N.Korea launches showcase Arirang festival

North Korea has begun its two-month Arirang Festival - the world's largest choreographed display - with slogans praising leader Kim Jong-Il, official media said Tuesday.

The 80-minute show involves up to 100,000 people, many of them children, in a display of synchronised acrobatics, gymnastics, dances and elaborate flip-card displays of highly politicised messages.

The festival began Monday at Pyongyang's May Day Stadium "with cheerful tones and slogans paying homage" to Kim, said the North's Korean Central Television, monitored by Seoul's Yonhap news agency.

The performance began in 2002 to mark the 90th anniversary of the birth of founding president Kim Il-Sung.

The show was not staged in 2003, 2004 and 2006. No reason was given but the country was severely hit by floods in some of those years.

Last year the festival - named after a Korean folk song - drew about 1.4 million people from home and abroad, according to the communist state's official media.

North Korea, subject to US and UN sanctions over its missile and nuclear programmes, is desperate to earn hard currency.