SEOUL: Tens of thousands of weeping North Koreans bade farewell on Wednesday to longtime leader Kim Jong-Il as his young son and successor walked beside his father’s coffin through a snowbound Pyongyang. Kim Jong-Un was at the forefront of the three-hour
procession, in what analysts said was an attempt to bolster the image of the untested new leader of the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation. The cortege started and ended its 40-kilometer journey at the Kum-susan Memorial Palace, where the late strongman’s body had lain in state in a glass coffin. Preceded by a car bearing a huge portrait of a smiling Kim and other vehicles, a limousine carried Kim’s coffin—draped with a red ruling party flag and surrounded by white flowers—on its roof. Jong-Un, dressed in black and gloveless despite the cold, held the side of his father’s hearse, accompanied by his influential uncle Jang Song-Thaek and other officials. “We have paraded here to bid farewell to our respected supreme commander,” the head of a military honor guard said in a tearful voice, before a 21-gun salute was fired at the end of the ceremony. Goose-stepping soldiers carrying dozens of party and military flags marched in salute to Jong-Un and senior officials. Kim Jong-Il’s absolute 17-year rule was marked by a 1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands, a crumbling state-directed economy and the pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons that brought international sanctions. UN agencies have said that six million people—a quarter of the population—still urgently need food aid. But hundreds of thousands of shivering soldiers and civilians, many weeping bitterly or beating the frozen ground, were seen on state television lining the route or parading outside the palace. “The people bid farewell to Father General in great sorrow,” read the main headline in ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun. “The most heartbreaking time has come, when we cannot but bid farewell to the great father everyone in this land had followed with their hearts and souls,” the newspaper said. Millions of servicemen and civilians were “firmly determined to become the guns and bombs to protect our dear comrade Kim Jong-Un and the warriors to realize his ideals and intentions,” it added. Kim gave North Korea dignity as a country “that manufactured and launched artificial satellites and accessed nukes,” the paper’s editorial said. Since the elder Kim died of a heart attack on December 17, the North’s propaganda machine has been heaping tributes on both him and Jong-Un, who is in his 20s. Official media has declared Jong-Un the “great successor” and chief of the ruling party and military. “The funeral revealed some clues about who will stand beside Kim Jong-Un to protect him,” Prof. Kim Yong-Hyun of Seoul’s Dongguk University told Agence France-Presse. Apart from Jang, they included senior ruling party officials Kim Ki-Nam and Choe Thae-Bok; military chief Ri Yong-Ho; Armed Forces minister Kim Yong-Chun; and Kim Jong-Gak who is in charge of military administration and organization. Prof. Kim said that Kim Ki-Nam and Choe Thae-Bok were symbolic figures representing the ruling party. “The other four, including Jang, are expected to play a key role in the next government under Jong-Un. They will serve as the protectors and sponsors of Jong-Un to prop up his regime,” he added. Mourning will officially end on Thursday with a nationwide memorial service including a three-minute silence. Trains, ships and other vehicles will sound their hooters.
procession, in what analysts said was an attempt to bolster the image of the untested new leader of the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation. The cortege started and ended its 40-kilometer journey at the Kum-susan Memorial Palace, where the late strongman’s body had lain in state in a glass coffin. Preceded by a car bearing a huge portrait of a smiling Kim and other vehicles, a limousine carried Kim’s coffin—draped with a red ruling party flag and surrounded by white flowers—on its roof. Jong-Un, dressed in black and gloveless despite the cold, held the side of his father’s hearse, accompanied by his influential uncle Jang Song-Thaek and other officials. “We have paraded here to bid farewell to our respected supreme commander,” the head of a military honor guard said in a tearful voice, before a 21-gun salute was fired at the end of the ceremony. Goose-stepping soldiers carrying dozens of party and military flags marched in salute to Jong-Un and senior officials. Kim Jong-Il’s absolute 17-year rule was marked by a 1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands, a crumbling state-directed economy and the pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons that brought international sanctions. UN agencies have said that six million people—a quarter of the population—still urgently need food aid. But hundreds of thousands of shivering soldiers and civilians, many weeping bitterly or beating the frozen ground, were seen on state television lining the route or parading outside the palace. “The people bid farewell to Father General in great sorrow,” read the main headline in ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun. “The most heartbreaking time has come, when we cannot but bid farewell to the great father everyone in this land had followed with their hearts and souls,” the newspaper said. Millions of servicemen and civilians were “firmly determined to become the guns and bombs to protect our dear comrade Kim Jong-Un and the warriors to realize his ideals and intentions,” it added. Kim gave North Korea dignity as a country “that manufactured and launched artificial satellites and accessed nukes,” the paper’s editorial said. Since the elder Kim died of a heart attack on December 17, the North’s propaganda machine has been heaping tributes on both him and Jong-Un, who is in his 20s. Official media has declared Jong-Un the “great successor” and chief of the ruling party and military. “The funeral revealed some clues about who will stand beside Kim Jong-Un to protect him,” Prof. Kim Yong-Hyun of Seoul’s Dongguk University told Agence France-Presse. Apart from Jang, they included senior ruling party officials Kim Ki-Nam and Choe Thae-Bok; military chief Ri Yong-Ho; Armed Forces minister Kim Yong-Chun; and Kim Jong-Gak who is in charge of military administration and organization. Prof. Kim said that Kim Ki-Nam and Choe Thae-Bok were symbolic figures representing the ruling party. “The other four, including Jang, are expected to play a key role in the next government under Jong-Un. They will serve as the protectors and sponsors of Jong-Un to prop up his regime,” he added. Mourning will officially end on Thursday with a nationwide memorial service including a three-minute silence. Trains, ships and other vehicles will sound their hooters.
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