N. Koreans receive special rations on anniversary: pro-Pyongyang daily

By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Koreans received special rations of liquor, cookies, blankets and sports shoes earlier this week in honor of the communist country's 60th founding anniversary, a mouthpiece for a pro-Pyongyang group in Japan reported Thursday.

"Holiday rations were distributed across the country to mark the 60th
anniversary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," said Choson Sinbo, organ of Chongryon, or the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

"Concerned bodies had prepared for the distribution well
before the holiday to ensure that all households enjoy the day," it added.

The anniversary, which fell on Tuesday, is one of the most celebrated holidays in
North Korea, along with the birthdays of leader Kim Jong-il, his late father Kim
Il-sung and the founding of the Workers' Party. The North usually provides its
citizens with specially produced consumer goods to add festivity to these
holidays.

Factories in Pyongyang, for instance, finished churning out goods -- including
liquor, cookies, sweets, beer, oil, blankets, shoes and rain coats -- by the end
of August, the report noted.

The North's communist government officially came into being in 1948, three years
after the Korean Peninsula was liberated from Japanese colonial rule in 1945. A
U.S.-backed pro-western government was set up in what is now South Korea.

sshim@yna.co.kr

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