New leader gets public backing
Source: Agencies |
December 30, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
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North Korea publicly declared Kim Jong Un the supreme leader for the first time at a massive public memorial for his father Kim Jong Il yesterday, cementing the family's hold on power for another generation.
The son, dubbed North Korea's Great Successor, stood with his head bowed and somber in a dark overcoat on a balcony at the Grand People's Study House overlooking Kim Il Sung Square and watched the memorial.
The public backing for Kim Jong Un sends a strong signal that government and military officials have unified around him in the wake of Kim Jong Il's death on December 17.
As he stood overlooking a sea of people gathered below him in Pyongyang's main square, Kim Jong Un was flanked by top party and military officials, including Kim Jong Il's younger sister Kim Kyong Hui and her husband Jang Song Thaek, who are expected to serve as mentors of their young nephew.
Given Kim Jong Un's inexperience and age - he is in his late 20s - there are questions outside North Korea about whether he is equipped to lead a nation engaged in long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear program and grappling with economic hardship and food shortages.
But support among North Korea's top officials was clear at the memorial service, which was attended by hundreds of thousands of people filling Kim Il Sung Square and other plazas in central Pyongyang.
"The fact that he completely resolved the succession matter is Great Comrade Kim Jong Il's most noble achievement," Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, told the massive audience at the square.
"Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un is our party, military and country's supreme leader who inherits great comrade Kim Jong Il's ideology, leadership, character, virtues, grit and courage," he said.
Life in the North Korean capital came to a standstill as mourners dressed in thick, dark colored jackets blanketed the plaza from the Grand People's Study House to the Taedong River for the second day of funeral ceremonies for the late leader. A giant red placard hanging on the front of a building facing Kim Il Sung Square urged the country to rally around Kim Jong Un.
Kim Jong Il, who led his 24 million people for 17 years, died of a heart attack at the age of 69. He inherited power from his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, who also died of a heart attack in 1994.
Attention turned to Kim Jong Un after he was revealed last year to be his father's choice among three known sons to carry the Kim dynasty into a third generation.
State TV showed a delegation of foreigners attending the memorial.
They bowed their heads as eight artillery guns fired and military officers removed their hats while the sound resonated across Kim Il Sung Square.
The streets fell still for a three-minute period of silence. Heads bowed, workers paused next to a green train and bystanders stopped where they were, some standing next to their bicycles, as trains' and boats' sirens blew their horns, according to state media.
The son, dubbed North Korea's Great Successor, stood with his head bowed and somber in a dark overcoat on a balcony at the Grand People's Study House overlooking Kim Il Sung Square and watched the memorial.
The public backing for Kim Jong Un sends a strong signal that government and military officials have unified around him in the wake of Kim Jong Il's death on December 17.
As he stood overlooking a sea of people gathered below him in Pyongyang's main square, Kim Jong Un was flanked by top party and military officials, including Kim Jong Il's younger sister Kim Kyong Hui and her husband Jang Song Thaek, who are expected to serve as mentors of their young nephew.
Given Kim Jong Un's inexperience and age - he is in his late 20s - there are questions outside North Korea about whether he is equipped to lead a nation engaged in long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear program and grappling with economic hardship and food shortages.
But support among North Korea's top officials was clear at the memorial service, which was attended by hundreds of thousands of people filling Kim Il Sung Square and other plazas in central Pyongyang.
"The fact that he completely resolved the succession matter is Great Comrade Kim Jong Il's most noble achievement," Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, told the massive audience at the square.
"Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un is our party, military and country's supreme leader who inherits great comrade Kim Jong Il's ideology, leadership, character, virtues, grit and courage," he said.
Life in the North Korean capital came to a standstill as mourners dressed in thick, dark colored jackets blanketed the plaza from the Grand People's Study House to the Taedong River for the second day of funeral ceremonies for the late leader. A giant red placard hanging on the front of a building facing Kim Il Sung Square urged the country to rally around Kim Jong Un.
Kim Jong Il, who led his 24 million people for 17 years, died of a heart attack at the age of 69. He inherited power from his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, who also died of a heart attack in 1994.
Attention turned to Kim Jong Un after he was revealed last year to be his father's choice among three known sons to carry the Kim dynasty into a third generation.
State TV showed a delegation of foreigners attending the memorial.
They bowed their heads as eight artillery guns fired and military officers removed their hats while the sound resonated across Kim Il Sung Square.
The streets fell still for a three-minute period of silence. Heads bowed, workers paused next to a green train and bystanders stopped where they were, some standing next to their bicycles, as trains' and boats' sirens blew their horns, according to state media.
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