Sunday, October 13, 2024

Iran Ready for War, Committed to Peace in Gaza, Lebanon: Araghchi

By Al Mayadeen English

13 Oct 2024 23:24

Iran and Iraq are in agreement on the urgent need to stop "Israel's" "crimes and aggression" and establish a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on Sunday that Tehran is fully prepared for a "war situation" while simultaneously working towards establishing peace in Gaza and Lebanon. His remarks came during a joint press conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Baghdad, where both diplomats stressed the urgent need to end Israeli aggression in the region.

"We are fully prepared for a war situation. We are not afraid of war, but we do not want war, and we will make efforts for a just peace in Gaza and Lebanon," Araghchi said, reaffirming Iran's position. "The Islamic Republic of Iran does not seek an escalation of tension, conflict, and war, although it is ready for any situation. We are prepared for war as we are prepared for peace."

Araghchi stressed the growing danger of a wider conflict, noting that "Israel’s" actions are the root cause of the escalating violence. He warned that the situation, which began in Gaza, has now spread to Lebanon and could extend to other regional countries, putting the entire region at risk of a widespread war.

Iran and Iraq are in agreement on the urgent need to stop "Israel's" "crimes and aggression" and establish a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon. Araghchi noted that his discussions with regional leaders, particularly Iraqi officials, have focused on the "dangerous and sensitive issues" in the region and the Persian Gulf, with positive consultations taking place.

Hussain: 'Israel's' aggression on Lebanon could drag entire region into conflict

In his remarks, Araghchi criticized the international community for not paying enough attention to the plight of displaced people in the region, noting that "Israel’s" attacks have blocked efforts to provide aid. He reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to supporting the Lebanese people and Palestinian refugees in Syria through all available means.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein expressed strong opposition to the use of Iraqi airspace for any potential Israeli attack on Iran, amid Israeli rhetoric about a possible response to Iran’s recent missile activities. "The continuation of the war and its expansion towards the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Israel's exploitation of Iraqi airspace as a corridor, is completely unacceptable and rejected," Hussein said.

Hussein further warned that "Israel’s" aggression against Lebanon could drag the entire region into conflict, noting that any war in the region would have serious consequences for regional peace and security.

Tehran is reportedly bracing for a possible response from "Israel" after reports emerged suggesting that the Israeli leadership has agreed to attack it.

The US has reportedly warned "Israel" against targeting critical Iranian infrastructure, including nuclear and oil facilities, in light of concerns that such an escalation could destabilize the region further. 

Despite these "concerns", the US on Saturday expedited the transfer of the THAAD missile defense system to "Israel" in response to "increasing threats of ballistic missile attacks from Iran", Ynet reported.

Gulf states urge US to stop 'Israel' from attacking Iranian oil sites

On Thursday, three Gulf sources told Reuters that Gulf states are urging Washington to prevent "Israel" from bombing Iran's oil assets, fearing the targeting of their oil facilities by the Axis of Resistance.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar are refusing to allow "Israel" to fly over their airspace for any attack on Iran and have informed Washington of this, according to three government sources.

During discussions this week, Iran warned Saudi Arabia that if "Israel" was given any aid in carrying out an assault, the Kingdom's oil infrastructure would be at risk, according to a senior Iranian official and an Iranian diplomat.

Ali Shihabi, a Saudi expert close to the Saudi royal court, divulged that "the Iranians have stated: 'If the Gulf states open up their airspace to Israel, that would be an act of war.'"

According to the diplomat, Tehran has delivered a clear warning to Riyadh that its allies in Iraq and Yemen may retaliate if "Israel" receives regional backing against Iran.

A Gulf source close to government circles told Reuters that the Iranian Foreign Minister's visit to Riyadh and the Saudi-American discussions at the defense ministry level are part of a concerted effort to handle the problem.

Three Dead, Dozens Injured in Hezbollah Drone Attack on IOF Haifa Base

By Al Mayadeen English

13 Oct 2024 20:59

A drone strike launched from Lebanon kills several Israeli soldiers and wounds dozens of others in a military base in Haifa.

A drone attack on an Israeli military base in Binyamina, south of Haifa, has killed three Israelis and wounded 67 others, according to Israeli media.

Notably, Israeli air defense systems failed to detect the drone, which detonated without triggering air raid sirens in the area, as confirmed by Israeli media outlets. 

The strike reportedly targeted the dining hall at a base belonging to the Golani Brigade. 

It was reported that 50 ambulances rushed to the scene to transport the casualties, with helicopters also being called in.

Hezbollah issued a statement in the wake of the operation, claiming responsibility for it. "The Islamic Resistance carried out an operation on the evening of Sunday, October 13, 2024, launching a squadron of attack drones at a training camp of the Golani Brigade in Binyamina, south of Haifa," the statement read.

The Resistance said the operation was in response to "Israel's" massacres across Lebanon, particularly its aggression on the Lebanese capital a few days ago.

"The Islamic Resistance will remain present and ready to defend our country and our proud, oppressed people, and will not hesitate to fulfill its duty in deterring the enemy," it added after underlining that the operation was carried out as part of the series of Khaibar operations and in support of the people of Gaza and their resistance, as well as in defense of Lebanon and its people.

The military media wing of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah reissued a warning to Israeli settlers, reiterating a statement made days earlier by the Resistance operations room.

Hezbollah had earlier said: "The Israeli enemy forces are using the houses of settlers in some settlements in northern occupied Palestine as assembly points."

"The Israeli enemy's bases used as operations rooms for the aggression on Lebanon are within densely-populated cities such as Haifa and Tabarayya, among others," the warning added. "All the aforementioned houses and military bases are legitimate military targets for the Rocket and Air Forces of the Islamic Resistance. Therefore, we warn settlers against gathering near these military sites in order to preserve their lives until further notice."

Hezbollah Launches Sweeping Attacks on Israeli Forces in Border Towns

By Al Mayadeen English

13 Oct 2024 19:20

Hezbollah Resistance fighters continue to defend against an Israeli onslaught on Lebanese border towns, engaging invading troops in close quarter battles.

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli occupation forces non-stop in the past few days, announcing a collection of military operations throughout Sunday. 

In continuation of their defense against the Israeli occupation incursions into the border area of Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters engaged Israeli occupation forces in close-quarters battles, attacked their positions with rockets and artillery weapons, and destroyed several armored vehicles, during a period extending from Sunday morning to Sunday afternoon. 

At least 27 Israeli troops were injured in confrontations with Hezbollah Resistance fighters so far on Sunday, Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported. The Israeli military censor has worked on concealing the number of casualties, however, has admitted that the military transferred at least six injured soldiers, via a helicopter, to the Rambam Hospital in occupied Haifa. 

According to Al Mayadeen's correspondent in southern Lebanon, at least 30 Israeli military casualties were recorded near the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Ramyah, and Qaouzah.

In total, Hezbollah launched 38 operations today against "Israel" and Israeli troop gatherings.

Western Axis operations

During an Israeli infantry infiltration attempt into the town of Qaouzah, Hezbollah fighters discovered the force and confronted it with automatic weapons at 1:15 pm (local time). Two hours later, Hezbollah's anti-armor units fired an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) at an Israeli tank. The ATGM directly impacted the tank, putting it up in flames and killing and injuring its crewmembers on the same axis. 

In the nearby town of Aita al-Shaab, a Hezbollah infantry unit launched an offensive on Israeli occupation forces that had positioned themselves in the western neighborhood of the town. Fierce clashes occurred in the area, which saw Hezbollah fighters fire automatic weapons, unspecified rocket weapons, and artillery shells at the invading force, since 4:45 pm. 

A statement released by the Resistance, at 5:29 pm, explained that confrontations were ongoing. 

Hezbollah fighters also fired rocket artillery shells at Israeli occupation forces in the Zar'it barracks, the Shomera barracks, and Khilat Warde, all located in the vicinity of ongoing confrontations on the Western Axis.

The barracks came under another attack at 6:50 pm, this time via a one-way attack drone launched by the Resistance's Unmanned Air Force at Israeli occupation forces. 

Eastern Axis operations

On the Eastern Axis, which extends from Blida to Israeli-occupied Lebanese territories, including the Kfar Chouba Hills and the Shebaa Farms, Hezbollah fighters also engaged Israeli occupation forces in close-quarters battles. 

At 10:00 am, Hezbollah fighters discovered and engaged an Israeli infantry force in the Kanaan Hills, in Blida, killing and injuring multiple Israeli troops, who were shot from point-blank range by Resistance fighters. 

