N.Korea fetes torch with rally, military songs

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Koreans waved flags, plastic flowers and danced in the streets of Pyongyang to welcome the Olympic torch on Monday after the destitute state had promised its main benefactor China an "astonishing" show.

The torch began its two-day journey on the divided Korean peninsula on Sunday, where a frenetic and at times violent pro-Beijing rally in the South Korean capital by thousands of flag-waving Chinese students left many Seoul residents angry.

The global torch relay ahead of the Beijing Games in August has prompted protests against China's rights record in Tibet as well as patriotic rallies by Chinese who criticize the West for vilifying Beijing.

There was almost no security needed in North Korea, a state human rights groups say kills prisoners in public with firing squads and uses guilt by association to intimidate the masses.

North Korea's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, was not on hand for the festivities, but tens of thousands of his citizens put on their finest clothes and cheered on cue as the torch made its journey to the hermit kingdom, according to pool video footage from Pyongyang.

Soldiers played military music, women in traditional garb and men in dark suits danced, pre-school girls rode unicycles and hundreds of North Koreans displayed taekwondo high kicks in unison along the route, the footage for foreign media showed.

North Korea, which the United States and others say has one of world's the worst human rights records, does not allow rallies that anger Pyongyang's leaders. Rights groups said the North imprisons or executes anyone who steps out of line.

The images from Pyongyang were in stark contrast to the relay events of London, Paris and San Francisco, where protesters jostled the torchbearers and screamed slogans slamming Beijing's crackdown in Tibet earlier this year.

MOUNT EVEREST FLAME

Meanwhile, a special Olympic flame arrived at Mount Everest base camp on Monday, before making an ascent to the summit of the world's tallest mountain. But Chinese officials were keeping reporters in the dark about the progress of this torch -- or torches, as the case may be.

"I can confirm that the lantern with the flame is in the hands of the mountaineers, but I cannot tell you whether there are climbers on the mountain yet," said Shao Shiwei, deputy director of the media department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.

"There is not only one flame, there are many flames," he said. "There are many back-up flames and they did not tell us which one is going to go to the peak. We are working with prudence because the whole world is watching."

Witnessing this spectacle are 11 foreign journalists who China has allowed to accompany the special flame procession.

China has blamed the Dalai Lama for stirring up the unrest and accused him and his government in exile in India of trying to spoil the August Games, charges the Tibetan spiritual leader denies.

There have been calls from some Western politicians for world leaders to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, a sentiment echoed by Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.