Crowds pay respects to Kim Jong Il
Source: Agencies |
December 22, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TENS of thousands of mourners packed Pyongyang's snowy main square yesterday to pay respects to late leader Kim Jong Il as North Korea tightened security in cities and won loyalty pledges from top generals for Kim's son and anointed heir.
Women held handkerchiefs to their faces as they wept and filed past a huge portrait of a smiling Kim Jong Il hanging on the Grand People's Study House, in the spot where a photograph of Kim's father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, usually hangs.
Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack on Saturday, said state media, which reported his death on Monday.
A huge crowd of mourners converged on Kim Il Sung Square with traditional white mourning flowers in hand. The crowd grew throughout the day, even as heavy snow fell, and some mourners took off their jackets to shield wreaths set up in Kim's honor, just below the spot where he stood last year waving to crowds at the military parade where he introduced his successor, Kim Jong Un.
Two medical workers rushed to carry away a woman who fainted.
"We chose to come here to care for citizens who might faint because of sorrow and mental strain," Jon Gyong Song, 29, who works as a doctor in a Pyongyang medical center, said. "The flow of mourners hasn't stopped since Tuesday night."
South Korean intelligence reports, meanwhile, indicated yesterday that North Korea was consolidating power behind Kim's untested, twenty-something son.
South Korea has put its military on high alert. Along the Koreas' border - the world's most heavily armed - South Korean activists and defectors launched giant balloons containing thousands of propaganda leaflets, a move likely to infuriate the North.
The young Kim led a procession of senior officials on Tuesday in a viewing of Kim Jong Il's body, which is being displayed in a glass coffin near that of Kim Il Sung.
According to official media, more than five million North Koreans have gathered at memorials in the capital since the death of Kim Jong Il at what state media said was the age of 69.
Hundreds of thousands visited monuments around Pyongyang within hours of the official announcement.
The North has declared an 11-day period of mourning that will culminate in his state funeral and a national memorial service on December 28-29.
Women held handkerchiefs to their faces as they wept and filed past a huge portrait of a smiling Kim Jong Il hanging on the Grand People's Study House, in the spot where a photograph of Kim's father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, usually hangs.
Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack on Saturday, said state media, which reported his death on Monday.
A huge crowd of mourners converged on Kim Il Sung Square with traditional white mourning flowers in hand. The crowd grew throughout the day, even as heavy snow fell, and some mourners took off their jackets to shield wreaths set up in Kim's honor, just below the spot where he stood last year waving to crowds at the military parade where he introduced his successor, Kim Jong Un.
Two medical workers rushed to carry away a woman who fainted.
"We chose to come here to care for citizens who might faint because of sorrow and mental strain," Jon Gyong Song, 29, who works as a doctor in a Pyongyang medical center, said. "The flow of mourners hasn't stopped since Tuesday night."
South Korean intelligence reports, meanwhile, indicated yesterday that North Korea was consolidating power behind Kim's untested, twenty-something son.
South Korea has put its military on high alert. Along the Koreas' border - the world's most heavily armed - South Korean activists and defectors launched giant balloons containing thousands of propaganda leaflets, a move likely to infuriate the North.
The young Kim led a procession of senior officials on Tuesday in a viewing of Kim Jong Il's body, which is being displayed in a glass coffin near that of Kim Il Sung.
According to official media, more than five million North Koreans have gathered at memorials in the capital since the death of Kim Jong Il at what state media said was the age of 69.
Hundreds of thousands visited monuments around Pyongyang within hours of the official announcement.
The North has declared an 11-day period of mourning that will culminate in his state funeral and a national memorial service on December 28-29.
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