Later on Sunday evening, Hezbollah fighters discovered a company of Israeli occupation forces attempting to infiltrate the border town of Meis al-Jabal at 7:30 pm. Vigilant Resistance fighters ambushed the force, firing barrages rocket-propelled grenades, and their automatic weapons at their positions. Hezbollah's Military Media Unit said that Resistance fighters engaged the invading company at point-blank range, killing and injuring several. 

As a result, the invading company withdrew from the border town after suffering heavy casualties. 

"The hostile force withdrew amidst the screams and wails of the attacking soldiers," Hezbollah stated.

Hezbollah fighters also fired artillery shells at Israeli occupation troops in the same area, at 3:20 pm. 

On the far end of the Israeli-occupied Lebanese territories, near the Shebaa Farms, Hezbollah fighters fired a salvo of rockets at the Habousheet military site. 

The city settlement of Kiryat Shmona, the Misgav Am military site, and Manara also came under attack at 1:50 pm, 5:00 pm, and 7:15 pm respectively. Kiryat Shmona and Manara were shelled with salvos of rockets while Misgav Am was shelled by artillery units.

The Manara settlement came under another rocket attack at 9:25 pm, as Hezbollah fighters targeted the positions of Israeli occupation forces in the area. 

Long-range rocket attacks

Hezbollah's fighters also added another rocket attack to a series of attacks, dubbed the "Khaibar Operations."

These long-range attacks come in response to Israeli crimes and massacres against civilians in Lebanon, seven of which have been announced since October 1, 2024.

On Sunday, at 9:30 am, Hezbollah fighters launched what it described as a salvo of "top-tier" rockets at the Israeli Teirat al-Karmel military base in southern occupied Haifa. 

In response to Israeli strikes on Lebanese towns and residents of the country, Hezbollah also launched a large barrage of rocket artillery shells at the Tzurit military base, located to the east of Karmiel. 

Hezbollah fighters also fired a salvo of rockets at the Israeli Tznover logistics base in the occupied Syrian Golan, which is located to the north of Katzrin.

Major drone attack hits at least 60 Israeli troops

Amid these substantial attacks and reports of heavy Israeli casualties on the frontlines, Hezbollah's Unmanned Air Force prepared to launch the most significant attack of the day. 

At around 7:30 pm on Sunday, a swarm of one-way attack drones impacted an Israeli military base in southern Haifa. Shaking up the Israeli regime, the drones killed and injured at least 67 Israeli troops after striking the base's cafeteria, Israeli media reported.

Israeli medical authorities confirmed the aforementioned number of casualties saying that four were killed while the rest were dealt injuries of various degrees. 

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said that the attack targeted an Israeli training camp, subordinated to the 1st Infantry Golani Brigade, in Binyamina, approximately 30 km south of Haifa and 62 km away from the Lebanese-Palestinian border. 

Moreover, warning sirens did not sound before or during the attack, despite the long distance traveled by the Resistance's drones. 

Hezbollah stressed that the precise strike was part of the "Khaibar Operations," underlining that it also came in response to the Israeli massacres committed against civilians in central Beirut. 

Settlements under fire

Another strike occurred at 7:15 PM, when Hezbollah fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli forces in the Menara settlement with a rocket barrage. This was followed by a second strike at 7:25 PM on Israeli forces stationed in Khallet Wardeh.

Later in the evening, at 9:25 PM, Hezbollah launched a third round of rockets at Israeli forces once again in the Menara settlement. A fourth and fifth attack took place shortly after, at 9:30 PM and 9:50 PM, also hitting Israeli forces in the same area.

In a separate attack at 10:00 PM, Hezbollah fighters targeted Israeli troop movements near the Fatima Gate in the town of Kfar Kila using artillery fire. The evening also saw a rocket strike on Israeli forces stationed at the Hounin barracks at 10:45 PM.

Finally, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon attacked Israeli Unit 7200's maintenance and rehabilitation base south of the city of Haifa, announcing that it was all in support of Gaza and its Resistance, as well as in defense of the Lebanese people and in retaliation for the attacks against them.

Chinese Military Launches ‘Joint Sword-2024B’ Drills Near Taiwan — Statement

Vessels and aircraft approached Island in close proximity

© AP Photo/Heng Sinith/Archive

BEIJING, October 14. /TASS/. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched ‘Joint Sword-2024B’ military drills near Taiwan on Monday, the country’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"On October 14, the PLA Eastern Theater Command dispatched its troops of army, navy, air force and rocket force to conduct joint military drills code-named ‘Joint Sword-2024B’ in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island," the statement said citing Senior Captain Li Xi, spokesperson of the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command.

"With vessels and aircraft approaching Taiwan Island in close proximity from different directions, troops of multiple services engage in joint drills, focusing on subjects of sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas, assault on maritime and ground targets, as well as joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, so as to test the joint operations capabilities of the theater command's troops," the statement continued.

According to Li Xi, "The drill also serves as a stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces. It is a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding national sovereignty and national unity."

Lai Qingde, the Taiwan administration's head, stated on October 10 that Taipei's efforts to maintain the status quo in the Taiwan Strait are unchanged. The island will defend its "state sovereignty," he said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning responded that "Taiwan has never been a country and will never become one, it has no kind of sovereignty at all."

On May 20, Taiwan held an inauguration ceremony for the island's new leader, Lai Ching-te. Three days later the PLA Eastern Theater Command announced the start of the Joint Sword 2024A exercise around Taiwan, as well as near the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin. The exercise involved land, missile, naval and air forces.

Taiwan has been governed by its own administration since 1949, when the remnants of the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled there after their defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

Since then, the island has retained the flag and some other attributes of the former Republic of China that existed on the mainland before the Communists came to power. Official Beijing considers Taiwan a province of the People’s Republic of China.

Russian Forces Liberate DPR’s Mikhailovka — Top Brass

The Russian armed forces have hit the infrastructure of a Ukrainian military airfield and drone warehouses over the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry added

© Alexei Konovalov/TASS

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. The Russian armed forces have liberated the settlement of Mikhailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Defense Ministry reported.

"As a result of decisive actions, the battlegroup Center has liberated the settlement of Mikhailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic," the ministry said.

Russian forces hit Ukrainian military airfield infrastructure

The Russian armed forces have hit the infrastructure of a Ukrainian military airfield and drone warehouses over the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

"Russian forces hit the infrastructure of a military airfield, drone warehouses, as well as accumulations of enemy manpower and military equipment in 138 areas," the ministry said.

Battlegroup Center 

Russia’s battlegroup Center has eliminated up to 460 Ukrainian servicemen over the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry reported.

It also said that the battlegroup liberated Mikhailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and also defeated seven Ukrainian brigades.

"The battlegroup also repelled 11 counterattacks. The enemy lost up to 460 servicemen, three US-made HMMWV and one Turkish-made Kirpi armored fighting vehicles, five vehicles, four 122 mm D-30 howitzers and a 100-mm Rapira anti-tank gun," the ministry added.

Battlegroup North

Russia’s battlegroup North has destroyed up to 40 Ukrainian servicemen and four guns in the Liptsy and Volchansk areas of the Kharkov Region over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

"The Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 40 servicemen, three vehicles, two 152 mm D-20 guns and two 122 mm D-30 howitzers, as well as a drone howitzer," the statement said.

Battlegroup Dnepr 

Russia’s battlegroup Dnepr has destroyed up more than 50 Ukrainian servicemen and two warehouses over the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry said.

"The Ukrainian losses amounted to up over 50 servicemen, five vehicles, a 122 mm D-30 howitzer, as well as a US-made AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery station and two warehouses," the statement said.

Battlegroup West 

Russia’s battlegroup West has wiped out up to 510 Ukrainian servicemen over the past 24 hours, the ministry noted.

"The enemy lost up to 510 servicemen, a US-made M113 armored personnel carrier, an infantry fighting vehicle, a Kozak armored fighting vehicle, 12 pickup trucks, a Polish-made Krab 155 mm howitzer, a US-made M198 155 mm howitzer, two D-30 122 mm howitzers, a UK-made L-119 105 mm gun and a Grad MLRS, as well as a US-made AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery station and three ammunition depots," the ministry said.

Battlegroup East

Russia’s battlegroup East has wiped out up to 130 Ukrainian servicemen over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

"The enemy losses amounted to up to 130 servicemen, a tank, an infantry fighting vehicle, three vehicles and a Polish-made 155-mm Krab howitzer," the statement said.

Battlegroup South

Russia’s battlegroup South has wiped out up to 615 Ukrainian servicemen and destroyed an enemy warehouse over the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry reported.

