Kim Jong Il’s Body Laid Out for Mourner

PYONGYANG, North Korea – The body of North Korea’s long-time ruler Kim Jong Il was laid out in a very glass coffin Tuesday as weeping mourners stuffed public plazas and state media fed a budding temperament cult around his third son, hailing him as “born of heaven.”

North Korea’s official tv showed still photos of Kim within the coffin surrounded by wreaths, his body coated with a red blanket and his head on a white pillow. a large red curtain coated a wall behind Kim.

Kim Jong Un — Kim’s third son and successor — visited the coffin together with prime military and Workers’ Party officers and held a “solemn ceremony” because the country mourned, state TV said. One lady apparently wiped tears from her eyes.

In spite of the general public rally round the young Kim Jong Un, his youth and lack of command expertise relative to the senior military leadership within the country, mean even seasoned North Korea observers cannot be certain who’s guilty of the impoverished nuclear power with a history of unprovoked violence. (Watch the complete report within the player above)

Kim died of an enormous heart attack caused by overwork and stress, in step with the North’s media. He was sixty nine — though some specialists question the official accounts of his birth date and site.

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