*** TOPIC OF THE WEEK (Part 1)

North Korea Opens Kim Jong-un Era After Kim Jong-il's Funeral

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea has opened the era of its new leader Kim Jong-un after a two-week-long mourning period for his father, the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, last week. A day after Kim's funeral ceremony, the socialist country held a mass service in Pyongyang on Dec. 29 to formally announce the era of Kim Jong-un as its new leader in a solemn memorial for the deceased leader.

   The North has sped up its leadership succession process by bestowing the first official title on Kim Jong-un as supreme commander of the country's massive armed forces.

   During the memorial service in Pyongyang, Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's ceremonial head of state, praised Kim Jong-un as, "the supreme leader of our party, army and people," and claimed the successor personified the ideas, leadership, personality, virtues, grit and courage of his late father.

   "We will turn sorrow into thousand-fold strength and courage and tide over the present difficulties," Kim Yong-nam told some 100,000 North Koreans gathered at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang.

   Kim Yong-nam also vowed to build "a thriving socialist nation," by "holding Kim Jong-un in high esteem as another General and supreme leader."

   "The entire army and people should concentrate their minds to solidify the sole leadership system," he added.

   Three high-profile officials followed to praise the new leader, including Kim Ki-nam, a secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, and Kim Jong-gak, senior deputy director of the General Political Bureau of the Ministry of People's Armed Forces.

   The memorial service was the official proclamation that Kim Jong-un will lead the country through the political and diplomatic challenges of the crucial transition period.

   The new leader had been groomed to succeed his father as the country's next leader since his father reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008. The junior Kim made his public debut in 2010 when he was named a four-star general and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party.

   During the memorial service, Kim Jong-gak told the packed audience in cold weather that the country's 1.1 million soldiers "will safeguard comrade Kim Jong-un with their lives."

   Winning support from the military, which served as a key backbone of the late Kim's totalitarian rule, is seen as key for the young leader in consolidating his power.

   Kim Jong-un, wearing a black coat, did not make any public comment as he watched the somber memorial service for his father, who was reported to have died suddenly of heart failure on Dec. 17.

   The young leader, flanked by key party and military officials, observed three minutes of silence along with the troops packed into the square, as soldiers fired volleys in memory of his father.

   "Locomotives and ships also blew whistles and those units with sirens sounded them all at once," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

   The memorial service came a day after North Koreans paid an emotional tribute to the late Kim. His body lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, already home to the embalmed body of his father and North Korea founder Kim Il-sung.

   In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei expressed confidence in a regular press briefing that North Korea will continue its socialist projects under Kim's leadership, in the latest endorsement of the successor regime.

   Chinese support is seen as crucial in keeping the Kim family dynasty as the North has long relied on diplomatic support and economic aid from its key ally.

   The day after the memorial service, Kim Jong-un assumed supreme commandership of North Korean military in a strong indication that the young leader is solidifying power.

   The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party met on Dec. 30 and "proclaimed that the dear respected Kim Jong-un assumed the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army according to the behest of leader Kim Jong-il on Oct. 8," according to the KCNA. "All the participants stood up to welcome him with enthusiastic applause," the KCNA said.

   The commandership is one of the titles the late leader held before he died, along with being general secretary of the ruling Workers' Party and chairman of the National Defense Commission.

   Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s, is expected to assume those other posts as well. North Korea's 1.1 million-strong military is one of the world's largest.

   The Politburo meeting also "underlined the need to hold Kim Jong-un in high esteem as the only center of unity, cohesion and leadership of the Workers' Party of (North) Korea (WPK), devotedly defend him politically and ideologically, and give fuller play to the might of political and ideological power," the KCNA said.

   On Dec. 31, the North said it will issue gold and silver coins to mark the 20th anniversary of the late leader's 1991 ascension to the supreme commandership, saying the move is to keep the late leader's "immortal achievements shining through generations."

   The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly made the decision, praising the late leader for making North Korea "an invincible military power" with nuclear weapons that no enemy can dare touch under his "songun," or military-first, leadership.

   The North said on Dec. 30 it has issued stamps with images of Kim Jong-un, as the socialist nation steps up efforts to build a cult of personality around the new leader.

   The new stamps were released one day after the official mourning period ended for Kim Jong-il. One stamp design shows Kim Jong-un with his father during a field inspection against the backdrop of Mount Paektu, and displays the words, "The great leader Kim Jong-il is with us forever," said the North's official the KCNA.

   Meanwhile, the North stepped up threats against the South on Dec. 30. In "joint calls" by the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the WPK, the North said it will turn South Korea's presidential office "Cheong Wa Dae and the stronghold of aggression into a sea of fire and accomplish the historic cause of national reunification without fail if the enemies dare mount an attack," according to the KCNA.

   The threat came a day after the North's National Defense Commission said it "will have no dealings with the (South Korean President) Lee Myung-bak group of traitors forever," a statement that suggests Pyongyang's policy toward the South will remain unchanged.

   The North's commission issued the statement, accusing the South of banning its citizens from visiting Pyongyang to offer condolences on Kim's death and of seeking to drive a wedge between ordinary North Koreans and the North's leadership.

   Analysts say Pyongyang's next steps will be to confirm the new leader as chairman of the National Defense Commission, the most powerful position in the North's governing system under the April 2010 revision of the DPRK (North Korea) constitution, and then make him general secretary of the Workers' Party.

   At the outset of the new year, North Korea has stepped up efforts to make foster its people's loyalty to their new leader in various ways, drawing on instructions from his late father and holding a mass rally to support the heir.

   Pyongyang's state television released footage of a recent visit by the young leader to a tank division. Dressed in a long black coat, the North's new leader spoke with military officers during his first solo inspection of such a unit since the death of his father, according to the footage.

   The new leader visited the elite tank division on New Year's Day, the North's media reported, in a clear indication he will inherit Kim Jong-il's songun politics.

   An article posted on Jan. 2 on the North Korean Web site Uriminzokkiri said Kim Jong-il, "noted that the Juche revolution will continue brightly under our general (Kim Jong-un)," referring to the North's primary ideology of self-reliance.

   In a related move, party officials and the North Korean people held a mass rally in South Hamgyong Province, vowing to carry out the tasks outlined in a joint New Year's editorial written by the North's three major newspapers, the KCNA said on Jan. 2.

   At the rally, a letter was read to encourage workers across the nation to put their support behind Kim Jong-un, who is leading the "sacred revolutionary cause" pursued by both his father and grandfather Kim Il-sung, North Korea's founder, it said.

   "As we have the dear respected Kim Jong-un at the top of the Korean revolution, victory in the drive for a great surge is certain and we will surely build a thriving socialist nation, the lifelong wishes of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, on this land."

  (END)