NORTH Korea warned the world there would be no softening of its position towards South Korea after Kim Jong-il’s death as Pyongyang strengthened his son and heir’s authority with a new title: Great Leader.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans lined the snowy streets of Pyongyang today, wailing and clutching their chests as a black hearse carrying late leader Kim Jong Il’s body wound its way through the capital for a final farewell.

North Korea says a fierce snowstorm paused and the sky began glowing red above sacred Mount Paektu, minutes before leader Kim Jong Il’s death.

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”.

Leaders of North and South Korea pledged in a reconciliation pact today to finally seek a peace treaty to replace the Korean War’s 1953 cease-fire, and expand projects to reduce tension across the world’s last Cold War frontier.