Will Kim Jong Il`s body be embalmed for public display?

When North Korea announced the death of its leader Kim Jong Il on Dec. 19 in a public notice from the National Funeral Committee, it said his bier would be placed at Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang and set the mourning period on Dec. 17-29.

Following the announcement, many observers predicted that his body will be placed in a public mausoleum at the palace after being preserved and embalmed.

His successor and son Kim Jong Un undoubtedly needs his father`s authority and the image of a filial son. Certain experts, however, say it is too early to conclude that Kim Jong Il`s body will be kept at the palace permanently.

Considering the late leader`s preference for seclusion, whether he allowed his body to be embalmed for public display is questionable. He decided to preserve the body of his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, to emphasize the late leader`s eternal life and take advantage of the North Korean people`s piety toward his father.

Kim Jong Il, however, was aware of public resentment against him. Shin Sang-ok, a South Korean film director who escaped from the North after being kidnapped to the Stalinist country in 1978, said that while looking at a crowd cheering him in 1983, Kim Jong Il call it "fake."

A source in Seoul said Kim Jong Il ordered North Korean officials not to bury his body a long time ago. Having witnessed a series of dictatorships collapsing and the despots facing miserable deaths, he probably left a will out of fear of a postmortem assessment of his rule.

In addition, Kumsusan Memorial Palace was the presidential palace that his father used as his official residence, making it awkward for Kim Jong Il`s body to be placed there together with his father in a country that attaches great importance to symbolism.

Former communist countries preserved the bodies of their founding fathers only, such as Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh. For Kim Jong Un, a young successor who has nothing to promote but his bloodline, he must highlight his grandfather rather than his father, who failed to stop the North Korean economy from crumbling.

North Korea Intellectual Solidarity, a Seoul-based organization of North Korean defectors, quoted a source in North Korea Wednesday as saying, "Certain senior officials began a fundraising campaign for building Kim Jong Il`s statues in an attempt to show off their loyalty, but stopped it under orders from Kim Jong Un."

In addition, North Korea highly appraised the funeral of Zhou Enlai, a former Chinese premier who died in 1976. In 1965, a year before the Cultural Revolution started, Zhou wrote in his will that his body be cremated and that the ashes be scattered in Chinese soil. Since then, other Chinese leaders have requested the same, including Deng Xiaoping and Deng Yingchao.

zsh75@donga.com