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THE UNIVERSITY'S DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009
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South Korean protesters burn a mock rocket, North Korean flag and portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a rally in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. Demonstrators protested against North Korea's recent rocket launch
North Korea defends launch
U.N. Security Council debates action against the communist nation
SEOUL, South Korea — Tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied Wednesday in Pyongyang to support Kim Jong Il as he embarks on his third term as leader and to celebrate a rocket launch that was criticized elsewhere as a violation of U.N. sanctions.
HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press Writer
Kim was expected to attend a session of the North's rubber-stamp parliament Thursday and be re-elected as chairman of the powerful National'
Defense Commission in his first major public appearance since a reported stroke in August.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea are leading a campaign in the U.N. Security Council to penalize the North.
The 67-year-old Kim rules the impoverished yet nuclear-armed North in his capacity as chief of the commission, which oversees the country's 1.2 million-member military — one of the world's largest.
North Korea claimed it sent a satellite into space, but neighboring countries said nothing reached orbit and that the launch was really a test of its long-range missile technology.
His re-election comes amid regional tension over the country's controversial rocket launch Sunday.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea are leading a campaign in the U.N. Security Council to penalize the North.
"The imperialists and reactionaries who have committed all kinds of despicable acts, tenaciously pursuing anti-(North Korea) moves to isolate and stifle us, will be driven into a yet tighter corner because of our satellite launch." Choe Tae Bok, a top Workers' Party official, told the rally.
Footage obtained by APTN in Pyongyang showed a massive crowd of neatly dressed people packed in the main Kim Il Sung square — named after Kim's father, North
North Korea previously has organized mass rallies at times of high tensions with the outside world or after key events, such as the country's first nuclear test blast in 2006.
Choe called the launch "a shining fruition" of Kim's efforts to develop the North's science and technology, "foreseeing a rosy future of the country," according to KCNA.
Defense Minister Kim Yong Chun separately told a government meeting later Wednesday that his army would defeat U.S. and South Korean forces with "strong, merciless return fire," accusing them of plotting to launch a pre-emptive attack on the North, according to the North's state TV.
The North routinely issues similar claims, and the U.S. and South Korea repeatedly have said they have no intention to attack. The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53
Korean War.
Debate in the Security Council on whether to penalize North Korea for the launch remained stalled, with North Korea's closest ally, China, and Russia calling for restraint. The U.S. warned that a response would take time.
Asked whether three days without U.N. action means North Korea can do anything with internity, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "It's not a long time in relations between nations or in the affairs of the Security Council."
North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador, Pak Tok Hun, accused the Security Council of being "undemocratic" by targeting the communist nation while allowing many other countries to launch satellites.
He warned that the North would retaliate with "strong steps" if the Security Council took action.
On Wednesday, the North's military accused Japan of mobilizing warships to find fragments of the rocket, calling it a "vicious act of espionage" and an "intolerable military provocative act" that infringed upon the country's sovereignty, according to a statement carried by KCNA.
Kim was expected to attend Thursday's legislative session, according to South Koreas Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North.
Kim took over power when his father died of heart failure in 1994. His health is of keen interest because he rules the nation of 24 million with absolute authority, allowing no opposition.
He has three sons with two different wives but has not publicly named a successor.
COURTS Judge grants go ahead in N.Y. apartheid law suits
COURTS
NEW YORK — A New York judge said lawyers by apartheid victims
Judge Shira Scheindlin dismissed defense arguments that allowing the lawsuits might affect
accusing automakers and IBM of supporting racial segregation in South Africa could go to trial.
Vote April 15 & 16 at Envisionku.org
Plaintiffs alleged the automakers supplied military vehicles that let securities forces suppress black South Africans. IBM is accused of providing equipment used to track dissident<
The defendants are IBM Corp., German automaker Daimler AG, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Rheinmetall Group AG, Swiss parent of an armaments maker.
Wednesday's ruling came in federal cases from 2002 and 2003 on behalf of victims of apartheid in the 1970s and '80s.
relations between the United States and South Africa.
Associated Press
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