"The enemy losses amounted to up to 615 servicemen, five vehicles, a UK-made 155 mm FH-70 howitzer, a 152 mm Msta-B howitzer, two 122 mm D-30 howitzers, a US-made 105 mm M119 gun, a Grad MLRS, as well as an Anclav-N electronic warfare station and an ammunition depot," the ministry said.

Air defenses down 36 drones over day

Russian air defenses shot down five Ukrainian HIMARS rockets, two Neptune long-range missiles and 36 drones over the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry also added.

"The air defenses downed five US-made HIMARS rockets, two Neptune long-range missiles and 36 fixed-wing drones," the statement said.

Unsuccessful Ukrainian Attacks and Losses: What is Known About Situation in Kursk Region

The total losses of the enemy during the fighting in this area amounted to more than 22,600 troops

© Mikhail Klimentyev/TASS

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have lost over 300 servicemen and seven tanks in the Kursk Region over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The total losses of the enemy during the fighting in this area amounted to more than 22,600 troops.

TASS has compiled the main information about the situation on the battlefield.

Unsuccessful Ukrainian counterattacks and breakthrough attempts

- Over the past 24 hours, the Russian Armed Forces repelled five enemy counterattacks near Zeleny Shlyakh, Nizhny Klin and Pokrovsky.

- They also thwarted an attempt to break through Russia’s state border near Novy Put.

Offensive actions and strikes on Ukrainian reserves

- The battlegroup North repelled enemy troops near Daryino, Lyubimovka, Malaya Loknya, Novy Put, Tolsty Lug and Plekhovo.

- Russian army aviation and artillery struck the manpower and equipment of 13 Ukrainian brigades in the Kursk Region and 10 brigades in the Sumy Region.

Ukrainian losses

- Over the day, the Ukrainian losses amounted to over 300 servicemen, 10 armored vehicles, including seven tanks, along with two German-made Leopard, one infantry fighting vehicle and two armored fighting vehicles, as well as a UK-made AS-90 howitzer, two mortars and 11 vehicles.

- Eight Ukrainian servicemen surrendered over the past 24 hours.

- In total, during the fighting in the Kursk area the enemy has lost over 22,600 servicemen, 157 tanks, 72 infantry fighting vehicles, 98 armored personnel carriers, 909 armored fighting vehicles, 619 vehicles, 186 artillery guns, 36 multiple rocket launchers, including nine HIMARS and six MLRS.

Kim Jong Un--Officials Should Become Communist Revolutionaries Who Are Possessed of the Party’s Original Ideals and Spirit as Their Mental Qualities

Discourse Given to Rodong Sinmun, Organ of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea

October 10, Juche 113 (2024)

Today, when we are making a vigorous advance to confidently open a new golden age of strengthening the Workers’ Party of Korea and an era of achieving the comprehensive rejuvenation of the state, we are greeting the 79th founding anniversary of the WPK, the great guide of the Juche revolution.

The more closely we look back upon the protracted and glorious road of struggle it has followed, the more proud we feel of the greatness of our Party that has written the longest ruling history of socialism together with the Korean revolution, the Korean people and this country and the more precious we feel the unprecedented history of its founding and exploits pioneered and achieved by the forerunners in the revolution.

Greeting the meaningful anniversary of Party founding, I pay the immortal glory and noble tribute to the revolutionaries of the first generation of the WPK, who wonderfully achieved the historic cause of giving birth to the militant General Staff of the revolution in the arduous and complicated struggle.

I also extend warm greetings to the members of the WPK and all other people across the country, who are working with devotion to implement the struggle programme of the Party, supporting it single-heartedly with absolute trust in it and unshakable belief in the victory of the revolution even in the face of all manner of trials and difficulties.

It is very meaningful that today we are reconfirming the justness of the line of building up the Party in the new era, which it is applying, and hardening our revolutionary faith and will to remain loyal to its cause while looking back upon what its original features were on the historic day when the cause of its building was achieved, how it was founded and how its glorious and victorious history started.

Next year we will be greeting the 80th anniversary of Party founding.

A revolutionary party with the longest ruling history–this is not a simple rhetorical expression.

The epochal significance of the day when the birth of the vanguard of the Korean revolution was declared to the world is more conspicuous not simply because thanks to this day our Party could set the longest record in the history of the ruling socialist parties.

It is all the more so because securely preserving the purity of all the precious assets and traditions created in the pioneering period of the revolution poses itself as an important problem decisive of its future development as the revolution advances, and because today we are realizing its importance to the utmost extent.

The sacred ruling history of the WPK spanning nearly 80 years and the great exploits it has performed in these decades for the country, people, times and revolution originate in the characteristic and profound ideals and spirit it adopted at the time of its founding and the steadfast inheritance of them.

In the long period since the day of its grand start to this day, it has led the socialist cause victoriously, firmly maintaining its revolutionary character and original features unique in the world without the slightest deviation or discolouring and enjoying the absolute support and trust of the masses of the people. This is because it has remained faithful to its original ideals and spirit and steadily carried them forward from one generation into the next.

The factor most decisive of the existence and development of a political party is on what ideals and spirit it was founded and how they have been inherited in their pure form.

As a problem that is related with a party’s historical origin and character and the lineage that ensures its existence from one generation into the next, it is of absolute importance in its building and activities.

The original ideals and spirit of the WPK, unprecedented in the history of political parties of the working class, contain a precious iron truth, which was found in the course of pioneering a fresh road of building a revolutionary party and whose everlasting veracity has been verified on the arduous road of consolidating the organizational and ideological foundations to this end.

These great spiritual assets have served as a dynamic force that has enabled the WPK to follow the road resplendent with victory while preserving its character and bloodline and steadily improving its ruling and guiding abilities as a revolutionary party of a Juche type that struggles, guided solely by its leader’s revolutionary ideology, to build a communist society where the people’s ideals are fully realized.

As it had laid its spiritual foundations solid enough to guarantee its eternal viability already before it was born, the WPK has been able to adorn its entire course of arduous and complicated struggle with victories and successes.

But for the spiritual assets bequeathed by the generation of pioneers of the cause of Party founding, it would not have been able to found itself as a mass-based party of the working people in such a short period of time immediately after liberation in defiance of different political parties and groupings advocating isms and assertions of all hues; nor would it have been able to achieve the cause of founding the army and the state and then repulse the armed invasion by the allied imperialist forces–which was a world-startling miracle–thus demonstrating the honour and glory of the new-born Korea.

When the other ruling socialist parties were being swept into the vortex of revisionism and dogmatism resulting in the political upheaval of capitalist revival in a number of countries, it marched forward unflinchingly under the banner of its socialist and communist programme. Its profile is shining as the symbol of a revolutionary party.

Etched in the chronicles of the working-class party building are tragic records of not a few of them, though having been born as the revolutionary vanguard in championing the demands and interests of the working people, giving up their original fighting programmes and the revolutionary spirit of their founder generation, going degenerated in the face of countless challenges and counter-revolutionary offensives, and meeting the end of their existence.

Pursuing reformism by a party in its building on the pretext of the changes in the times will inevitably lead to the deviation from its original ideals and degradation in ideology and spirit, which will in turn weaken its ruling efficiency.

Transformation and innovation is a law-governed demand in party building and an essential precondition for its political leadership over the revolution and construction.

Yet, a revolutionary party should never permit any transformation or reform of the ideals and spirit it adopted at the time of its founding.

This is because the ideals and spirit comprehensively represent not only the party’s guiding ideology and fighting programme and good experience in its founding, but also the principles and ethos it has to adhere to throughout the course of its building.

The true value of a party’s original ideals and spirit lies not simply in that they served as a powerful engine leading the cause it adopted at its inception, but also in that they offer a sure guarantee for its greater leadership ability and brighter future with an inexhaustible viability even after its founding.

Mindful of the noble sense of responsibility and mission it assumed for the destiny of the country and the people, our Party has been consistent in holding fast to and carrying forward its original ideals and spirit even in the face of manifold, unprecedented and complicated trials. This has enabled it to write its long ruling history as the one of steadfast development and laudable guidance, the great one of devoted service for the people.

No other party in the world is longer-standing and better-prepared than ours in terms of ruling years, leadership authority, ideology, theory, work methods and discipline.

The absolute dignity and greatness unique to our Party precisely represents the ennobling and great qualities of its original ideals and spirit; the inexhaustible viability of our Party comes precisely from that of its original ideals and spirit.

Our Republic has made great leaps forward while pressing on against unheard-of difficulties and developed into a matchless power which no other forces dare defy. Witnessing its sacred and dignified image, our people are realizing anew the value of the great ideals and spirit.

