North Korea 'puts troops on alert'

North Korea has tightened internal security and put troops on alert since the announcement of leader Kim Jong Il’s death, South Korean intelligence indicated today.

Concerns over what will happen next in the unpredictable communist enclave - which has a 1.2-million troop military, advanced ballistic missiles and a nuclear weapons development programme – have sharply raised tensions around north-east Asia.

Kim Jong Il ruled the country for 17 years after inheriting power from his father, national founder and North Korean hero Kim Il Sung. His chosen heir, his son Kim Jong Un, entered the public view only last year and remains a mystery to most of the world.

But South Korean parliament member Kwon Young-se said Seoul’s National Intelligence Service believed the North was now concentrating on consolidating Kim Jong Un’s power and that the country had placed its troops on alert since Kim Jong Il’s death.

North Korea announced on Monday that Kim, 69, died of a massive heart attack.

Mr Kwon said the NIS had told the parliamentary intelligence committee, which he chairs, that senior military officials had pledged allegiance to Kim Jong Un, but police security had been tightened in major cities across the country.

Officials in Seoul say they have not seen any unusual military troop movements.

Initial indications coming out of North Korea suggested the transition to Kim Jong Un was moving forward.

The young Kim, who is still in his 20s, led a procession of senior officials yesterday in a viewing of his father’s body, which is being displayed in a glass coffin near that of Kim Il Sung.

Publicly presiding over the funeral proceedings was an important milestone for Kim’s son, strengthening his image as the country’s political face at home and abroad.

State media said Kim Jong Un also received mourners, including foreign envoys, in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace as he stood with a “guard of honour by the sides of the bier together with members of the National funeral Committee”.

The report in KCNA did not specify which foreign countries the envoys represented.

According to official media, more than five million North Koreans have gathered at monuments and memorials in the capital since the death of Kim Jong Il. Hundreds of thousands visited monuments around the city within hours of the official announcement that Kim had died.

The North has declared an 11-day period of mourning that will culminate in his state funeral and processions through the capital on December 28 and 29.

In a dreamlike scene captured by Associated Press Television News, Kim’s coffin appeared to float on a raft of “kimjongilia” – the flowers named after him - with his head and shoulders bathed in a spotlight as solemn music played. Various medals and honours were displayed at his feet.

The bier was in a hall of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, a mausoleum where the embalmed body of Kim Jong Il’s father and North Korean founder Kim Il Sung has been on view in a glass sarcophagus since his death in 1994.

Kim Jong Un wore a black Mao-style suit, his hair cropped closely on the sides but longer on top, as he walked with much older officials in suits and military uniforms.

In a move likely to anger the North, South Korean activists and defectors launched giant balloons containing tens of thousands of propaganda leaflets across the border today.

North Korea has previously warned it would fire at South Korea in response to such actions, but there were no reports of retaliation.

South Korea has put its military on alert and Japan has ordered extra vigilance from its coastguard. President Barack Obama has been in close contact with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, and has reassured them that Washington will stand by its allies.

China, meanwhile, appears ready to deal with Kim Jong Un.

President Hu Jintao offered his condolences at North Korea’s embassy in Beijing yesterday as the government hinted at an early invitation for a visit by Kim Jong Un.