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

(ATTN: UPDATES with warning of long-distance strike, floral baskets laid before Kim
Il-sung's statue)
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 Korean state media bolstered
anti-U.S. propaganda and urged citizens to ratchet up "combatant" efforts to
build a strong nation.
"'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 Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the Workers' Party, said in an
editorial carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
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The cease-fire has not been replaced by a truce, leaving the two Koreas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.
Throngs of North Koreans visited the grand statue in Pyongyang of Kim Il-sung,
the North's founder who led the country's Korean People's Army during the war, to
lay floral baskets before it, the KCNA said. Kim Jong-il, who succeeded his
father as head of the country, also sent one, it said.
North Korea refers to the war as the "Fatherland Liberation War," describing it
as a struggle by the Korean People's Army to "liberate" South Korea from U.S.
aggression.
"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 party
editorial said.
The editorial also linked such combatant propaganda to the country's current
foremost campaign of rebuilding its frail economy to create a "strong, prosperous
and powerful nation" by 2012, the birth centennial 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.
Farmers should "uphold the party and the homeland with rice" like their fathers
did during wartime, it said.
In a separate radio dispatch, the Korean Central Broadcasting Station said the
country has the capability to strike its enemies over long distances, accusing
the U.S. of an attempt to wage a second Korean War.
As well as its nuclear force, North Korea is "equipped with the long-distance
strike capabilities that can track down any enemy and entirely wipe them out," a
general named Ri Kyu-man was quoted by the radio as saying during an anniversary
gathering.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)