North Korea Thursday staged a massive memorial service for Kim Jong-Il to end almost two weeks of official mourning, and formally declared his untested young son Jong-Un as the new supreme leader. Addressing tens of thousands of troops and civilians packing a wintry Pyongyang square, ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-Nam praised the late leader for contributing to “global peace and stability of the 21st century”.
Kim Jong-Un, “the supreme leader of our party and army and people”, had inherited his late father’s spirit, leadership, personality, morality and fortitude, he added. A sombre Jong-Un, clad in a black overcoat, presided from a balcony over the ceremony along with other members of the regime.
The service in Kim Il-Sung Square, named after the communist country’s founder and father of the late Kim, concluded the mourning following Kim Jong-Il’s death on December 17 from a heart attack at the age of 69. The country observed three minutes of silence nationwide at noon (0300 GMT), punctuated by the horns of ships and railway engine whistles.
Analysts said the vast assembly was a show of confidence in Jong-Un, who inherits a daunting in-tray — severe food shortages, a crumbling economy, acute power shortages and a nuclear programme which has alienated the West. UN agencies have said six million people — a quarter of the population — urgently need food aid.
Whatever its internal difficulties, the North Korean regime presented a proud face to the outside world at the Pyongyang rally and further polished the cult of personality surrounding the Kim dynasty. “The great heart of comrade Kim Jong-Il has ceased to beat… such an unexpected and early departure from us is the biggest and the most unimaginable loss to our party and the revolution,” Kim Yong-Nam told the crowd, his voice throbbing with emotion.
The North would “transform the sorrow into strength and courage 1,000 times greater under the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-Un and will march firmly along the path of Songun taught by great leader Kim Jong-Il”. The Songun military-first policy prioritises the welfare of the 1.2 million-strong armed forces — the world’s fourth-largest — over civilians.
