North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended a state funeral of an iconic military marshal, while a party secretary did not show up amid rumors that he might have been removed from power, the North's media said Thursday.
On Wednesday, North Korea held the funeral of Ri Ul-sol, marshal of the Korean People's Army, who died of lung cancer at the age of 94 on Saturday, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
Also present at the funeral were senior party and military officials, including Hwang Pyong-so, director of the general political department of the KPA. But Choe Ryong-hae, secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, was not in attendance.
Speculation over his fate has intensified since Choe was found to have been omitted from the list of a committee that prepared the funeral.
The KCNA said that the North's leader "expressed deep condolences" over Ri's death before the coffin was carried out of a funeral hall.
Ri was an anti-Japanese guerrilla in the first half of the 20th century and worked with the North's late founder Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current leader.
He also assumed a number of key posts in the KPA and gained the title of marshal of the North's military in 1995. But his influence had fallen markedly since Kim took power in late 2011 following the sudden death of his father Kim Jong-il. (Yonhap)
