North Korea's 60th...

As North Korea celebrates the only thing in the universe worth celebrating, I have to wonder if the average citizen is getting a little sick of the constant forced adulation towards Kim Jong Il's regime. The second most important man in the country
is a guy that died 11 years ago...

By Bruce Wallace, Times Staff Writer PYONGYANG, North Korea. Kim Jong Il threw a bit *snicker* of a birthday bash for North Korea's family-run dictatorship last week. Convoys of military trucks stacked with boxes of new 21-inch color TVs rumbled through this scruffy capital — gifts from Kim to his troops and soldiers lugged them home on their backs. Despite chronic electricity shortages, the regime found enough juice to light up the town at night, bathing Pyongyang's massive monuments to founding father Kim Il Sung in white light. Wow! Oooh! Ahhhhh! Neat! North Korea discovers light. There was even the rare sight of foreigners being herded through hotel lobbies and onto sightseeing buses. How does a tourist touring a country rate as something newsworthy anyway? One of the most tightly sealed countries on Earth welcomed a few thousand tourists for Arirang, its stadium show of dance, music and mass gymnastics celebrating North Korea's supposedly glorious victories over Japanese and American imperialists.

Kim Jong Il has never told a lie, that wasn't immensely popular with North Koreans. He looks a little sad... ;(

This is the most recent picture released(by the K.C.N.A).