N. Korea stages mass military parade for late Kim: TV
North Korea staged a mass military parade to mark the 70th birth anniversary Thursday of late leader Kim Jong-Il, footage from state television showed.
Thursday 16 February 2012, 02:28PM
The ceremony in the square outside Pyongyang's Kumsusan Momorial Palace was held to pledge the military's loyalty to Kim's son and successor Kim Jong-Un, an announcer said.
It also marked the changing of the palace's name to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the announcer said, in a tribute to the late leader and to his own father and founding president Kim Il-Sung.
A black-overcoated Jong-Un presided in near-freezing temperatures over the parade, which was marked by fireworks and a release of balloons.
Kim Jong-Il died of a heart attack on December 17 aged 69 and was succeeded by his young and inexperienced son Jong-Un.
State media this week has been further burnishing the late Kim's image in an apparent attempt to shed lustre on his son and to justify the communist nation's second hereditary succession.
AFP