When the banner a party raised at its inception is great and when its succession is great, the party’s past, present and future will all be adorned with victory and glory–this is a truth etched in the history of the WPK spanning nearly 80 years.

This great iron truth verified by history will remain valid for all eternity.

We should maintain the purity of our Party’s original ideals and spirit that determine its revolutionary character and mode of existence and apply them to its building and activities to the letter. This is the way to ensure its eternal development as a dignified and powerful party through all ages.

Those who should stand in the vanguard of our Party that is winning victory after victory on the strength of its great original ideals and spirit are officials most faithful to it.

Despite the change of generations along with the advance of the revolution, our officials, the backbone of our Party, should be communist revolutionaries who are thoroughly equipped with its original ideals and spirit. By doing so we can implement the five-point line of Party building in the new era and thus improve the profile and militant efficiency of our Party in every way possible.

Proceeding from this, our Party, at the historic watershed of its development, put up the slogan Let Us Open a Great Golden Age of Party Building in the New Era by Carrying Forward Its Original Ideals and Spirit! and set it as the primary revolutionary task of officials to carry forward on a higher level the ideals, faith, spirit and temperament cherished by the first-generation revolutionaries in accomplishing the cause of Party founding.

The original ideals and spirit of the Party should be adopted by Juche-type communist revolutionaries as the essence of their ideological and mental qualities.

Loyalty to the leader, devotion to the revolutionary cause, the spirit of serving the people, high-level class consciousness, socialist patriotism and ennobling moral traits–these constitute the major ideological and spiritual qualities of a communist revolutionary of a Juche type, the perfect incarnations of which were the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters.

When they had no government to provide a rear, these fighters pioneered the revolution barehanded and waged it while eating and sleeping in the blizzard-swept wilderness. In doing so, they trusted the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and nobody else, and their 20-year-long, immortal chronicles of resistance and the sacred history of Party founding were written with their beautiful ideals of socialism and communism, steadfast faith in the revolution and indomitable fighting spirit.

Having performed imperishable exploits for Party founding and the sacred cause of building the country and its armed forces, the revolutionary forerunners remained honest and resolute all their lives and worked with devotion for the prosperity of the country and the wellbeing of their fellow people.

Many years have passed, but the noble soul cherished by these first-generation revolutionaries has served as an inexhaustible source of sustenance to bring up the people of the later generations into true fighters and communists.

To embody and apply the Party’s original ideals and spirit to the letter poses itself today as a most pressing, crucial task facing our officials as leading personnel of the revolution.

Our Party is making sustained efforts to build up the country’s defence capability to cope with the allied imperialist forces’ moves for aggression and war, and at the same time is conducting gigantic projects for the comprehensive development of socialism.

The tasks facing us are challenging, yet we are short of qualified officials who are equal to such tasks.

The first-generation revolutionaries who created the Party’s original ideals and spirit passed away, and the faithful, veteran officials of the second generation who had been trained under their direct concern and influence, are passing away one after another. In order to ensure that the officials of the new generation fill the forerunners’ positions and roles with credit, we should make constant efforts to transform cadres along revolutionary lines and adopt radical measures to improve their training.

This is the very reason why the Party Central Committee puts the main emphasis on improving personnel administration, underlining the need for our cadres to live and work like the forerunners who blazed a trail for the cause of Party founding. These years, while giving top priority to the work of the Central Cadres Training School of the WPK, it has invested a huge sum in developing it into a political school without parallel in the world, the best “pedigree farm” for training Party cadres.

The ruling history of our Party spans nearly eight decades, and its policy of making officials revolutionary and working-class dates back far more than half a century. Never before have we brought the Party’s original ideals and spirit to the fore as the banner for transforming cadres along revolutionary lines.

Only when we equip our cadres with the far-reaching ideals, steadfast revolutionary faith and indomitable spirit that have been etched in the great history of Party founding, can we successfully attain the goal of transforming our Party’s cadres along revolutionary lines and bring about a great turn in building up the Party.

The Party’s original ideals should be a purpose of life and work for our cadres and part of their creed, and the Party’s original spirit and ethos should definitely dominate their thinking and action. Only then will the ranks of our Party’s cadres become steel-strong with genuine communist revolutionaries, adding inexhaustible dynamism to our cause of building up the Party to make a steady advance along the road of victory.

All our officials should work hard to temper themselves in the flames of transforming cadres along revolutionary lines, fully conscious of the urgent practical requirements and the important mission they have assumed for the times–writing a new, great chapter of history of the WPK by carrying forward its original ideals and spirit.

That officials possess the Party’s original ideals and spirit as their mental qualities means that they cherish the first-generation revolutionaries’ boundless loyalty to the Party and the revolution and their spirit of devoted service to the people, as their essential temperament and principle of life, always thinking and acting accordingly.

Loyalty to the Party, the revolution and the people, as was displayed by this generation, is the three-point essential temperament to be possessed of by our officials who are the leading personnel of the revolution and the hard core of our Party.

Officials should have a high degree of loyalty to the Party and fulfil their responsibility and duty as its core members in supporting its ideology and leadership.

They should take the lead, first and foremost, in defending our Party’s dignity and authority in every possible way.

Our Party’s dignity represents our state’s prestige, and it is a source of the greatest pride and honour for our people.

Our forerunners of the preceding generations, despite the difficulty and complexity of their struggle, were unconditional in safeguarding the Party’s dignity and authority and defending the revolution. We must never allow their ennobling spirit and merited contributions to remain merely as memories of the past.

In the struggle of the present times, too, our officials should regard it as the starting point and fundamental principle of their thinking and activities to thoroughly defend the prestige of the Party.

They should make it their habit to always try to identify any shortcomings in ensuring the absolute authority of the Party in all processes and on all occasions of their work and life and take steps to prevent any minor defects.

They should consider all affairs carefully and organize and carry them out scrupulously while giving top priority to ensuring the authority of the Party rather than attempting to achieve immediately visible successes.

Their loyalty to the Party is manifested intensively in implementing its lines, policies and decisions to the letter.

The environment and conditions in the early days after the Party was founded were worse than those of today and the cadres’ academic attainments or career were not conspicuous, but their viewpoint of and attitude to the Party’s lines and policies and their political awareness and sensibility were on a remarkably high level, which our officials should attain today.

Officials should learn from the spiritual world of the first-generation revolutionaries, and become staunch fighters who are perfect in implementing the Party’s policies even in the face of manifold trials and difficulties.

At present some officials, unaware of the quintessence of our Party’s policies, are working subjectively and merely to satisfy their own taste and, claiming that they are implementing the Party’s policies, they are vulgarizing these policies and even distorting their execution, deviated from Party principle. These are serious mistakes.

Whatever they do, officials should have a clear understanding of the Party’s intention, and, on its basis, consistently maintain the methodology of planning their work and finding solutions to the problems; and they should direct the greatest efforts to carrying out the Party’s decisions perfectly without any slightest compromise or deviation.

They should fully display their Party spirit in the struggle for strengthening the politico-ideological unity of the Party and the single-hearted unity of the revolutionary ranks.

We should never rest on our laurels or relax as the unity and cohesion of the Party and the revolutionary ranks have been firmly maintained up to now, nor forget even a moment that the enemy within and without are waiting for a chance to undermine the single-hearted unity and resorting to more desperate schemes.

With an awareness that they stand on the forefront of defending the unity and cohesion of the Party, officials should firmly preserve the politico-ideological purity of the revolutionary ranks by launching a principled, merciless struggle against those who have been deteriorated ideologically and degenerated in their class consciousness.

They should think and act thoroughly in line with the unified leadership system of the Party Central Committee, launch a struggle immediately against any trifling negative tendencies and elements such as idolizing individuals, regarding oneself as exceptional and working in a self-centred way and stamp them out resolutely.

I have already said that our officials should coordinate the public sentiments as carefully as running with an electric bulb on a glass tray. This means that it is quite a difficult task to manage the public sentiments and maintain unity, and great efforts should be directed to this task with constant care and attention.

Officials should thoroughly orient and subordinate all their work to strengthening the single-hearted unity between the Party and the masses and deal with the arising problems in accordance with Party and class principles after correctly distinguishing whether they are favourable or not to cementing the single-hearted unity.

Our officials should make devoted efforts with thoroughgoing revolutionary spirit.

Our Party set it as the development strategy of our own style to develop all sectors of socialist construction, all regions of the country and all fields of the national economy in a balanced, simultaneous way, and made such a challenging strategic decision as shouldering the task for a mid-term and long-term rural rejuvenation and regional development while carrying out the gigantic struggle tasks of the five-year plan set forth at its Eighth Congress.

