Tens of thousands of North Koreans took part on Wednesday in the funeral of the leader Kim Jong-il

Tens of thousands of North Koreans took part on Wednesday in the funeral of the leader Kim Jong-il who has been known in the communist country as the "Dear Leader".

Kim Jong-Un, the young son and the successor of the late president walked beside his father's coffin in the huge funeral through a snowbound Pyongyang.

The cortege started and ended its 40 km journey at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where the late strongman's body had lain in state in a glass coffin.

Preceded by a car bearing a huge portrait of a smiling Kim and other vehicles, a limousine carried Kim's coffin -- draped with a red ruling party flag and surrounded by white flowers -- on its roof.

Jong-Un, dressed in black and gloveless despite the cold, held the side of his father's hearse, accompanied by his influential uncle Jang Song-Thaek and other officials.

"We have paraded here to bid farewell to our respected supreme commander," the head of a military honor guard said in a tearful voice, before a 21-gun salute was fired at the end of the ceremony.

Thousands of people who had gathered to observe the procession could be heard wailing as the hearse passed.
Mourning will officially end on Thursday with a nationwide memorial service, including a three-minute silence at noon.

The 69-old leader died on Saturday aboard a train during a trip out of Pyongyang.
Kim took power in 1994 upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, who had led North Korea since the Korean peninsula was split in half by the Korean War. Although the two sides signed a ceasefire in 1953, tensions remain between the two rivals.