N. Korea pays tribute to dictator's 'threadbare' parka

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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, 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, 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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