KIM JONG UN PROVIDES FIELD GUIDANCE TO MACHINE PLANT

Pyongyang, March 20 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, provided field guidance to the machine plant managed by Kang Thae Ho. Kim Jong Un first looked round its e-library. He was pleased to see a centre for disseminating science and technology, noting that it was built very well as intended by the party and it was impeccable in all aspects as it had up-to-date equipment sent by the party. It has become possible for scientists, technicians and workers to steadily raise the level of their technical skill and broaden their outlook as the plant has established a network system not only with various scientific research institutions but also with well-known universities so that they may get access to data of cutting-edge science and technology on a regular basis, he noted. Then he went round the designing room, processing and assembling shops and other places. It is necessary for the plant to give definite priority to the scientific researches to keep the production going at a high rate and improve the quality of products, he said, setting the goal to be attained by it for researching and developing machine products, indicating the orientation of research work and underscoring the need to strengthen the scientific technological force by successfully building a think tank. He acquainted himself with the work to produce precise, light and intellectual products at the plant and stressed the need to manufacture all products to be of the best quality so they might be favored by users. Learning about the use of the geothermal cooling and heating equipment introduced by the plant, he said that the plant set an example in carrying out the WPK's policy on widely using natural energy. He expressed hope that officials, scientists, technicians and workers of the plant would bring about a steady boost in the production by making a dynamic drive for breaking through the cutting edge with the resolution to put the nation's machine-building industry on a world level through campaigns of brains and technology. Then he had a photo session with them. He was accompanied by Han Kwang Sang, Hwang Pyong So and Hong Yong Chil.

KIM JONG UN GUIDES FIRING COMPETITION AMONG TEACHERS OF MILITARY UNIVERSITIES

Pyongyang, March 19 (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 DPRK National Defence Commission, guided a firing competition among teachers of Kim Jong Suk Naval University and Kim Chaek Air Force University. Its participants competed in shooting pistols and automatic rifles to hit the targets at the fixed distance and time. Winners were decided by points. They pulled their triggers in the spirit of firing at the chests of the U.S. imperialist aggressors, the chieftain of aggression and the sworn enemy of the Korean people. Whenever the bullets hit the targets right in the center, the spectators clapped their hands. Saying that the objective of arranging such a firing competition often is to train all servicepersons as crack shots by intensifying the firing exercise, Kim Jong Un noted that its vitality was being fully displayed in the competition. He said that the results of the current competition were higher than those in the recent firing contest among teachers of other military universities, adding that this clearly proved that the KPA was raising a strong wind of shooting drill as intended by the party. The air force university won both the pistol firing and the automatic rifle firing to come first in team standing. And then the competition was reviewed and the winners were awarded prizes. Kim Jong Un appreciated the successful competition. Among the spectators were Choe Ryong Hae, Ri Yong Gil, Jang Jong Nam, Pyon In Son, So Hong Chan, Kim Su Kil, Kim Myong Sik, Ri Pyong Chol, Kim Yong Chol, Jo Kyong Chol, Pak Thae Su, Jang Tong Un, Han Kwang Sang, Hwang Pyong So and service personnel of the KPA.

KIM JONG UN GUIDES ENLARGED MEETING OF CMC OF WPK

Pyongyang, March 17 (KCNA) -- An enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea was held under the guidance of Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the WPK, chairman of the CMC of the WPK, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army. Present there were members of the CMC of the WPK, executive members of the party committee of the KPA and commanding officers of the services and corps-level units of the KPA. The meeting discussed issues arising in more thoroughly establishing the monolithic leadership system of the party in the whole army, bolstering up the combat readiness and capabilities of the KPA in every way and decisively improving the living of the service personnel as required by the prevailing situation and the developing revolution and important matters arising in increasing the defense capability of the country. It discussed an organizational issue. Kim Jong Un analyzed and reviewed the work of the People's Army last year and set forth the important tasks to be carried out by it this year and ways to do so. The meeting held in the stirring period when all the service personnel and people of the DPRK are raising a strong wind of leap forward in all fields for building a thriving nation full of confidence in victory will mark an important occasion in further strengthening the KPA as an invincible revolutionary Paektusan army and firmly protecting the country's security and sovereignty under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Un.

