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From: C-afp@clari.net (AFP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.asia.koreas,clari.world.asia+oceania
Subject: North Korean leader fails to attend birthday party
Organization: Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Message-ID: <Qnkorea-birthdayURfbj_9FF.Rut5_9FF@clari.net>
Lines: 61
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 5:14:56 PST
ACategory: international
Slugword: NKorea-birthday
Threadword: nkorea
Priority: urgent
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   SEOUL, Feb 15 (AFP) - North Korea on Monday embarked on 57th  
birthday celebrations for Kim Jong-il that some reports said would 
cost the starving nation 100 million dollars, but the "supreme 
leader" was nowhere to be seen. 
   Senior state, communist party and army figures attended the  
first major function in Pyongyang, according to official media 
reports from the North and monitors. 
   But there was no mention of Kim who has regularly missed the  
festivity, which comes one day ahead of his actual birthday, since 
1992. 
   This was the first birthday party since Kim was reappointed --  
with boosted powers -- as head of the National Defence Commission in 
September last year, effectively making him undisputed supreme 
leader. 
   The birthday celebration was "held with splendour at the  
6,000-seat Theatre of the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang 
today," said the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA). 
   North Korea watchers in the rival South said the population was  
preparing lavish gifts and a giant parade on his birthday. 
   The South's National Intelligence Service estimated last week  
that more than 100 million dollars would be spent on celebrations. 
It said this was enough to import 500,000 tonnes of corn for the 
country where millions are said to have died in a famine that has 
now lasted several years. 
   Prime Minister Hong Song-Nam was at Monday's party, said KCNA,  
and he delivered a report titled "Let us accomplish the 
revolutionary cause of juche (self-reliance) under the experienced 
and seasoned leadership of the great statesman and great 
commander." 
   The premier reportedly told guests: "All the people and the  
servicemen should consider the slogan 'let us defend the 
headquarters of the revolution headed by the great comrade Kim 
Jong-Il with our lives' to be an eternal creed of struggle and life, 
under which they should prepare themselves to be heroes through 
human bomb attack and soldiers ready for suicidal explosion. 
   "They should thus defend with their lives Marshal Kim Jong-Il,  
who is the destiny of the fatherland and the revolution, and 
strengthen as firm as a rock the singlehearted unity of the leader, 
the party, the army and the people." 
   Japan's Radiopress monitoring service said Kim Jong-Il failed to  
attend, quoting a Radio Pyongyang live broadcast of the party, 
according to Kyodo News agency. 
   The birthday of Kim Jong-Il, son of North Korea's founding  
father Kim Il-Sung was designated in 1995 as one of North Korea's 
most important holidays. 
   The People's Armed Forces held a reception on Sunday to mark the  
birthday, at which armed forces minister Kim Il-Chol addressed 
embassy military attaches, according to KCNA. 
   Committees have been set up around the world to "celebrate" the  
birthday, according to the North's official media. 
   Pyongyang has invited dignitaries from 10 countries to the  
celebrations which will include a flower show, an international 
figure-skating competition, a major parade and 20 other 
commemorative events, the NIS said. 
   Expensive gifts -- including ginseng and seafood -- are being  
prepared for the "Dear Leader" to confirm his position as the 
isolated state's ultimate ruler following the death of his father 
Kim Il-Sung in 1994. 
  	   	