It is a clear expression of our Party’s revolutionary stand to live up at any cost to the responsibility entrusted by the times and the revolution as well as to the people’s trust and expectation, and this requires all our officials to make unyielding and devoted efforts with renewed revolutionary conviction and fighting spirit.

As shown by the life of the many loyal persons who have stoutly supported the Party’s cause from the early days of its founding up to the present, a fighter who overcomes hardships by means of conviction and optimism and devotes his all to the sacred cause for the country and the people can be said to be a genuine revolutionary.

A man with no conviction and optimism can neither feel the worth of waging the revolution nor tide over the hardships, easily wavering in the face of difficulties and trials.

With clear insight into the present reality that convincingly shows the absolute superiority of the socialism of our own style and promises a bright future for the overall rejuvenation of our state, officials should brave all manner of challenges and trials in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude and carry out the decisions of the Party Congress and the plenary and political bureau meetings of the Party Central Committee.

It is most pressing for them to retain a strong sense of responsibility and display infinite devotion in implementing their official duties.

Loyalty to the revolution means a keen awareness of responsibility for one’s revolutionary duty and indomitable exertion.

The present era, in which the campaign for gigantic creation unprecedented in the history of our socialist construction is underway, demands hands-on officials who achieve remarkable results with a high sense of responsibility, bold drive, stubborn fighting spirit and persistent executive ability.

However, our officials have yet to rid themselves of such irresponsible and insincere tendencies as formalism, expediency, and self-protectionism, and this has proved to be a hindrance to our advance and development.

With a firm view and stand that they assume full responsibility for their work before the Party and the state, they should always rack their brains to find ways for better successes and more substantial results and work with devotion to achieve them.

If it is for the sake of the revolution, they should not argue about the limits of responsibility or consider benefits first with a self-centred approach, but instead take the lead in undertaking a task, however challenging it may be–this is the attitude of a genuine revolutionary, the attitude of a master.

Officials should do away with the indifferent and self-centred practice of staying aloof from any problems that are beyond the bounds of their responsibility, and adopt a proper stance and attitude of considering and approaching every problem in the interests of the Party and the state.

Our officials should become faithful servants of the people, who embody loyalty to them as one of their inherent qualities.

The quintessence of our Party’s original ideals and spirit is the people-first principle.

In the first days of our Party founding, the Korean communists inscribed in its sacred red flag their lofty ideals for building a new country whose masters are the people, as well as their faith and will to sacrifice themselves without hesitation for the sake of their fellow people.

The nearly eight decades of our Party’s struggle to defend the red flag symbolizing its original ideals and spirit, represent the history of its preserving its nature and original features as a genuine party of the people. And following this course, our Party has administered the great people-first politics that is unprecedented in the political history of ruling socialist parties.

The people-first principle is not an abstract slogan, but it is the political creed unique to our Party, which permeates all its lines and policies and whose viability our people have experienced through their everyday life.

Despite manifold difficulties facing the state, our Party initiated and is unfailingly carrying out gigantic projects of lasting significance to translate the people’s ideals and dreams into reality, and it also ensures that the more difficulties the people experience, the deeper the whole Party goes among the masses, sharing weal and woe with them. Such traits can never be displayed or imitated by other ruling socialist parties.

People-first principle–this represents our Party’s original features and its absolute ruling efficiency.

Our officials’ loyalty to the people should find its expression in wholeheartedly supporting the Party Central Committee’s people-first politics and faithfully serving the people.

They should, first of all, acquire a proper view of and attitude towards the people.

It is self-evident that an official with an improper view of the people can neither respect nor serve them.

Our Party has performed great and undying exploits, because since the initial days of its founding it has regarded it as its inherent mission to believe in the people as in heaven and serve them, and has made strenuous efforts to this end, thereby winning their absolute support and trust despite the passage of time and changes of generations.

When a party is alienated or divorced from the people, it would be futile to talk about or think of its lines and policies, struggle and achievements. Likewise, when officials are separated from the people, it would be pointless to speak about their worth.

Officials should never deviate from the view that the people do not exist for the sake of cadres, but the latter exists for the sake of the former, and from the stand and attitude of regarding the people as sacred beings and respecting them as their mentors at any time and under any circumstances.

At its historic Eighth Congress, our Party put special emphasis on holding higher the ideals of “The people are god” as well as single-hearted unity and self-reliance, and declared them to the whole world. Officials should cherish its real intention deep in their mind, be infinitely courteous and sincere to the people and remain faithful to the duty as their true servants.

Most recently, we have brought the residents in the flood-hit areas to the capital city and taken warm care of them with sincerity while giving education to their children, and decided to add the construction of advanced public health facilities, facilities for science, education and cultural activities, and grain management facilities to the Regional Development 20×10 Policy. All these are the revolutionary measures which clearly testify to our Party’s faith that the people are its god.

Our officials, whatever they do, should consider whether it would infringe upon the demands and interests of the people and whether it would cause any inconvenience to them, and should approach and deal with the arising problems from their standpoint and from the viewpoint of providing convenience to them and promoting their wellbeing.

They should cherish the boundless trust of the people, who call the Workers’ Party mother, as the greatest confidence in and expectations of them, regard it as their duty to find out and take charge of new things for them and make positive efforts to find solutions to the problems, eagerly awaited by them.

It is of particular importance to be prudent in words and deeds in acquiring the traits as befitting an official of the Party.

As always, officials’ moral traits are a serious political issue directly related with the prestige of the Party.

I stress once again: if officials make a slightest mistake in words or deeds before the people, they will lower the prestige of the Party and estrange the masses from it.

The revolutionary forerunners, who had laid firm foundations of the Party and secured its authority in the early days after its founding, performed feats in their work to be praised by all. However, there was no gap between them and their fellow people, and they built up the foundations for establishing a sound climate in the Party by dint of their unique people-oriented spirit and methods of working with them.

Officials should always be courteous with bright facial expression whenever they approach the masses, be they ten or one, and give sincere advice to those who made a mistake and lead them forward.

They should be infinitely humble in front of the masses and mix with them unceremoniously, and every of their words and deeds should overflow with the ennobling moral traits and warm human feelings of respecting and caring for them.

We should keep intensifying the struggle to root out the abuses of power, bureaucracy and accumulation of wealth by illicit means.

These negative practices are the main targets of struggle, which fundamentally run counter to our Party’s original ideals and spirit.

Officials should refrain from harbouring such ideas of demanding uncommon treatment while regarding themselves as exceptional beings and seeking only their own interests by abusing their power, but make it part of their habit to lead the same life with other people.

Times have changed a lot since the days of Party founding, but its mode of existence and activities–sharing weal and woe with the people and standing in the vanguard of their struggle–remains unchanged.

If any slightest manifestation is revealed among them of the abuses of power, bureaucracy and accumulation of wealth by illicit means, it will do harm to the Party and leave a blot on their political integrity. Bearing this in mind, they should control and temper themselves, working and living modestly, simply and frugally.

In addition, they should not spare comradely advice and help to other officials working with them so as to ensure that any trifling practice of the abuses of power, bureaucracy and corruption is not revealed among them. They should also make continuous efforts to awaken and educate their family members and relatives lest they commit any unsound practice.

In order to become communist revolutionaries who are possessed of the Party’s original ideals and spirit as their mental qualities, our officials should intensify their studies.

Studying is the primary process for them to acquire and steadily improve their Party, revolutionary and people-oriented spirit; it is also an important way for the revolutionary transformation of cadres.

Fully aware that studying hard is the essential requirement for their training in the Party spirit and their revolutionary self-improvement, officials should study voluntarily, diligently and substantially.

Primary attention should be paid to the studies aimed at arming themselves with the Party’s lines and policies.

Our Party’s revolutionary ideology is the ever-victorious banner leading the cause of Juche, providing absolutely correct guidelines for ushering in a golden age in building up the Party and achieving national prosperity in the new era.

Officials should regard it as a vital task to arm themselves with the Party’s ideology and policies, keeping in mind that, without a correct understanding of them, they can neither be faithful to the important responsibility and duties entrusted to them by the Party nor breathe the same air as, and keep step with, the advance of the times.

They should firmly equip themselves with our Party’s revolutionary ideology by conducting an in-depth study of its documents in a chronological order and in a systematic and comprehensive way, thereby making it an element of their firm faith.

In particular, they should intensify their study of the Party’s current policies, such as the new policy on regional development, until they correctly grasp the gist of those policies, and then identify what they need to do for their implementation and take practical steps to this end.

