Seoul, South Korea:
Kim Jong-un, the designated successor to the socialist throne in Pyongyang, North Korea, bid farewell on Wednesday to his deceased father, Kim Jong-il, walking along his hearse through snow-covered downtown Pyongyang in an extensive funeral closely watched for early glimpses of who's rising and who's fading under the young untested leader.
Neat rows of soldiers stood bowing in front of the Kumsusan mausoleum, where Kim Jong-il's body had been lying in state since his death was announced on Dec. 19.
When the funeral motorcade stopped before them, they gave a last salute, and then a military band played the national anthem. North Korea's Central TV also showed crowds of people wildly crying along snowy streets, the route of the funeral procession.
A car with a large portrait of Kim Jong-il on its roof led the motorcade, followed by the hearse bearing his coffin draped with a red flag. A phalanx of soldiers carrying various party and military flags followed.
Kim Jong-il, who suffered a stroke in 2008, died of a heart attack on Dec. 17. He left behind a country gripped by chronic food shortages but armed with nuclear weapons and a dynastic successor in his 20s whose control on military generals and party secretaries remains a subject of intense speculation among outside analysts.
In the past week, the regime has moved briskly to rally the key agencies of power behind Mr. Kim. When he visited his father at the Kumsusan mausoleum for the fifth time on Tuesday, the North Korean media referred to him as the "sagacious leader of our party, state and military."
On Tuesday, Pyongyang said it wanted to restore scuttled agreements with South Korea that could channel extensive investments from the developed South into the impoverished North. But it was unclear whether North Korea was prepared to offer any concessions in return for restoring those agreements, which the South Korean leader, Lee Myung-bak, scrapped when he came to power nearly four years ago.
Kim Yong-nam, president of the North Korean Parliament and a ceremonial head of state, expressed the request when he met with Lee Hee-ho, the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea, according to Ms. Lee's spokesman, Yoon Cheol-gu.
Ms. Lee's 13-member delegation returned home on Tuesday after visiting Pyongyang, where she expressed condolences to Kim Jong-un. Members of her delegation and one led by Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai Asan, a company that has business ties with North Korea, were the first South Koreans to meet with Kim Jong-un and other North Korean leaders since his father's death.
Neat rows of soldiers stood bowing in front of the Kumsusan mausoleum, where Kim Jong-il's body had been lying in state since his death was announced on Dec. 19.
When the funeral motorcade stopped before them, they gave a last salute, and then a military band played the national anthem. North Korea's Central TV also showed crowds of people wildly crying along snowy streets, the route of the funeral procession.
A car with a large portrait of Kim Jong-il on its roof led the motorcade, followed by the hearse bearing his coffin draped with a red flag. A phalanx of soldiers carrying various party and military flags followed.
Kim Jong-il, who suffered a stroke in 2008, died of a heart attack on Dec. 17. He left behind a country gripped by chronic food shortages but armed with nuclear weapons and a dynastic successor in his 20s whose control on military generals and party secretaries remains a subject of intense speculation among outside analysts.
In the past week, the regime has moved briskly to rally the key agencies of power behind Mr. Kim. When he visited his father at the Kumsusan mausoleum for the fifth time on Tuesday, the North Korean media referred to him as the "sagacious leader of our party, state and military."
On Tuesday, Pyongyang said it wanted to restore scuttled agreements with South Korea that could channel extensive investments from the developed South into the impoverished North. But it was unclear whether North Korea was prepared to offer any concessions in return for restoring those agreements, which the South Korean leader, Lee Myung-bak, scrapped when he came to power nearly four years ago.
Kim Yong-nam, president of the North Korean Parliament and a ceremonial head of state, expressed the request when he met with Lee Hee-ho, the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea, according to Ms. Lee's spokesman, Yoon Cheol-gu.
Ms. Lee's 13-member delegation returned home on Tuesday after visiting Pyongyang, where she expressed condolences to Kim Jong-un. Members of her delegation and one led by Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai Asan, a company that has business ties with North Korea, were the first South Koreans to meet with Kim Jong-un and other North Korean leaders since his father's death.
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