THE EMBASSY OF THE DEMOCRATIC
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA TO SWITZERLAND
Pourtalésstrasse 43 Tel: +41-31 951 6621
3074 Muri/Bern Switzerland Fax: +41-31 951 5704
E-mail: dprk.embassy@bluewin.ch
No 50/23 June 15, 2023
1. Spokesperson for DPRK Ministry of National Defence Issues Strong Warning
2. Latin America Is No Longer "Tranquil Backyard" of U.S.: Int'l Affairs Analyst of DPRK
3. Programmatic Guidance on Independence, Peace and Social Progress
4. World Day Against Child Labour
Spokesperson for DPRK Ministry of National Defence Issues Strong Warning
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- A spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defence of the DPRK issued the following strong warning through the Korean Central News Agency on Thursday as regards the fact that the U.S. and south Korea are staging anti-DPRK hostile military drills for days on end:
The U.S. forces in south Korea and the puppet army are staging "combined joint firepower annihilation drill" targeting the DPRK by massively mobilizing various types of offensive weapons and equipment.
The drill has been staged five times on May 25 and June 2, 7, 12 and 15.
Our response to this is inevitable.
Our army strongly denounces the provocative and irresponsible moves of the puppet military authorities escalating the military tension in the region despite its repeated warnings, and warns them solemnly.
Our armed forces will fully counter any form of demonstrative moves and provocation of the enemies.
Latin America Is No Longer "Tranquil Backyard" of U.S.: Int'l Affairs Analyst of DPRK
Pyongyang, June 14 (KCNA) -- Paek Kwang Myong, an international affairs analyst of the DPRK, released the following article "Latin America is no longer a 'tranquil backyard' of the U.S." on Wednesday:
As the power of the U.S., which styles itself the "world's only superpower", is draining away, the hot wind of independence is raging across the vast land of Latin America which had been called the "tranquil backyard" of the U.S. for the past two centuries.
Since the Fifth U.S. president, James Monroe, raised the deceptive slogan "America for Americans" in 1823, aggression, plunder and intervention by the U.S. under the spurious veil of "peace and freedom, democracy and human rights" have ruthlessly violated the dignity and sovereignty of regional countries to make the region remain as a "tranquil backyard" of the U.S. for a long time.
Countless are such U.S. aggression and intervention as the seizure of Mexican territory in the 1840s, the colonization of Puerto Rico and Guantanamo through the first imperialist war with Spain in the 1890s, the manipulation of pro-U.S. dictatorial regimes in Nicaragua, Cuba, Chile and other countries from 1930s to 1970s, and the armed invasion of Panama and Grenada in the 1980s.
The present U.S. sanctions and blockade against Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other anti-U.S. independent countries are, in essence, nothing but attempts to revive "the Monroe Doctrine".
However, the times have changed and the aspirations and enthusiasm of the Latin-American people to live and develop independently are growing unprecedentedly strong.
In recent years, progressive governments aspiring to independent internal and external policies have emerged one after another in the region and they are working harder to put an end to the U.S. monopolistic domination and solve the regional issue by their concerted efforts.
Regional countries strongly denounce the U.S. moves for disturbing social justice and progress as a revival of "the Monroe Doctrine" and interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, calling for dismantling the Organization of American States which had been reduced to a U.S. puppet organization, and for strengthening genuine regional organizations such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States which excluded the U.S.
Against this background, the seventh summit of the above-said community held in Argentina late January discussed the issues of further intensifying the activities of the organization and accelerating the political and economic integration. Regional countries were vocal in their opposition to all forms of domination and hegemonism during the summit.
Brazil returned to the Community in January this year, Brazil and Colombia restored their diplomatic relations with Venezuela and many countries are boosting their political and economic cooperation with Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua maintaining the stand of independence against the U.S., expressing support and solidarity with them.
In the economic field, regional countries have buckled down to eliminating US dollars and introducing common regional currency into their trade. Furthermore, negotiations and discussions are getting brisk to establish a regional "lithium complex" capable of producing batteries and electric cars as well as lithium mining among Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, the "lithium delta" which has more than 60 percent of the world's lithium reserves, and Mexico, the tenth biggest lithium possessor in the world.
The regional countries proactively follow the trend of multipolarization, maintaining their independent and individual stand in the international relations.
In recent years, Honduras cut off its relations with Taiwan to follow the example of Panama, Dominica, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and established diplomatic relations with China. Ecuador concluded a free trade agreement with China and Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia decided to use Renminbi in the trade payment.
As regards the Ukrainian situation, regional countries resolutely reject the U.S. and Western countries' invitation to the racket for pressurizing Russia. Many countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela and Bolivia, clarified their intention to join the BRICS and are taking proactive and practical measures to do so.
This clearly shows that Latin American countries are going to achieve the independent development of the region under the slogan of justice "Latin America for Latin Americans" by their joint efforts against the arbitrary and high-handed practices of the U.S. which has plunged the regional countries into misfortune and distress for centuries.
The deceptive "Monroe Doctrine" has come under severe criticism and rejection, and the U.S. monopolistic position in Latin America is irreversibly diminishing.
The "tranquil backyard" of the U.S. will soon become an arena of prosperity swept by the hot wind of independence.
