 North Korea marked the 63rd birthday of its "dear leader" Kim Jong Il on Wednesday with feasts of pheasant and venison for the capital's elite amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula after the communist state declared it had nuclear weapons and would boycott disarmament talks.
| The rest of the peasants had an extra half-cup of grass soup for dinner. |
Kim's birthday is a national holiday in the communist state, and festivities for residents of Pyongyang — the chosen elite allowed to live there only by being approved as loyal citizens to the regime — also were to include performances by circus and theater troupes, the North's state-run TV reported Tuesday evening, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
North Korean officials heralded Kim's birthday with more defiant rhetoric at a meeting Tuesday of top communist party members and military officers. "If the U.S. recklessly opts for a war of aggression despite the repeated warning of the (North), our army and people will mobilize all potentials ... and deal merciless crushing blows at the aggressors and achieve a final victory in the confrontation with the U.S.," said Choe Thae Bok, a secretary of the Workers' Party Central Committee, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
| Not bad, we got a reckless aggression, merciless mobilization, and crushing blows. |
North Korean public transportation will operate late until 10 p.m., the North's TV said, to ensure birthday celebrations aren't cut short. Parks and other cultural facilities will be free of charge, and traditional food such as cold noodles and alcohol will also be served.
| Alcohol is a traditional food? |
In the run-up to Wednesday's celebration, there have also been festivals across the country of the Kimjongilia — a flower cultivated to blossom around Kim's birthday.
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