Kim Jong Un (8th L) and senior members of the DPRK’s national security community pay their respects to statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at the Ku’msusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang on 25 April 2013, the official 81st anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Army.(Photo: KCNA)
DPRK state media reported that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) visited the Ku’msusan Memorial Palace of the Sun and attended a banquet on 25 April (Thursday), to mark the official 81st anniversary of the foundation Korean People’s Army [KPA]. KJU’s last reported public appearance was his attendance at a rally and military “march-past” on Ku’msusan Plaza. KJU first visited the preserved remains of his grandfather, late DPRK President and founder Kim Il Sung, and his father, late leader Kim Jong Il, at the Ku’msusan Memorial Palace.
Floral baskets (C) and honor guards representing (L, R) the KPA’s three conventional service branches at Kumsusan on 25 April 2013 (Photos: KCNA)
He was accompanied by Kim Yong Nam (Supreme People’s Assembly [SPA] Presidium President), Pak Pong Ju (DPRK Cabinet Premier), VMar Choe Ryong Hae (Director of the KPA General Political Department), Jang Song Taek (Vice Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission [NDC]), Gen. Hyon Yong Chol (Chief of the KPA General Staff), Gen. Kim Kyok Sik (Minister of the People’s Armed Forces), Kim Kyong Hui (KWP Secretary and KJU’s aunt), Pak To Chun (KWP Secretary), VMar Kim Yong Chun (Vice Chairman of the NDC and Director of the KWP Civil Defense Department), VMar Ri Yong Mu (Vice Chairman of the NDC), VMar Hyon Chol Hae (1st Vice Minister of the People’s Armed Forces and Director of the KPA General Logistics Department), Gen. Kim Won Hong (Minister of State Security), Gen. O Kuk Ryol (Vice Chairman of the NDC), Col. Gen. Choe Pu Il (Minister of the People’s Security), Ju Kyu Chang (Director of the KWP Machine-Building Industry Department), Col. Gen. Kim Chang Sop (Director of the Ministry of State Security’s Political Bureau), Col. Gen. Ri Pyong Sam (Director of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces Political Bureau) and “commanding officers of the WPK Central Military Commission, the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and the KPA.”
KJU and the KPA’s high command first visited a room containing statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Floral baskets from Kim Jong Un, the Party Central Committee the Party Central Military Commission and the NDC were placed in front of the statues. KJU then visited the rooms containing the preserved remains of his grandfather and father where he “made bows. . .in the humblest reverence,” according to KCNA.
A banquet hosted by the DPRK National Defense Commission at Mokran House in central Pyongyang on 25 April 2013, to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Army. (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)
Kim Jong Un also attended a banquet hosted by the NDC at Mokran (Moknan) House in central Pyongyang. Attending the banquet were “senior party, army and state officials, members of the WPK Central Military Commission and the NDC of the DPRK, commanding officers of the KPA, officials of the party and armed forces organs, ministries and national institutions and service personnel of the KPA and the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces” and “diplomatic envoys of foreign countries and military attaches of foreign embassies here and their spouses.” Before the banquet, the Moranbong Band gave a performance.
After the performance, a toast speech was delivered by Jang Song Taek (Chang So’ng-t’aek; Jang Song Thaek), Vice Chairman of the NDC, Director of the KWP Administration Department and Kim Jong Un’s uncle. According to KCNA, during his speech, Mr. Jang “paid highest tribute to the great Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who strengthened the KPA into the matchless revolutionary army and led it to the road of victory and glory, breathing with arms all their lives” and that “upon the authorization of Marshal Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of our party and people and supreme commander of the KPA, he warmly congratulated the service personnel defending the sky, land and seas of the country as firm as a rock and all the people dynamically struggling to build a thriving nation.” Mr. Jang “noted that the revolutionary armed forces are ushering in the greatest heyday of their development as they are holding Kim Jong Un, who is identical to the Generalissimos, in high esteem as supreme commander” and he “stressed the need to steadily bolster nuclear force for self-defence both in quality and quantity and perform new miracles and feats in building a thriving socialist nation in the spirit of the historic March, 2013 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the WPK.”
Filed under: 2013 Strategic Rhetoric, 25 April 2013 (KPA Foundation Day), 2nd Academy of Natural Science, Administration Department, Cadre Affairs, Central Committee, Central Military Committee, central party life, Choe Ryong Hae, Choe Tae Bok, Civil Defense Department, Col. Gen. Kim Chang Sop, Col. Gen. Ri Pyong Sam, Col. Gen. Son Chol Ju, colonel general, corps command, corps commanders, Culture Section (bureau), diploreps, DPRK Cabinet, DPRK External Relations, DPRK Intelligence Community, DPRK Premier, Events Management Section, Finance and Accounting, Financial Planning Department, Gen. Choe Pu Il, Gen. Kim Kyok Sik, Gen. Kim Won Hong, Gen. Kim Yong Chol, Gen. Pak Jae Gyong, Gen. Ri Pyong Chol, Gen. Yun Jong Rin, Gen. Yun Tong Hyon, gsd, gsob, Guard Command, Hyon Yong Chol, International Department, Jang Song-thaek, Jo Kyong Chol, Jo Yon Jun (OGD), Kang Sok Ju, Kim Chong-un inspections, Kim Family, Kim Jong Un Visits, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, Kim Ki Nam, Kim Kyong Ok (OGD), Kim Phyong Hae (Cadres/NPYPPC), Kim Sol Song (Kim Sul Song), Kim Yang Gon, Kim Yong Il (IAD), Kim Yong Jin (DPRK Vice Premier), Kim Yong Nam, KJI Personal Secretariat, KKH, Korean People's Army (KPA), Korean People's Air Force, Korean People's Army Air Force, Korean People's Army Supreme Command, Korean People's Internal Security Forces, KPA External Relations, KPA General Political Bureau, KPA General Political Department, KPA General Propaganda Department, KPA General Staff, KPA Large Combined Units, KPA Strategic Rocket Force Command, KPA supernumerary organizations, kpaf, kpif, Kwak Pom Gi, Light Industry Department, Lt. Gen. Kim Rak Gyom (SRFC), Lt. Gen. Pak Jong Chon, Lt. Gen. Ri Yong Gil, Machine Building Industry Department, Mangyo'ngdae Revolutionary School Alumni, March 2013 KWP Central Committee Meeting (plenary session), military security command [msc], ministry of people's security, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of the People's Armed Forces (MPAF), Mokran House, Moranbong Band, MPAF GPB, National Academy of Defense Sciences, National Defense Commission (NDC), national holidays, Navy Command, NDC Administration Department, North Korean press, nuclear weapons, O Kuk Ryol, O Kuk-yol, Organization and Guidance Department, Pak Pong Ju, Pak To Chun, Party elders, Party History Institute, party life, Political Bureau, Propaganda and Agitation Department, Provincial Party Committees, Pyongyang Defense Command, Reconnaissance Bureau, Second Economic Committee, Second Economy Commission, Secretariat, Sohae Space Launching Station, State Security Department, Supreme People's Assembly, Third Floor, United Front Department, VMar Hyon Chol Hae, VMar Kim Jong Gak, VMar Kim Yong Chun, VMar Ri Yong Mu, worker peasant red guard, Working Organizations, Yang Hyong Sop
