hankyoreh

The body of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is laid at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace.

North Korea said yesterday Kim’s body will lie in state permanently at a mausoleum and his February birthday will be named the “Day of the Shining Star.” The North also said it will put up a statue and portraits and build towers across the country in what could be an attempt to strengthen his personality cult and justify the dynastic power succession to his son, Kim Jong-un. Kim, who died of a heart attack last month, “will be laid in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace,” the North’s Workers’ Party said in a special report carried by the country’s Korean Central News Agency.

The mausoleum was lived in by the late Kim’s father, North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung. After his death it was converted to a mausoleum which held his embalmed body.

The North said it made the decision to reflect “the unanimous desire and ardent request of all party members, service personnel and people to hold (Kim Jong-il) in high esteem as the eternal leader of the party.” North Korea continues to refer to the country’s founder as the “eternal president” and a towering bronze statue of him overlooks Pyongyang, befitting the massive personality cult that pervades North Korean society.

The latest move comes as Kim Jong-un consolidates his power.

On Monday, North Korean troops held a rally at the memorial palace to swear loyalty to their young supreme commander in the latest public show of military support for his succession.

(Courtesy of Unification Ministry, Yonhap News)