NKorean leader awarded Russia medal for care for Soviet monuments.

4/5 Tass 86

PYONGYANG, May 4 (Itar-Tass) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il headed
the list of North Korean citizens, awarded on Tuesday anniversary medals
"65th Victory in the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945" at a ceremony in the
Russian embassy.
The award for the general secretary of the Korean Workers' Party and
chairman of the State Defence Committee was handed over to Foreign
Minister Pak Ui-chun who was present at the ceremony.
Kim was awarded this medal "for great attention to the memory of the
feat of Soviet Army men, for organisation of careful tender for monuments
and burial places of Soviet soldiers in the Korean land".
Medals were also awarded to a group of Korean veterans who had
happened to participate in combat operations in the Far Eastern and
Pacific theatres of military operations which had been crowned with the
defeat of militarist Japan and liberation of Korea.
Addressing the awarded, Russian Ambassador in Pyongyang Valery
Sukhinin said that "along with North Korean president and friend of our
country, Comrade Kim Il-sung, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Soviet
comrades-in-arms", they "made an invaluable contribution to our common
Victory and laid down foundations of friendship and cooperation between
the peoples of our two countries".
The head of the Russian diplomatic mission also underlined that Russia
would not permit attempts at "re-writing the history, belittling the role
of the Soviet Army and to smear the outlook of the Soviet soldier, taken
also in South Korea".
"We paid a very dear price for this Victory, for which thousands upon
thousands of Soviet Army men and Korean patriots gave their lives. The
memory for them will live for good in our hearts," Sukhinin said.
-0-bur/gor