State TV showed officials filing past the body – covered with a red blanket and surrounded with flowers – as two armed guards stood close by.
All over North Korea, devastated mourners have gathered around public monuments to pay their last respects.
The longtime ‘Dear Leader’ died from a reported heart attack aged 69.
It is believed that power will pass to his son, Kim Jong-un, whom state media is already hailing as “born of heaven”, in preparation for maintaining the family’s personality cult that began with ‘Great Leader’ Kim Il-sung (the Dear Leader’s father).
After all, according to the ruling family’s publicity machine, Kim Jong-il was born at the peak of a sacred volcano, at which point a double rainbow appeared and a new star shone in the heavens.
Government and military chiefs across the Korean Peninsula and East Asia are on high alert following the death.
On Monday night, nuclear-armed North Korea tested a short-range missile, which some have interpreted as a message that the country’s dedication to the military outweighs all other matters of state.
Picture: Getty
