It’s a farewell funeral that North Koreans – and the rest of the world – won’t soon forget, as tens of thousands came to show love for their departed leader Kim Jong Il.
STORY: North Korea’s Leader Kim Jong Il Is Dead
Thousands lined the snowy streets of Pyongyang, North Korea on Wednesday, grieving and crying hysterically as a black hearse carried late leader Kim Jong Il’s body through the capital for a final farewell.
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Jong Il’s successor, Kim Jong Un, led the procession as head mourner, walking with one hand on the hearse, the other raised in salute, his head somberly bowed against the wind.
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At the end of the two-and-a-half hour farewell, Kim Jong Un stood flanked by the top party and military officials who are expected to be his inner circle of advisers, as rifles fired 21 times, then saluted again as goose-stepping soldiers carrying flags and rifles marched by.
A soldier cried, telling the state TV: “How can the sky not cry? The people … are all crying tears of blood.”
After the funeral, the young Kim assumed his power by formally commanding the 1.2 million-strong military, and becoming general secretary of the Workers’ Party and chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission.
As North Koreans mourned for their fallen leader, the world remembers Kim Jong Il’s reign as he led the nation with absolute power after father Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994.
Kim Jong passed away from a heart attack on December 17th.
The photos from the funeral are fascinating, with thousands of North Koreans wailing in the streets, devastated over the death of a brutal and insular dictator. Take a look at the event in the accompanying gallery.
