Korean Central TV of the North, via Reuters
The body of Kim Jong-il lies at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang in this image taken from video footage aired by Korean television on Tuesday. Published: December 20, 2011
Timeline: Kim Jong-il
Multimedia
Korean Central TV of the North, via Reuters
A image taken from North Korean state television shows Kim Jong-un, center, and other senior officials paying their respects on Tuesday. More Photos »
European Pressphoto Agency
Kim Jong-un, center, and senior officials bowed before the coffin of Kim Jong-il on Tuesday. More Photos »
Kim Jong-un’s visit to the Kumsusan mausoleum, where the body was lying in state, marked his first public appearance since his father’s death on Saturday catapulted him to the forefront of the North Korean leadership, whose inner workings and power struggles remain a mystery to the outside world..
Streams of weeping soldiers and citizens who filled plazas in Pyongyang to mourn the death of Kim Jong-il and an outpouring of praise for the son provided a firm indication that the official transition was on track. The son was inheriting not only the mantle of power but also a cult of personality from his father: the media began calling him “another leader sent from the heaven,” a description until now reserved for his father.
The North announced the death on Monday. The outside world, caught off guard, scrambled to figure out where a regime with a food crisis and nuclear weapons would be headed under a young and inexperienced leader, whose command of loyalty among hard-line generals and Workers’ Party officials — all veterans of bloody power games — remains untested..
“Comrade Kim paid his respect with a grief-stricken heart,” the North’s official news agency, K.C.N.A., said in a brief dispatch.
The North’s state television showed Kim Jong-il’s body covered with a red blanket and his head on a white pillow. The coffin was surrounded by white chrysanthemums and Kimjongilia, a flower named after the deceased leader.
Kim Jong-un was accompanied by a group of senior party and military officials, giving the outside world a hint of whom Mr. Kim was relying on during a critical transition. But the list included no new or unusual names.
Paying a tribute and swearing to uphold the wishes of a dead ancestor is a crucially important political gesture for the son. The Kim family, starting with Mr. Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the North’s founding president, has ruled the country for more than six decades.
In a lengthy editorial, North Korea’s main party daily, Rodong Sinmun, legitimized the third-generation dynastic succession by calling Korea “the Kim Il-sung nation” and “the Kim Jong-il Korea.” It called Kim Jong-un “the spiritual pillar and the lighthouse of hope” for the military and the people.
The state radio said: “The respected comrade Kim Jong-un’s ideology equals General Kim Jong-il’s ideology and will.”
In Pyongyang, crowds of people, some wailing and some grim-faced, placed flowers at monuments around the North Korean capital, The Associated Press reported. Flags flew at half-staff and shops were closed.
China and Russia, North Korea’s Cold War-era allies, quickly moved to indicate support for the new leadership in Pyongyang. The United States and South Korea remained cautious but called for a peaceful and stable leadership transition in North Korea.
Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the North Korean Embassy in Beijing to express condolences. Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev sent a message of condolence to Kim Jong-un.
“We offer our condolences to the North Korean people,” the South Korean government said in a statement. “We hope that North Korea will recover stability soon and South and North Korea can work together for peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula.”
Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said that South Korea would not send a delegation to Mr. Kim’s funeral on for Dec. 28. But he said the government will allow visits to the North by the families of the late President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Mr. Kim in 2000, and former Hyundai chairman Chung Mong Hun, who had business ties with North Korea.
Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack brought about by overwork and stress, according to the North’s media. Because of the age and inexperience of his son, who is believed to be in his late 20s, the world is watching how the transition will proceed.
For policy-makers in the region, the worst case scenario would be an unruly power struggle accompanied by a breakdown of command and control over the country’s nuclear weapons.
But the transition also offers opportunities for Washington and Seoul, said David Straub, deputy director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University in California. Kim Jong-un is the first North Korean leader who was educated at least partly in the West. He studied in Switzerland as a teenager.
“There will be new leaders in North Korea. They will be younger,” he said. “U.S. officials will need to consider what signals to send to North Korea and when and how best to do this, to maximize the chances for positive change in North Korea.”
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Streams of weeping soldiers and citizens who filled plazas in Pyongyang to mourn the death of Kim Jong-il and an outpouring of praise for the son provided a firm indication that the official transition was on track. The son was inheriting not only the mantle of power but also a cult of personality from his father: the media began calling him “another leader sent from the heaven,” a description until now reserved for his father.
The North announced the death on Monday. The outside world, caught off guard, scrambled to figure out where a regime with a food crisis and nuclear weapons would be headed under a young and inexperienced leader, whose command of loyalty among hard-line generals and Workers’ Party officials — all veterans of bloody power games — remains untested..
“Comrade Kim paid his respect with a grief-stricken heart,” the North’s official news agency, K.C.N.A., said in a brief dispatch.
The North’s state television showed Kim Jong-il’s body covered with a red blanket and his head on a white pillow. The coffin was surrounded by white chrysanthemums and Kimjongilia, a flower named after the deceased leader.
Kim Jong-un was accompanied by a group of senior party and military officials, giving the outside world a hint of whom Mr. Kim was relying on during a critical transition. But the list included no new or unusual names.
Paying a tribute and swearing to uphold the wishes of a dead ancestor is a crucially important political gesture for the son. The Kim family, starting with Mr. Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the North’s founding president, has ruled the country for more than six decades.
In a lengthy editorial, North Korea’s main party daily, Rodong Sinmun, legitimized the third-generation dynastic succession by calling Korea “the Kim Il-sung nation” and “the Kim Jong-il Korea.” It called Kim Jong-un “the spiritual pillar and the lighthouse of hope” for the military and the people.
The state radio said: “The respected comrade Kim Jong-un’s ideology equals General Kim Jong-il’s ideology and will.”
In Pyongyang, crowds of people, some wailing and some grim-faced, placed flowers at monuments around the North Korean capital, The Associated Press reported. Flags flew at half-staff and shops were closed.
China and Russia, North Korea’s Cold War-era allies, quickly moved to indicate support for the new leadership in Pyongyang. The United States and South Korea remained cautious but called for a peaceful and stable leadership transition in North Korea.
Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the North Korean Embassy in Beijing to express condolences. Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev sent a message of condolence to Kim Jong-un.
“We offer our condolences to the North Korean people,” the South Korean government said in a statement. “We hope that North Korea will recover stability soon and South and North Korea can work together for peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula.”
Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said that South Korea would not send a delegation to Mr. Kim’s funeral on for Dec. 28. But he said the government will allow visits to the North by the families of the late President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Mr. Kim in 2000, and former Hyundai chairman Chung Mong Hun, who had business ties with North Korea.
Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack brought about by overwork and stress, according to the North’s media. Because of the age and inexperience of his son, who is believed to be in his late 20s, the world is watching how the transition will proceed.
For policy-makers in the region, the worst case scenario would be an unruly power struggle accompanied by a breakdown of command and control over the country’s nuclear weapons.
But the transition also offers opportunities for Washington and Seoul, said David Straub, deputy director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University in California. Kim Jong-un is the first North Korean leader who was educated at least partly in the West. He studied in Switzerland as a teenager.
“There will be new leaders in North Korea. They will be younger,” he said. “U.S. officials will need to consider what signals to send to North Korea and when and how best to do this, to maximize the chances for positive change in North Korea.”
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