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Updated Friday, December 30, 2011 0:15 am TWN, By Jung Ha-Won, AFP



	In this image captured from KRT video, North Korea's next leader Kim Jong Un, center, and Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and the ceremonial head of state, right, attend a memorial service for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, Thursday, Dec. 29.(AP) More Photos (2)

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N. Korea hails new supreme leader at final farewell

SEOUL -- North Korea Thursday staged a massive memorial service for Kim Jong Il to end 13 days of official mourning, and formally declared his untested young son Jong Un as the new supreme leader.

Addressing tens of thousands of troops and civilians packing a wintry Pyongyang square, ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam praised the late leader for contributing to “global peace and stability of the 21st century.”

Kim Jong Un, “the supreme leader of our party and army and people,” had inherited his late father's spirit, leadership, personality, morality and fortitude, he added.

A somber Jong Un, clad in a black overcoat, presided from a balcony over the ceremony along with other members of the regime.

The service in Kim Il Sung Square, named after the communist country's founder and father of the late Kim, concluded the mourning following Kim Jong Il's death on Dec. 17 from a heart attack at the age of 69.

The country observed three minutes of silence nationwide at noon (0300 GMT), punctuated by the horns of ships and railway engine whistles.

Analysts said the vast assembly was a show of confidence in Jong Un, who inherits a daunting in-tray — severe food shortages, a crumbling economy, acute power shortages and a nuclear program which has alienated the West.

U.N. agencies have said six million people — a quarter of the population — urgently need food aid.

Whatever its internal difficulties, the North Korean regime presented a proud face to the outside world at the Pyongyang rally and further polished the cult of personality surrounding the Kim dynasty.

“The great heart of comrade Kim Jong Il has ceased to beat ... such an unexpected and early departure from us is the biggest and the most unimaginable loss to our party and the revolution,” Kim Yong Nam told the crowd, his voice throbbing with emotion.

The North would “transform the sorrow into strength and courage 1,000 times greater under the leadership of comrade Kim Jong Un and will march firmly along the path of Songun taught by great leader Kim Jong Il.”

The Songun military-first policy prioritizes the welfare of the 1.2 million-strong armed forces — the world's fourth-largest — over civilians.

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