North Korea get to new tourist attraction

If you can't convince Disney to open up a themepark in your country, try the next best thing: embalm one of your leaders, a notorious man hated by most everyone the world over, and put his stuffed body on display.

I'm so ronery.

That's exactly what they did with Kim Jong-il, along with the trappings of his rule, including the elevator shoes (I kid you not).

North Korea unveiled the embalmed body of Kim Jong Il, still in his trademark khaki jumpsuit, on the anniversary of his death Monday as mourning mixed with pride over a recent satellite launch that was a long-held goal of the late authoritarian leader.

Kim lies in state a few floors below his father, national founder Kim Il Sung, in the Kumsusan mausoleum, the cavernous former presidential palace. Kim Jong Il is presented lying beneath a red blanket, a spotlight shining on his face in a room suffused in red.

Wails echoed through the chilly hall as a group of North Korean women sobbed into the sashes of their traditional Korean dresses as they bowed before his body. The hall bearing the glass coffin was opened to select visitors – including The Associated Press – for the first time since his death.

North Korea also unveiled Kim's yacht and his armored train carriage, where he is said to have died. Among the personal belongings featured in the mausoleum are the parka, sunglasses and pointy platform shoes he famously wore in the last decades of his life. A MacBook Pro lay open on his desk.

All the Pyongyang Chamber of Commerce had to say was this: "Top that, Orlando!"

(And I suspect they will, just as soon as they can figure out a way to make Walt's cryogenic chamber fit in with those other bits of Americana on Main Street. I suppose it could be one of the memorabilia if they were ever to open a Coldstone franchise next to Great Moments With Mr Lincoln.)

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