North Korean House of Cards

All Party members, military men, and the public should faithfully follow
the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un and protect and further
strengthen the unified front of the Party, military, and the public. 7
As Pyongyang-watchers scrambled to assess what would come next, the
signals coming out of Pyongyang suggested continuity and a smooth transfer of power.
The state media’s coverage of Kim Jong-il’s death and the first tentative moves of the
new regime mirrored what had taken place seventeen years earlier when Kim Il-sung
died. 8 The announcements of the death and official medical reports were eerily
similar. The formation of the funeral committees and the communiqués indicated
a leadership committed to Kim family rule. The order individuals are listed in
the funeral committees is based on their attachment to Party, military, and state
organs. The Funeral Committee list for Kim Jong-il was very similar to the Funeral
Committee list for Kim Il-sung in 1994 in terms of the heir being catapulted to the
top of the list, ahead of those who had previously outranked him. This was illustrated
by Kim Jong-un’s name being at the top of Kim Jong-il’s Funeral Committee
list, ahead of nominal head of state Kim Yong-nam, who previously outranked him
in the formal hierarchy. 9
One of the first acts of Kim Jong-il’s Funeral Committee was to issue a
communiqué setting the schedule for the mourning activities. The mourning
period was set to run from December 17 to 29, 2011, with mourners being allowed
to file by Kim Jong-il’s coffin in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace from December 20
to 27, 2011. 10
On December 20, 2011, Kim Jong-un and the senior leadership arrived at
the palace and slowly filed past the body of Kim Jong-il, which was lying in state in
a glass coffin. Kim Jong-il was dressed in his trademark khaki tunic, with most of
the body covered by a red sheet. The still photographs show a somber, darkly-clad
Kim Jong-un and others, some in military uniform, circling a flower-bedecked
bier supporting the casket as honor guards with AK-47s stood silently at attention.
7 “‘Notice to All Party Members, Servicepersons and People’ on Kim Jong Il’s Death,” KCNA,
December 19, 2011.
8 If there was any difference in the regime’s handling of the initial death notification, it was in the
timing. The regime waited fifty-two hours before pubilcly announcing the news of Kim Jong-il’s death. This
was eighteen hours longer than it had waited in 1994 to announce Kim Il-sung’s death. This suggests that
there could have been indecision within the leadership about how to handle the message. The decision to
include a reference in the communiqué about a prior internal notification may have been done to justify the
delay and deflect any speculation within the larger leadership that problems might be afoot.
9 “List of Names on DPRK State Funeral Committee for Kim Jong Il,” KCNA, December 19, 2011.
10 Kumsusan Memorial Palace is also known as the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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