N. Korea stages mass military parade for late Kim

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. The ceremony in the square outside Pyongyang's Kumsusan Memorial 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. North Korea also marked Kim's birthday with emotional televised tributes, as the regime pledged loyalty to his son and successor. Her voice quavering with grief, an announcer on state TV introduced film footage of the former strongman visiting villages, farms and factories in a purported expression of care for his people. "The General (Kim) took time out of his busy schedule and deigned to visit my daughter's home, listening to this old farmer's concerns," an old woman said on TV. "There are no other leaders in the world like the General." The personality cult surrounding the Kim dynasty, which has ruled the country since its founding in 1948, has intensified still further following Kim's death. Analysts say the aim is to justify the communist country's second dynastic succession, as Kim's young and inexperienced son Jong-Un takes control of the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation. Jong-Un Wednesday presided over a meeting of hundreds of military and civilian officials to commemorate his late father, who had succeeded his own father Kim Il-Sung. At the meeting, nominal head of state Kim Yong-Nam urged the nation to protect Jong-Un "with their lives" and unite around him, and called for sustained efforts to bolster the country's defences and the economy. The crumbling command economy is beset by shortages of power and raw materials, and severe food shortages have lingered since a full-blown famine in the 1990s. Gross national income in 2010 was about one-fortieth the size of South Korea's and life expectancy is more than a decade shorter, according to Seoul's statistical agency. China has publicly urged its ally the North to open up the economy. In South Korea on Thursday some 30 former defectors launched about 140,000 leaflets across the border which poured scorn on the succession. "Let's fight against the third-generation transfer of dictatorship by our sworn enemies," read the flyers launched from Imjingak near the heavily guarded frontier. Banners reading "Day of national disgrace" and "Kim Jong-Il, the murderer" were hung from 10 large gas-filled balloons which carried the leaflet bundles. North Korean and US officials will hold talks in Beijing next week about a possible resumption of six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations, a meeting which could give some clues about policy priorities under Jong-Un. South Korean officials say the current focus is on ensuring internal stability. State media this week has been burnishing the late Kim's image in an apparent attempt to shed lustre on his son. The former leader has been posthumously appointed a "Generalissimo", the country's highest title. A statue has been unveiled in Pyongyang, showing him on horseback alongside Kim Il-Sung. Commemorative stamps and coins have been produced to mark Thursday's birth anniversary. Pyongyang is staging an art exhibition dedicated to Kim's memory and a festival of Kimjongilia, a hybrid red begonia. An inscription 120 metres (400 feet) wide has been carved on a rockface in the southwest and 132 people have been awarded a new medal, the Order of Kim Jong-Il, for services to socialism. Jong-Un, believed to be in his late 20s, has overseen the dispatch of birthday gifts by ship or helicopter to children on remote islands in the Yellow Sea, state media said.