North Koreans line streets for Kim Jong Il's funeral

PYONGYANG: Tens of thousands of North Koreans lined snow-covered streets on Wednesday, wailing and clutching their chests as a black hearse carried late leader Kim Jong Il's body through the capital for a final farewell that ended with a 21-gun salute. The funeral procession on a gray, freezing day was accompanied by top military and party officials, but there was little doubt who the leader was. Son and successor Kim Jong Un served as head mourner, walking with one hand on the hearse, the other raised in salute, his head bowed against the wind. State media - which over the past week have called Kim Jong Un "great successor," ''supreme leader" and "sagacious leader" - made it clear that the family's hold on power would extend to a third generation, declaring the country in the younger Kim's "warm care." At the end of the procession, Kim Jong Un again walked along with the limousine with his hand cocked in a salute. He stood head-bowed with top officials as rifles fired 21 times, then saluted again as goose-stepping soldiers carrying flags and rifles marched by.

Image: Kim Jong Un, 3rd left, Kim Jong Il's youngest son and successor, salutes during the funeral for his father at the end of procession outside Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011.

Text: AP

Images: AFP/AP