*** TOPIC OF THE WEEK (Part 1)

Late Leader Kim Jong-il's Body to Be Enshrined in Mausoleum

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea announced Jan. 12 the body of late leader Kim Jong-il will lie in state permanently at a mausoleum as its official media lauded him as a "saint" and "sun of humankind."

   The North also said it will erect statues of Kim and construct portraits and "towers to his immortality" across the country in what could be an attempt to strengthen his personality cult and will institute the February 16 when late leader Kim Jong-il was born as the Day of the Shining Star.

   And also, the North justified the dynastic power succession of his son, Kim Jong-un. The younger Kim became the supreme commander of the country's 1.1 million-strong military soon after his father's sudden demise as part of attempts to consolidate his power.

   Senior Kim, who died of a heart attack last month, "will be laid in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang," the Workers' Party of (North) Korea (WPK) said in a special report carried by the country's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

   In the special report, the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee announced:
1. The great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il will be laid in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, the sacred temple of Juche.

   2. The statue of the great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il will be erected with respect.

   3. February 16, the greatest auspicious holiday of the nation when the great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il was born, will be instituted as the Day of the Shining Star.

   4. Portraits of the great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il with smile on his face and towers to his immortality will be built across the country.

   The North said it made the decision to reflect "the unanimous desire and ardent request of all party members, service personnel and people to hold (Kim Jong-il) in high esteem as the eternal leader of the party."

   The memorial palace was home to the late Kim's father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, during his lifetime and converted to a mausoleum after his death to continue housing his embalmed body.

   North Koreans continue to refer to the country's founder as the "eternal president" and frequently visit his towering bronze statue overlooking Pyongyang on major holidays.

   His April 15 birthday -- dubbed the "Day of the Sun" -- is one of the most important holidays in the isolated country along with the Feb. 16 birthday of his son, Kim Jong-il.

   The North already has about four statues of Kim Jong-il in the country's state security agency and key military units, according to a source who is in a position to know the situation in the North.

   The new name for Kim Jong-il's birthday, "Shining Star," was also the name given by North Korea to what it says was a satellite it launched into orbit in April 2009 as part of a peaceful space program.

   South Korea and the United States said at the time that the launch was meant to test North Korea's ballistic missile technology and that no object entered orbit.

   In a separate dispatch, the KCNA claimed that people around the world have awarded the late leader as many as 1,200 honorific titles in what could be the North's latest propaganda campaign to cement his personality cult.

   "People across the world call him 'champion of justice,' 'guardian of peace for mankind,' 'great prophet' and 'saint,'" the dispatch said on Jan. 12.

   Since Kim Jong-il's death on Dec. 17, North Korea has quickly handed Kim Jong-un a slew of his father's prominent titles and repeatedly connected him with his father and grandfather in an effort to add legitimacy to the young leader.

   North Korea has also stepped up propaganda praising Kim Jong-il's works and vowed to uphold his policies in what is seen as an attempt to justify the hereditary power transfer.

   On Jan. 12, North Korea's state television showed photos of a smiling Kim Jong-un gesturing in a manner similar to his father and wearing a similar parka as he spoke to military officers and inspected construction sites.

   Marking one month after Kim Jong-il's death on Jan. 17, the North continued its reverence of the "eternal leader" with its media praising his "outstanding accomplishments" in his life time such as military-first politics. But the North continued its bellicose rhetoric against South Korea's "confrontational policy" toward the North.

   In its report, the KCNA said that during the one month period, "the tears shed by all Koreans formed a veritable sea and their lamentation shook mountains and rivers."

   It continued, "The whole world shared sorrow with the Korean people over the demise of Kim Jong-il, a great guardian of justice. Personages of many countries expressed deep condolences over his demise irrespective of ideology, political view, nationality and religious belief."

   However, the North's news agency lambasted South Korea's Lee Myung-bak government as a "group of traitors" that perpetrated thrice-cursed treasons during the mourning over the great loss to the nation.

   "The DPRK (North Korea) will never pardon these crimes through generations. The Lee group is a gang of worst political hooligans and depraved guys."

   Marking the one month period, the North said dozens of poems were produced in the country to memorize the "solemn demise" of the late leader. The KCNA reported, "The poems deal with the revolutionary life and feats of leader Kim Jong-il and the ardent faith of the Korean People's Army and the people to remain boundlessly loyal to the leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong-un, true to his instruction."

   The North Korean media also introduced a new song in praise of Kim Jong-il. Named "Kim Jong-il Is Immortal as Sun," the country's newspapers, including Rodong Sinmun, published frontpage stories about the song in addition to TV and radio broadcasts, according to the KCNA report on Jan. 16. "The song tells that the image of Kim Jong-il is always cherished in the hearts of the people and that his great exploits will be conveyed through generations."

   In another program, the KCNA announced Jan. 15 the 16th Kimjongilia Festival (based on a hybrid flower named for Kim Jong-il) is scheduled to take place in Pyongyang on the occasion of "the Day of the Shining Star."

   The flower festival will open at the Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia Exhibition in mid-February this year, the news outlet said. "The festival will serve as that of wishing immortality and paying highest respects of the Korean army and people and the world's progressives to leader Kim Jong-il."

  (END)