North Korea on Thursday marked the 64th birthday of leader Kim Jong-Il with a bout of sabre-rattling and a warning that a nuclear stand-off will never be settled unless Washington makes concessions.
Pyongyang’s state media said celebrations included exhibitions, performances, seminars, parades and a march to Mount Paikdu, considered the cradle of Korean civilisation and recognised in official propaganda as Kim’s birthplace.
North Korean soldiers led by Defense Minister Kim Il-Chol danced at Pyongyang’s Jonsung Square on Wednesday night, vowing to become human bullets and bombs for their leader, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Reports focused on presents and lavish praise for the “son of the 21st century” received from abroad, with KCNA noting that messages had been received from allies including China and Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin sent a personal message of goodwill.
Designated a national holiday in 1974, February 16 has been elevated to one of the two most important days in the North Korean calendar.
Its only rival is April 15, the birthday of Kim’s father and founder of the communist state, Kim Il-Sung, who died in 1994.
“This year’s celebrations for February 16 are, as in the past, aimed at praising Chairman Kim for his exploits and achievement and enhancing people’s loyalty for the leader,” said an official from South Korea’s unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations.
North Korea’s rulers also took a swipe at the United States with a repetition of their demand that Washington must bow to its conditions in the stand-off over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
At a meeting of top government and party leaders on the eve of Kim’s birthday, Yang Hyong-Sop,Vice-President of Parliament, said the day held “great fortune” for the Korean nation and described it as an “auspicious event for humankind”.
Yang said the United States had yet to grasp the concept that North Korea would not give up its nuclear weapons drive in exchange for nothing.
“The nuclear issue can never be settled as long as the US invariably pursues an anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK [North Korea],” he said, according to KCNA.
He also warned that North Korea’s 1,1-million-strong army would “wipe out the aggressors to the last man” should the United States ignite a war against it.
No mention was made of financial sanctions against North Korea imposed by Washington in September over Pyongyang’s alleged money laundering and counterfeiting of US dollars.
North Korea denies the charges and has refused to return to six-party disarmament talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons drive unless the United States lifts the sanctions.
Last week, however, Pyongyang announced that it was ready to join the international fight against money laundering.
“Pyongyang was sending signals to Washington that it is serious in efforts to settle pending issues,” said Lee Kyo-Duk, a senior researcher at the state-financed Korea Institute for National Unification.
US envoy to South Korea Alexander Vershbow on Wednesday urged Pyongyang to destroy its counterfeiting equipment including printing plates to convince the world that it was no longer producing fake US dollar notes.
In Seoul, Unification Minister Lee Jong-Seok said that the isolated country was slowly changing, thanks to South Korea’s policy of engagement.
“North Korea, although hesitatingly, is slowly moving toward a market economy,” Lee told diplomats.
In Pyongyang, Yang called for “a fresh leap forward in building a great prosperous powerful socialist country with the might of Songun,” referring to Kim’s policy of giving top priority to the country’s military.
Despite the rhetoric, isolated North Korea remains one of the world’s poorest countries and counts on international handouts to feed its 22 million people. – AFP