E-Paper
Cult of Kim Jong-il’s third son begins in N Korea
The body of North Korea s long-time ruler Kim Jong-il was laid out in a memorial palace on Tuesday as weeping mourners filled public plazas and state media fed a budding personality cult around his third son hailing him as “born of heaven.”
The body of North Korea s long-time ruler Kim Jong-il was laid out in a memorial palace on Tuesday as weeping mourners filled public plazas and state media fed a budding personality cult around his third son hailing him as “born of heaven.”
Indicating the leadership transition in the world’s only communist dynasty is on track Kim Jong-un — Kim’s youngest known son and successor — visited the body with top military and Workers Party officials and held what state media called a “solemn ceremony” in the capital Pyongyang as the country mourned.
The Korean people were in "deep sorrow at the loss of the benevolent father of our nation," Ri Ho II, a lecturer at the Korean Revolutionary History Museum told The Associated Press in Pyongyang. "He defended our people s happiness carrying on his forced march both night and day," Ri said.
Still images aired on state TV showed that the glass coffin holding Kim’s body was surrounded by his namesake flowers — red “kimjongilia” blossoms. He was covered with a red blanket his head placed on a white pillow.
The coffin was presented in a room of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace a mausoleum where the embalmed body of his father — national founder Kim Il Sung — has been on display in a glass sarcophagus since his death in 1994.
Kim Jong-un entered the room to view his father as solemn music played state media said. He observed a moment of silence and then circled the bier followed by other officials.
Kim Jong-il died of a massive heart attack on Saturday caused by overwork and stress according to the North s media. He was 69 — though some experts question the official accounts of his birth date and location.
