Kim Jong Il Funeral

North Korea declared Kim Jong Il's son and successor "supreme leader" of the ruling party, military and the people during a memorial Thursday for his father in the government's first public endorsement of his leadership.

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.

Wailing and sobbing mourners beat their chests and dropped to their knees as North Korean President Kim Il Sung's hearse, draped with a red flag and bedecked with white magnolias, crawled through the streets of Pyongyang in 1994.

North Korea has invited Japanese woman magician Tenko Hikita to attend the planned December 28 funeral for its leader Kim Jong Il who died last weekend, her manager claimed today. Ms Hikita, who has performed several magic shows in North Korea, received the invitation over the phone and via e-mail from one of Kim's relatives.

North Korea declared Kim Jong Il's son and successor "supreme leader" of the ruling party, military and the people during a memorial Thursday for his father in the government's first public endorsement of his leadership.

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.

Wailing and sobbing mourners beat their chests and dropped to their knees as North Korean President Kim Il Sung's hearse, draped with a red flag and bedecked with white magnolias, crawled through the streets of Pyongyang in 1994.

North Korea has invited Japanese woman magician Tenko Hikita to attend the planned December 28 funeral for its leader Kim Jong Il who died last weekend, her manager claimed today. Ms Hikita, who has performed several magic shows in North Korea, received the invitation over the phone and via e-mail from one of Kim's relatives.