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AS THE USA prepares to hold its first diplomatic talks with North Korea, the late Kim Jong Il’s 70th birthday is being celebrated in his home country.
The USA and North Korea will meet on 23 February to discuss the country’s willingness to return to talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programme, the Wall St Journal reports.
As North Koreans prepare for what would have been the 70th birthday of late leader Kim Jong Il this week, the country’s propaganda machine has gone to great lengths to build up the man who led the nation for 17 years.
A monumental bronze statue of Kim Jong Il was unveiled today in Pyongyang as part of events marking his birthday.
The sculpture depicts him on horseback with his father. The day of his birth, which falls this Thursday, has been newly dubbed “Day of the Shining Star.”
The nation remains in a semiofficial state of mourning for the man often referred to as “our fatherly general” as North Koreans observe the traditional 100 days of grief that follow the death of a family member.
No big military parades are expected at Kim Il Sung Square, the city’s main plaza, but two birthday fixtures are slated to go ahead as planned: the annual exhibition of 30,000 of his namesake red “kimjongilia” begonias and an international figure skating competition.
The campaign to mythologise Kim Jong Il began on the day state media announced his death. According to the Korean Central News Agency:
See our slideshow for photographs of the celebrations:
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Not to worry, the Queen and Obama’s visit should kick extra tourism into gear any time now.. Lol
These figures and a decline in exports are the start of a further decline in economic activity.
The next Exchequer returns for the jan mar period will see a reduction in spend thus proving austerity is forcing the economy into a depression.
This allied to a budget taking 3.5 billion
out will lead to a bleak 2011/12
Part of the decrease may have to do with a slowdown in emigration also.
Please tell me you mean immigration Noel? ;)
What? People AREN’T going on holidays in the winter?
And partly the impact of circa 15 flights in and 15 flights out of the Galway Airport that are no more
The useless DAA should sell the old terminal building in Cork airport to Ryanair. Let them make a regional hub out of it like they wanted to do when the new one opened and then we’ll see the numbers rise…at the moment its just sitting there empty…lateral thinking is needed.
The decline in movements doesn’t necessarily correspond to passenger decline.
The Cork decline looks bad, but amounts to 6 movements a day. Then you look at what those movements were.
The Manx2 flight to Belfast, which was canned after the crash, accounted for 4 of them, yet the plane only had a capacity of 19 and usually carried 10-15 people.
Also gone are the Air SouthWest flights to Newquay and Plymouth after the airline ceased operating. Their aircraft would have been the same size that Aer Arann use.
And then there seem to be fewer ski charters.
Passenger numbers are only down by 2%, despite the large fall in flight movements.
These figures refer to number of flights – not necessarily the number of passengers. Airlines may be running less flights with higher passenger loads, or bigger aircraft.
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