Pyongyang urges ‘absolute trust’ in Kim on father’s death anniversary
Seoul, Dec 17 (EFE).- North Korea’s leading newspaper called for “absolute trust” in leader Kim Jong-un on Friday, coinciding with the 10th death anniversary of his father, Kim Jong-il, whom he succeeded.
“All people and soldiers should have absolute trust in the general secretary, have their fate and future completely entrusted to him and guard his safety and authority,” a Yonhap translation of the front-page editorial in the state Rodong Sinmun said.
The article added that the country should continue its efforts to meet the objectives of the first year of the new five-year plan presented during the 8th congress of the Workers’ Party in January.
Exhibitions and other commemorative events have been taking place in the isolated country in recent days to mark the 10 years since the death of Kim Jong-il.
Since his death, Kim Jong-un has paid tribute to his father and his grandfather every year by visiting the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, where their embalmed bodies lie.
North Korean media this year has yet to release anything pertaining to the visit, which usually takes place at midnight.
The regime is expected to celebrate the anniversary with large-scale events, as it did on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th death anniversaries of Kim Jong-il.
On Dec. 19, 2011, the North Korean regime announced that Kim Jong-il had died two days earlier of a heart attack while traveling on his private train.
Kim Jong-il was appointed successor to his father Kim Il-sung in 1974, and over the following years he began to expand his power base to become the de facto leader of the country.
He officially took over the reins of the country in 1994, the year in which Kim Il-sung, considered the founder of North Korea, passed away.
After Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke in 2008, procedures to ensure that his son, Kim Jong-un, would inherit command were accelerated.
Kim Jong-un first appeared in public at the end of 2010, when he was presented as a four-star general.
When his father died, state propaganda began to praise him and 10 days later he was appointed supreme commander of the army, the first step in the formalization of the succession process. EFE
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