North Korea has named its late leader Kim Jong-il as a generalissimo by praising him for turning the North into a nuclear power, the country's state media reported Wednesday.
The North Korean authorities issued a decree on Tuesday to award "the title of generalissimo" to the leader who suddenly died of a heart attack in December, the Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch.
Kim "elevated our country into a nuclear state" and led the country to manufacture and launch artificial satellites, the dispatch said, adding that Kim "made immortal contributions to global peace and stability."
North Korea conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing international condemnation and tightened U.N. sanctions.
In 2009, the North also claimed it successfully put a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful space program. However, South Korea and the United States said at the time that the launch was meant to test North Korea's ballistic missile technology and that no object entered orbit.
The North's announcement came ahead of the late Kim's Feb. 16 birthday, which the North has instituted as the "Day of the Shining Star."
Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, has become the supreme commander of the 1.1 million-strong military as he took over the communist country founded by his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who was also a generalissimo.
On Wednesday, the North promoted Kim Jong-gak, the first vice-director of the North Korean military's General Political Bureau, as a vice marshal, according to the KCNA dispatch.
Separately, the North's young leader Kim Jong-un carried out the first promotion of 23 generals since he took power, the KCNA said.
One of the award recipients was Kim Yong-chol, who is suspected to have been involved in Pyongyang's sinking of a South Korean warship near their disputed western sea border in March 2010. The attack on the Cheonan killed 46 South Korean sailors and heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)