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October 10, 2005

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Parade for the 60th Anniversary of the Korean Workers' Party in the AFternoon and Festivities on Monday Evening.

PYONGYANG: North Korea on Monday marked the 60th anniversary of the ruling Workers Party of Korea with a military parade and a warning to Japan and the United States about hostility against the country. Thousands, including leader Kim Jong-il and foreign diplomats looked on as around 10,000 soldiers marched inside Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang, kicking off a series of festivities to mark the occasion.

''If the United States, Japan and the powers that follow them should create war on this land, we will punish them mercilessly,'' Minister of the People's Armed Forces Kim Il-chol said at the event. ''We will, with our lives, protect the lives of the revolutionary leadership led by comrade Kim Jong-il,'' the minister said.

North Korea sees the United States as a rival, and Pyongyang's ties with Tokyo remain thorny, haunted by today’s difficulties as well as the legacy Japanese colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.

Letters Announce, Predictibly, 'Celebrating the 60th Anniversary'

The 75,000-square-meter Kim Il-sung Square was decked-out for the occasion with large, inflatable letters saying, ''Celebrating the 60th anniversary.'' Red flags bearing the party logo fluttered from the tops of the buildings surrounding the square.

The Cheery Korean Workers' Party Banner

The crowd broke out into a huge cheer, and hundreds of pink balloons were released when Kim Jong-il leaned over from a viewing stand as the parade concluded, showing himself and waving to the crowd below. ''Kim Jong-il,'' chanted both those in the spectator area as well as the thousands in the square, who were waving flowers and colorful pompoms. ''We unite as one,'' they chanted.

The city of Pyongyang has been in a festive mood, with colorful signs of the 60th anniversary hung up in the city center and flags bearing the party logo put up on roadsides. Foreign dignitaries have streamed into North Korea for the occasion. Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and Konstantin Pulikovsky, Russian presidential envoy for the Far East, met with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on Sunday.

The military parade will be followed by other festivities, including a nighttime event to involve the dancing of youths.

No mention was made on Monday of North Korea's nuclear programs, an issue at the center of multilateral negotiations.

Hope for progress was raised last month when North Korea and five other countries -- the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia -- issued a ''statement of principles'' following six-way nuclear talks in Beijing.

—READ: The Joint Statement

In the Sept. 19 statement, Pyongyang committed to abandoning all of its nuclear programs and weapons, rejoining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and submitting to international inspections in exchange for promises of energy assistance, security assurance and the promise of normal relations.

The six parties also agreed to discuss the provision of a light-water reactor, North Korea's demand at the talks, at an ''appropriate time.''

But North Korea said a day after the statement was issued that it will not dismantle its nuclear weapons until it is given [two] light-water nuclear reactors. The move put the sequence of events in reverse of those envisioned by countries such as the United States and Japan, and cast doubt on the agreement. The six parties are expected to hold a fifth round of talks in early November, the exact date of which is yet to be decided.

Kim Il-sung. His Dentist Must Be Proud

While the celebrations took place amidst renewed attention to the question of whether Kim will hand over power to one of his three sons, there is no indication that the festivities will be the forum for some kind of announcement.

Kim was named successor to his father Kim Il-sung in 1974, when the elder Kim was 62. The younger Kim, who is now 63, took power after the death of his father, following a two-decade transition period.

Many believe the eldest of Kim's three sons, Kim Jong-nam, has fallen out of favor as the third-generation successor, following his detention in 2001 at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo. He was trying to enter Japan on a false passport. [He claimed at the time to be headed for Disneyland].

The two other sons are Kim Jong-chol and Kim Jong-un, both in their 20s.

A Kyodo News team is visiting Pyongyang to cover Monday's 60th anniversary of the founding of the Workers Party of Korea.