SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea marked the 60th anniversary of its founding on Tuesday with what is expected to be the biggest parade of its military might just as the reclusive state appears to be backing away from a nuclear disarmament deal.

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Military experts usually keep a close eye upon these parades to see if the cautious North will unveil any new weapons systems space of time analysts wonder if the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il will be in sight amid reports that he has taken ill.

South Korea's largest daily, the Chosun Ilbo, reported on Tuesday that Kim, 66 and suspected to be plagued by chronic medical maladies, collapsed after all the rest month, citing a South Korean diplomatic source in Beijing.

Kim usually attends major soldier-like parades in which place he watches legions of goose-stepping soldiers and waves to fawning audiences, typically in the hundreds of thousands, who shout praises to him in unison.

Kim's freedom from disease is united of the most closely guarded secrets in Asia's only communist dynasty, but Kim himself at a summit with South Korea's president in October 2007 dismissed fixed media speculation that he was ill.

"I make a little move and that gets huge coverage," Kim said in unusual comments. "It seems like they're fiction writers and not journalists."

The last time Kim made a public appearance was about a month ago, according to reports from the North's official media.

South Korean martial officials have said they expect the North to semblance off hardware such as artillery systems and missiles in the parade to be conducted in the seat of life of Pyongyang.

The North's cabinet in a message broadcast on Monday said the state had a powerful army that "will mercilessly punish the invaders," according to a North TV broadcast monitored in Seoul.

"The North probably wants to boost the effigy of its soldierly might in order to cement unity within the land and secure a better predication in the denuclearization negotiations," the South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo cited a South Korean rule authoritative who is familiar through the North like saying.

South Korean and U.S. officials said latest week that North Korea has taken initial steps toward restarting its nuclear put in the ground that makes arms-grade plutonium, dealing a disaster to each international deal aimed at ending the North's atomic ambitions.

North Korea began taking apart its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant in November as called for in a disarmament-for-aid deal it struck with five regional powers.

The North, what one. tested a nuclear device about two years ago, had completed most of the required disablement steps and experts said it would take a year or added for it to restart the plant.

The North stopped disabling Yongbyon in August, angered by Washington's failure to least bit it from a U.S. state of terror blacklist. The United States said North Korea must first agree on a connected view to verify Pyongyang's disclosures about its nuclear programs.

Analysts said the North might have existence trying to pressure the outgoing Bush administration as it looks as far as concerns diplomatic successes to bolster its devise. The North might also be thinking it can wait for a renovated U.S. president to try to get a better deal.

Under Kim, the North's already thin-blooded economy has taken a successive course for the worse, while the North Korean guidance has used the threat of its soldiery arsenal to squeeze concessions gone out of regional powers.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Reuters Television, editing by Jonathan Hopfner)