Pyongyang: North Korea's senior party and government officials have visited the mausoleum of late former state leaders to commemorate the national founding anniversary, state media said Wednesday. They visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang the previous day, where the embalmed bodies of state founder Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il lie in state, on the occasion of the country's 78th founding anniversary, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the participants made deep bows to the former leaders, praying for their immortality and pledging to work harder in the vanguard of the historic struggle for the eternal dignity and prosperity of the motherland and happiness of the people. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not take part in the visit, but a flower basket from him was laid at the statues of the two late leaders, according to the report.
On the same day, labor innovators and persons of merit were also invited to the celebrations of the anniversary and paid tribute, according to the KCNA. In a separate dispatch, the media reported high-ranking officials, including Premier Pak Thae-song and Jo Yong-won, a secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, visited national cemeteries.