Kim Jong Il's Body To Be Permanently Displayed

New leader Kim Jong Un (right) salutes as the hearse carrying the coffin of Kim Jong Il passes by during his funeral procession in Pyongyang on December 28.

North Korea said late leader Kim Jong Il’s body will be permanently laid in state in a memorial palace in the capital.

It will be displayed at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where his father and North Korea founder Kim Il Sung's embalmed body has been lying since his death in 1994.

The official Korean Central News Agency said today that North Korea will also erect a statue of Kim Jong Il, set up portraits of a smiling Kim, and build "towers to his immortality" across the country.

Kim's February 16 birthday will be known as the "Day of the Shining Star," using the same name as a long-range rocket developed under his trademark songun, or military first, policy.

compiled from agency reports