N. Korean leader shows up at lunar New Year concert

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il enjoyed a performance
given by the North's state merited chorus on the occasion of the lunar New Year,
which fell on Monday, its state media reported on Tuesday.
According to the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored here, the
performance truthfully represented the "unshakable faith and will of the army and
people to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche (self-reliance)" under the
leadership of Kim Jong-il.
After the performance was over, Kim reportedly expressed the expectation and
conviction that all of them would conduct dynamic revolutionary art activities
and thus fully display the might of buglers in the Songun (military first) era.
The report said that Kim Ki-nam, secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea's (WPK)
Central Committee and Jang Song-thaek and Kim Yang-gon, department directors of
the WPK Central Committee, were among the audience. But it didn't reveal the
exact date and venue of the musical performance observed by the ailing North
Korean leader.
Kim attended a closely watched meeting with a visiting Chinese official last week
in his first appearance to a foreign guest since he allegedly suffered a stroke
in August.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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