Despite its severe economic difficulties, North Korea held a series of commemorative events to celebrate late North Korean founder Kim Il-sung’s birthday last week. According to the North Korean media, including the Korean Central News Agency, film screenings, a celebratory dance by students and a food festival of holiday dishes had been held in Pyongyang even before April 15, or the Day of the Sun. It refers to Kim Il-sung’s birthday, the biggest celebration and one of the four major holidays in North Korea, along with current leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday, the founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party and the anniversary of the inauguration of the North Korean regime. It’s been 16 years since Kim Il-sung died, but the former leader is still idolized like a god in the communist state, while his birthday is observed as the nation’s biggest holiday. Yonhap News Agency reporter Jang Yong-hun has more to explain.

Various commemorative events take place to mark Kim Il-sung’s birthday every year. North Korean citizens look forward to the “Day of the Sun” when special rations are provided. In North Korea, the deceased founder is dubbed the “Sun of the Korean People” and history starts with his birthday. That is why North Korea celebrates the day Kim was born as the “Day of the Sun.”

In North Korea, it is customary to have a big celebration on special anniversaries that end with 0 or 5. Although this practice has little to do with the 98th birthday of Kim Il-sung this year, North Korea held grand celebratory events to mark the occasion. Definitely notable is the fireworks display near the Juche Tower along the banks of the Taedong River in downtown Pyongyang on the eve of Kim’s birthday. Tens of thousands of firecrackers and a spectacular laser show lit the night sky. According to North Korean sources, the nation imported 60 tons of fireworks from China for the event, and it spent a considerable amount of money in purchasing and transporting them. Experts note that this is extraordinary, considering the nation’s serious economic difficulty triggered by the failed currency reform.

North Korea held a splendid fireworks display along the Taedong River in Pyongyang this year, as it did last year, in an apparent effort to inspire struggling citizens with optimism. The North Korean people are leading hard lives because of the poor domestic economy, and the authorities seem to have attempted to ease the gloomy atmosphere to some extent. South Korean gunpowder dealers estimate that the fireworks cost about 1 million US dollars. North Korea usually covers money needed for important events, like birthdays of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, with the so-called “loyalty funds,” which are contributed by various organizations at different levels. In many cases, the military, the Workers’ Party and the ministry in charge of earning foreign currency are taking the lead in raising the loyalty funds.

Ahead of the late leader’s birthday, a North Korean military drill, smacking of an armed protest, was open to the public. According to the North Korean media, National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il watched a military drill staged by the Army’s 567 Combined Unit on April 14. Diplomatic experts say that the military exercise is very unusual, in terms of the timing and formality. Kim Jong-il has inspected military units around his father’s birthday in the past, but it is a rare occasion that Kim accompanied a massive delegation, including a delegate to the Supreme People’s Assembly and figures in the private sector.

Kim watched the military drill, with a Pyongyang delegate to the Supreme People’s Assembly and the top brass from different sectors attending. According to North Korean radio stations, such as the Korean Central News Agency and Radio Pyongyang, ground artillery began belching fire, upon the word of command, and showered the enemy with shells, breaking the enemy territory into pieces and turning it into a sea of flames in an instant. Judging from the report, it wasn’t an ordinary military exercise but a shooting drill aimed at demonstrating firepower. The prospects for the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks are murky, while the U.S. still leaves open the possibility of a preemptive nuclear attack on North Korea through its Nuclear Posture Review. By staging an armed protest in the form of a military drill, North Korea may have attempted to show that the nation could retaliate against any possible invasion.

Meanwhile, North Korea sought to strengthen internal unity in many ways on the occasion of Kim Il-sung’s birthday. During a convention on April 14, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly Kim Yong-nam reiterated the need for stabilizing people’s livelihood and called for aggressive, nationwide efforts to make 2010 an epoch-making year in the history of building a prosperous nation. Also, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il promoted as many as 100 general-level officers recently, including four commanders, in a move to gain control of the military and boost the morale of troops.