In arming themselves with our Party’s ideology and theories, they should put the particular emphasis on effectively studying its line of building up the Party in the new era.

Mindful of the Party Central Committee’s intention to usher in a new golden age of building up the Party by carrying forward its original ideals and spirit, they should study hard to grasp the essence, originality, viability and great vitality of the five-point line of building up the Party and make it an element of their faith, and find ways for applying it in practice.

They should also conduct an in-depth study of how our Party was founded and has been developed.

The new golden age of building up the Party should start with studying how our Party was founded and has been developed and learning from the ennobling spirit of our forerunners who made an undying contribution to pioneering and advancing the cause of building a Juche-oriented party–this is our Party’s requirement.

All the officials should be so effective in studying the history of our Party in various forms and by various methods that they can gain knowledge, which is as good as first-hand experience, of how the first-generation revolutionaries went against all odds to pioneer the great cause of Party building and carry it through with credit, and of how hard the second- and third-generation revolutionaries have worked by carrying forward their predecessors’ soul and spirit.

They should also be well aware of how dearly they paid for the creation of our Party’s history and tradition of unity and cohesion unprecedented in the history of the building of revolutionary parties, the ruling socialist parties in particular, and of how the fighters of the preceding generations defended the Party Central Committee and the revolution in times of grave trials.

In order to become communist revolutionaries embodying the Party’s original ideals and spirit, officials should cultivate and train themselves in a revolutionary way through Party life.

Party life is a school for revolutionary education and a furnace for revolutionary training, where officials can acquire and consolidate their loyalty to the Party, the revolution and the people.

Bearing in mind that whoever neglects Party life and fails to temper their loyalty to the Party will degenerate in spite of themselves and end up being traitors and renegades of the revolution, officials should enhance their loyalty to the Party and revolutionary temperament by taking a voluntary and sincere part in Party life.

Officials should participate in Party life faithfully with a high appreciation of Party organization, just as rank-and-file Party members do–this is an obligation stipulated in the Party Rules and a course of their cultivating revolutionary traits.

The anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters made efforts to enhance their loyalty to the Party by reviewing their Party life by themselves even in the throes of successive battles and marches; learning from their ennobling examples, officials should respect the Party organization and take a fully responsible attitude and approach towards its decisions.

By taking a voluntary and sincere part in Party meetings, reviews of Party life and Party study sessions, they should establish a regularized climate of obeying Party discipline and working and living accordingly, and get into the habit of making conscious efforts to place themselves under the Party organization’s guidance and control.

They should train themselves ideologically and enhance their Party awareness through intensive criticism and ideological campaign.

Self-reflection and principled, comradely criticism are the most efficacious of political “tonics,” which help our officials work harder with a strong sense of their basic duty as Party members and revolutionaries, and ideological campaign is a fundamental method for transforming cadres along revolutionary lines.

Officials should review their Party life conscientiously now and then according to the Party Rules and regulations, and they should be frank with the Party organization about their mistakes and be bold in correcting them.

When others make a mistake, they should give them principled criticism based on the Party’s ideology, policies and discipline and, not confining themselves to doing so, help them with all sincerity so that they can rectify their mistake.

Success or failure in preparing officials to be genuine communist revolutionaries embodying the Party’s original ideals and spirit depends largely on the role of Party organizations.

Officials’ self-consciousness alone is not enough to enhance their loyalty to the Party, the revolution and the people.

If we connive at, and take a hands-off approach towards, any signs of unorganized, undisciplined or negative practice that may be revealed among officials, we cannot maintain the Party’s original ideals and spirit. This will end up failing to provide a sure guarantee for the future of the Party and the revolution.

Party organizations at all levels, fully aware that transforming cadres along revolutionary lines is a crucial matter that has a direct bearing on the destiny of the Party and the successful accomplishment of the socialist cause, should strengthen the education and control of officials and establish strict discipline within the Party.

They should make exacting demands on officials to be fully conversant with the Party’s regulations and order and strictly observe them in and out of work; they should also exercise tight control and guidance so that the officials draw up detailed action plans, work according to them and exert themselves in implementing their assignments to produce substantial results.

They should be effective in educating and controlling officials lest they act contrary to the Party’s principles and discipline in the course of directing the lower-echelon units or in their daily activities; once they reveal any negative practice, they must never connive at it, instead making an issue of it and helping them rectify it.

By taking into account the requirements of the developing revolution and the preparedness of officials, they should work out detailed methodology to transform them along revolutionary lines and make persevering efforts to this end, correcting deviations in time, if any, and steadily intensifying this work.

Next year is very significant in that our glorious Party will greet its 80th founding anniversary and its Central Committee will wind up its eighth term.

From now on, we should make good preparations for celebrating this anniversary of our Party as a grand political festival that will proudly review its longest history as a ruling socialist party and mark a watershed in opening up a new, great era of building up the Party and the country.

In addition, we should successfully carry out the policy-oriented tasks put forward by the Eighth Party Congress.

All the officials should embody the Party’s original ideals and spirit, and they should remain faithful to their responsibility and duty as the leading personnel of the revolution in the ongoing drive to open up a golden age for strengthening the whole party and achieving national prosperity.

Filled with greater conviction and mounting morale, we are advancing more vigorously and confidently to bring earlier the victory of socialist and communist construction by carrying forward the invaluable and sacred ideals and spirit.

The intention in pioneering the cause of the Workers’ Party of Korea was a truth, and its victory is a truth as well.

The great soul of our forerunners is encouraging us.

Let us all endeavour to keep up the revolutionary upsurge in the new era by making redoubled efforts to achieve proud results with a strong sense of honour and responsibility as befitting the hard core of the great Party and the leading personnel of the revolution.

2024-10-11

Press Statement of Kim Yo Jong, Deputy Department Director of WPK Central Committee

Kim Yo Jong, deputy department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, released the following press statement titled "ROK military will find it hard to evade its responsibility for grave infringement upon DPRK sovereignty as a main culprit or an accomplice" on October 12:

The most childish Republic of Korea which is utterly ignorant is resorting to a stereotyped method to suit to its inborn nature in order to evade the responsibility for the recent drone intrusion case.

As soon as the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK issued a crucial statement, military gangsters of the ROK were busy trying to evade the responsibility while making a shameless and childish excuse, saying that they did not do it and have not yet grasped the situation and the military did not send drones to the north and should confirm that a civilian organization sent the drones.

It is a miscalculation if the military thinks that it can easily pass through the crucial infringement upon the sovereignty of our state, even with impunity though the military impudently asserts that they did not do it, and avoid the eyes of concern of the international community.

It would be evidently problematic if the military did not identify that drones by a civilian organization crossed the border at random.

The ROK military has loudly advertised its "tight detection and tracking ability."

Has the military, which used to be nervous at a flying flock of birds, mistaking it for “drones from the north”, become blind suddenly?

It has asserted that even the fact that the drones from its region crossed the border several times should be confirmed and, so I wonder what the ROK people would ask for the military.

Even the leaflet-scattering over the capital city of the opposite country will be regarded as a grave politically-motivated provocation and an infringement upon sovereignty but the fact that the means which carried the leaflets is the very drones is the core of the seriousness of the recent incident.

If the military has connived at the fact that its people committed an act of openly infringing upon other country's sovereignty by use of drones recognized by the world as an undeniable military multi-purpose means and at the fact that such infringement means that can be considered to be provocative can occur an incident fostering the danger of arms conflict, crossing the border of the other belligerent country, it is a deliberate connivance and conspiracy and only provides a clear proof that the leading figures in the drone infiltration case are none other than the military gangsters.

Even though they boasted that they are the "strong ROK army", talking about "together with the people" on the "ROK army day" some days ago, they are using the people as a shield without hesitation when they are driven into a tight corner. Their sordid wordplay only reveals the meanness and baseness of the military of the ROK.

As their assertion shows, it means that though our civilian organizations, not the army, scatter political agitation leaflets in the sky over the presidential office in Seoul with drones, it is not problematic.

I'd liked to watch how the government of the ROK and, in particular, the military gangsters will respond in case such a thing happens.

In conclusion, the ROK military directly committed the drone infiltration case or the provocation of infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK was committed under its positive fostering and connivance.

The minister of National Defence of the ROK, as his petty excuse of shifting the blame to the civilian organization did not work, expressed his uncertain attitude, saying that “it is impossible to confirm it strategically in terms of national security and strategic security.”

Such attitude of neither denying nor admitting the case proves that the military admitted by itself that it is the chief criminal or accomplice of the current incident as a revelation of its mental state that it can admit the case, unable to deny it.

