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Says N.K. would answer ’enemy retaliation’ with force
On July 8, North Korea marked the 12th anniversary of the death of Kim Il-sung, the father of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. His son, however, did not visit Geumsusan Memorial Palace, where Kim Il-sung’s body is enshrinined. The North Korean media, however, reported visits to the Kim Il-sung shrine by high-ranking officials such as Kim Young-nam, head of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and Jo Myung-rok, Kim Jong-il’s military strongman. Kim Jong-il has visited the Geumsusan Memorial with core executive members of his regime almost every year after his father’s death, and the North Korean media have always reported upon his visits immediately following. A source said yesterday, "Kim Jong-il apparently did not visit Geumsusan, and there are no indications that he has been active outside of Pyongyang."Meanwhile, North Korea’s official mouthpiece, the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), quoted the North Korean leader as saying in an editorial, "The general [Kim Jong-il] has declared that it is not an empty promise for the heroic North Korea to answer an enemy’s retaliation with retaliation and to answer an all-out war with an all-out war. We will never make even a minor concession to our sworn enemy, the U.S. imperialists." Kim may have been referring to last week’s missile tests. Kim has taken part in various military-related activities in the first half of this year. According to North Korean media reports, as of June 2006 he showed up at 64 public events, 70 percent of those in connection with the military.
