North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

KJU Visits Ku’msusan to Mark 6th anniversary of KJI’s demise

Kim Jong Un stands respectfully in front of statues of his grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il during a December 17, 2017 visit to the Ku’msusan Palace of the Sun to mark the sixth anniversary of KJI’s demise (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

KJU’s last observed appearance was his attendance at a commemorative photo-op with participants in the eight conference of munitions industry workers

Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) visited the Ku’msusan Memorial Palace of the Sun [KPS] on December 17 (Sunday) to mark the sixth anniversary of the death of his father, DPRK leader Kim Jong Il (Kim Cho’ng-il).  According to official accounts, KJI passed away on his personal railway carriage on the morning of December 17, 2011.

Jong Un entered the Ku’msusan statue hall where he “paid homage” at the statues of his father and grandfather.  Jong Un then visited the chamber containing his father’s preserved remains lying in state and “made a deep bow.”  Jong Un then resolved to “fight more unflinchingly as befits a revolutionary soldier of Kim Jong Il in order to steadily develop the Workers’ Party of Korea into the dignified Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist party and to consolidate the country into a strong one, where Kim Jong Il’s desires come true, and the fortress independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in defense.”

An affiliate of 38 North