▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on July 5, 2024, shows the North holding a meeting, attended by the labor class and workers, to commemorate the national founder, Kim Il-sung, ahead of the 30th anniversary of his death. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on July 5, 2024, shows the North holding a meeting of youths to commemorate late national founder Kim Il-sung ahead of the 30th anniversary of his death. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) NK state founder-death anniversary

(LEAD) N.K. leader visits mausoleum to mark late grandfather's death anniversary

(ATTN: UPDATES with N. Korean leader's mausoleum visit in first 4 paras; CHANGES headline)

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a mausoleum dedicated to his late grandfather, Kim Il-sung, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death Monday, state media reported.

Kim paid tribute at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where his father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, are laid to rest, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Accompanying Kim were senior officials, including Premier Kim Tok-hun and Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, state media added.

The same-day coverage of the event contrasts with North Korean media's usual practice of reporting such visits a day later.

Since taking office in late 2011, the North's leader Kim has visited the mausoleum every time on the death anniversaries of the national founder, except in 2018. Kim Il-sung died of heart failure on July 8, 1994, at age 82, opening the way for his son, Kim Jong-il, to take over in communism's first hereditary succession of power.

North Korea's state media, meanwhile, also highlighted Kim Jong-un's major military achievements, in a move seen as aimed at intensifying the personality cult of the current leader.

The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, carried reports commemorating Kim Il-sung's death on its front and other pages. But it also lauded Kim Jong-un's major military accomplishments, saying he has succeeded in bolstering the "self-reliant military capability," a feat that had not been achieved under the former leaders.

Kim Il-sung is long known as the role model for Kim Jong-un, whose hair and fashion style were reminiscent of those of his grandfather.

But North Korea appears to be reinforcing the personality cult for the current leader in recent months as a sole ruler warranting people's respect.

A pin featuring the solitary portrait of Kim Jong-un was officially seen for the first time on June 30, when it was attached to the suit jackets of all North Korean officials attending a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party.

The portraits of the North's incumbent leader were seen hung side by side with those of his two late predecessors on the wall of a classroom at a newly built school for party officials in May.

This year, North Korea also began referring to Kim Il-sung's birthday as just "4·15" instead of the Day of the Sun in an apparent move to refrain from excessively extolling the late state founder.

Kim Il-sung's birthday, April 15, has been revered as the Day of the Sun in North Korea since 1997 and celebrated as one of the country's most important national holidays, along with the birthday of his late son and successor Kim Jong-il in February.

South Korea's unification ministry said North Korea held a five-day mourning period in 1994, when the national founder died. Since then, the country has held mourning events at various social levels around the anniversaries.

Last year, North Korea's state media carried reports of Kim Jong-un's visit to the mausoleum to pay his respect to his late grandfather but did not release any related photos or footage in a rare move.

(END)

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]