N. Korean leader watches art performance: report

SEOUL, April 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il watched a performance by a military art troupe accompanied by generals and party officials, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday.

Kim attended the ensemble performance at the Korean People's Army unit 10215,
said the Korean Central News Agency, without giving the date for his visit.
The performance "truthfully represented the invincible might" of the country's
army to "firmly guarantee the cause of building a great prosperous and powerful
socialist nation," the report said.
Kim "highly appreciated" the performance, saying the members of the squad put on
art pieces "vividly reflecting the inexhaustible mental power" of the military
and staged them in a "unique and militant manner."
The report said the leader set forth "important tasks" as guidelines for
promoting revolutionary and militant performances.
Kim was accompanied by Jang Song-thaek, his brother-in-law and a department
director of the Workers' Party who was recently promoted to membership in the
National Defense Commission, along with senior military and party officials, it
said.
The 67-year-old leader, now back in control after a reported stroke last summer,
has significantly increased his public activities this year, making 51 such trips
as of Tuesday, compared to less than 20 visits in recent years, according to
Seoul's Unification Ministry.
Watchers say Kim's stepped-up public activities are a sign that Pyongyang is
striving to increase industrial output for its economic campaign to build a
"powerful" nation by 2012, the birth centenary of Kim's father and the country's
late founder, Kim Il-sung.