North Korea announced today that Kim Jong-il's body will be put on permanent display in Kumsusan Memorial Palace, lying beside the body of his father, for all to see. After his death in 1994, North Korean founder Kim Il-sung's body was embalmed by the same Russian experts responsible for maintaining Vladimir Lenin's corpse in its pristine condition and it has been on display in a glass coffin in Kumsusan ever since. Kim Jong-il's body was placed in a similar coffin until his funeral on December 28, but has not been seen since as the Russian specialist were reportedly being flown in to preserve the body. The new regime also announced that bronze statues and "towers of eternal life" will be built in nearly every North Korea city to honor the "Dear Leader" and that his birthday on February 16 will be officially designated as the "the Day of the Lodestar," a term often used to describe the younger Kim. So be sure to pay him a visit on your next trip to Pyongyang.

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Dashiell Bennett