North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid tribute to his late grandfather and father on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party, Pyongyang state media reported Friday.

Kim visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun with members of the political bureau of the Workers’ Party central committee on Oct. 10, the 74th founding anniversary of the party, the Korean Central News Agency said.

The bodies of Kim’s grandfather and the country’s founding leader Kim Il-sung and father Kim Jong-il are enshrined at Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.

Kim visits the mausoleum to commemorate national anniversaries such as those of the founding leader’s death and the founding of the North Korean state.

Since taking office in December 2011, Kim has now visited the mausoleum on the founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party five times.

Members of the political bureau of the Workers’ Party central committee such as Choe Ryong-hae, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly; Pak Pong-ju, vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission; and premier Kim Jae-ryong accompanied Kim to the mausoleum on Thursday.

Kim paid his respects at the statues of his grandfather and father, and went into the hall where their mummified corpses are laid, according to the KCNA.

Also Thursday, Kim watched musical performances commemorating the party’s anniversary.

This year’s party anniversary was not marked with much fanfare. North Korea usually celebrates such anniversaries with large-scale events such as military parades in years that end with zeroes and fives.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Worker’s Party, called on North Koreans to unite behind Kim in building a self-reliant economy and advancing socialism in an editorial on Thursday.

“Despite brutal anti-republic schemes by hostile forces and challenges stacked against us, victory after victory in our socialism drive … is a clear representation of the power of our unity,” the newspaper said in its appeal for internal unity days after Pyongyang’s working-level denuclearization talks with Washington broke down last weekend.

“Rallying around Comrade Kim Jong-un, we have to consolidate our unity in maintaining our revolution line.”


By Kim So-hyun(sophie@heraldcorp.com)