North Korean leader Kim Jong-un led a national memorial service in Pyongyang on Tuesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of his grandfather and the state founder, Kim Il-sung.

The ceremony was broadcast live through the North’s state-run Korean Central Television, which is monitored in Seoul, and Kim Jong-un drew the attention of South Korean news media because he appeared to be limping slightly as he walked to his seat. The reason for the unusual gait is not known.

Kim’s right-leg limp appears to be temporary, given that the country did not edit out that part from the broadcast. 

It marked Kim’s first appearance as leader at an official quinquennium memorial for his grandfather. The last memorial service of this kind, held in 2009, was attended by late leader Kim Jong-il.

The communist country has held widely publicized memorial services for the founder’s death every five years, apparently in efforts to revive the memory of the highly revered founder who died in 1994 and to spur allegiance to the ruling Kim family.

Late leader Kim Jong-il’s younger sister, Kyong-hui, was not present at the event in Pyongyang Gymnasium, an absence likely linked to the shocking execution of her husband and the younger Kim’s once-powerful uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in December.

The North’s ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong-nam, extolled the three-generation power inheritance in his speech to the meeting, saying that “Splendidly solving the succession issue of revolutionary achievements was the greatest of comrade Kim Il-sung’s works achieved for his country and its people’s future.”

“In acceptance of our great leader’s dying will, the party, the military and the people who center on comrade Kim Jong-un’s leadership, should solidify their unity hundreds of thousands of times,” Kim said, calling for allegiance to the young leader.

A host of top-echelon military and political officials attended the national event, including the military’s top political officer, Hwang Pyong-so, and Premier Pak Pong-ju, as well as Choe Ryong-hae, a governing party secretary.

The ceremony was held after Kim visited the family mausoleum, called Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, at the stroke of midnight to pay homage to the mummified bodies of the founder and his father.

Televised images of the visit also showed Kim limping slightly while he moved around, accompanied by a group of top-ranking military officials.

Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper of the Workers’ Party, also carried a host of news coverage in praise of the founder, calling for loyalty to the Kim family.

“Through our great leader (Kim Il-sung)’s lifelong achievement, all generations of dignity, glory, victory and prosperity have been firmly guaranteed,” Rodong Sinmun said. “Only through the path of independence, military-first (principle) and socialism, paved by our only great leader, should (North Koreans) maintain their firm belief to push forward.

“The future for our party, revolution and nation which uphold comrade Kim Jong-un as the only center of leadership is promising and decisively victorious,” the newspaper said. (Yonhap)