North Korean leader skips family mausoleum visit on founder's birthday: Report
For the third consecutive year, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un appears to have skipped a visit to his grandfather's mausoleum on Kim Il-sung’s birth anniversary, though top officials paid tribute on his behalf.
- Asia
- Anadolu Agency
- Published Date: 10:56 | 16 April 2025
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have skipped a visit to the mausoleum on the birth anniversary of his grandfather for the third year in a row, according to the South Korean media on Wednesday.
Premier Park Thae-song, Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the North's parliamentary standing committee; and other high-ranking cadres visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on Tuesday, when the country marked the founder Kim Il-sung's 113th birth anniversary, the Yonhap news agency reported.
The Kumsusan Palace is a mausoleum in Pyongyang that houses the preserved bodies of Kim ll-sung and his son, late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who is also the father of the current leader Kim.
Kim Jong-un regularly made annual visits to the mausoleum since 2012, however, he suspended the tradition in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021 and 2022, he also visited the mausoleum on his grandfather's birthday.
State-run Korean Central News Agency in its report said officials and ministers who visited the mausoleum on Tuesday also placed a flower basket bearing the name of Kim Jong-un at the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
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