Seoul (AsiaNews) – North Korea is in festive mood for the 65th birthday of the “Dear Leader”. The party is grander than ever because it is also celebrating the Lunar New Year and Pyongyang’s de facto victory in six-party talks which have paved the way for new food and energy aid.
Celebrations will last for five days starting from today. In a country marked by drought and misery, each family will receive an extra month’s worth of rations: 500 g of cooking oil, a kilo of sugar, five eggs and a bottle of liquor. Shows and dances are taking place in the centre of the capital with more than 20,000 people. A huge mosaic is being laid down in Pyongyang’s main streets and the words “Supreme Military General Kim Jong-il” have been engraved on top of Mount Myohyang.
Best wishes have come from around the world, starting with Russia’s Putin and the Chinese Communist Party.
This year, there is all the more reason to celebrate. On 13 February, agreement was finally reached at the “six-party talks” in which Pyongyang accepted to freeze part of its nuclear program in exchange for oil and other aid. The United States has also promised to cancel North Korea from its list of “rogue states”.
But the birthday of the “Dear Leader” has cast doubt on Pyongyang’s will to fall in line with the accord. A letter from high-ranking army and political rulers, published by the official KCNA news agency, promised Kim Jong-il that they would keep up “war preparedness”. The letter read: “If the enemies dare ignite the fire of war, we will mobilize all our powerful combat potential... and mercilessly crush the enemies and achieve the historic task of national unification.”
One former senior North Korean official said that these days Kim Jong-il was being referred to as the “general who emerged victorious in the final battle with the US.” Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University in Seoul said: “North Korea appears to be playing up the fact that it now has nuclear weapons and can use it to its benefit.”
But many analysts have started to doubt the staying power of Kim’s empire. Ideally, he should pass the sceptre of the only Communist dynasty to his sons. But they are too young and incapable. The first-born, Kim Jong-nam, 35 years, seems to prefer to lead a carefree and consumerist life. The others Jong-chol, 23, and Jong-woon, 20, are too young. None of them have strong ties with the army, the only stable structure in a destroyed country.