KIM JONG UN ENJOYS PERFORMANCE GIVEN BY MORANBONG BAND

Pyongyang, March 17 (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 a performance given by the Moranbong Band together with service personnel of the KPA. Put on the stage were diverse numbers including female chorus "People's joy", female solo "O My motherland full of hope", female duet and pangchang "Our father" and female solo and pangchang "Song of high haul in sea." The artistes sang high praises of the immortal revolutionary exploits Kim Jong Un has performed by steering the struggle for defending the socialist motherland and building a rich and powerful country through forced march for field guidance day and night and the indomitable spirit of the service personnel and people of the DPRK demonstrating the might of the great Paektusan nation, united close around him. They, at the same time, powerfully demonstrated that the future of Songun Korea always remain bright and rosy as Kim Jong Un is standing at the helm of the Korean revolution and there is no force on earth that can block the advance of all the service personnel and people ushering in a new period of prosperity in the great era of Kim Jong Un under the wise leadership of the WPK. At the end of the performance he waved back to the enthusiastic cheers of the audience and performers and congratulated them on their successful performance. He expressed his expectation and conviction that the creators and artistes of the band would more dynamically create art works and conduct performing activities to encourage the service personnel and people of the DPRK to bring about a great surge in the great drive for building a thriving socialist nation. Among the audience were Choe Ryong Hae, Ri Yong Gil, Jang Jong Nam, Kim Won Hong, Choe Pu Il, Han Kwang Sang, Kim Kyong Ok, Hwang Pyong So, Hong Yong Chil, Ma Won Chun and Kim Yo Jong.

KIM JONG UN GUIDES FIRING COMPETITION

Pyongyang, March 17 (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 DPRK National Defence Commission, guided a firing competition among commanding officers of the services and corps-level units. The competition was divided into the group of military officers and the group of political officers. The participants competed in firing pistols and automatic rifles to hit the targets at fixed distance and time. Winners were decided by points. The group of military officers came first in the pistol-firing while the group of political officers placed first in the automatic rifle-firing and the former emerged a winner in team standing. And then the competition was reviewed and the successful participants were estimated. He underscored the need for the KPA to conduct a dynamic campaign for training soldiers as crack shots so that they may be prepared as crack shots capable of hitting at a single shot any target under any circumstances, regardless of whether in day and night time and seasons, adding that to this end the commanding officers should become crack shots before any others. Underlining the need to thoroughly apply the five-point training policy and the four-point training principle of the party and thus make the training more intensive as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did in Mt. Paektu, bearing deep in mind the party's intention of organizing the above-said competition, he stressed that it is necessary to use the competition as an important occasion in training all soldiers as crack shots. He posed for a picture with the participants in the contest after expressing expectation and belief that the commanding officers of the services and corps-level units and all other commanding officers of the KPA would put the greatest spurs to rounding up combat preparations and thus creditably perform the heavy yet honorable combat duties assigned to them by the party, always bearing in mind that a combat starts without any advertisement. Among the spectators were members of the Central Military Commission of the WPK, executive members of the party committee of the KPA, and its other commanding officers.

KIM JONG UN GUIDES FLIGHT EXERCISE

Pyongyang, March 17 (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 DPRK National Defence Commission, guided the flight exercise of the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 188 honored with the title of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment. He was greeted by KPA Air Force General Ri Pyong Chol, commander of the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force, and commanding officers of the unit. He issued an order to start the flight exercise. Aircraft took off with whirr and thunder shaking the land. The flying corps suddenly flew up to be out of sight but zoomed down in a twinkle to pound the "enemy's" position. They strikingly demonstrated the militant stamina of the brave pilots ready to blow up the enemy position like lightening over Mt. Paektu and to blast the enemy's stronghold like a thunder over Jong Il Peak once an order is issued. He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the pilots successfully performed their combat duties. Noting that the drill was successful, he emphasized that the sky of the country would be always azure and blue thanks to the airmen reliably defending the inviolable territorial air of the socialist motherland in the spirit of becoming human bombs. He instructed the commanding officers to intensify training to prepare the airmen as members of death-defying corps in the sky and able combat pilots capable of successfully fighting a modern warfare. After highly praising the airmen of the unit for getting always fully ready to go into action, he had a photo taken with them. He was accompanied by Choe Ryong Hae, Ri Yong Gil, Jang Jong Nam, Kim Won Hong, Choe Pu Il, Han Kwang Sang, Kim Kyong Ok, Hwang Pyong So, Hong Yong Chil and Ma Won Chun.

