North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and senior officials visit the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang on Dec. 16, to pay tribute to his late father, Kim Jong-il, as the country marks the 12th anniversary of the former leader's death, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency on Dec. 17. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has marked the 12th anniversary of the death of his father and predecessor Kim Jong-il by visiting a mausoleum where the father's body lies in state, the North's state media said Sunday.

Kim paid tribute the previous day at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the bodies of Kim Jong-il and the current leader's late grandfather and national founder Kim Il-sung lie in state, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Senior officials accompanied Kim on his visit, including North Korean Premier Kim Tok-hun and Jo Yong-won, secretary for organizations affairs at the ruling Workers' Party. Photos released by the state media also showed North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader.

Kim made a "deep bow of best wishes for immortality to Kim Jong-il who performed the exploits of great significance in human history, waging a heroic struggle under the uplifted red flag of Juche during his long revolutionary guidance, and thus laid a solid foundation of dignity and prosperity for the WPK and the DPRK to win a victory after another forever," the KCNA said in an English-language article. Juche means self-reliance.

In an editorial, the North's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, praised Kim Jong-il for "providing scientific solutions to all theoretical and practical problems arising in the construction of a powerful and prosperous country by contemplating and exploring day and night."

It also lauded the late leader for boosting the country's defense capabilities and accomplishing the "great national achievement" of advancing into a nuclear weapon state.

Kim has paid tribute at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on his late father's death anniversary every year since he took power in 2012 with the exception of last year, when he appears to have skipped the event.

Kim Jong-il died on Dec. 17, 2011, having ruled the reclusive regime since the death of his father and national founder, Kim Il-sung, in 1994. Kim Jong-un, the third son of the late leader, took over the helm of the North in another hereditary succession of power. (Yonhap)

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