North Korea celebrates the birthday of the first North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, who is known as "the sun of the nation" in the country. On this day, the local citizens, make a pilgrimage to the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Men in suits and women in nice-looking national costumes lay flowers to the monument.
Pyongyang and other cities opened exhibitions devoted to the life and activities of Kim Il Sung - the author of the famous Juche idea. People arrange picnics or visit sports fields to spend two days of the national holiday.
Despite the fears of Western analysts, who suggested that the national holiday in North Korea could coincide with the country's intention to launch nuclear missiles, no signs of tension are seen in the capital. Foreign diplomatic missions and representatives of international humanitarian organizations work as usual.
South Korea, Japan and the U.S. have been preparing for the possible attack for two weeks. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived In Tokyo for talks on the North Korean problem. In addition, according to South Korean intelligence, Kim Jong-un has not appeared in public for two weeks already. Intelligence agencies exclude the possibility that the grandson of Kim Il Sung had been overthrown, but Kim Jong Un will have to appear before the people on the birthday of his grandfather.
The first and the only President of the Korean People's Democratic Republic Kim Il Sung was born on April 15, 1912 near Pyongyang into the family of a village teacher and revolutionary, Kim Hyong Jik. He was educated in China, then served at a guerrilla group became its commander. Soon the guerrillas were defeated, and Kim Il-sung with the remnants of his squad broke through to the Soviet border. In the Soviet Union, he was hired by the Soviet army.
Kim Il-sung returned to Korea in 1945 as a Major General of the Soviet Army. With the support of the Soviet Union, he formed a provisional government of North Korea, became the leader of the Communist Workers' Party of Korea, and in September 1948, after the formation of the Korean People's Democratic Republic, he took the position of the prime minister. In 1950, he tried to capture the power in South Korea, but the latter showed strong resistance. In domestic policy, he followed the Soviet model, but then became the progenitor of his own conception - the Juche doctrine, under which Korea did not need help from the outside and was able to develop independently.