides to stop fighting and pave a new way for reunification by concerted efforts. They should no longer waste time and energy over pointless arguments and trifling matters but write a new chapter in the history of inter-Korean relations.
Nothing is impossible if the Korean nation shares one purpose and joins efforts. On the road for reunification the north and the south had already agreed upon such charter and great programme for reunification as the July 4 Joint Statement, the historic June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, thus demonstrating to the whole world the nation’s determination and mettle to reunify the country.
Kim Jong Un said: We think that it is possible to resume the suspended high-level contacts and hold sectoral talks if the south Korean authorities are sincere in their stand towards improving inter-Korean relations through dialogue. And there is no reason why we should not hold a summit meeting if the atmosphere and environment for it are created.
In hearty response to his New Year Address the entire Korean nation, who is brimful of fresh confidence and vigour, is determined to turn out together in the nationwide movement for the country’s reunification so as to glorify this year as a landmark in opening up a broad avenue to independent reunification.
It is expected in earnest that the turnaround in Korea’s reunification will be brought about this year, 70 years after the division of the Korean nation.


Music Prodigies of Korea
Child prodigies from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are now bringing into the limelight of the international community. Some of them are introduced below.
Inborn Genius
Ma Sin A, who is studying at the central musical institute under the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Russia, began to read the Korean alphabet when she was only two years old and liked singing songs very much.
When she entered a kindergarten she sang We Are the Happiest in the World. Her singing in perfect tune and distinctive voice attracted the kindergarten teachers. While receiving professional education in piano at the kindergarten, Ma displayed her talent in reproducing a musical score or a song as it was once she saw or heard it.
At six she arranged a piece of piano music in her style and played it charmingly, amazing the experts who predicted that Ma, a genius in art, would soon achieve her reputation as a music prodigy thanks to her inborn sensibility, techniques and arrangement ability.
Their prediction proved true in international contests.
She won admiration of many experts in international contests for her clever and polished techniques and renditions. At the 9th Rakhmaninov International Piano Contest held in Velikie Novogorod, Russia, in April 2014, she played compulsory pieces so excellently that jurors and the audience all gave her a big hand and compliments. A professor from the Russian Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory and other experts praised Ma for charmingly playing difficult pieces, young as she was, and said she had a very promising future.
Boy Born to Play Piano
Choe Jang Hung, studying music in Beijing, China, is a taciturn boy with little smile at ordinary times, but he is quite a different boy in character and taste before the piano.
It happened when he was a kindergarten pupil. One day his kindergarten headmistress and teachers were about to go home when they heard the piano sounds. Puzzled, they went to a room and there they marvelled what they saw. Choe was playing the piano skilfully and elegantly under the instructions of his class teacher. The boy was unaware of holidays and Sundays when he was playing the piano. 
When he won the top prize at the 20th International Chopin Juvenile Piano Contest, the jurors unanimously praised him that he had mastery of piano.
Calm and Correct Girl
Choe Ji Ye is appreciated as an optimistic and passionate yet a calm and correct student in every respect at the Vienna Conservatory in Austria.
She attends her piano lectures with tremendous concentration and after lectures makes energetic efforts to master the playing techniques she learned within that day. Before the piano she always takes a calm and composed posture and plays the piano correctly as noted in the musical scores.
She once performed A Bumper Harvest in the Chongsan Plain, a famous Korean music, in an artistry presentation held as a routine in her kindergarten. The piece was too difficult and incomprehensible for a child. Her class teacher and even the examiners watched her in apprehension. However, when the girl executed the rendition and that in a very calm posture and correctly, all of them gave an exclamation.
She demonstrated her calmness and correctness in international contests, too.
Her composed and correct performance in playing the complicated and difficult compulsories in the 2013-2014 Henle Piano Contest won her the first prize.
Cradle of Music Prodigies
Ma Sin A, Choe Jang Hung and Choe Ji Ye were all educated at the Kyongsang Kindergarten in Pyongyang, the capital city of the DPRK. The kindergarten plays an important role in the early musical education system unique to the DPRK.
Kim Hyang Suk taught those three children and other talented ones in musical art.
She said: “The early musical education system in our country is a cradle of child prodigies. Whenever I took my pupils to international piano contests, I always keenly felt the superiority and vitality of our educational system. In the future I will develop continuously educational methods and playing techniques to bring up more music prodigies.”

