China's No. 5 leader pays tribute to Kim Jong-il

By KH디지털2

Published : Dec. 17, 2014 - 15:09

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A top Chinese official visited the North Korean Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday to pay his respects to the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on the third anniversary of his death, China's foreign ministry said.

Kim, whose iron-fisted rule and pursuit of nuclear weapons stoked regional tensions for more than a decade, died of heart failure on Dec. 17, 2011, at the age of 69, passing power onto his youngest son and the current leader, Kim Jong-un.

Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a regular press briefing that the Chinese Communist Party's No. 5 leader, Liu Yunshan, went to the North Korean mission earlier in the day, without elaborating on his rare visit.

"We remember him on this day and we never forget contributions he made in improving bilateral ties," he said, referring to Kim Jong-il.

Also on Wednesday, scores of stone-faced North Koreans, dressed in black suits and carrying chrysanthemums, were seen entering the embassy building. The North Korean national flag flew at half-mast during the memorial at the embassy in central Beijing.

After the memorial, a North Korean woman in her 30s left the embassy and said that, "One minute of silence was held toward the sky of Pyongyang" in a tribute to the late Kim.

Security was tight around the North Korean embassy with Chinese police vehicles and plain-clothed Chinese police officers patrolling the embassy.

In Confucian tradition, Wednesday's third anniversary of Kim's death was significant for the young leader because it meant the end of the three-year period of official mourning for his father, paving the way for the current leader to pursue new policies, analysts said.

Earlier this week, North Korea threatened to take "the toughest counteraction" against the United States, accusing Washington of seeking to topple the reclusive regime through allegations of having a dismal human rights record.

The North Korean warning came as the U.N. Security Council is due to hold a meeting next week in an attempt to put the issue of the North's human rights on the council's agenda. A groundbreaking U.N. report earlier this year graphically documented human rights abuses in North Korea.

North Korea has vehemently denounced the resolution, calling it a U.S.-led plot to topple its regime, and openly threatened to conduct a new nuclear test.

The New York-based rights group, Human Rights Watch, said the North's late leader Kim "should be remembered for presiding over systematic crimes against humanity against his own people, including a catastrophic famine."

"Kim Jong-il ruled by severely punishing dissent, and using the fear instilled by his brutality to keep the population silenced, even as they were starving to death," Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said in an emailed statement.

"Sadly, Kim Jong-un, North Korea's new supreme leader and son of Kim Jong-il, is closely following in his father's footsteps," Robertson said. (Yonhap)

China's No. 5 leader pays tribute to Kim Jong-il

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