CRUMBLING HEGEMONY

Some time ago Zbigniew Brzezinski, a US geopolitical specialist and preacher of hegemony, said that the US hegemony has come to an end. A national security advisor to the US president over 30 years ago, he was one of main advocates for the theory of the US domination of the “unipolar world.” He maintained that the 21^st century would be the century of the United States, saying that it must dominate the world after the Cold War.

However, in the twilight of his life, he has grown skeptical of the US policy of its supremacy, which he had devoted his every effort to realize, and admitted its impossibility.

Dmitri Suslov, vice-chairman of the External Defence Policy Council of Russia, and several other specialists have also insisted that the structure of the US supremacy has crumbled. The US president, too, has confirmed that the world has become multi-polarized.

Then, what are the fundamental factors that have broken the supremacy of the US?

They are none other than its aggressive wars, military pressure, intervention in other country’s internal affairs, economic blockade and so on. Soon after the end of its confrontation with the Soviet Union in the late 20^th century, it got drunk with almightiness of its strength and frittered away military expenditure to modernize its military equipment and increase its armed forces. The US military expenditure, which was bigger than those of the world major military powers put together, increased year after year, and its air and naval task forces deployed in several countries in the Middle East, East Asia and other regions were beefed up.

Having designated its potential enemies and crying about “threat” from them, it made a list of targets of its preemptive strike and made nuclear preemptive strike its official policy. It accelerated the expansion of NATO and schemed to form a new military block in order to encircle its enemies.

Its maneuverings for reinforcing military strength to gain world supremacy developed into aggressive wars against other countries. Without the consent of the UN Security Council, it invaded Iraq in March 2003 under the pretext of “dismantling WMD.” Later, it came to light that the pretext had been fabricated. With regard to this arbitrary exercise of military strength against a sovereign country, a French news agency commented that the Iraqi war meant the revival of the US arbitrariness and that the war was characterized by the US arbitrariness that reappeared in the world arena.

The US did not hesitate to commit aggression and intervention bringing pain and disaster to the peoples of other countries, and openly carried out military operations such as drone raids and “operations for capturing terrorists” in other countries, ignoring their sovereignty.

However, the hegemony which the US craved for has brought about a completely opposite result.

Many countries have put efforts to building up their military strength to cope with the US military hegemony. Cooperation has been strengthened and regional measures have been taken among several countries. In this course, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has appeared, and joint military exercises taken place between China and Russia. Voices have rung out from various corners of the world in opposition to the US military high-handedness and arbitrariness. 

A Russian specialist said, “The US tried to build up its hegemony in the 1990s when Clinton was its president. But it resulted in weakening the hegemony. It met with opposition from centres of other forces, made many countries its enemies and lost its position. At the end of the term of Bush fils the supremacy of the US came to the end.”

It has also lost its ability to arbitrarily control the world market economy.

“Economic integration” is an external economy policy it has pursued since the end of the Cold War. It expanded its markets through the capitalist market system it established in many regions in the world and enjoyed its benefits for a while. It boasted that its economy was a locomotive of the world economy.

Afterwards, financial crisis broke out in various parts of the world. The crises broke out in England, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico and other countries had harmful impact not only on the regions concerned but also on the development of the world economy. In particular, the crisis of default mortgage broke out in 2007 in the United States developed into a world financial crisis.

This clearly revealed the danger and vulnerability of the international financial and monetary system controlled pegged to the US dollars.

To cope with this, many countries have produced regional currencies, and moves to strengthen South-South cooperation got brisk. The Summit of 20 and formation of BRICS show that the days are gone when the US controlled the world economy. China, India, Brazil and other countries are developing rapidly, forming centres of new forces, and in the course of this the influence on the world economy has been re-divided.

The US is getting exhausted as days go by. Heavily indebted owing to the state debt of USD 17 trillion which exceeded the limit of state debt, the US is decreasing its military expenditure despite its desire. Signs of downfall can be found within the country: partisan dispute is fierce on formulating state budget, and having lost financial backing, the government once declared closure of part of its work and dismissed many public servants.

Now the US is desperately trying to revive its crumbling hegemony, but the trend of the times aspiring for independence will not allow it. 

Demand of Present Times

The Korean nation is a homogeneous one of the same blood with a time-honoured history spanning 5 000 years.

