The North Korean state has officially anointed Kim Jong Un, the 28-year-old son of the deceased Kim Jong Il, as "supreme leader of the party, state and the army".
Jong Un, who stood on a balcony alongside high-ranking apparatchiks at the Grand People's Study House overlooking Kim Il Sung Square, received the public declaration of his leadership on Wednesday following the funeral, though he did not speak.
His 69-year-old father, who died of a heart attack on 17 December, ruled with the same title from 1994. Jong Un, who was named heir apparent by his father in 2009, was announced by state TV as the "great successor" following his father's death, however official confirmation was only conferred at yesterday's funeral during an anointing ceremony attended by party, government and army officials overlooking a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Pyongyang.
During the ceremony, Kim Yong Nam, the 83-year-old Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and formerly second in command under Jong Il's regime, addressed the crowd telling them: "Respected comrade Kim Jong Un is our party, military, country's supreme leader who inherits great comrade Kim Jong Il's ideology, leadership, character, virtues, grit and courage".
Yong Nam added that the late Kim Jong Il's most "notable achievement" was "resolving the matter of succession".
Speaking for the army, Kim Jong Gak pledged the support of the world's fourth largest military, a 1.2 million-strong force in which Jong Un now serves as a four-star general. The troops "will become a wall to protect him," said Jong Gak, adding: "Our people's military will serve comrade Kim Jong-un at the head of our revolutionary troops and will continue to maintain and complete the Songun accomplishments of great leader Kim Jong Il."
Stood close to the new leader on the rostrum was his uncle Jang Song Thaek and defence minister Kim Yong Chun.
According to Kim Keun Sik of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul the ceremony was "an expression of confidence that the transition of power to Kim Jong Un has been done smoothly".
"It was also used to shore up loyalty to Jong Un, showing North Koreans and outsiders that he has cemented his status as new leader," he told The Telegraph, adding: "Kim Jong Un is already the leader of the party, military and country."
Speaking to the Associated Press, Jeung Young Tae, an analyst with the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the memorial "was an event to publicly reconfirm and solidify" the new leader's status.
Reported by the BBC, the new leader's two older brothers, who were passed over for the succession, were not present at the funeral. Nor were any foreign delegations, however, flags at United Nations offices around the world were lowered.
