Thursday, February 17, 2005
North Korea celebrates Kim Jong-il’s 63rd birthday
SEOUL: North Koreans celebrated leader Kim Jong-il’s 63rd birthday on Wednesday with more food than their usual rations, fireworks over his reputed mountain birthplace and sing-songs praising his military brilliance.
Yet while North Korean media reported fringe events from Laos to Romania and Guinea to Egypt, most of the world was less keen to fete the birthday boy than find ways to get Kim back to the table to negotiate an end to his nuclear ambitions. Take Japan, whose relations with Pyongyang are additionally strained by the North’s past abduction of Japanese citizens. Top government spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda was asked at a news conference in Tokyo if he had any words for Kim on his birthday. “Absolutely nothing,” Hosoda deadpanned in reply.
North Koreans had plenty to say about Kim’s big day, which official media described as “the most auspicious holiday of the nation” and North Korea analysts see as a way for Pyongyang to underscore his hold on power.
reuters
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