The Korean people, however, are now suffering from the tragic division of the country into the north and the south, owing to the military occupation of its southern half by the United States, which had set foot on it nearly 70 years ago in the guise of “liberator.”

National division and the consequent inter-Korean confrontations have inflicted untold misfortunes on the Korean nation. Colossal amount of human and material wealth, which should have been used for independent development and co-prosperity of the Korean nation, has been wasted on fostering confrontations between fellow countrymen. Even at present the inter-Korean relations are repeating vicious cycles of mud-slinging and showdown, which increases the danger of an imminent nuclear war on the Korean peninsula.

Distrust and confrontation between the north and the south of Korea cause the greatest damage to the Korean nation, and also endanger peace and stability in the region and the rest of the world. It is, therefore, imperative for the Korean nation to put an end to the history of confrontation between the fellow countrymen, so as to clear up the danger of war threatening them and turn the Korean peninsula, one of the hottest spots in the world, into a permanent peace zone.

For this reason not only the Korean nation itself but also peace-loving people of the world demand that the inter-Korean confrontation should be stopped.

The present situation in which the political and military showdown has gone to such extremes that conflicts and a risk of war would ensue makes it more urgent to improve the inter-Korean relations.

It has been long recognized worldwide that the Korean nation is intelligent one with unrivalled creativity, and thus Korea, when it is reunified, will become stronger and more prosperous in all fields of politics, military affairs, the economy and culture.

Now is the time when the north and the south of Korea should put an end to the history of confrontation in accord with the demand of the times and the aspiration of the nation and open up a new era of independent reunification and peace and prosperity by joining efforts and wisdom.

When the relations between the north and the south are improved, it will provide a sure guarantee for ensuring peace on the Korean peninsula and open a broad prospect of unified development and common prosperity of the Korean nation. It was eloquently proved by the fact that the inter-Korean relations of distrust and confrontation were favourably turned to those of reconciliation and unity after the adoption of the June 15 Joint Declaration at the inter-Korean summit in June 2000. Now the Korean people are looking forward to the return of the June 15 reunification era, reminiscing with emotions about those days when the people in the north and the south from all walks of life travelled freely and shared compatriot feelings.

At present, the situation on the Korean peninsula has deteriorated to a very grave state that cannot be looked on with folded arms. At this critical moment, if any side regards the improvement of inter-Korean relations as beneficial to the other side and seeks only for confrontation, it is not a sincere attitude of those responsible for the destiny of the nation. Shunning the disgrace and misfortunes suffered by the nation and wasting time, captivated by narrow-minded factional interests and deep-rooted distrust in the fellow countrymen is as good as trampling down the national wish for reunification and committing crimes that will be cursed by the generations to come. The fierce confrontation and continuous mud-slinging between the fellow countrymen even in international arena is also an ugly scene to anybody.

It is not an impossible issue to eradicate north-south confrontations. It is surely possible if both sides have a firm will to dispel distrust and terminate confrontation of the past days from the standpoint of “By Our Nation Itself.”

The radical improvement of inter-Korean relations depends entirely on the attitudes and efforts of the both authorities.

Kim Jong Un, leader of the DPRK, said in his New Year Address that an atmosphere conducive to the improvement of inter-Korean relations must be created. As a part of this, the DPRK National Defence Commission made crucial proposals to the south Korean authorities that both sides must halt all sorts of recriminations and that the latter should stop unconditionally and immediately all military moves with the outsiders against fellow countrymen, and declared that the north would act first with substantial measures. It also proposed taking mutual measures in practice to prevent a nuclear holocaust.

The international community welcomes the DPRK’s proposals and sincerely hopes for their implementation.

But it is not by the efforts of one side that the relations between the north and the south can be improved.

The proposals with realistic and practical measures the DPRK made to the south Korean authorities have created conditions favourable for developing the inter-Korean relations in compliance with the aspiration of the times and desire of the nation. Now, the ball is in the court of south Korea: the south Korean authorities should refrain from shunning the DPRK’s appeal reflecting genuine patriotism and love for the nation, and make a bold decision. If they discard their hidebound sense of confrontation and take a resolute step to join hands with fellow countrymen in the north, any problem can be solved in inter-Korean relations.

The international community anticipates improved relations between the north and the south of Korea at an early date.