While war games go on in his backyard, Kim Jong-il and his heir watch musical

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his youngest son and heir apparent have watched a musical performance, state media said today, amid high tension after the North's deadly attack on a South Korean island.

The Korean Central News Agency said the leader and Kim Jong-un attended a performance by the state orchestra along with dozens of other top military and communist party officials.

It did not say when or where the performance took place.

Pyongyang's shelling last Tuesday of Yeonpyeong island near the tense disputed border on the Yellow Sea killed two marines and two civilians and destroyed some 20 homes.

The North said it was retaliating for a South Korean firing drill in what it regards as its own waters around the contested border. It has expressed regret at the civilian deaths but said the South used them as human shields.

South Korea, in a potent show of force against the attack, started on Sunday its biggest joint naval exercises with the United States, which will end on Wednesday.

Jong-un, believed aged 27, was barely known outside the country until he was made a general and given powerful ruling party posts in late September during the biggest political gathering for 30 years.

The attack was partly aimed at solidifying the young protege's grip on power by crediting him with a military victory, analysts have said.

AFP