الرئيسية
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea's power brokers declared
Kim Jong Un the supreme leader at a massive public memorial for his
father Kim Jong Il, cementing the Kim family's hold on power for another
generation.The son, dubbed North Korea's Great Successor, stood
with his head bowed and somber in a dark overcoat on a balcony at the
Grand People's Study House overlooking Kim Il Sung Square and watched
the memorial that doubled as a show of support for his burgeoning role
as leader.
The unequivocal public backing for Kim Jong Un at his
father's memorial provides a strong signal that government and military
officials have unified around him in the wake of Kim Jong Il's death
Dec. 17.
As he stood overlooking a sea of humanity gathered below
him in Pyongyang's main square, Kim Jong Un was flanked by top party and
military officials, including Kim Jong Il's younger sister, Kim Kyong
Hui, and her husband Jang Song Thaek, who are expected to serve as
mentors of their young nephew.
"The father's plan is being
implemented," Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, a
Hawaii-based think tank, said of the transfer of power. "All of these
guys have a vested interest in the system and a vested interest in
demonstrating stability. The last thing they want to do is create
havoc."
Given Kim Jong Un's inexperience and age — he is in his
late 20s — there are questions outside North Korea about whether he is
equipped to lead a nation engaged in long-stalled negotiations over its
nuclear program and grappling with decades of economic hardship and
chronic food shortages.
But support among North Korea's power
brokers was clear at the memorial service, which was attended by
hundreds of thousands of people filling Kim Il Sung Square and other
plazas in central Pyongyang.
"The fact that he completely resolved
the succession matter is Great Comrade Kim Jong Il's most noble
achievement," Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme
People's Assembly, told the massive audience at the square.
"Respected
Comrade Kim Jong Un is our party, military and country's supreme leader
who inherits great comrade Kim Jong Il's ideology, leadership,
character, virtues, grit and courage," said Kim, considered North
Korea's ceremonial head of state.
Thursday's memorial "was an
event to publicly reconfirm and solidify" Kim Jong Un's status, said
Jeung Young-tae, an analyst with the Korea Institute for National
Unification in Seoul, South Korea.
Life in the North Korean
capital came to a standstill as mourners dressed in thick, dark colored
jackets blanketed the plaza from the Grand People's Study House to the
Taedong River for the second day of funeral ceremonies for the late
leader. A giant red placard hanging on the front of a building facing
Kim Il Sung Square urged the country to rally around Kim Jong Un.
Kim
Jong Il, who led his 24 million people with absolute power for 17
years, died of a heart attack Dec. 17 at age 69, according to state
media. He inherited power from his father, North Korea founder Kim Il
Sung, who died of a heart attack in 1994, in what was the communist
world's first hereditary succession.
Kim Jong Un the supreme leader at a massive public memorial for his
father Kim Jong Il, cementing the Kim family's hold on power for another
generation.The son, dubbed North Korea's Great Successor, stood
with his head bowed and somber in a dark overcoat on a balcony at the
Grand People's Study House overlooking Kim Il Sung Square and watched
the memorial that doubled as a show of support for his burgeoning role
as leader.
The unequivocal public backing for Kim Jong Un at his
father's memorial provides a strong signal that government and military
officials have unified around him in the wake of Kim Jong Il's death
Dec. 17.
As he stood overlooking a sea of humanity gathered below
him in Pyongyang's main square, Kim Jong Un was flanked by top party and
military officials, including Kim Jong Il's younger sister, Kim Kyong
Hui, and her husband Jang Song Thaek, who are expected to serve as
mentors of their young nephew.
"The father's plan is being
implemented," Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, a
Hawaii-based think tank, said of the transfer of power. "All of these
guys have a vested interest in the system and a vested interest in
demonstrating stability. The last thing they want to do is create
havoc."
Given Kim Jong Un's inexperience and age — he is in his
late 20s — there are questions outside North Korea about whether he is
equipped to lead a nation engaged in long-stalled negotiations over its
nuclear program and grappling with decades of economic hardship and
chronic food shortages.
But support among North Korea's power
brokers was clear at the memorial service, which was attended by
hundreds of thousands of people filling Kim Il Sung Square and other
plazas in central Pyongyang.
"The fact that he completely resolved
the succession matter is Great Comrade Kim Jong Il's most noble
achievement," Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme
People's Assembly, told the massive audience at the square.
"Respected
Comrade Kim Jong Un is our party, military and country's supreme leader
who inherits great comrade Kim Jong Il's ideology, leadership,
character, virtues, grit and courage," said Kim, considered North
Korea's ceremonial head of state.
Thursday's memorial "was an
event to publicly reconfirm and solidify" Kim Jong Un's status, said
Jeung Young-tae, an analyst with the Korea Institute for National
Unification in Seoul, South Korea.
Life in the North Korean
capital came to a standstill as mourners dressed in thick, dark colored
jackets blanketed the plaza from the Grand People's Study House to the
Taedong River for the second day of funeral ceremonies for the late
leader. A giant red placard hanging on the front of a building facing
Kim Il Sung Square urged the country to rally around Kim Jong Un.
Kim
Jong Il, who led his 24 million people with absolute power for 17
years, died of a heart attack Dec. 17 at age 69, according to state
media. He inherited power from his father, North Korea founder Kim Il
Sung, who died of a heart attack in 1994, in what was the communist
world's first hereditary succession.