Children Are “Kings” of the Country
It is said that children of a country reflect its future.
In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea children are called “kings” of the country.
Found in this country are palaces for children: the Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace on Jangdae Hill in downtown Pyongyang and Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace in Kwangbok Street, and Kaesong Schoolchildren’s Palace in the area near the Military Demarcation Line that bisects Korea from the north to south.
The Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace occupies a floor space of 50 000 square metres and a building area of 110 000 square metres and is 48 metres high. It has over 500 rooms for various activities in the fields of social and natural sciences, art and literature, sports, national defence, industry, agriculture and others. There are also a 1 100-seat theatre, an indoor stadium which accommodates 500 people, an outdoor practice ground, and a library with a capacity of housing hundreds of thousands of volumes. On the tenth floor are an astronomical observatory and a sightseeing platform. More than 10 000 schoolchildren engage in activities to realize their hopes and talents in the rooms for such sectors as political and ideological education, science and technology, art and sports. There are more than a hundred establishments for similar purposes in good locations all across the country, named as students’ halls of culture.
In the scenic spots of the DPRK are built children’s camps: Samjiyon at the foot of Mt. Paektu in the northern tip of the country, magnificent Mt. Myohyang, Songdowon in the east coast, Mt. Ryongak in the suburbs of Pyongyang and many other famous places house splendidly-built children’s camps.
In recent days they are undergoing reconstruction in conformity with the modern aesthetic sense and developing trend of architectural art. Typical example is Songdowon International Children’s Camp. International Friendship Children’s House, camp buildings, gym and wading pool, outdoor playground and open-air pool, archery field and other latest facilities furnished in the magnificent architectural buildings and establishments—they all elucidate how dearly children are loved in this country.
Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, a palace for babies, is another indication of affections shown by the country. It is regarded in the country that birth of triplets is a good sign of country’s prosperity. It sends helicopters or planes to the remote and secluded areas for women pregnant with triplets. When triplets are born, it even gives ornamental silver daggers for boys and gold rings for girls.
In this country orphaned children are in good care and enjoy ecstasy of happiness.
The newly built Pyongyang Baby Home and Orphanage illustrate this. They are well furnished with over 250 rooms including those for nursing and educating children, play rooms and intelligence game rooms, medical treatment ward, and indoor and outdoor wading pools, playgrounds with a fine assortment of amusement facilities and playthings. It is noteworthy that all the furniture and fixtures, amusement facilities and even interior decorations are all designed to satisfy the children different in age and psychological nature as well as improve their intelligence and morality. Such a palace for orphaned children is unprecedented in history of any other country and nation. It is the realities of socialist Korea that children bereaved of their parents enjoy happiness the same as those with parents.
The state sets it as its principle of giving the best things to the children, and, based on it, provides the children with necessary things in a responsible manner. Hence such legend-like anecdotes as the operation of school trains and buses for a few children and the establishment of branch schools for one or two pupils in desolate islands.
In the streets of Pyongyang many often witness the vans bearing the letters of “soya milk” on their sides. They carry soya milk to the children at nurseries, kindergartens and schools every day, thus earning the name of “king’s van.” It is a praise for the genuine image of socialist Korea in which rising generations are treasured as “kings” of the country.
Another example is the Okryu Children’s Hospital that was built a few years ago. Furnished with up-to-date facilities, operation rooms, sick wards and other treatment rooms, playgrounds and a heliport, the hospital also has classrooms for inpatient children to continue with their school courses. More conspicuous is a fine display of paintings on the walls which grip the children with such a juvenile delight as to forget their pains. For this, it is called an art gallery in hospital.   
Schoolchildren’s palaces, children’s camps and all other establishments for the sake of the children in the DPRK attract special attention of the international community not only for their magnificence in architecture and modern facilities. The huge sum of fund invested in constructing modern buildings and purchasing high-end machines and facilities go beyond imagination, and, more than that, they are enjoyed free of charge by children of ordinary working people whereas they are in the possession of those of a few millionaires and the privileged in other countries.
Bright is the future of the DPRK that treasures the children as “kings” of the country.

