North Korea put the body of its late leader Kim Jong-Il on display in a glass coffin yesterday and heaped praise on his son and successor, amid world wariness at the transition in the nuclear-armed nation.
US President Barack Obama pledged to defend regional allies such as South Korea and Japan after the reclusive communist state made the shock announcement on Monday of Kim’s death at the age of 69.
South Korea’s government sent its sympathies to the North Korean people despite frosty relations following two deadly border incidents last year.
And it said it would scrap a plan to display Christmas lights near the tense border because its neighbour is in mourning. North Korea has furiously objected to the plan as “psychological warfare”.
In Pyongyang, state television showed a sombre dark-clad Kim Jong-Un, youngest son and successor to his father, viewing the corpse along with other high officials.
An honour guard armed with AK-47s watched over the late Kim, dressed in his trademark khaki tunic and partially covered by a red flag, at Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Memorial Palace. The body of Kim Jong-Il’s father, founding president Kim Il-Sung, is on display elsewhere in the palace. The North has decreed 13 days of nationwide mourning for Kim Jong-Il, who presided over a devastating famine but still found funds to build missiles and nuclear weapons during his 17 years in power.
State media have reported scenes of mass grief following his fatal heart attack on Saturday, which the regime kept secret for two days until a tearful TV announcer revealed it and urged people to rally round his youngest son. Despite the nation’s hardships, state TV aired footage of near-hysterical mourners, young and old alike, pounding the ground and the North’s official news agency carried extensive fresh lamentations yesterday. It touted the inexperienced Jong-Un as the “pillar of our people”.
“At the frontline of our revolution stands Comrade Kim Jong-Un, the great successor of the Juche (self-reliance) revolution and the outstanding leader of the party, military and people,” it said.
It cited North Koreans pledging their loyalty, quoting Pak Chol Yong, Korean People’s Army soldier, as saying: “We will devotedly safeguard General Kim Jong Un with arms, closely rallied as one in mind around him.” Jong-Un, who is in his late 20s, was catapulted into the limelight after his father suffered a stroke in August 2008. Last year he was made a four-star general and given top ruling party posts.
“This is a turning point for North Korea whose reins have been taken by a new generation,” said Cheong Seong-Chang, of Seoul’s Sejong Institute think-tank.