North Koreans rally in capital to support government

Over one million people pack Pyongyang's main plaza on Saturday to show support of North Korea's decision to withdraw from the global nuclear treaty. AP Photo Archive

A Communist Party official addressing the massive rally described North Korea’s decision to pull out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a cornerstone of international efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, as a bold initiative by leader Kim Jong Il.

“The declaration was the Great General’s cannon-boom announcement that forcefully demonstrated to the whole world his grit and aggressive spirit to respond to the enemy’s hardline policy with a super-hardline policy” the official, Ri Ji Yong, said in a speech broadcast by North Korea’s Central Television.

Pyongyang’s main plaza, named after Kim’s father and late president Kim Il Sung, erupted with chanting from a packed crowd who pumped their fists in the air and held up banners with anti-U.S. slogans. One depicted a North Korean soldier with bulging biceps killing U.S. troops with a bayonet.

The rally came a day after North Korea dramatically escalated tensions by announcing its withdrawal from the 1968 nuclear treaty.

North Korea had already surprised the world in December by deciding to restart nuclear facilities that were frozen under a deal with the United States in 1994.

A series of Communist Party officials called for building a “military-led, powerful country” and vowed to “smash a U.S. plot to launch a nuclear attack” on North Korea.

North Korean Premier Hong Song Nam said North Korea was determined to “defend its right to exist from the U.S. imperialists who put an ‘axis of evil’ cap on us and forced their lackey International Atomic Energy Agency to adopt a resolution to defame the Republic.”

Another official urged “a holy war against the United States.” The crowd picked up the slogan in unison.

Governments around the world have condemned North Korea’s nuclear gambits. The IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, issued a resolution last week urging North Korea to keep its international obligations.