North lavishes praise on Kim, no word on test

SEOUL, Oct 8: While the world frets over whether North Korea will conduct a nuclear test, the reclusive state's media today ignored the topic, focusing instead on ecstatic praise of their leader on the anniversary of his rise to power.

Pyongyang announced last week it would test a nuclear device but did not say when. There has been speculation it might choose Kim's ninth anniversary at the helm of the Stalinist North.

''The world admires the absolute power and greatness of our dear leader,'' the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted from a newspaper editorial, effusive even by state media standards.

Referring to what it called Kim's outstanding wisdom and extraordinary political ability, the Rodong Sinmun editorial said: ''He set a brilliant example in modelling the whole party on the great 'juche' (self-reliance) idea, advancing the revolution with the might of ideology and opening the heyday of socialism.

''Our great leader Kim Jong-il's leadership has written a history of strengthening the solidarity of our revolutionary spirit and creating a miracle of the century.'' But there was no word on the planned nuclear test.

In Beijing, a source with close ties to Pyongyang said that North Korea might bring the test date forward because of anger of a contentious remark by China's UN ambassador.

The ambassador had suggested that China, the nearest the isolated North has to an ally, would not protect Pyongyang if it went ahead with the test.

The source said North Korean generals had bristled at the notion of needing China's protection and had urged Kim Jong-il to bring the test date forward.

An international furore over the planned test -- which the North said it had been goaded into by what it considers a US threat of nuclear war and economic sanctions -- coincides with ice-breaking summits by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Beijing today and in South Korea the following day.

FIRST COMMUNIST DYNASTY

Kim became the communist world's first dynastic successor when in 1997, three years after the death of his father, state founder Kim Il-sung, he formally took over as general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and with it undisputed leadership of the North.

Since his rise to power, the reclusive state's already weak economy has turned steadily poorer, forcing it to rely heavily on aid, especially from key neighbours China and South Korea.

Famine killed an estimated 10 percent of the population -- around 2.5 million people -- in the late 1990s, and government and rights groups say North Korea has one of the world's worst human rights records.

Adding to the latest tensions, South Korean border troops fired warning shots yesterday after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed over the Military Demarcation Line which has marked the de facto boundary between the two states since the 1950-53 Korean War armistice.

Today, just 50 km north of the South Korean capital, the Panmunjom sector of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that bisects the peninsula appeared quiet, with the usual hundreds of tourists visiting the Cold War's last frontier.

Out of sight for the coachloads of rubberneckers, more than 1 million troops stand guard on both sides of the DMZ, with a huge arsenal of artillery and missiles pointed at each other.

The normal contingent of military police patrolled the Panmunjom truce village, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.

REUTERS