H/T and upload: Vlad
PYONGYANG, North Korea – (AP) — Wailing and clutching at their hearts, tens of thousands of North Koreans lined the snowy streets of Pyongyang on Wednesday as the hearse carrying late leader Kim Jong Il’s body wound its way through the capital for a final farewell.
Son and successor Kim Jong Un led the procession, his head bowed against the wind and right arm raised in a salute, from Kumsusan Memorial Palace where his father’s body had lain in state. Top military and party officials, including uncle Jang Song Thaek, were also part of the lead group.
The procession was expected to head to the city’s main plaza, Kim Il Sung Square, where hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have been paying their respects over the past 10 days. Sobs and wails filled the air as mourners in the front rows, bareheaded in the cold and snow, stamped their feet and cried as the hearse passed by.
Kim Jong Il, who led the nation with an iron fist following his father Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994, died of a heart attack Dec. 17 at age 69, according to state media.
Even as North Koreans mourned the loss of the second leader the nation has known, the transition of power to Kim Jong Un was already under way. The young man, who is in late 20s, is already being hailed by state media as the “supreme leader” of the party, state and army.
One tiny little nuclear bomb on the procession , where half the army, every General, the entire leadership and all the other important Koreans were all out in the open would have solved the Korean problem once and for all.