Pyongyang awards late leader new order

This photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) yesterday shows the opening ceremony of the statue of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the campus of Kim Jong-il University of People’s Security in Pyongyang.

AFP/Seoul

North Korea has awarded late leader Kim Jong-il a new medal, state media said yesterday, as Pyongyang gears up to mark 60 years since the Korean War ended.

The presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, or parliament, passed the order on Kim - who died of a heart attack in December 2011 - on June 10, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

“Kim Jong-il was... peerless patriot who smashed the imperialist reactionaries’ moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK (North Korea) with the might of Songun (military-first)” policy, the agency said without giving a name for the medal.

The policy of military first provides “a powerful treasured sword for defending the country and waging the anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle,” KCNA added, saying the medal was created in April. Kim, who was replaced by his youngest son Kim Jong-un, has received a number of the North’s highest medals and titles including the “Order of Kim Il-sung”, “Hero of the Republic” and “Great Generalissimo”.

Yesterday’s announcement comes a week before North Korea commemorates the 60th anniversary on July 27 of the signing of a ceasefire that brought to an end of the Korean War.