Programmatic Guidance on Independence, Peace and Social Progress
June 15 marks the 30th anniversary when President Kim Il Sung provided a precious guidance on information services of non-aligned countries so that they could actively contribute to the just cause of the world progressive peoples aspiring after independence.
At the 4th NAM Conference of Ministers of Public Information held in Pyongyang on June 15, 1993, President Kim Il Sung delivered a historic speech entitled “Non-aligned Information Services Must Contribute to the People’s Cause of Independence”.
In the speech, he said that humankind is now living in a new era of a historic turn and the world progressive peoples are faced with a common task of building a new independent world by more vigorously pushing forward the independent trend of the times. To this end, he clarified that the non-aligned countries should firmly maintain an independent stand against imperialism and fully adhere to the principles of justice in their information services.
At the time, although the cold war between the East and West had come to a close, old forces pursuing world hegemony still existed. The imperialists had monopolized modern means of public information and widely spread reactionary ideology, culture, and distorted information to meet their demands and interests.
Under the then existing international order of public information where the imperialists assumed monopolistic position, it was impossible to safeguard the independence of the world progressive peoples or apply the principle of justice in international relations.
With his deep insight into such trends, President Kim Il Sung said that in order to build a new independent world desired by humankind, we should eliminate the Cold War legacies denied by history as soon as possible, hinder all attempts to reverse the trend of history, and democratize the international society so as to ensure all countries and nations exercise equal sovereignty in the international arena.
He stated that, in the present era when the popular masses have appeared on the stage of history to independently carve out their own destinies, information services are an important front for acute confrontation and struggle between the new and the old, and the progressive and the reactionary. He clarified that the non-aligned information services should become a genuine mouthpiece of progressive countries and peoples championing independence, a powerful pacesetter leading the people toward the independent cause, and an impartial judge of history for justice and against injustice.
He continued that they should also widely publicize and raise their voices of international solidarity to the peoples’ righteous struggle for independence, liberation and social progress; condemn all sorts of domination, interference and aggression that trample down the freedom and rights of mankind, infringe upon the sovereignty of countries and nations, and threaten world peace; and the non-aligned countries should develop international exchange and cooperation in the field of information services.
Having received the speech delivered by President Kim Il Sung, representatives from many countries highly praised it as an important guiding principle for not only the DPRK but also all the NAM countries, and as a guideline for the peoples of the NAM countries in their struggles for defending sovereignty and building a new society.
The speech served as a programmatic guide that allowed the non-aligned information services to be developed into an advocate of justice that relies on progressive offensive to crush the imperialists reactionary offensive repressing the righteous voices of the people aspiring after independence, distorting the truth, and obstinately spreading the virus of corrupt capitalist ideology that poison the people’s sound mindset.
Indeed, President Kim Il Sung was an outstanding leader and the great master of independence, who made great contributions to the strengthening and development of the NAM and to the progress of the independent cause of the world peoples during his entire revolutionary lifetime under the uplifted banner of independence and justice.
World Day Against Child Labour
June 12 is the World Day Against Child Labour.
The future and destiny of a country depends not on the vast wealth or advanced economic power but on how they bring up children – the symbol of hope and future.
The world is now finding hundreds of millions of children in their prime learning age, who deserve social protection, being forced into illegal slave labour. The number continues to increase every year, posing child labour as a serious socio-political issue.
Recently, the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund issued a report that nearly 1.8bn children across the world are living in an environment of inadequate social protection.
The number of UAC labourers in the U.S., in particular, has increased annually reaching over 500,000, and children, who have yet to attain working age, toil away like slaves.
The New York Times exposed that children engage in farming from the age of 8 in the vast fields and large farms of the U.S. and suffer all kinds of grinding toil in hazardous factories for over 10 hours a day. It went on to note that the children often end up giving up the idea of going to school in the daytime as they work nights. It criticised the U.S. government for its connivance at it.
Children should be under social protection. But, if they have no money, they have no other choice but to be exploited and reduced to slaves of money. This is the reality of the capitalist society.
The DPRK government regards it as the most important national priority to hold children as kings and queens of the country and bring them up to be the masters of the future.
In September 1990, our country ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It legally guarantees the rights of children with the adoption of a number of laws including the DPRK Law on the Nursing and Upbringing of Children, the DPRK Law on the Protection of the Disabled, and the DPRK Law on the Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights.
Great care and love of the Party and State for the growing new generation are also reflected in the advanced universal 12-year compulsory education system enforced a few years ago, the modern schoolchildren’s palaces and Children’s Union camps built in every part of the country, the ever-improving conditions for education and cultivation, and the grand meetings of Children’s Union members being successfully held under the attention of the whole country.
Our children have gained fame in many international competitions and sporting events like the gifted 5-year-old artist who surprised the world people with amazing painting skills and the 8-year-old musical prodigy who was awarded special prize at the international competition for young pianists. Their happy faces vividly show the superiority of the socialist system of our own style which values and cultivates even the smallest of children’s talents.
Today, in the warm embrace of the great love that spares nothing for the country’s future, our children are giving full play to their hopes and aptitudes and growing up to be able talents that can contribute to the country’s prosperity.