N. Korea to mark 58th anniversary of founding, amid int'l tension

BEIJING, Sept. 8 Kyodo

North Korea is set to mark the 58th anniversary of the country's founding on Saturday, amid growing international concern about whether it will test-launch more missiles or conduct a nuclear test.

Pyongyang is facing pressure not only from countries such as the United States and Japan, which are advocating sanctions against the country, but also from China and Russia, the country's traditional allies, to refrain from carrying out ''provocations.''

Signs from North Korea indicate it will make use of the occasion, which entails various commemorative events, to emphasize the need to stick to the country's policy of strengthening its military power.

In its Tuesday and Wednesday editions, the Rodong Sinmun blamed the collapse of socialism in East Europe as well as the regime of Iraq's former President Saddam Hussein on ''the lack of awareness to protect the country'' and emphasized the need to boost its military muscle.

''Fearing war is revisionism,'' said the newspaper, an organ of the Workers' Party of Korea. ''We need to be ideologically ready to fight with the imperialists until the end.''

Analysts said they do not expect any unusual ceremonies to be held for the occasion, as it is the 58th anniversary and not the 50th or 60th.

''What I will be looking for is whether they will just stick to their usual threats, or whether there will be any emphasis on the need to solve the nuclear problem through dialogue in a peaceful manner,'' said Noriyuki Suzuki, senior analyst at Radiopress, which monitors North Korean media in Tokyo.

The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs have stalled since last November, with Pyongyang refusing to return to the negotiations unless the United States lifts sanctions it imposed on a Macao-based bank suspected of laundering money and counterfeiting for North Korea.

The United States has rejected North Korea's demand, saying the sanctions are a law enforcement issue that should not be linked to the nuclear negotiations.

Tensions increased after North Korea tested seven missiles in early July, an act that was condemned in a U.N. Security Council resolution that was supported by North Korea's political allies China and Russia as well as other UNSC members.

Reports, meanwhile, have emerged of the possibility of North Korea carrying out more missile tests or even an underground nuclear test, which analysts and diplomats say would raise the situation to a new level of severity.

''A country becomes a true nuclear power by conducting a nuclear test, because nuclear weapons do not become stable, reliable weapons unless tests are carried out,'' an Asian diplomat in Beijing said.

A nuclear test by North Korea would anger China, as it would constitute a challenge to the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula being promoted by the six-party talks chaired by Beijing, and have serious implications for nuclear proliferation, the diplomat said.

''Only a full-fledged country can carry out a nuclear test,'' the diplomat said. ''If North Korea becomes a full-fledged nuclear power by doing so, and begins giving weapons to terrorists, for example, that would change many things, including U.S. anti-terror policies,'' he said.

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