Kim Jong-un marks anniversary of state founder's death with midnight mausoleum visit as personality cult expands

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid his respects at the mausoleum holding the embalmed bodies of his grandfather and father at midnight on Wednesday, the 32nd anniversary of state founder Kim Il Sung's (1912-1994) death.

The ritual cast the younger Kim as heir to the revolutionary bloodline that legitimizes his rule, even as he presses ahead with a personality cult that increasingly places himself, not his predecessors, at the center of national worship.

Analysts read the visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun as an effort to shore up incumbent Kim's standing as the standard-bearer of the Kim dynasty's "revolutionary tradition" and to tighten internal unity.

The North's official Rodong Sinmun reported the visit and released photographs of the ceremony. The images showed Kim bowing in the front row alongside party secretaries Jo Yong-won, Jong Kyong-thaek, Kim Song-nam, Jo Chun-ryong, Ju Chang-il, Kim Jong-gwan, Kim Sung-du, Ri Hi-yong and An Kum-chol, together with Premier Pak Thae-song.

His sister, Kim Yo-jong, a Workers' Party department director, stood in the row behind, along with Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Defense Minister No Kwang-chol. Also seen in the second row was Kim Jae-ryong, the former organization secretary stripped of his posts last month, a striking reappearance for an official so recently sidelined.

The incumbent leader's daughter, Kim Ju-ae, notably did not appear in the photographs. In images of a Jan. 1 visit, she had stood at dead center, between her father and her mother, Ri Sol-ju.

the Rodong Sinmun said the North Korean leader, together with those accompanying him, "paid high tribute to the statues" of the "great leader," referring to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il (1942-2011).

"All the participants hardened their solemn will to more resolutely and courageously work in the vanguard of the gigantic struggle for transformation in the new era for the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and for the eternal dignity and glory of our Party, state and people," the Rodong Sinmun said. 

Juche is North Korea's official ideology of self-reliance, first advanced by Kim Il Sung.

The Rodong Sinmun's emphasis on completing the Juche revolution is widely read as an effort to magnify Kim Jong-un's leadership, and the legitimacy of his rule, by routing it through the founders.

Oh Gyeong-seob, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, cast the mausoleum visits as a pillar of Kim Jong-un's authority.

"Paying respects to the former leaders has been a key occasion for affirming Kim Jong-un's legitimacy and authority since the early days of his rule," Oh said. That authority ultimately rests on the "Paektu bloodline," North Korea's term for the Kim family's sacred lineage and each ruler's claim to power.

"With North Korea keeping fourth-generation hereditary succession in view, the legitimacy of the Paektu bloodline handed down from the forebears will continue to serve as a major mechanism of rule," he said.

The mausoleum visit also came as North Korea works to build up Kim Jong-un's own image on a scale once reserved for the founders. NK News, a United States-based North Korea-focused outlet, reported on Tuesday that satellite imagery shows large murals of the leader going up in city centers nationwide as part of efforts to build his personality cult.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pays respects at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on the 32nd anniversary of Kim Il Sung's death, accompanied by party and government officials, on July 8, in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central Television on the same day. YONHAP
The outlet said it had confirmed the new street murals in eight cities: Pyongyang, Nampho, Sinuiju, Hyesan, Hamhung, Wonsan, Sariwon and Haeju. Satellite images also pointed to mural construction in Rason, Kaesong and Kanggye.

Kim Jong-un first unveiled "mosaic murals" of himself in 2022, and since 2024, the images have gone up on public streets in busy districts of eight of the country's 14 provincial capitals and special cities, three of them last year, NK News said.

In North Korea, a mosaic mural of the supreme leader typically serves to press citizens to pledge their loyalty to Kim Jong-un at major domestic events.