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SEOUL : Thousands of North Koreans have joined in festivities to mark the 65th birthday of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il, while state media struck a more sombre note warning of the "war threat" from the US.
The celebrations came just three days after the communist state, at a landmark deal in Beijing with the United States and other nations, agreed in principle to scrap its nuclear programmes.
The deal has not been mentioned in official celebrations, according to a Kyodo news agency reporter in the capital Pyongyang.
Official media instead highlighted what it called a continuing threat of US attack, as it has done countless times in the past.
"People's Army soldiers and the people will maintain war preparedness to the full to deal with US imperialists' manoeuvres for aggression," the ruling party, cabinet and military said in a birthday letter to Kim.
"If the enemies dare ignite the fire of war, we will mobilise all our powerful combat potential built up through the maelstrom of Songun (army-first) revolution, mercilessly crush the enemies and achieve the historic task of national unification," it said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
Parliament speaker Choe Thae-Bok even praised the country's nuclear weapons as a force for regional peace, and described last October's nuclear test as "a thrilling demonstration of the greatness and might" of the nation.
In a country which has perpetuated an extraordinary personality cult around its two leaders since its founding in 1948, one birthday highlight was an exhibition of the national "Kimjongilia" flower - a hybrid begonia.
TV footage showed thousands of couples dancing in the main square of the austere capital, the men in suits and women in traditional "hanbok" gowns.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said citizens in the country which has suffered acute food shortages since the 1990s were getting an extra month's food rations.
It said the nation, which also suffers desperate electricity shortages, would try to keep the power on continuously during the holiday, which coincides with Lunar New Year.
An Jong-Hi, 47, told Kyodo her family would gather later in the day at her brother's house for a celebratory meal.
"We were supplied with liquor, beer and sweets for the occasion," An said.
A foreign liaison official told the Japanese agency that on public holidays residents can buy beer and sweets for a fraction of the normal price.
Residents also laid flowers in front of a giant bronze statue of Kim Il-Sung, the nation's founder and Jong-Il's father who died in 1994.
Streets were bedecked with colourful signs, many bearing the numbers "2.16".
Lunchtime queues formed at stalls selling Korean pancakes and sweets.
Kim Jong-Il took power in 1997 after a three-year mourning period. Since then, analysts say, he has cultivated close ties to the 1.1 million-strong military to cement his grip on power during a decade marked by famine, a collapsing economy and international sanctions,
Analysts believe none of his three sons is ready to succeed him and none has ties to the military, so the cult system will not outlast him.
In the meantime, it is flourishing.
"You, who broke the dawn of a great prosperous powerful nation, going through grim ordeals beyond human imagination, are the peerlessly great man, the supreme incarnation of love for the country and the people and the supreme defender of socialism," read one typical birthday message to Kim from an association of North Korean residents in Japan.
- AFP/ms
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