North, South Workers' Organizations Make Public Joint Resolution

North, South Workers' Organizations Make Public Joint Resolution

Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- The Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, the south Korean General Federation of Trade Unions and the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions released a joint resolution Thursday to mark the 124th May Day.
The resolution said that the workers in the north and the south have promoted national reconciliation and unity together with all other Koreans, sharing joy and sorrow with warm compatriotic feelings in the struggle for independent reunification in line with the June 15 joint declaration.
It expressed deep condolences for all the bereaved families of the victims of the ferry sinking accident that occurred in the south recently.
Workers' organizations in the north and the south expressed the following resolution, prompted by their will to defend the safety and peace of fellow countrymen and take the lead in paving a wide avenue for independent reunification:
1. The workers in the north and the south will promote national reconciliation and unity, get firmly united in solidarity and alliance under the banner of By Our Nation Itself.
We will take the three principles of national reunification and the principle of national independence and the banner of By Our Nation Itself solemnly clarified in the north-south joint declarations as the lifeline of the reunification movement.
We will further consolidate solidarity and alliance among workers in the north and the south provided in the June 15 era, activate multi-faceted contact, visit and pro-reunification meeting and widen solidarity and cooperation between workers' organizations of industries, sectors and regions.
The workers in the north and the south will pool their efforts and wisdom for peace and reunification of the country, taking hands with all political parties, organizations and personages attaching importance to the nation and aspiring after reunification.
2. The workers in the north and the south will resolutely check war and confrontation moves and smear campaign of the anti-reunification forces at home and abroad.
We will heighten vigilance and thoroughly smash all smear campaigns to malignantly slander and hurt the social system and dignity of the other party contrary to the spirit of the inter-Korean declarations and any move for confrontation of social systems.
We will, together with people from all walks of life at home and abroad valuing peace of the country and prospect of the nation, invigorate the anti-war peace movement against all reckless joint military exercises with foreign forces and arms buildup.
3. The workers in the north and the south will stand in the van of the patriotic efforts for preserving and implementing the June 15 joint declaration and October 4 declaration and open a new phase of independent reunification, peace and prosperity.
They will put the reunification movement for supporting and implementing inter-Korean declarations on a normal and massive basis and expand it, urge their implementation and conduct diverse activities on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the historic June 15 joint declaration and the 7th anniversary of the October 4 declaration, in particular, thus turning the movement for implementing them into a nationwide movement.
They are the eldest son of the nation and standard-bearers and vanguard opening a new era of independent reunification, peace and prosperity.
They will take the lead in protecting the security of the nation and peace of the country and opening the June 15 era of independent reunification in solidarity and unity under the banner of By Our Nation Itself, deeply cherishing the noble mission and responsibility they are assuming before the times and the nation. -0-

