North Koreans marched and sang as the country’s Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, celebrated his 65th birthday yesterday, days after agreeing to shut down his country’s nuclear programme. But rumours and speculation abounded over the security of his regime.

Hard information about the workings of the North Korean leadership is almost impossible to establish, but recently there have been unusually intense rumours about possible plots against the Dear Leader.

The latest story doing the rounds of intelligence agencies is that his brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, a close aide who returned to public life last year after being purged, is emerging as a rival.

Oblivious of possible power struggles behind the scenes, thousands of men and women, dressed in suits and brightly coloured traditional skirts, danced in the streets of the capital, Pyongyang, as the official state media reported extravagant messages of praise from around the world.

Soldiers and civilians viewed an exhibition of a variety of begonia named Kimjongilia in honour of the dictator, and senior military officers and cadres of the Workers’ Party attended a celebratory banquet.

A South Korean newspaper reported that North Koreans were to be given an extra month’s worth of rations, despite chronic food shortages. The Chosun Ilbo also said that the authorities were struggling to maintain electricity in Pyongyang over Mr Kim’s birthday and the subsequent holiday for the lunar new year.

State media did not say whether Mr Kim was present at the celebrations, which mark a momentous year in his 12-year reign as head of the world’s only hereditary communist dynasty. In October North Korea carried out an underground nuclear test. Last Tuesday it signed an agreement to eliminate its nuclear arsenal eventually in return for hundreds of millions of dollars of fuel oil and aid from the US, China, Russia and South Korea.

But the tone of yesterday’s speeches supported the suspicions of many analysts that North Korea was still a long way from relinquishing its nuclear capability. “The successful nuclear test last year represents a proud victory of ‘army-first politics’ . . . and a thrilling demonstration of the greatness and might of socialist North Korea,” the Speaker of the country’s Parliament, Choe Thae Bok, said yesterday.

A letter sent jointly by the ruling party, the Cabinet and the military said: “The People’s Army will remain fully prepared for war to deal with US aggressive manoeuvres of the imperialists.”

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