THE passing of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il has been marked by plunging temperatures, mourning bears and now, according to North Korean state media, by flocks of magpies.

The body of North Korea’s long-time ruler Kim Jong Il was laid out in a memorial palace today as weeping mourners filled public plazas and state media fed a budding personality cult around his third son, hailing him as “born of heaven”.

A South Korean human rights group today revealed what it claimed to be the first video footage of dissident activity in North Korea.