North Korea Marks Leader's 65th Birthday

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, foreground, speaks, accompanied by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju, background, during a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang in this Saturday, May 22, 2004 file photo. North Korea was marking the 65th birthday of leader Kim Jong Il on Friday, Feb. 16, 2007, amid progress in ending its nuclear programs and lingering speculation abroad over who will eventually succeed him. Kim's birthday is one of North Korea's most important national holidays and one in which the personality cult inherited from his father, the country's founder Kim Il Sung, is arguably the most visible. (AP Photo/Japan Pool, File) (AP)

Still, North Korea kept up its anti-American rhetoric and urged its people to rally around Kim, known as the country's "dear leader."

In a joint letter of congratulations to Kim on his birthday, North Korea's Cabinet, ruling party, parliament and military vowed to defend the country from the United States.

"All of the People's Army soldiers and the people will maintain a full combat mobilization posture in response to U.S. imperialists' maneuvers for aggression and mercilessly destroy and mop up the aggressors if they dare to ignite a war," KCNA, in a Korean-language report, quoted the letter as saying.

Experts, however, said the harsh language was aimed at bolstering support for the leadership at home. North Korea regularly says the U.S. is plotting an attack, a charge Washington consistently denies.

"It is a declaration of its will to safeguard its internal system," Koh said.

Another version of the letter's contents, carried on KCNA's English-language service, used weaker language and did not mention the United States, but lauded Kim as "the peerlessly great man."

North Korean media have reported a festive mood in the country, with arts performances and exhibitions of the Kimjongilia _ a red flower cultivated to bloom around Kim's birthday.

Kim Jong Il has not yet publicly named a successor, prompting speculation abroad about who might eventually take the reclusive country's helm and whether he will designate one of his sons _ continuing the world's only communist dynasty.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose country has been at odds with North Korea over the abductions of Japanese citizens to be trained as spies, took the occasion of Kim's birthday to urge him to follow through on the Beijing nuclear agreement.

"In order to make it a good birthday, I hope North Korea will implement what the partners have decided at the six-party talks," Abe told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Communist Party sent congratulations on Kim's birthday, KCNA reported Friday.