*** CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The following is a chronological review of major developments related to North Korea from Nov. 11 to Nov. 17, 2010.

  
November
12 The (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, together with his heir-apparent son Kim Jong-un and top military officials, inspected the (North) Korean People's Army (KPA) Unit 3875O.

   12 The North's General Guidance Bureau for the Development of Scenic Sports urges South Korea's unification ministry over the phone to agree to hold talks on the resumption of a suspended tour program to the North's Mount Kumgang.

   13 A delegation of Pyongyang City led by Ryang Man-gil, chairman of the Pyongyang City People's Committee, leaves for Laos in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Laos-DPRK Friendship Association.

   13 North Korea's men's football team trounces Jordan 3:0 in the last league match of the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou in China, advances to knockout stage.

   14 The KCNA reports that the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang has developed a new "distance lecture system" using computers.

   15 The KCNA reports that the Pyongyang University of Dance has undergone renovations and now has more than 20,000 square meters of total floor space and all necessary facilities, including dressing rooms and rehearsal halls.

   15 Rodong Sinmun, the paper of the ruling Workers' Party of (North) Korea, calls for an immediate resumption of an inter-Korean tour program to the North's Mount Kumgang that was suspended in 2008.

   15 Kim Jong-il sends a message of greetings to Bashar Al-Assad, regional secretary of the Arab Baath Socialist Party and president of Syria, on the 40th anniversary of the corrective movement in Syria.

   15 Thomas Lutze, vice chairman of the German-Korean Parliamentary Friendship Group, arrives in Pyongyang. Separately, a U.S. delegation of experts on North Korea, led by Morton Abramowitz, senior fellow of the Century Foundation, arrives in North Korea as well.

   15 The KCNA reports that the Ministry of Electronics Industry and units under it carried their yearly national economy quotas at 101 percent.

   15 North Korea weightlifter Kim Kum-sok wins a gold medal in the men's weightlifting event of the 16th Asian Games in China.

   15 North Korea's National Defense Commission is found to have circulated a letter to U.N. member nations, in which it refuted the results of a multinational probe that found it responsible for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.

   15 Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper based in Japan, reports that North Korea has started to mass-produce cellular phones while trying to customize their operating systems to satisfy local needs.

   16 A government cultural delegation headed by Kim Jin-bom, vice chairman of the North's Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, departs for Indonesia.

   17 Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, sends a message of greetings to Qaboos Bin Said, sultan of Oman, on the occasion of its national day.

   17 Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun sends a message of greetings to Yousef Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah, minister responsible for Foreign Affairs of Oman, on its 40th national day.

   17 The KCNA reports that Kim Jong-il inspected various industrial establishments in Changsong County, North Pyongan Province.

  (END)