North Korea celebrates birthday of current leader's father, Kim Jong Il

The isolated nation is celebrating the birthday of its current leader's father.

ByABC News
February 16, 2018, 1:57 AM

— -- North Korea marked the national holiday of late leader Kim Jong Il’s birthday with modest celebratory events compared to the past.

Its current leader, Kim Jong Un, paid tribute to his late father’s mausoleum at Kumsusan Palace in Pyongyang on Friday just after midnight, its state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

In this Oct. 4, 2007, file photo, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, left, holds hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il after exchanging joint declaration documents in Pyongyang, North Korea.
AP

The mausoleum is for the ruling Kim family, preserving the founder of North Korea and grandfather of Kim Jong Un, Kim Il Sung. The trip by Kim Jong Un and several high-ranking officials is an annual anniversary trip.

This year, the list of accompanying officials included party officials, but no military officials, according to the state news report.

"He entered the hall of immortality where Kim Jong Il lies in state ... [and] paid deep homage and made bow,” KCNA reported.

PHOTO: In this image made from video by North Korea's KRT, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, Feb. 8, 2018.
In this image made from video by North Korea's KRT, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, Feb. 8, 2018. North Korea held a massive military parade highlighted by intercontinental ballistic missiles in its capital on Thursday, just one day before South Korea hosts the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
KRT via AP

The national holiday is called “Day of the Shining Star” in Korean because North Korea’s officially approved story insists that a glowing new star and a double rainbow appeared when Kim Jong Il was born in 1942 on Mountain Baekdu, a cherished mountain to the Koreans.

But outside historians agree that Kim Il Sung and his wife were in a refugee camp in the Soviet Union at the time of Kim Jong Il’s birth.

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