Concert, fireworks at -15°C: How North Korea celebrated Kim Jong Il’s birthday

North Korea celebrated the 80th birthday of its former supreme leader Kim Jong Il amid freezing temperatures of -15 degrees Celsius, according to a report by US-based NK news. He had died in 2011.

A concert, fireworks and a rare outdoor ceremony was held at the Samjiyon city near the Chinese border.

On the eve of Kim Jong Il’s birthday, visuals carried by local media showed his son and the present supreme leader Kim Jong Un dressed in a dark winter coat, waving as people clapped, braving the extreme weather conditions outdoors.

The ceremony showed the firm resolve of participants to rally behind Kim Jong Un. Similar events were held across the hermit nation to mark the birth anniversary of the former supreme leader.

However, the fervour seen among the citizens of North Korea is often compelled, as they fear imprisonment or death if they do not praise their leaders enough.

This can be explained when scores of North Koreans had shed tears incessantly upon the demise of Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung, who was the founder of North Korea.

The birthdays of both Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung are one of the most important holidays in the country.

News agency AP reported that citizens climbed Mansu Hill in Pyongyang to lay bouquets of flowers and to bow before the giant statues of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. In other places of Pyongyang, signs with celebratory messages such as “the great event of the nation” were set up along the streets.

Kim Jong Il was born on February 16, 1942, in a secret camp at Mount Paektu, near Samjiyon. However, Soviet records showed that he was born in 1941 in the Russian Far East near Khabarovsk, the NK report also said. He died of a heart attack in late 2011.

During his tenure, the Human Rights Watch had said that North Korea was among the world’s most repressive governments. The HRW also designated Kim Jong Il as a dictator and accused him of violating human rights.