It is little short of an open declaration that even though a provocation of infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK that “cannot be confirmed” is repeated or it leads to the outbreak of war, they would have no responsibility for it.

As we have already expected and the world has frequently witnessed, the ROK, this time, too, is trying hard to distort the truth and deceive the world people with groundless assertion made by it with its habitual excuse and deformed thinking.

Revealed before the world once again was the base and astonishing nature of the dangerous guys who gamble with the lives of their fellow people.

Clear is that ROK scum conducted a rubbish balloon campaign with provocative nature for the first time and those of the ROK have steadily aggravated the situation, far from abandoning their dirty bad habit despite our warning.

The ROK is crying that we had flied "dirty balloons" 28 times just like a thief crying "Stop thief!" but it is well advised to make public how many times the organizations of defectors from the DPRK did such acts before it calculates the frequency.

Our entire act is an inevitable measure taken on the principle of countermeasure.

No matter how desperately the ROK may try to mislead the public opinion as if our countermeasure was taken without any reason, it will not come up to its intention.

We are not at all interested in who triggered the recent drone incident.

We only face up to the fact that the perpetrators are the fellows of the shameless ROK, be the military gangsters and an organization of human scum who defected from the DPRK.

As we repeat our clear stand, we will take a strong corresponding retaliatory action in case drones carrying politically motivational anti-DPRK rubbish from the ROK across the border infiltrate again into the territorial airspace of the DPRK, whatever is included.

This will be the exercise of the sovereign state's right to self-defence that cannot be considered.

Those who are not taking any proper stand to check escalation of tension and armed conflict but making a bluff and lame excuse with reckless courage, even though they made Seoul Municipality and the whole of the ROK a target and left the lives of their people at stake will certainly hear only the people's voices of criticism.

They will be well advised to worry about the immediate price for repeated provocation and cope with it.

Even though the ROK military is racking its brain to evade the responsibility for their infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK with incoherent impudence and abnormal sophism, they will certainly pay a dear price for violently infringing upon the inviolable sovereignty of our state and doing a serious harm to its security in any way.

I hope that the people will judge whether the strong and brave reckless and bold attitude of the ROK military which jumps from the frying pan into the fire will defend the genuine safety of the ROK.

As I reaffirm once again, as clarified by the DPRK Foreign Ministry, our attack time for destroying Seoul and the military force of the ROK is not clarified in our military action plan.

That time is not set by us.

However, the moment that a drone of the ROK is discovered in the sky over our capital city once again will certainly lead to a horrible disaster.

Personally, I wish that such a thing will not happen.

KCNA

2024-10-13

Kim Yo Jong of DPRK Threatens South Korea Over Drone Flights

By KIM TONG-HYUNG

12:00 PM EDT, October 12, 2024

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday accused South Korea of deliberately avoiding responsibility for the alleged flights of South Korean drones over the North’s capital and warned of a “terrible calamity” if they continue.

The statement by Kim Yo Jong came a day after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry claimed that South Korean drones carrying anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang on Oct. 3, and Wednesday and Thursday this week.

The ministry said North Korean forces will prepare “all means of attack” capable of destroying the southern side of the border and the South Korean military, and respond without warning if South Korean drones are detected in its territory again.

South Korea’s defense minister initially denied the accusation, but the South’s military later adjusted its response, saying it couldn’t confirm whether or not the North’s claims were true.

In comments published through state media, Kim, one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, said that the South Korean military’s vague statements should be taken as proof that it was “either the main culprit or accomplice in this incident.”

“If the military stood by while its own citizens employed drones, a widely recognized multi-purpose military tool, to violate another country’s sovereignty, thereby increasing the risk of armed conflict with a potential adversary, this would amount to intentional acquiescence and collusion,” she said.

“The moment a South Korean drone is discovered once again in skies above our capital, a terrible calamity will surely occur. I personally hope that does not happen.”

South Korea’s military and government didn’t immediately respond to Kim’s comments.

Tensions between the Koreas are now at their worst in years as the pace of both North Korea’s missile tests and the South’s combined military training with the United States have intensified in tit-for-tat. The animosity has been exacerbated by Cold War-style psychological warfare campaigns between the Koreas in recent months.

Since May, North Korea has sent thousands of balloons carrying paper waste, plastic and other trash to drop on the South, in what it described as retaliation against South Korean civilian activists who flew balloons with anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border.

South Korea’s military responded to the North’s balloon campaign by using border loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda and K-pop to North Korea.

North Korea is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian government of leader Kim Jong Un and his family’s dynastic rule.

South Korean officials have been raising concern that North Korea may seek to dial up pressure on Seoul and Washington ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Experts say Kim’s long-term goal is to eventually force Washington to accept North Korea as a nuclear power and to negotiate security and economic concessions from a position of strength.

In written answers to questions by The Associated Press this month, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea is likely preparing major provocations around the U.S. election, possibly including a test detonation of a nuclear device or flight-test of an intercontinental ballistic missile test, as it tries to grab Washington’s attention.

North Korea Says Front-line Units Ready to Strike South Korea if More Drones Appear

By HYUNG-JIN KIM

2:56 PM EDT, October 13, 2024

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Sunday its front-line army units are ready to launch strikes on South Korea, ramping up pressure on its rival that it said flew drones and dropped leaflets over its capital Pyongyang.

South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned it would sternly punish North Korea if the safety of its citizens is threatened.

North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of launching drones to drop propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang three times this month and threatened to respond with force if it happened again.

In a statement carried by state media Sunday, the North’s Defense Ministry said that the military had issued a preliminary operation order to artillery and other army units near the border with South Korea to “get fully ready to open fire.”

An unidentified ministry spokesperson said the North Korea’s military ordered relevant units to fully prepare for situations like launching immediate strikes on unspecified enemy targets when South Korea infiltrates drones across the border again, possibly triggering fighting on the Korean Peninsula, according to the statement.

The spokesperson said that “grave touch-and-go military tensions are prevailing on the Korean Peninsula” because of the South Korean drone launches. In a separate statement later Sunday, the spokesperson said that the entire South Korean territory “might turn into piles of ashes” following the North’s powerful attack.

Also Sunday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described as “suicidal” the South Korean Defense Ministry’s reported warning that North Korea would face the end of its regime if it harms South Korean nationals. She warned Saturday that the discovery of a new South Korean drone will “certainly lead to a horrible disaster.”

North Korea often issues such fiery, blistering rhetoric in times of elevated animosities with South Korea and the United States.

Ties between the two Koreas remain tense since a U.S.-led diplomacy on ending North Korea’s nuclear program fell apart in 2019. North Korea has since pushed hard to expand its nuclear arsenal and repeatedly threatened to attack South Korea and the U.S. with its nuclear weapons. But experts say it’s unlikely for North Korea to launch a full-blown attack because its military is outpaced by the combined U.S. and South Korean forces.

Observers predicted North Korea would escalate tensions ahead of next month’s U.S. presidential election to boost its leverage in future diplomacy with the Americans.

Since May, North Korea has floated thousands of balloons carrying rubbish toward South Korea in retaliation for South Korean activists flying their own balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets. South Korea’s military responded to the North’s balloon campaign by restarting border loudspeakers to blare broadcast propaganda and K-pop songs to North Korea.

North Korea is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian government of Kim Jong Un and his family’s dynastic rule.

Neo-colonial Governments in Kenya and Haiti Asking for More Money in "Peacekeeping Mission"

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI

6:59 AM EDT, October 11, 2024

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The leaders of Kenya and Haiti on Friday urged international partners to honor their commitment to the U.N.-backed peacekeeping mission in Haiti, saying the mission needs more resources and that its budget will run out in March 2025.

Kenya, which leads the mission to quell gang violence in the Caribbean nation, has sent nearly 400 officers. They are joined by nearly two dozen police officers and soldiers from Jamaica, but the numbers fall significantly short of the 2,500 pledged by various countries, including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados, for the mission.

Kenyan President William Ruto, who met with Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille in Nairobi on Friday, said Kenya would deploy 600 additional officers next month.

The U.N. has $85 million in pledges for the mission, of which $68 million has been received.

“We have a window of success that is evident from the operations that have been carried out already,” Ruto said.

Conille asked international partners to send the officers they’d pledged to ensure the “contingent from Kenya has the resources they need.”

Conille said his regular meetings with the Kenyan commander were filled with words of encouragement that the fight against Haiti’s gangs “is winnable.”

The gangs in Haiti have grown in power since the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital. The surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.

