N. Korea demands S. Korea implement previous summit accords

As North Korea celebrated the birthday of its late leader Kim Jong-il, its officials said Thursday that ties with South Korea can improve if Seoul follows through on deals reached at two previous summits held in 2000 and 2007.

Kim held the two separate summits with South Korea's late presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun in Pyongyang. Kim died of a heart attack in December and was succeeded by his youngest son, Kim Jong-un.

The summits called for improved ties and a set of cross-border economic projects, but many of the accords have been in limbo since 2008, when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took power in Seoul with a hard-line policy toward Pyongyang.

The North has routinely pressed South Korea to honor the summit agreements.

"If a country truly wants to see the provision of security on the Korean Peninsula, it should squarely see that the only way to do it is to implement the declarations that would lead to improved relations between the North and the South," the Institute for Disarmament and Peace of North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a report carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

The report comes as North Korean troops held a meeting at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace to pay respects to the North's late founder Kim Il-sung and his late son, Kim Jong-il.

The troops pledged loyalty to their supreme commander Kim Jong-un, who participated in the meeting. Military support is seen as key for the young leader in consolidating power following his father's death.

The meeting was also held to make public a joint decision on renaming the mausoleum the "Kumsusan Palace of the Sun," the KCNA said in a separate dispatch, in what could be the latest bid to strengthen personality cult of the Kim dynasty.

The mausoleum in Pyongyang is considered a sacred place in the communist country, as it is home to the embalmed body of the current leader's grandfather and father.

Meanwhile, North Korean workers in a South-North joint industrial zone in the North Korea's border city of Kaesong were given two days off to mark Kim Jong-il's 70th birthday.

Despite lingering tensions, more than 50,000 North Koreans work for 123 South Korean firms operating in the industrial complex to produce clothes, utensils, watches and other goods.

North Korea celebrates the birthdays of its two late leaders.

The founder's April 15 birthday -- dubbed the "Day of the Sun" -- is one of the most important holidays in the isolated country along with the Feb. 16 birthday of his late son, Kim Jong-il, which was designated as the "Day of the Shining Star."