DPRK urged to quit atomic programs

The statement also urges North Korea to return immediately to the six-party talks and work toward implementation of a September 2005 agreement in which the North pledged to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. The six parties to the talks are the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia.

The council acted amid speculation that a nuclear test could come on Sunday, the anniversary of Kim's appointment as head of the party in 1997. Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi, currently in Washington, told the Japan's TV Asahi: "Based on the development so far, it would be best to view that a test is possible this weekend."

The dispatch by North Korea's news agency did not mention a nuclear test.

North Korean state television showed still photos of Kim, with his distinctive bouffant-hair, waving to an assembled crowd of about 500 olive-suited officers in dress caps. Kim later posed for a group photo with his commanders in front of Pyongyang's sprawling mausoleum for his father and national founder, Kim Il Sung.

The meeting was the leader's first reported appearance in three weeks and the first since Tuesday, when his government shocked the world by announcing plans to test a nuclear device on its way to building an atomic arsenal.

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