New statue depicts late NKorea leader on horseback

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Coat flying open, reins in hand, Kim Jong Il is depicted astride a galloping horse in a larger-than-life statue unveiled as part of birthday celebrations for the late North Korean leader.

The statue is the first bronze casting of Kim, who during his lifetime shunned proposals to erect a bronze like the massive statue of his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, that towers over downtown Pyongyang. Kim Jong Il, who would have turned 70 on Thursday, died of a heart attack in December.

Kim Jong Il told officials in 1999 that he wasn't ready to accept such adulation while his promise of building an affluent society in the nation of 24 million remained unfulfilled, according to excerpts from a speech published last month. During Kim's reign, the country suffered from a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of North Koreans.

In a posthumous compromise, artisans from the Mansudae Art Studio depicted the Kims riding side by side on horseback for Pyongyang's first public sculpture of the late leader. But artisans told The Associated Press that a towering bronze of Kim Jong Il is in the works and will take its place on Mansu Hill.

Tuesday's widely anticipated unveiling of the 18-foot-tall (5.7 meters) statue took place amid a fervent propaganda campaign to build up the man who led the nation for 17 years as his son and successor, Kim Jong Un, takes over the country's helm.

Kim Jong Il postage stamps, commemorative coins and gold medals have been rushed into production in the weeks before the birthday newly dubbed "Day of the Shining Star." Slogans have been carved on mountainsides in honor of his birthday, and a song has been composed in his honor.

State media have reported a series of supernatural events: Mountains glow crimson, double rainbows, a family of bears weeps by the side of a road, hundreds of shrieking magpies hover over mourning sites. Kim Jong Il has also been given the title of "Generalissimo," a name his father shares, North Korea announced Wednesday.

"Having Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather portrayed as gods is important for a regime based on hereditary rule," said Peter Beck, a Korea specialist and The Asia Foundation's representative in Seoul, South Korea. "Legitimacy comes from his forefathers. Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather may be dead, but he embodies their essence."

Calling himself the "inheritor" of his father's cause, Kim Jong Il was said to have avoided the kind of veneration he ordered for Kim Il Sung, even as he ruled North Korea with an iron fist.