People line streets for Kim funeral

Military officers cry during a funeral procession for the late leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang (AP/Kyodo News)
12 April 2012

North Korea's next leader has escorted his father's hearse in an elaborate state funeral, saluting in front of tens of thousands of people who wailed and stamped their feet in grief for Kim Jong Il.

Son and successor Kim Jong Un was head mourner on the snowy day in Pyongyang, walking with one hand on the black hearse that carried his father's coffin on its roof, his other hand raised in salute.

At the end of the two-and-a-half hour procession, rifles fired 21 times as Kim Jong Un stood flanked by the top party and military officials who are expected to be his inner circle of advisers. He then saluted again as soldiers carrying flags and rifles marched by.

Whereas his father was groomed for power for 20 years before taking over, the younger Kim has had fewer than two years. He faces the huge challenges of running a country that struggles to feed its people even as it pursues a nuclear weapons programme that has earned it international sanctions and condemnation.

Kim Jong Il - who led with absolute rule after his father Kim Il Sung's death in 1994, through a famine that killed hundreds of thousands and the controversial build-up of North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes - died of a heart attack on December 17, aged 69.

Mourners lined the streets of Pyongyang, waving, stamping and crying as the convoy bearing his coffin passed. Some struggled to get past police holding back the crowd.

The dramatic scenes of grief showed how effectively North Korea built a personality cult around Kim Jong Il despite chronic food shortages and decades of economic hardship.

A large challenge for North Korea's propaganda apparatus will be "to counter the public's perception that the new leader is a spoiled child of privilege", said Brian Myers, an expert on North Korean propaganda at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea.

"Having Kim Jong Un trudge mournfully next to the hearse in terrible weather was a very clever move," Mr Myers said.

Even as North Koreans mourned the loss of the second leader the nation has known, the transition of power to Kim Jong Un was well under way. The young man, who is in his late 20s, is already being hailed by state media as the "supreme leader" of the party, state and army.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in