North Korea celebrated its 62nd anniversary Thursday with odes to supreme leader Kim Jong Il, amid uncertainty over whether a rare political meeting believed aimed at promoting his son as successor had begun.

State media had reported Monday that Workers’ Party delegates were gathering in Pyongyang to elect new party leaders in what would be North Korea’s first major political conference in 30 years. By Thursday morning, however, there was still no word on whether the meeting — slated to take place in “early September” — was taking place.

Analysts believe Kim will use the conference to give his third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, a key party position as part of the movement to extend the Kim dynasty into a third generation.

Kim Jong Il himself took over leadership after his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, died of heart failure in 1994 — a handover that was communism’s first hereditary transfer of power.

North Korea watchers say the meeting may have been postponed because of Kim Jong Il’s deteriorating health and recent devastating flooding.

“It’s because of Kim Jong Il’s health. There is no other reason,” said Ha Tae-keung, chief of Open Radio for North Korea, a Seoul-based station specializing in North Korea affairs, citing unidentified sources in Pyongyang.

“He has to be in the conference at least five hours even though he will be sitting most of time. I think he’s trying to find a day when he is well enough to do that,” he said.

Kim, said to be suffering from diabetes and a kidney ailment, reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, sparking fears about instability and a possible power struggle in the nuclear-armed country if he were to die without anointing a successor.

The recent flooding, likely to have blocked roads and affected North Korea’s outdated railways, may have delayed in local party delegates’ arrival in Pyongyang, said Jo Sung-rae of the Seoul-based activist group Pax Koreana. He cited unidentified sources in North Korea.

In Tokyo, a senior official for a pro-Pyongyang association said in a speech Wednesday that the conference was to begin “in a few days.”

“The leadership and function of the Workers’ Party would be further strengthened through this historic” conference, Ho Jong Man, chief vice chairman of the Central Standing Committee of Korean Residents in Japan, said at a reception marking Thursday’s anniversary, according to a copy of his speech provided by his office.

The association has close ties with Pyongyang but its officials do not work for the North Korean government.

On Thursday, North Korean state TV broadcast patriotic songs calling for loyalty to Kim Jong Il, calling him a “great, friendly general.”

The country’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper also issued a lengthy editorial urging its 24 million people to unite behind Kim to support his “military-first policy” and achieve an inter-Korean unification.

The founding anniversary is a major holiday in North Korea, along with the birthdays of Kim Jong Il and his father.

South Korea’s spy agency believes the North has launched a propaganda campaign promoting Kim Jong Un, including songs and poems praising the little-known son.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Washington is watching the North’s “leadership process” closely but doesn’t know how it will turn out.

She said the U.S. and its partners want to “convince whoever is in leadership in North Korea that their future would be far better served by” abandoning their nuclear weapons programs.

Associated Press