(LEAD) N. Korean leader visits late father's mausoleum

▲ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C, front row) visits the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the bodies of state founder and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il, are enshrined, on New Year's Day on Jan. 1, 2023, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported the next day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

▲ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) walks hand in hand with his daughter, presumed to be his second child, Ju-ae, next to what appears to be a KN-23 missile modeled after Russia's Iskander ballistic missile, in this photo captured from footage of the North's Korean Central Television on Jan. 1, 2023. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

▲ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (front, R) walks with his daughter, presumed to be his second child, Ju-ae, next to what appears to be Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, in this photo captured from footage of the North's Korean Central Television on Jan. 1, 2023. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) NK leader-mausoleum visit

(LEAD) N. Korean leader visits late father's mausoleum

(ATTN: UPDATES with more info in last 7 paras; ADDS photos)

SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the mausoleum of his late grandfather and father in his first reported public activity this year, according to Pyongyang's state media Monday.

Kim paid tribute at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the bodies of state founder and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il, are enshrined, on the occasion of the start of the new year, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Top officials accompanied Kim on his visit to the mausoleum, including Premier Kim Tok-hun and Jo Yong-won, the party secretary for organizational affairs.

Separately, Kim also held a photo session with the participants in the 9th Congress of the Korean Children's Union (KCU) that opened last week in Pyongyang for the first time in five years, according to the KCNA.

The KCU, formed in 1946, is a youth organization composed of children aged around 7 to 13. Its members are known for wearing red neckerchiefs.

The visit to the mausoleum came after Kim unveiled this year's policy direction and called for an "exponential" increase in the country's nuclear arsenal during a rare six-day meeting of the ruling Workers' Party held until Saturday.

On Monday, South Korea's unification ministry condemned Pyongyang for mentioning the possibility of a preemptive nuclear strike during the meeting and calling Seoul "our undoubted enemy."

"The government cannot but decry the North for its attitude of threatening people of the same nation with nuclear weapons, and obsessing over the development of weapons of mass destruction while turning a blind eye to the impoverished lives of North Koreans," the ministry's spokesperson, Cho Joong-hoon, told a regular press briefing.

The North appears to have focused on intensifying "hostility against the U.S. and South Korea" at the meeting, Cho added.

He then urged the North to cease all provocations and return to a "path of common prosperity" and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, Kim made a third public appearance with his daughter, Ju-ae, on Sunday. Video footage released by the state-run Korean Central Television showed them walking hand in hand next to what appeared to be Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missiles and KN-23 missiles, modeled after Russia's Iskander ballistic missiles.

The unification ministry said it will continue to keep close eyes on reports of Kim's daughter.

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