Country Report - ADDRESS BY MR HAN RYUL MO, D.P.R. OF KOREA

Dear colleagues

I would like, first of all, to express my sincere thanks to the staff of the EASTICA Secretariat and the Historical Archives of Macao for their successful efforts to prepare this General Conference.

EASTICA has scored not a few successes in the implementation of its constitution and the work programme in the last 2 years since its foundation.

The State Archives Bureau of the DPR of Korea has made every effort to contribute to the strengthening of the friendly ties between the members and the developing of the EASTICA work through its active participation in the EASTICA activatis.

As you all know, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, father of our nation passed away last year, which was the greatest mishap.

A great number of mourning ceremonies took place not only in our country but also in many other countries on the occasion of the passing away of our respected leader.

The DPRK State Archives Bureau assumed as its sacred historical mission and creditably carried out the collection and reposition of the national and international archives associated with the mourning ceremonies and the measures taken by Comrade Kim Jong II the great leader of our people.

In our country, we have fixed by law the collection, categorization, edition, preservation and management of archives, realized the unified national leadership over the work and stocked a lot of archives that have national significance and can remarkably contribute to the cultural development of mankind.

We also paid attention to educating the archivists with up-to-date knowledge of archival science and technology.

We organized short training courses for archivists and made efforts to modernize and rationalize archival management further more. And in order to enhance the attention for EASTICA work, we printed and disseminated the translation of the EASTICA Constitution and work programme.

For the consolidation of the friendship and cooperation between the members of EASTICA, we dispatched to China a working-level delegation in July this year and exchanged our experiences and successes.

Dear colleagues, EASTICA has just begun its work, but the experience of the last 2 years convinces us that if we cooperate closely enough we can expect greater successes in our work.

The DPR archivists will continue to actively contribute to the work of EASTICA and the development of the friendly ties between the members in the future too, as in the past. Next year the 13^th International Congress on Archives will be held in our region.

I am sure that this congress will be an important event in redressing the work not only of ICA but also of EASTICA.

We shall not reserve our efforts for the success of the congress and strengthen our cooperation with other members of EASTICA.

Thank you.