North Korea pays homage to 'Dear Leader' with promotions, fireworks

Seoul, Feb 16 (IANS/EFE) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promoted 27 senior officers on the birth anniversary Monday of his deceased father, Kim Jong-il, celebrating with festivities and fireworks in Pyongyang.

The young dictator named a new colonel general, seven lieutenant generals and 19 major generals and wished them the very best in fulfilling their honourable responsibilities and duties in the offensive to achieve their final victory, the country's official KCNA agency reported.

Kim also paid his respects and placed a floral offering before his father's embalmed body that rests at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun at Pyongyang.

The celebrations, to mark what would have been Kim Jong-il's 73rd birthday, began at midnight with fireworks in Pyongyang, KCNA said.

Known as the Day of the Shining Star, Feb 16 in North Korea is a day of homage to the "Dear Leader" who ruled the country with an iron hand for 17 years, from 1994 until his death in 2011.

The reign was passed to his son Kim Jong-un, who at the age of 32 became the youngest head of a state in the world, according to estimations.

Kim Jong-il was born in 1942 in the emblematic Mt. Paektu in the north of the country, according to official North Korean accounts, although historians believe that he was actually born in what was then the Soviet Union.

--IANS/EFE

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