Spring Break
North Korea holds massive pro-rocket rally
Associated Press
Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: News
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied Wednesday in Pyongyang to support Kim Jong Il as he embarks on his third term as leader and to celebrate a rocket launch that was criticized elsewhere as a violation of U.N. sanctions.
Kim was expected to attend a session of the North's rubber-stamp parliament Thursday and be re-elected as chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission in his first major public appearance since a reported stroke in August.
The 67-year-old Kim rules the impoverished yet nuclear-armed North in his capacity as chief of the commission, which oversees the country's 1.2 million-member military - one of the world's largest.
His re-election comes amid regional tension over the country's controversial rocket launch Sunday. North Korea claims it sent a satellite into space, but neighboring countries say nothing reached orbit and that the launch was really a test of its long-range missile technology.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea are leading a campaign in the U.N. Security Council to penalize the North.
"The imperialists and reactionaries who have committed all kinds of despicable acts, tenaciously pursuing anti-(North Korea) moves to isolate and stifle us, will be driven into a yet tighter corner because of our satellite launch," Choe Tae Bok, a top Workers' Party official, told the rally.
Footage obtained by APTN in Pyongyang showed a massive crowd of neatly dressed people packed in the main Kim Il Sung square - named after Kim's father, North Korea's founder - under a banner reading, "We enthusiastically congratulate on the successful launch" of a satellite.
The North's office Korean Central News Agency said about 100,000 Pyongyang citizens took part in the rally.
Choe called the launch "a shining fruition" of Kim's efforts to develop the North's science and technology, "foreseeing a rosy future of the country," according to KCNA.
North Korea previously has organized mass rallies at times of high tensions with the outside world or after key events, such as the country's first nuclear test blast in 2006.
Kim was expected to attend a session of the North's rubber-stamp parliament Thursday and be re-elected as chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission in his first major public appearance since a reported stroke in August.
The 67-year-old Kim rules the impoverished yet nuclear-armed North in his capacity as chief of the commission, which oversees the country's 1.2 million-member military - one of the world's largest.
His re-election comes amid regional tension over the country's controversial rocket launch Sunday. North Korea claims it sent a satellite into space, but neighboring countries say nothing reached orbit and that the launch was really a test of its long-range missile technology.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea are leading a campaign in the U.N. Security Council to penalize the North.
"The imperialists and reactionaries who have committed all kinds of despicable acts, tenaciously pursuing anti-(North Korea) moves to isolate and stifle us, will be driven into a yet tighter corner because of our satellite launch," Choe Tae Bok, a top Workers' Party official, told the rally.
Footage obtained by APTN in Pyongyang showed a massive crowd of neatly dressed people packed in the main Kim Il Sung square - named after Kim's father, North Korea's founder - under a banner reading, "We enthusiastically congratulate on the successful launch" of a satellite.
The North's office Korean Central News Agency said about 100,000 Pyongyang citizens took part in the rally.
Choe called the launch "a shining fruition" of Kim's efforts to develop the North's science and technology, "foreseeing a rosy future of the country," according to KCNA.
North Korea previously has organized mass rallies at times of high tensions with the outside world or after key events, such as the country's first nuclear test blast in 2006.
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