World's Poorest Human Rights Record in S. Korea Disclosed

World's Poorest Human Rights Record in S. Korea Disclosed

    Pyongyang, April 29 (KCNA) -- The National Reunification Institute and the Measure Council for Human Rights in South Korea released a white paper Tuesday to inform the public at home and abroad of the poor human rights record in south Korea, a product of the U.S. colonial rule and the puppet forces' unpopular rule.
    All fields of south Korea including politics, economy, military and culture are entirely dependent on the U.S., the white paper says, and goes on:
    The U.S. regard south Koreans as no more than ducks in water, pheasants in the mountains and rats in fields. GIs consider south Korean women as no more than sexual playthings.
    The U.S.-led foreign monopoly capital accounts for 30 percent of the south Korean stock market and big businesses and banks hold more than 50 percent of stocks, swaying over the south Korean economy. They rake in profits running to billions of U.S. dollars from stock dividends only every year.
    The U.S. monopoly capital stalks in south Korea, making businesses of south Korea go bankrupt and its people languish in unemployment and poverty.
    Onrush of excessive agricultural products from the U.S. threatens the local farmers numbering more than 2.8 million.
    The U.S. built military bases in different parts of south Korea and has staged madcap military exercises. This has deprived south Koreans of their cradle of life, devastating farmland, taking their lives and doing harm to human bodies and polluting environment.
    Young and middle-aged south Koreans are taken off as cannon fodder of the U.S. in its wars of aggression.
    There is no land in the world except for south Korea which is suffering such humiliation as offering funds as upkeep of the foreign occupation forces.
    South Koreans have no place where they may complain even though they are deprived of everything by the U.S. and their rights violated by it.
    Human rights are more crudely violated due to the puppet forces' medieval, tyrannical and unpopular rule.
    Political freedom and democratic rights are mercilessly infringed upon, among other things.
    The progressive party that made a legitimate appearance was forced to be disbanded, after being labeled "forces following the north" and a lawmaker from an opposition party was walked away from the "NA" building in broad daylight, on the charge of his alleged involvement in an "attempted rebellion."
    In the eight months of the present regime more than 23 790 articles were deleted from internet site for being "articles following the north", and hundreds of internet sites were forced to shut down.
    People demanding the right to existence were harshly suppressed.
    When workers in the field of railways staged a strike against the de-nationalization of railways at the end of last year, the fascist authorities hurled at least 5 000 police of over 60 companies to put it down the way they conducted an "anti-terrorist operation". They even stormed the building of the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions without a confiscation and search warrant and walked off more than 130 people.
    The puppet forces' unpopular rule deteriorated the living of south Koreans from all walks of life, forcing them to undergo unspeakable sufferings.
    The number of the unemployed has reached over 4.5 million and that of underemployed who do part-time jobs for low wages for a day or a few months almost 10 million. People accounting for 11-19 percent suffer from chronic malnutrition.
    The number of those who commit suicides is more than 40 a day, topping the world list.
    Over 1.1 million or 20 percent of the aged roam about in the streets, begging for food or rummaging garbage bins, being forsaken by society and their children.
    Children kill their parents in cold blood for money and all other kinds of crimes including murder, rape and robbery are prevalent in south Korea.
    The south Korean puppet group's terrorism and abduction are another example of serious human rights abuses.
    It is working with bloodshot eyes to conduct terrorism and abduction of citizens of the DPRK by mobilizing the Intelligence Service, the Foreign Ministry, Unification Ministry and all other plot-breeding organizations. This unprecedented man-hunting is being commanded by Chongwadae.
    Agents of the puppet Intelligence Service and such anti-DPRK plot-breeding organizations including "Missionary Council of Duri Hana", "Good Friends" and "Association for Improving Human Rights in North" and terrorists and agents who go under the masks of religionists, businessmen and philanthropists, financed by the puppet authorities, go on the rampage in the northeastern area of China, abducting and luring citizens of the DPRK.
    Those citizens of the DPRK who had been abducted by the south Korean puppet forces and taken to south Korea are interrogated at the "central joint investigation center" made up of those concerned of the puppet Intelligence Service, Unification Ministry, Defense Ministry and police for six months. They receive "anti-communist brain-washing education" for three to four months, being subject to all kinds of violence at a concentration camp called "Hana Center".
    Those who had been taken to south Korea are also subject to sub-human mal-treatment and humiliation.
    Unable to eke out their living, they reside in places around mountaineering courses or garbage ground, picking up leftovers of food in day time and covering their bodies with leaves or rubbish at nights.
    The south Korean puppet forces did not hesitate to commit hair-raising atrocities against distressed citizens of the DPRK who went adrift to south Korea.
    Those whom the puppet forces did not send back to the north after kidnapping them when their boats were wrecked in the sea numbered more than 60 in the past five years.
    All facts go to prove that the puppet forces are a group of the worst human rights abusers and hideous criminals.
    We express the expectation and conviction that the world justice and conscience will heighten vigilance against the anti-human rights burlesque of those forces hostile toward the DPRK, pay due attention to the worst human rights situation in south Korea and become vocal censuring the human rights abusers. -0-

Workers are not Slaves

Workers are not Slaves

Ever intensifying day after day in south Korea is the people's struggle protesting against the anti-people policy of the south Korean regime which reduced south Korea to a living hell.

On March 29, the solidarity of freight workers held an emergent general meeting of its unionists in which it bitterly denounced the reactionary labor policy of the regime and the companies.

Some 5,000 members of the solidarity of freight workers and the trade unions of railways and metal industry workers took part in it.

Headquarters chief Lee Bong-ju of the solidarity of freight workers declared in the meeting that they turn out in the struggle not to live any longer as toiling slaves.

Participants there demanded their labor rights and vital rights such as realizing the basic rights of labor and legalizing standard rates.

Meanwhile, the national trade union of the railways held a meeting to vow a general strike and all-out struggle with 4,000-odd unionists attended that day.

The employers get hell-bent on repression only, turning down the trade union’s demand for strike, the participants charged and urged the stop to forceful transfer of railways trade unionists and the sincere negotiations of the company. Some 100 unionists tonsured condemning the repression of their trade union by the regime and the company.

        

The participants marched along the streets holding slogans reading “We oppose the privatization of the railways”, “Halt to the forceful transfer!” and “Discontinue repression of trade union!”, etc.

Such being a hard fact, chief executive Park Geun-hye neglected the ever-mounting public wrath and grievance at her regime for destroying the economy and the people's living. But she made a detestable and nauseating misdemeanor abroad jabbering about the north’s “economic crisis” and “poverty”, and touting a “nutrition aid to pregnant women and babies”.

The south Korean regime had better discard the ingrained concept of confrontation against the fellow countrymen and worry about its wretched reality in which suicide cases occur one after another and mass protest and demo struggles take place everyday, before caring for others.