North Korean officials swore loyalty to their new leader Kim Jong-un in a rally, the country's television reported Monday, in the latest public display of support for his dynastic power succession.
Kim became the supreme commander of the country's 1.1 million-strong military soon after the December death of his father, Kim Jong-il. The young leader is believed to be consolidating his power.
Ri Yong-ho, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, vowed to safeguard supreme leader Kim Jong-un in the rally, according to the North's television station.
The rally was held on Mount Paektu, which Pyongyang claims is the sacred birthplace of Kim Jong-il. However, historians and foreign officials say he was born in Russia.
The latest rally was held ahead of the late Kim's Feb. 16 birthday. The North has said the birthday will be instituted as the "Day of the Shining Star."
Meanwhile, the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper called the junior Kim's mother, Ko Yong-hui, the "mother of Pyongyang" in what could be an attempt to idolize her and her family. The newspaper used the expression in an epic poem praising late leader Kim Jong-il.
A senior North Korean defector in South Korea said the North idolized the mothers of the country's founder Kim Il-sung and his son, late leader Kim Jong-il, when the two Kims strengthened their power base.
Ko, the third wife of Kim Jong-il, had been referred to as "respected mother" in 2002, though the North reportedly stopped the propaganda campaign following her death in 2004.
In 2006, South Korea's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said Ko is a daughter of an ethnic Korean in Japan.
Washington-based Radio Free Asia has reported that Ko's father went to Japan in 1929 and lived there before reportedly moving to North Korea along with his family members in 1962. (Yonhap)