Kim Jong un made a pilgrimage to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to pay tribute to his grandfather, Kim Il sung, the founder of the DPRK and the Eternal President of North Korea.

Kim Il sung is the demigod at the center of the Kim family personality cult and his image looms large over every aspect of North Korean life, with most officials wearing pendants bearing his and his son Kim Jong il’s face. Portraits of the two leaders hang in every room of government buildings and provided housing.

The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun is the former residence of Kim Il sung. A marble palace rumored to have cost the DPRK nearly a billion dollars to construct, it now exists entirely as a memorial museum to the founding leader and contains all of his personal effects, state gifts, and authored works.

Kim Jong un, First Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, was accompanied by top military officials on his trip to Kumsusan. The holiday, a key one in the North Korean juche calendar, comes amidst strained relations between the DPRK and the Republic of Korea in the south due to Kim Jong un’s bellicose threats and hints at possible nuclear war.

[Yonhap]