A U.N. Security Council voted unanimously in early October to extend the mandate of the Kenya-led multinational force, after brushing off a call from Haiti to start talks on transforming it into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Morocco’s King Lauds New Allies in Western Sahara Dispute After European Court Ruling

By SAM METZ

7:41 PM EDT, October 11, 2024

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — King Mohammed VI on Friday reaffirmed that settling sovereignty disputes over the Western Sahara remains the driving force behind Morocco’s foreign policy, lauding diplomatic triumphs and framing them as progress toward resolving the decades-long conflict in Morocco’s favor.

In an annual speech to members of parliament, the king noted that the United States, Spain and most recently France had backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed territory. He thanked President Emmanuel Macron for his “frank support for the ‘Moroccanness’ of the Sahara.”

“So it is that the French Republic supports Morocco’s sovereignty over the entire Sahara territory,” he said.

Mohammed VI invited Macron to visit Morocco after France shifted its position in July, a gesture reflecting how relations between Paris and Rabat have warmed.

The disputed territory, which Morocco considers to be its “southern provinces,” is among the most sensitive topics in the North African Kingdom and a common theme in royal speeches.

Morocco has pushed countries that partner with it economically and on security and managing migration to back its 2007 autonomy plan, which would grant it sovereignty over the region in question. Doing so, however, risks angering Algeria — a key player in the conflict as well as a security partner and gas supplier to many of the same countries.

The Western Sahara is a former colony that has been a lightning rod in regional politics since the 1970s. The United Nations categorizes it as among Africa’s last “non-self-governing territories” and has since 1979 considered a pro-independence movement called the Polisario Front to be a legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people.

Most of the territory is controlled by Morocco, while the Polisario operates out of refugee camps in Algeria, which supports it both financially and politically. Efforts to resolve the conflict span back to 1991, when the U.N. brokered a cease-fire and negotiations began over the territory’s future.

With discussions long stalled, Morocco has sought recognition among its political and economic allies while the Polisario has pursued legal routes, challenging Morocco’s claims in international courts.

The United States backed Morocco’s plan as part of an agreement that saw Morocco normalizing its ties with Israel in 2020. Countries including Saudi Arabia and 18 European Union members have since followed suit, according to Morocco’s tally.

In July, France amended its longstanding position to begin backing Morocco’s plan. Algeria subsequently withdrew its ambassador from France and its president indefinitely postponed a planned visit to Paris.

Weeks ago, Europe’s Court of Justice issued a ruling in favor of the Polisario, invalidating expired fishing and agricultural agreements between Morocco and the European Union pertaining to exports from the territory because they didn’t take the people of the Western Sahara into account.

Morocco has also recruited allies in the Middle East and Africa and struck ground on infrastructure projects including a territory-spanning highway and an Atlantic port that it plans to use to grow its influence as an Atlantic and African power.

Mohammed VI on Friday said Morocco’s African allies consider the territory “the heart of strategic continental initiatives,” including a planned pipeline extending from Nigeria and an initiative announced last year to give countries in the Sahel additional access to Atlantic trade routes.

“The fundamentals of Morocco’s position need to be explained to the small number of countries that continue to turn the logic of law on its head and deny the facts of history,” he told members of parliament.

The opening of parliament is one of the rare instances in which Mohammed VI gives public speeches. During his address, the king was flanked by his brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, and son, Prince Moulay Hassan, who is expected to succeed him.

The king spent much of the summer at a palace in the northern city of Tetouan, where he received Morocco’s central bank governor, Olympic Gold-winning runner Soufiane El Bakkali and celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ascension to the throne, according to Morocco’s state news agency.

SAM METZ

Metz covers Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and points beyond for The Associated Pr

Drought is Parching the World’s Largest Man-made Lake, Stripping Zambia of Its Electricity

By JACOB ZIMBA

10:11 PM EDT, October 11, 2024

LAKE KARIBA, Zambia (AP) — Tindor Sikunyongana is trying to run a welding business which these days means buying a diesel generator with costly fuel he can’t always afford.

Like everyone in Zambia, Sikunyongana is facing a daily struggle to find and afford electricity during a climate-induced energy crisis that’s robbed the southern African country of almost all its power.

“Only God knows when this crisis will end,” said Sikunyongana. His generator ran out of diesel and spluttered to a halt as he spoke. “You see what I mean?” he said.

Zambia’s worst electricity blackouts in memory have been caused by a severe drought in the region that has left the critical Kariba dam, the source of Sikunyongana’s woes, with insufficient water to run its hydroelectric turbines. Kariba is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and lies 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Lusaka on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The massive dam wall was built in the 1950s and more than 80 workers died during construction. It was meant to revolutionize the countries’ energy supplies by trapping the water of the Zambezi River, turning a valley into a huge lake and providing an endless supply of renewable hydroelectric power.

That’s not the case anymore as months of drought brought by the naturally occurring El Nino weather pattern and exacerbated by warming temperatures have put Zambia’s hydroelectric station on the brink of completely shutting down for the first time.

The water level is so low that only one of the six turbines on Zambia’s side of the dam is able to operate, cutting generation to less than 10% of normal output. Zambia relies on Kariba for more than 80% of its national electricity supply, and the result is Zambians have barely a few hours of power a day at the best of times. Often, areas are going without electricity for days.

Edla Musonda is so exasperated that she’s taken to lugging her entire desktop computer — hard drive, monitor, everything — to a local cafe so she can work.

Musonda and others cram into the Mercato Cafe in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, not for the sandwiches or the ambiance but because it has a diesel generator. Tables are cluttered with power strips and cables as people plug in cell phones, laptops and in Musonda’s case, a home office. This is the only way her small travel business is going to survive.

Less than half of Zambia’s 20 million people had access to electricity before Kariba’s problems. Millions more have now been forced to adjust as mothers find different ways to cook for their families and children do their homework by candlelight. The most damaging impact is during the daylight hours when small businesses, the backbone of the country, struggle to operate.

“This is also going to increase poverty levels in the country,” said economist Trevor Hambayi, who fears Zambia’s economy will shrink dramatically if the power crisis is prolonged. It’s a warning call to the Zambian government and the continent in general about the danger to development of relying heavily on one source of energy that is so climate dependent.

The power crisis is a bigger blow to the economy and the battle against poverty than the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Zambia Association of Manufacturers president Ashu Sagar.

Africa contributes the least to global warming but is the most vulnerable continent to extreme weather events and climate change as poor countries can’t meet the high financials costs of adapting. This year’s drought in southern Africa is the worst in decades and has parched crops and left millions hungry, causing Zambia and others to already declare national disasters and ask for aid.

Hydroelectric power accounts for 17% of Africa’s energy generation, but that figure is expected to rise to 23% by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency. Zambia is not alone in that hydroelectric power makes up over 80% of the energy mix in Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia and Congo, even as experts warn it will become more unreliable.

“Extreme weather patterns, including prolonged droughts, make it clear that overreliance on hydro is no longer sustainable,” said Carlos Lopes, a professor at the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

The Zambian government has urged people and businesses to embrace solar power. But many Zambians can’t afford the technology, while the government itself has turned to more familiar but polluting diesel generators to temporarily power hospitals and other buildings. It has also said it will increase its electricity from coal-fired stations out of necessity. While neighboring Zimbabwe has also lost much of its electricity generation from Kariba and blackouts there are also frequent, it gets a greater share of its power from coal plants.

At Kariba, the 128-meter-high (420-feet) dam wall is almost completely exposed. A dry, reddish-brown stain near the top marks where the water once reached in better times more than a decade ago.

Leonard Siamubotu, who has taken tourists on boat cruises on the picturesque lake for more than 20 years, has seen the change. As the water level dropped, it exposed old, dead trees that were completely submerged for years after the wall was built. “I’m seeing this tree for the first time,” he said of one that’s appeared in the middle of the lake.

The lake’s water level naturally rises and recedes according to the season, but generally it should go up by around six meters after the rains. It moved by less than 30 centimeters after the last rainy season barely materialized, authorities said. They hope this year’s rains, which should start in November, will be good. But they estimate that it’ll still take three good years for Kariba to fully recover its hydroelectric capability.

Experts say there’s also no guarantee those rains will come and it’s dangerous to rely on a changing climate given Zambia has had drought-induced power problems before, and the trend is they are getting worse.

“That’s not a solution ... just to sit and wait for nature,” said Hambayi.

Moses Mngumi rolls a drum with water through the street to his home at Bauleni Township in Lusaka, Zambia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

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Associated Press journalist Taiwo Adebayo in Abuja, Nigeria contributed to this report.