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NORTH KOREAA THIS WEEK NO. 483 (January 17, 2008)
*** NEWS IN BRIEF (Part 1)
Kim Jong-il says the U.S. is ignorant of North Korea: report
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said the United States is ignorant of the North Korean people, adding the "united" socialist country cannot collapse from within, despite outside sanctions, the North's mouthpiece said on Jan. 11.
Rodong Sinmun, organ of the ruling Workers' Party, quoted Kim as saying, "The U.S. warmongers are misjudging that we will not be sustained long thanks to their military pressure, threat and economic containment, which well proves how they are ignorant of us."
The newspaper said that Kim's speech came as he was followed by welcoming people running along a streetcar he was riding to inspect the people's lives, but it did not provide the exact timing of the episode.
After Kim Il-sung, the North's founder, died in 1994, there was widespread speculation in the South and in the U.S. that the North would collapse sooner or later, possibly within five years.
But Kim Jong-il reportedly said, "Though our people cannot eat well like others, managing to live in unheated houses in the winter, we are fighting strongly, united firmly around the party with the optimism of victory ... As long as we have such a good people, we will always win."
The organ stressed that the North could survive the collapse of the communist bloc at the end of the 20th century not only because of its sturdy ideological base of Juche (self-reliance), but also because of the correct leadership exemplified by Kim Jong-il. The organ also called for ongoing unity for the leader and the party.
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North Korean journalists urged to write for building an economic power
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A top party official of North Korea urged its journalists to write articles that will contribute to promoting the general offensive of building an economic power, which the North suggested as its primary goal of 2008 in its New Year joint editorial.
The (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Jan. 14 quoted Kim Jung-rin, secretary of the central committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party, as saying that all people working in the media should produce more articles and programs "stirring the reality and encouraging the people to create new things and perform exploits."
Kim's remarks came in a national meeting at the Central Youth Hall in Pyongyang to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the newspaper Saenal by the late President Kim Il-sung.
Another party secretary, Choe Thae-bok, attended the meeting along with anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, leading officials, journalists and editors working in media, officials of the Kimilsung Socialist Youth League and school youth and children, according to the KCNA.
The newspaper made its first appearance in Manchuria on Jan. 15, 1928 under the guidance of Kim Il-sung to encourage boys and girls to join the revolutionary cause against anti-Japanese imperialism for national liberation, according to the North's account.
The New Year's joint editorial is a kind of annual policy guideline, which all the sections of the socialist society, including the media, should follow without fail.
(END)
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