N.Korea celebrates 60th anniversary since founding

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea marked the 60th anniversary of its founding Tuesday amid international doubts over its commitment to denuclearization, speculation about the health of its leader and a worsening food crisis.

The centerpiece of the celebration was to be a massive military parade through Pyongyang's central Kim Il Sung Square — named after the communist country's founding figure — expected to take place later Tuesday.

But attention was focused on whether Kim Jong Il, the country's current leader and son of the founder, would attend given his absence from public view since mid-August which has sparked speculation he could be ill.

South Korean media have speculated that the 66-year-old Kim's health has worsened. South Korea's intelligence service has previously said Kim has chronic heart disease and diabetes — denied by Kim himself.

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Tuesday that Kim collapsed on Aug. 22, citing an unnamed South Korean diplomat in Beijing. The diplomat got the information from a Chinese source, the paper said.

Kim's health has been a focus of intense interest because his fate is believed to be closely tied to that of the totalitarian state that he inherited in 1994 from his father in communism's first hereditary transfer of power.

North Korea's state news agency had made no mention of the military parade by late Tuesday afternoon, though it carried an exhortation from the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper calling on the population to remain united around Kim.

"One-minded unity around the revolutionary leadership is a source of all the DPRK's victories and miracles," the paper said in a lengthy editorial marking the anniversary, using the acronym for the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

It also called for a stronger military, describing the armed forces as "the foundation of a strong nation."

South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said it had no information as to whether the parade had taken place.

The 60th anniversary comes amid an impasse in international efforts to disable North Korea's nuclear programs. South Korea said last week the North has begun restoring its atomic facilities in apparent anger over not being removed from a U.S. list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

North Korea — which conducted an underground nuclear test blast in October 2006 — began disabling its main nuclear facilities late last year in exchange for international energy aid and other benefits.

The United States has insisted Pyongyang must first agree to a full inspection system of its nuclear programs if it wants to be taken off the terrorism list.

In Washington, the U.S. said that North Korea appears to be preparing to reverse the process of disabling its nuclear facilities.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Monday, he could not confirm that the North has removed international seals from some of its nuclear equipment. But he said the U.S. assessment is that the North is "taking some of the equipment out of storage where it had been, perhaps taking off some of those seals."

Meantime, the World Food Program says North Korea's food shortage, an endemic problem, has worsened this year after devastating floods in 2007.

The North has relied on foreign assistance to help feed its 23 million people since its state-controlled economy collapsed due to mismanagement and natural disasters in the mid-1990s.

On Tuesday, South Korea's top minister in charge of relations with the North said Seoul plans to help North Korea overcome food shortages, and will provide greater assistance if Pyongyang resumes reconciliation talks with the South.

"The North Korean people suffer from food shortages," Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong told an international seminar. "We will not ignore such reality. We will assist the North."

The remark came as South Korea considers a WFP appeal for food contributions to aid the U.N. agency's efforts to alleviate the North's shortages.

Relations between the two sides have frozen since new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February with a pledge to get tough on Pyongyang. North Korea protested Lee's hard-line stance and suspended dialogue with Seoul.

source