North Korea defies growing crisis to mark Kim Il-sung birthday

Holiday time in Pyongyang away from the warlike rhetoric as residents celebrate holiday to mark birthday of first leader
Link to video: North Korea marks 101 years since Kim Il-sung's birth

Oblivious to international tensions over a possible North Korean missile launch, Pyongyang residents spilled into the streets on Monday to celebrate a major national holiday, the birthday of their first leader, Kim Il-sung.



The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has been on a tour of the region for four days to try to dampen down emotions and co-ordinate Washington's response with Beijing, North Korea's most important ally.

Foreign governments have been struggling to assess how seriously to take North Korea's recent torrent of rhetoric – including warnings of possible nuclear war – as it expresses its anger over continuing US-South Korea military manoeuvres just across the border. Officials in South Korea, the US and Japan say intelligence indicates that North Korean officials, who conducted an underground nuclear test in February, are ready to launch a medium-range missile.

North Korea's own media gave little indication on Monday of how high the tensions are.

The Rodong Sinmun, the Workers' party newspaper, featured photos and coverage of the current leader Kim Jong-un's overnight visit to the Kumsusan mausoleum to pay respects to his grandfather. There was only one line at the end of the article vowing to bring down the "robber-like US imperialists".


Braving the cold, grey weather, people lined up to lay bouquets of fake flowers at the bronze statues of Kim Il-sung and his son, the late leader Kim Jong-il, in downtown Pyongyang. It is a scene repeated for every major holiday in North Korea, where loyalty to the Kims and to the state are drummed into citizens from an early age.


"Although the situation is tense, people have got bright faces and are very happy," said Han Kyong-sim, serving at a drinks counter.

Monday marked the official start of the new year according to North Korea's "juche" calendar, which begins with the day of Kim Il-sung's birth in 1912. But unlike last year, the centennial of his birthday, there are no big parades in store, and North Koreans were planning to use it as a day to catch up with friends and family.

But while there has been almost no sense of crisis in Pyongyang, North Korea's official posture towards the outside appears to be as hardline as ever.

On Sunday, it rejected South Korea's proposal to resolve tensions through dialogue. North Korea said it had no intention of talking with Seoul unless it abandoned what it called the rival South's confrontational posture. South Korea's unification ministry spokesman, Kim Hyung-suk, called that response "very regrettable" on Monday, but said the South remained open to dialogue.

A leading North Korean leader, Kim Yong-nam, president of the presidium of the supreme people's assembly, also told a gathering of high officials on Sunday that the North must bolster its nuclear arsenal further and "wage a stronger all-out action with the US to cope with the prevailing wartime situation", according to footage from the North's state TV.

South Korea's defence minister, Kim Kwan-jin, told a parliamentary committee in Seoul on Monday that North Korea still appeared poised to launch a missile from its east coast, though he declined to disclose how he got the information.

Many observers had predicted North Korea would launch the missile before Monday's holiday, because similar past launches have come before key national commemorations.

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