North Koreans vow to ‘work harder’ after Kim’s death

The North Korean people are determined to work harder to “build the thriving nation desired by [Dear Leader] Kim Jong-il,” the country’s state news agency KCNA has said. “What would he have said if he saw us disheartened? Let us work,” Ko Yong Sim, 24, a weaver at textile mill in the capital, Pyongyang, was quoted as saying by KCNA. KCNA also said that Ko and her fellow workers had returned to work in the middle of the night to prove their determination to “improve the standard of people's living as desired by Kim Jong-il.” Kim died on December 17 from a heart attack caused by overwork, North Korean state television reported on Monday. “He had inconvenient naps and simple rice-balls in cars or on trains while making the journey of field guidance for the country's prosperity and people's happy life, not even taking a day off,” KCNA said in an article on its English-language website. Kim Jong-il’s funeral is set for December 28 at a memorial palace on the outskirts of Pyongyang.