North Korea to begin two-day Kim Jong-il memorial

Kim Jong-il dead

• Mystical cult of personality
• Genuine tears?
• What next?
• Tough challenges

North Korea is to begin two days of funeral services for its late leader Kim Jong-il, with hundreds of thousands expected to attend in Pyongyang.

Few details are known and there will be no foreign delegations but a procession is expected on Wednesday, echoing that for Kim's father, Kim Il-sung, in 1994.

As then, the funeral is expected to be used to cement the succession of new leader Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack on 17 December, aged 69, state media said.

He has been lying in state since then.

If the funeral does mirror 1994, there will be much pomp and military might, with tens of thousands of weeping North Koreans.

Kim Jong-il was not in the funeral motorcade for his father's death and observers will be watching to see how prominent a role Kim Jong-un - who is Mr Kim's third son - plays.

Analysis

This ceremony is an important event for North Korea to cement the authority of its next leader - a man not yet 30 and with little experience of government.

But it is also a rare opportunity for those outside the country to glimpse the internal power structure of the Communist state.

Many of the country's key positions are still held by a coterie of men and women around its former leader - senior military and party officials who may well now be jostling for influence in the new regime.

And some say North Korea's reluctance to open up the funeral ceremony to foreign delegations may signal that those hierarchies have not yet been fully agreed.

Kim Jong-un's name is first in the list of members of the "national funeral committee" published by the main North Korean news agency, and the funeral committee did take part in Kim Il-sung's funeral.

Kim Jong-il's two other sons are not members of the committee and have not been seen during the mourning period.

South Korean media have suggested a start time of about 01:00 GMT, with a 24-gun military salute followed by a march of troops through the centre of the capital.

There will probably be a large photograph of the late leader, smiling, on prominent display.

Citizens will line the streets, with many of the women in traditional black dresses.

There have been many images of distraught citizens released by state media since the death. Early on Wednesday it broadcast more footage of weeping mourners paying their respects to Kim Jong-il.

Thursday is expected to feature a three-minute silence at noon local time, followed by trains and ships sounding horns.

The national memorial service will then begin.

State media have portrayed Kim Jong-un as leader since his father's death. He is thought to be in his late 20s and has very little political experience.

Kim Jong-il was in the process of formalising him as his successor when he died but the transition was not complete, leaving regional neighbours fearful of a power struggle in the nuclear-armed pariah state.

The Rodong Sinmun newspaper has described Kim Jong-un as the head of the Workers' Party Central Committee, meaning that he now controls one of the country's highest decision-making bodies.

The newspaper earlier gave him the title of "supreme commander" of the armed forces.

Analysts say he will be surrounded by a group of experienced military insiders and relatives, as the Pyongyang elite attempts to hold on to power.