Photos: Kim Jong Il’s corpse on display

North Korea's state-run TV network has offered the world its first glimpse of a lifeless Kim Jong Il.

Mourners are pouring into a mausoleum in Pyongyang, the capital, to see their dead ruler on display.

Jong Il is presented to his grieving admirers, the AP reports, with a red blanket over his corpse and his head resting against a white pillow.

Included in the throng of mourners is Jong Il's son and heir to his dynasty, the plump-faced twentysomething Kim Jong Un.

North Korea's propaganda service, the Korean Central News Agency, has written that:

"Amid the solemn playing of funeral music, Kim Jong Un entered the hall where Kim Jong Il lies in state. Kim Jong Un observed a moment's silence in the bitterest grief together with leading officials of the party, state and armed forces organs before going round the bier."

(A bier, by the way, is a moveable platform used to display corpses before burial or cremation.)

If Jong Il is put to rest in the same fashion as his father, ex-guerilla-turned-dictator Kim Il Sung, his corpse will be permanently displayed under glass in a Pyongyang mausoleum.

And here's the Kim dynasty's heir, Kim Jong Un, at the service.

And for good measure, here's a state-released image of Jong Il within the last month, looking relatively healthy as he's pawed by female members of North Korea's air force.