North Korea said yesterday it had awarded its highest title to late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on the eve of his 70th birthday, the latest move to burnish his legacy as his son consolidates power.
The announcement that Kim Jong-il had been posthumously appointed “Generalissimo” came a day after a statue of the former leader was unveiled in Pyongyang, showing him on horseback alongside his father and national founder Kim Il-sung.
The North also promoted 23 senior military officers on the orders of Kim Jong-il’s young son and successor Kim Jong-un, who has been declared supreme commander of the 1.2 million-strong military as well as national leader.
A Korean-language report by the official news agency praised Kim Jong-il’s record in elevating the North into “a nuclear state” that could also produce and launch satellites — a reference to its controversial missile program.
The agency’s English-language report did not mention the nuclear achievements. North Korean and US officials will meet in Beijing next week for talks aimed at reviving six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations.
The English report praised Kim, who died on Dec. 17 of a heart attack aged 69, for turning the North into a military power with his Songun (“military-first”) policy and for leading “the stand-off with imperialism and the US to victory.”
The North has declared Kim Jong-il’s birthday of Feb. 16 “The Day of the Shining Star.” Commemorative stamps and coins have been produced and Pyongyang is staging a festival of -Kimjongilia, a hybrid red begonia.
An inscription 120m wide has been carved on a rockface in the southwestern province of South Pyongan to mark the occasion.
A total of 132 people have been awarded a new medal, the Order of Kim Jong-il, for services in building a “thriving socialist nation” and for increasing defense capabilities.
Efforts to intensify the personality cult around the Kim dynasty, which has ruled North Korea since its founding in 1948, signal that Kim Jong-un is firmly in power, Paik Hak-soon of South Korea’s Sejong Institute think-tank said.
“It clearly illustrates that [Kim] Jong-un’s status is being further justified and the North’s elite is determined to maintain him in power, largely to protect their vested interest in the system,” Paik said.
Pyongyang also announced a promotion to vice marshal for Kim Jong-gak, seen as one of the key figures helping the inexperienced Kim Jong-un tighten his grip on the military. He was one of the seven top officials who accompanied Kim Jong-un in walking besides his father’s hearse during the funeral procession on Dec. 28.
“Kim Jong-gak has previously been overseeing the military’s organization, its ideological direction and the link with the [ruling] party,” Paik said.
His promotion clearly signaled that the party was trying to strengthen its control over the military, which became more powerful under the Songun policy, the analyst said.
Kim Jong-il’s title of “generalissimo” is the same as that bestowed in 1992 on his father, who died of a heart attack in 1994.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS