SEOUL: North Korea Thursday staged a massive memorial service for late
leader Kim Jong-Il attended by tens of thousands, and declared his
untested young son and successor the supreme party and military
chief.'Respected comrade Kim Jong-Un is the supreme leader of our party
and the military who inherited Kim Jong-Il s spirit, leadership,
personality, morality and fortitude,' said ceremonial head of state Kim
Yong-Nam.Addressing a vast crowd filling a wintry Pyongyang square, he
praised the late Kim for contributing to 'global peace and stability of
the 21st century'.Jong-Un, clad in a black overcoat, headed the
platform. The official news agency also described him as 'supreme leader
of the party, state and army'.The service in Kim Il-Sung Square, named
after the communist country s founder and father of the late Kim, will
end 13 days of mourning following Kim Jong-Il s death on December 17
from a heart attack at the age of 69. The country observed three minutes
of silence nationwide at noon (0300 GMT), punctuated by the horns of
ships and railway engine whistles.The service follows Wednesday s
pomp-filled funeral which analysts said was designed to bolster the
image of Kim Jong-Un, who is in his late 20s and emerged from obscurity
only in the past couple of years.The son inherits a daunting in-tray,
including severe food shortages, a crumbling economy, acute power
shortages and a nuclear programme which has alienated the West.
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