N. Korea bolsters anti-U.S. propaganda on armistice anniversary

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea vowed to bolster leader Kim Jong-il's
military-first policy on Monday, the anniversary of the cease-fire that ended the
Korean War, saying the United States continues to try to stifle the country with
its hostile policy.
Marking the 56th armistice anniversary, North Korea's party newspaper Rodong
Sinmun urged its people to "burn their hearts" with an anti-U.S. spirit and
ratchet up "combatant" efforts to build a strong nation by 2012.
"'Let us protect to our death the revolutionary leadership headed by great
comrade Kim Jong-il!' This is the permanent representation of our life and
struggle," the paper of the Workers' Party said in an editorial.
North Korea routinely publishes anti-U.S. statements on the anniversary. On this
date in 1953, North Korea and China signed a cease-fire accord with the U.S.-led
United Nations Command that fought for South Korea, ending the three-year battle
that left millions of soldiers and civilians dead on both sides of the border.
The cease-fire has not been replaced by a truce, leaving the two Koreas
technically at war.
North Korea calls the war the "Fatherland Liberation War," in which its Korean
People's Army tried to "liberate" South Korea from U.S. aggression under the
baton of the North Korean founder Kim Il-sung.
"The victory of the Fatherland Liberation War, as days go by, engraves more
deeply into us the value of the gun and the just causes of our party's
military-first ideology and its course. No matter how the situation changes and
no matter from where the wind blows, the commitment of our party, our military
and our people to Songun (military-first policy) will never waver."
The editorial incorporated the combatant propaganda into the country's current
foremost slogan to rebuild its frail economy. North Korea aims to build a
"strong, prosperous and powerful nation" by 2012, the centennial of the birth of
Kim Il-sung.
"All the party members, the Korean People's Army soldiers and all the people
should achieve a new revolutionary turnaround in all fronts of the construction
of a strong, prosperous and powerful nation, wielding their homeland's dignity
all over the world with the combatant spirit of the 1950s," it said.
The editorial placed the defense industry as the country's priority, recounting
how Kim Jong-il tried to promote it during the "arduous march" in the 1990s,
during which some outside observers estimate one to three million North Koreans
died from hunger.
It also urged farmers to "uphold the party and the homeland with rice" like their
fathers did during the wartime.
The editorial accused the U.S. of "attempting every mean maneuver to stifle us"
and urged the young North Koreans to "resolutely trample on" the U.S. military
and America's ideological and cultural invasion schemes.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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