Snow and tears at Kim Jong-il’s funeral
North Korea stages a huge funeral for former leader Kim Jong-il, as his people take to the streets once more to pay their respects to the “dear leader”.
State television showed pictures of the funeral procession winding through the snowy streets of Pyongyang, led by a limousine carrying a huge picture of the former dictator (pictured left).
The procession passed ranks of mourning soldiers, heads bowed, as well as crowds of weeping citizens swaying with grief and shouting “father, father”.
A hearse carrying the coffin was led by Kim Jong-un, the son and heir, as well as his uncle and power-broker Jang Song-thaek and army chief of staff Ri Yong-ho.
“Seeing this white snow fall has made me think of the general’s efforts and this brings tears to my eyes,” one weeping female soldier, Seo Ju-rim, told North Korean television.
Seeing this white snow fall has made me think of the general’s efforts and this brings tears to my eyes. Soldier Seo Ju-rim
One of the myths surrounding Kim Jong-il – who died of a heart attack on 17 December – was that he could control the weather, and state media has reported unusually cold and wild weather following his death.
“I wished it was a dream, how can this be true? How can anything like this ever happen in the world?” sobbed one middle-aged woman called Kim.
The procession ended after three hours with 21 guns fired in salute as the leadership looked on.
Future for North Korea
As his loyalists mourn, the world is waiting to see whether the change at the top in North Korea will have any effect on the unstable country. While the Kims have bolstered the military strength of their country, many of its citizens are starving.
Kim Jong-un will become the third member of the family to run North Korea, which could be nearing its aim of having nuclear capacity.
The prospect of this power being in the hands of an untested leader in his late 20s has alarmed many – but not the state media within the country, who are already hailing him as the “great successor” and the “supreme commander”.