This is the largest promotion in military personnel since North Korea promoted 129 general-grade officers in 1997 when the Kim Jong-il regime had not been launched yet officially. The four newly appointed commanders are senior deputy chief of the State Security Department and a member of the National Defense Commission, U Dong-chuk, Air Force commander Ri Byung-chul, Navy commander Jeong Myung-do and former artillery commander Jeong Ho-gyun. U Dong-chuk became a commander only a year after he was promoted to a post between lieutenant-general and commander in a general-level military reshuffle in April last year. The quick promotion reflects that he is emerging as an influential figure within the Kim Jong-il leadership. It is said he is in the forefront of North Korea’s father-to-son power transfer scheme while supervising a public security organization.

On the occasion of Kim Il-sung’s birthday this year, North Korea is expected to continue to focus on measures to ease growing public concerns and to strengthen the power succession plan. It remains to be seen how the political and social development inside North Korea may influence peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.


[Interview] Free Traveling Clinic for N. Korean Newcomers
From early in the morning on April 13, a meeting room of the Yangcheon District Office in Mok-dong, western Seoul, was crowded with people hoping to receive free medical treatment at a traveling clinic dispatched from the Asan Medical Center in Seoul. Let’s meet with the event organizer, Choi Tae-jin, official of the Self-Governing Administration Department at the Yangcheong District Office.

For free medical treatment, we received applications from North Korean newcomers over the age of 60 and South Korean senior citizens aged 50 or older who have no one to depend on. Five or six people get treatment per hour. We’re planning on offering this service to a total of 60 people today.

For elderly people with no one to rely on and North Korean defectors who started a new life in South Korea, the Yangcheon District has run a free traveling clinic since 2006. In cooperation with the Hanbit Social Welfare Center and the traveling clinic of the Asan Medical Center, the district offers the free medical services twice a year, one in the first half of the year and the other in the second half. North Korean expatriates, in particular, are classified as first-grade recipients of health care, but many of the defectors, who are exhausted both physically and mentally by the long period of hiding out overseas, do not dare to go to the doctor for treatment. Many point out the need for a proactive provision of medical services for those individuals.

Many newcomers are unwilling to go to the doctor, due to expensive medical costs and lack of time. They are covered by medical insurance, but few defectors actually visit a hospital to get a checkup. Many of them tend to shun South Korean citizens, reluctant to visit hospitals and public offices. The Yangcheon District is operating a traveling clinic for them so they can receive treatment more naturally.

At the traveling clinic, patients can get physical exams for internal and dermatologic problems or get an X-ray. All these services are, of course, free of charge. In addition, the clinic started providing dental services this year, accepting defectors’ suggestions last year. The newcomers often let the disease progress because they just endure it or they cannot get proper treatment. In the course of escaping North Korea, many of them are inflicted with bone damage and psychological illnesses. Here’s Dr. Kim Hyung-tae from the Asan Medical Center.

Many patients have aches in their backs and legs and suffer from high blood pressure. Psychologically, they are under a lot of tension because they are trying to stay strong all the time. They lived in the communist North for a long time, and now they have to find a way to survive on their own here in South Korea. Due to the wide disparity, they are often stressed out. I feel frustrated because there aren’t many things to do to help them out. I think it’s necessary to provide them with more educational programs designed to help them better adjust to a new South Korean environment.

Many defectors’ diseases require consistent treatment. So the Yangcheon District came up with a follow-up measure to allow the patients to get additional free treatment at the Asan Medical Center in southern Seoul. The defector patients, who couldn’t even consider going to the hospital in the past, appreciate such compassion. The Yangcheon District plans to build a network linking other clinics in the district so many more defectors can benefit from medical services on a regular basis. The heartfelt dedication and compassion of the district officials and the medical staff will surely give hope to many newcomers from North Korea.