Rodong Sinmun on Invariable Tenet of Foreign Policy of WPK and DPRK Government

Pyongyang, January 3 (KCNA) -- It is the steadfast will of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK to expand and develop the relations of good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation with those countries championing independence and struggle to ensure genuine international justice, says Rodong Sinmun in an article Tuesday.
    It goes on:
    The WPK and the DPRK government have waged a vigorous struggle to accomplish the human cause of independence, consistently adhering to an independent stand in their external activities.
    Had we failed to abide by the principle of independence in the external relations and yielded to the pressure of the imperialists and the big-power chauvinists, we would not have been able to build a socialist country -- independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in defence, and the country would have been reduced to a satellite country of big powers or colonial slave of the imperialists to go to ruin.
    We dealt with all issues arising in the international arena with independence as a yardstick and waged a principled and uncompromising struggle against the practices of encroaching upon the sovereignty of other countries.
    We remain unchanged in our will to ensure peace on the Korean peninsula and in the rest of the world. Peace is dear for us but we never beg for it. If aggressors and provocateurs provoke us even a bit, we will not allow them even in the least but mercilessly wipe them out and thus achieve lasting peace. This is the firm faith and will of the army and the people of the DPRK.
    The DPRK has so far positively developed the relations of good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation with the progressive countries of the world which respect its sovereignty and are friendly towards it.
    Its stance will remain unchanged forever.
    It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to improve and normalize the ties with those countries which recognize its sovereignty and are friendly to it, breaking with their past boldly, though they had been in the hostile relationship with it in the past. -0-