Tears, snow mingle at Kim Jong-il’s funeral

FUNERAL IN SNOW. In this image made from KRT television, a huge portrait of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is carried in the snow during his funeral procession in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011. AP PHOTO/KRT VIA APTN

PYONGYANG, North Korea—Tens of thousands of North Koreans lined snow-covered streets on Wednesday, wailing and clutching their chests as a black hearse carried their late leader Kim Jong-il’s body through the capital for a final farewell that ended with a 21-gun salute.

The funeral procession on a gray, freezing day was accompanied by top military and party officials, but there was little doubt who the leader was. Son and successor Kim Jong-un served as head mourner, walking with one hand on the hearse, the other raised in salute, his head bowed against the wind.

The heavy snowfall was hailed by the North’s state media as yet another auspicious sign.

“The feathery snowfall reminds the Korean people of the snowy day when the leader was born in the secret camp of Mount Paekdu and of the great revolutionary career that he followed through snowdrifts,” state media said.

One of the myths surrounding Kim Jong-il was that he could control the weather and state media have reported unusually cold and wild weather accompanying his death.

Thousands braved freezing conditions wearing no hats or gloves to line the icy streets of Pyongyang, sobbing, wailing and shouting, “Father, father,” as black Lincoln and Mercedes limousines and Army trucks streamed past.

‘Great successor’

Mourning will officially end on Thursday with a nationwide memorial service, including a three-minute silence. Foreign diplomats in Pyongyang were told to prepare to attend the service. Trains, ships and other vehicles will sound their hooters.

State media—which over the past week have called Kim Jong-un “great successor,” “supreme leader” and “sagacious leader”—made it clear that the family’s hold on power would extend to a third generation, declaring the country in the younger Kim’s “warm care.”

At the end of the procession, Kim Jong-un again walked along with the limousine with his hand cocked in a salute. He stood head-bowed with top officials as rifles fired 21 times, then saluted again as goose-stepping soldiers carrying flags and rifles marched by.

The funeral procession began and ended at Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where Kim’s body had lain in state and where his father, North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, is preserved. Soldiers struggled to keep the crowds from spilling onto the road.

“How can the sky not cry?” a weeping soldier standing in the snow said to state TV. “The people … are all crying tears of blood.”

Personality cult

The scenes of grief provide a clue at how effective North Korea has been in building a personality cult around Kim Jong-il even though people have suffered greatly from food shortages and the United Nations and others cite a lack of human rights.

The North’s neighbors and the United States are also pressing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Kim, who led the nation with an iron fist following his father Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, died of a heart attack on Dec. 17 at age 69, according to state media.

Like his father’s in 1994, Kim Jong-il’s coffin was wrapped in a red flag. A limousine carrying a huge portrait of a smiling Kim led the procession. Outside observers will be watching Wednesday’s footage closely for clues on the makeup of Kim Jong-un’s inner circle.

Walking behind him was Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jong-il’s brother-in-law and a vice chair of the powerful National Defense Commission who is expected to play a crucial role in helping Kim Jong-un take power.

Also escorting the limousine were military chief Ri Yong-ho and People’s Armed Forces Minster Kim Yong-chun. Their presence indicates they will be important players as the younger Kim consolidates his leadership. Top Workers’ Party officials Choe Thae-bok and Kim Ki-nam and senior military officer Kim Jong-gak also were prominent positions, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

Core power

“It shows they will be core powers in North Korea,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor at Korea University in South Korea. “Particularly, Jang Song-thaek and Ri Yong-ho will be key to Kim Jong-un’s leadership.”

The military presence at the funeral also suggests Kim will uphold his father’s trademark military-first policy, Yoo said.

After the funeral, the young Kim is expected to cement his power by formally assuming command of the 1.2 million-strong military, and becoming general secretary of the Workers’ Party and chair of the party’s Central Military Commission, Yoo said.

Kim Jong-il’s two other sons, Kim Jong-nam and Kim Jong-chol, have not been spotted.

Kim Jong-un made his public debut just last year with a promotion to four-star general and an appointment as vice chair of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party.

Earlier, state television replayed images of missiles being fired and the April 2009 long-range rocket launch that earned North Korea strengthened UN sanctions. The United States, South Korea and other nations called it a test for a missile designed to strike the US; North Korea said the rocket sent a communications satellite into space.

The North has conducted two nuclear tests and Larry Niksch, who has tracked North Korea for the nonpartisan US Congressional Research Service, believes it could take as little as one to two years to have a working nuclear missile once it produced enough highly enriched uranium for the warhead’s core fuel.

The prospect of an untested leader, believed to be in his late 20s, having nuclear capacity has alarmed many.

Scuffles in Seoul

In Seoul, in the South, scuffles broke out between police and anti-North Korean activists, as defectors launched leaflets over the border calling for an uprising.

A group of about 150 activists attempted to break into the offices of South Korean left-wing activist Hwang Hye-ro, triggering the scuffles with police, the South’s Yonhap news agency said. One protester was reported to have gone to hospital with a broken rib. Reports from AP, AFP, Reuters

Originally posted at 01:53 pm | Wednesday, December 28, 2011