North Korea marks birthday of late founder

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea celebrated the birthday of late national founder Kim Il Sung on Tuesday, pledging to strengthen its massive military but avoiding the anti-American diatribes that often accompany the event.

Many North Korean's visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, where Kim's embalmed body lies in state, according to KCNA, the North's official news agency. Kim died at age 82 on July 8, 1994, after ruling for half a century with a personality cult.

The celebrations came as North Korea appeared to show willingness to move toward easing tension on the Korean Peninsula over its suspected nuclear weapons programs.

After months of demanding direct talks with the United States, North Korea signaled over the weekend that it would be willing to accept U.S.-proposed multilateral talks to discuss its nuclear ambitions.

In Seoul, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun expressed optimism in finding a peaceful end to the dispute.

"It will be resolved well this time," a pool report quoted Roh as saying during a dinner meeting Tuesday with former President George H.W. Bush.

Russia is willing to participate in multilateral talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said Tuesday, adding that he was optimistic the crisis could be solved peacefully.

"The multilateral format can be useful as an umbrella for conducting dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang," he said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

North Korea often marks Kim's birthday, one of the country's biggest national holidays, with diatribes against the United States. But it did not do so on Tuesday, saying only "our country's ever-victorious history will go on as long as Kim Jong Il steers the Korean revolution with the Songun policy."

Songun means "army-first" or giving priority to the military.

The North Korean army is "strong enough to frustrate any enemy at a single stroke," Rodong Sinmun, the country's main newspaper, said in an editorial.

"He pioneered and advanced the revolution with the might of arms while giving priority to the army."

The North celebrates in similar fashion the birthday of Kim Jong Il, who took power from his father in the communist world's first hereditary succession of power.

Also Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory message to Kim Jong Il, saying "the traditional relations of friendship and good neighborliness between the two countries provided by President Kim Il Sung will grow stronger and develop," according to KCNA.

Moscow was a close ally of North Korea during the Cold War, but the friendship faded after the Soviet Union collapsed. There has been a rapprochement of sorts, with Kim Jong Il visiting Russia last year and Putin visiting Pyongyang in 2000.