The Olympic torch was paraded through the streets of Pyongyang to flag-waving masses today with destitute North Korea promising 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 criticise the West for vilifying Beijing.
In Pyongyang, tens of thousands lined the streets, waved North Korean and Chinese flags and enthusiastically cheered the torch, which is making its first journey to the hermit kingdom, China's Xinhua news agency and others reported from Pyongyang.
Torchbearers were jostled in London, Paris and San Francisco, where protesters criticised Beijing's crackdown in Tibet earlier this year.
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 Games in August, charges the Tibetan spiritual leader denies.
In Cape Town on Sunday, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace laureate, urged world leaders to stay away from the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August.
"The leaders of the free world, for goodness sake, don't attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games until it is quite clear that they (the Chinese) mean business and that they will stop the violence against the Tibetans," Tutu said at a pro-Tibet rally.
Earlier this month, the European Parliament had also urged EU leaders to boycott the opening ceremony unless China started talks with the Dalai Lama.
On Friday, Beijing said it would hold talks with the envoys of the Dalai Lama.
The isolated North, which rarely holds international events, has told China it is proud to host the relay. Xinhua quoted a North Korean official as saying the torch relay would "astonish the world".
The torch was due to wind its way along a 20-km route that passes monuments celebrating the North's founder Kim Il-sung, his son and current ruler Kim Jong-il, and the ideology behind Asia's only communist dynasty.
In South Korea, newspapers were critical of the violence carried out by a few of the Chinese students during the torch's visit. For the most part, their rallies were peaceful.
Thousands of Chinese students were bussed in from all parts of South Korea, provided with Chinese flags, T-shirts and banners as they shouted pro-Beijing slogans as the torch made its way through Seoul, while many South Koreans turned away.
The torch rally is set to continue in Vietnam and Hong Kong later this week.
Reuters