North Korea said Wednesday that millions of grief-stricken people turned out to mourn “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-Il, whose death has left the world scrambling for details about his young successor. The North’s propaganda machine has cranked into action to secure the late dictator’s legacy and build up the same personality cult for his youngest son Kim Jong-Un, who inherits the world’s last communist dynasty. Television footage broadcast Wednesday showed tears streaming down Jong-Un’s reddened face as he stood before his father’s body. It lies in state in a glass coffin at Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Memorial Palace, surrounded by red Kimjongilia flowers named after the leader, whose death aged 69 was announced on Monday by a tearful television presenter.
The new ruler, clad in a black Mao suit, shook hands with distraught visitors in dark attire or military uniforms, occasionally bowing to them. Elsewhere mourners were shown braving freezing conditions to pay their respects to Kim senior, seemingly overwhelmed by grief. People in winter coats were shown weeping in a park blanketed with snow, laying flowers for the late leader, who presided over a 1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands. The North’s official news agency reported at least five million people had visited statues and portraits around the capital Pyongyang to pay respects to the late leader — more than a fifth of the entire population.
