(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121203-kim-jong-il-640a.photoblog600.jpg)KCNA, KNS via AFP - Getty ImagesNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Il (center) wears his famous parka while inspecting the Pyongyang Silk Mill factory on January 17, 2009.By Ed Flanagan, NBC NewsUpdated at 12:04 p.m. ET: BEIJING – Only days before the first anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45719209/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-il-dead), the stirring tributes to North Korea's late strongman referred to reverently there as "The Dear Leader" have begun in earnest.
North Korean state media, KCNA, (http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm) posted a stirring celebration of Kim on Monday which included a video tribute entitled "Kim Jong Il is immortal as sun" as well as an opinion piece that fondly remembered him as a "peerless sage of mankind, possessed with warm humanity, broad magnanimity and noble sense of moral obligation."
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