By Our Nation Itself
On June 15, 2000, the North-South Joint Declaration, regarded by the Korean people as a milestone for their reunification, was made public in Pyongyang, DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).
Nearly 15 years have passed since then. However, the ideal of By Our Nation Itself, the fundamental spirit of the joint declaration, has been an unchangeable banner of Korea’s reunification.
The ideal is run through with the thoroughgoing spirit of independence.
As is generally known, Korea was divided not by any internal contradiction within the Korean nation, but was enforced by foreign forces.
Having occupied south Korea under the guise of “liberator” after World War II, the US has ceaselessly strengthened its military rule over south Korea with an ambition to dominate the whole of Korea and the rest of the Asian Continent. Outwardly it has pretended to be interested in the reunification issue of the Korean nation, but has not wished them to take the road of reconciliation, unity and reunification and laid one obstacle after another on the road of their reunification movement. This has created serious challenges for Korea’s reunification and forced its people to suffer the tragedy of national division.
The history of national division spanning nearly 70 years vividly shows that the independent development and reunification of the Korean nation cannot be realized without putting an end to domination and interference by foreign forces.
The reunification question of the country must be solved by the efforts of the Korean people, its masters, and in accordance with their opinion and demand. In other words, it is a question related with the right to national self-determination. There is no reason for outside forces to interfere with it. This is just the raison d’etre of the ideal of By Our Nation Itself.
The ideal which embodies the thoroughgoing spirit of independence of the nation is most reasonable and righteous in view of the situation on the Korean peninsula divided by outside forces and of the essential nature of the issue of relinking the bloodline of the nation.
The ideal reflects the Korean nation’s will to defend peace.
All the Korean people are desirous of putting an end at the earliest date to the sharp military confrontation for several decades between the north and the south and of achieving peace and reunification.
However, owing to the active participation by the south Korean authorities in the tenacious isolate-and-stifle policy and military threat of the US against the DPRK, military confrontation and tension, instead of peace and stability, constantly prevail on the Korean peninsula. In January this year the DPRK National Defence Commission made crucial proposals to the south Korean authorities on adopting practical measures to cease extensively all military hostilities against the other side. Nevertheless, the US and south Korea further increased the tension in the region by conducting large-scale Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises from the end of February.
Had the south Korean authorities not followed outside forces who are intent to do harm to their fellow countrymen and had they rejected the joint military exercises with the US and not allowed their land, sky and sea to be turned into venues of war games by US troops, in other words, had they respected the ideal of By Our Nation Itself, the situation on the Korean peninsula would not have faced such a crisis as it is today.
Peace and security on the Korean peninsula is linked to peace and security in the world. If another war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, it will inevitably be developed into a thermonuclear war mankind have never experienced. It will spill over into the wide areas of the world imposing great losses and calamities upon mankind. The US will never be safe either.
The ideal of By Our Nation Itself also reflects the spirit of great national unity.
The eye-opening and impressive events that took place on the Korean peninsula after the publication of the June 15 Joint Declaration eloquently prove that reunification of Korea can be fully achieved only when the whole nation is united.
The railways and roads were relinked and the air and sea routes opened between the north and the south of Korea, making breakthroughs in the walls of division. Inter-Korean high-level political and military negotiations and over 20 rounds of ministerial-level talks discussed matters of common interest of the nation to reach agreement. An industrial park was established in Kaesong situated near the Military Demarcation Line as a symbol of economic cooperation and exchange between the two sides. A tourist route to Mt. Kumgang, a world-famous mountain in the north, was opened for south Koreans.
Reunion of separated families and their relatives in the north and the south took place on several occasions. Joint entrance of the players from the north and south in international matches flying the flag of reunification and joint cheering by people from both sides touched the heartstrings of the world people. The world realized the Korean people are of one blood with one language and culture and it must be reunified.
The demonstration of great national unity by the north and the south of Korea, which had been hostile to and confronted to each other for over half a century is the fruition of the ideal of By Our Nation Itself advanced by the June 15 Joint Declaration.
The international society wishes the north and the south of Korea to be faithful to the last to this ideal, the major spirit of the June 15 Joint Declaration.
On the way of defending and achieving this ideal lie the reunification and common prosperity of the Korean nation and peace and security of the region and the rest of the world.

Kim Jong Un Gives Field Guidance to Taedonggang Terrapin Farm

Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, gave field guidance to the Taedonggang Terrapin Farm.

The Taedonggang Terrapin Farm is a big base for breeding terrapin built on the personal initiative of leader Kim Jong Il who exerted efforts to provide the people with tasty and nutritious terrapin widely known as precious tonic from olden times.Going round various places of the farm, he learnt in detail about its production and management and pointed to the serious shortcomings manifested in its work.

"It is hard to understand that the farm visited by Kim Jong Il did not arrange even the room for the education in the revolutionary history and the employees who failed to bear deep in their minds his leadership exploits could hardly perform their role as masters in production", he noted, adding the atmosphere of the farm was completely different from those other farms he has visited.

"Everything goes well, people substantially benefit from the results of the implementation of the party policies and hurrah for the WPK and socialism are heard from the units which consider it as the main line to uphold and glorify the leadership exploits of the great leaders and the party but only sighs of defeatists come from those units which failed to do so and they may get bogged down even if all conditions are provided", he said, stressing this is the lesson one can draw from their work style.

Recalling that the party sent fries of freshwater lobsters to the farm so that it might breed them and took necessary measures for it but it failed to complete a breeding ground though two years have passed since then, he strongly criticized the shortcoming of its officials as a manifestation of incompetence, outmoded way of thinking and irresponsible work style.

Reproaching the farm for not doing even the work for updating its operation, he queried its officials if they could call its installing of just cameras monitoring the interior of the breeding ground without establishing a system for measuring the quality of water and automatically adjusting it a combined control room and modernization.
He said that all service personnel and people of the country are working hard round the clock to make good presents to the 70th founding anniversary of the WPK but he could hardly understand with what success the officials and employees of the farm would like to greet the October festival.

Noting that if officials work the way those of the farm do, it is impossible to realize the desire of Kim Jong Il and they may bring such grave consequences as impairing the prestige of the party in the end, he called for turning the farm into the one from which people substantially benefit and a model unit in the nation's cultivation which introduces advanced breeding methods and technology into its operation.

He indicated tasks and ways for drastically improving the work on the farm such as the issue of taking a proper measure for supplying electricity for safe breeding, regardless of seasons, the issues of producing hatching equipment with indigenous efforts and technology, building perfect anti-epidemic facilities and putting overall production processes on an automatic basis, the issue of locally producing food required for breeding 100 per cent and the issue of intensifying the research into putting breeding on a scientific basis.