Kim Jong-Il’s youngest son, Kim Jong-Un, has assumed control of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in a ceremony officially marking the transfer of power and the continuation of the Kim Dynasty.

Kim Yong-Nam, former number two in the North Korean regime under Kim Jong-Il, has declared before a crowd in Pyongyang that the regime under Kim Jong-Un will be a thousand times greater. North Korean State TV depicted Kim Jong-Un among top military and government officials. It is expected that the new ruler from the Kim Dynasty will continue the nation’s Songun or ‘military first’ policy first implemented by his father Kim Jong-Il.

To quote Kim Yong-Nam, “Respected Comrade Kim Jong-Un is our party, military and country’s supreme leader who inherits great Comrade Kim Jong-Il’s ideology, leadership, character, virtues, grit and courage.” Top military official Kim Jong-Gak addressed the crowd saying, “Our people’s military will serve Comrade Kim Jong-Un at the head of our revolutionary troops and will continue to maintain and complete the Songun accomplishments of great leader Kim Jong-Il.”

Throughout North Korea on Wednesday flags flew at half-mast in honor of the deceased leader Kim Jong-Il who died at age 69 of a heart-attack while aboard a train touring the North Korean countryside. The funeral procession and rituals mirrored those of Kim Il-Sung’s funeral in 1994 and much of the public displays of grief have been similarly histrionic and horrifying for the outside world. Although no foreign dignitaries were present for events surrounding the funeral or even the funeral itself, the United Nations commemorated the occasion by flying its flag at half-mast.

[BBC]