Photos by David Guttenfelder / AP

North Korean soldiers file past a new bronze statue depicting the late leader Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung after an unveiling ceremony at Mansudae Art Studio in Pyongyang on Feb. 14, 2012. As North Koreans prepare for what would have been the 70th birthday of late leader Kim Jong Il this week, the country's state media have gone to great lengths to build up the man who led the nation for 17 years until his death in December.

The Associated Press reports: Tuesday's widely anticipated unveiling of the 18-foot-tall statue took place amid a fervent propaganda campaign to build up the man who led the nation for 17 years as his son and successor, Kim Jong Un, takes over the country's helm.

"Having Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather portrayed as gods is important for a regime based on hereditary rule," said Peter Beck, a Korea specialist and The Asia Foundation's representative in Seoul, South Korea. "Legitimacy comes from his forefathers. Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather may be dead, but he embodies their essence."

State media have reported a series of supernatural events since Kim Jong Il’s death: Mountains glow crimson, double rainbows, a family of bears weeps by the side of a road, hundreds of shrieking magpies hover over mourning sites. Kim Jong Il has also been given the title of "Generalissimo," a name his father shares, North Korea announced Wednesday.

A North Korean soldier stands at attention as others cheer during the unveiling of a new bronze statue depicting the late leader Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung on Tuesday.

Related PhotoBlog posts:

• Kim Jong Un: A dictator in the grip of his people?
• Like father, like son: Kim Jong Un looking at things
• Surreal scenes of everyday life in North Korea
• North Korea calls Kim Jong Un 'supreme leader'

See more PhotoBlog posts about North Korea

Follow @msnbc_pictures

KCNA - KNS via Reuters, AP & AFP - Getty Images

Photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un released by the official Korean Central News Agency. Clockwise from top left: With members of the Western Area Aviation Club after watching a demonstration (picture released Jan. 28); With soldiers of the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People's Army (released Jan. 1); Visiting a KPA unit at an undisclosed location (released Jan. 23); Inspecting a military unit at an undisclosed location (released Jan. 19).

As all politicians know, images matter. The way they look and the way they are seen to interact with the so-called ordinary people can make or break a politician's reputation.

KNS via AFP - Getty Images

Kim Jong Un greeting students during his visit to the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang. Picture released Jan. 23.

In the case of North Korea's fledgling dictator, Kim Jong Un, the imagery that has emerged in his first weeks in the job is notable for a change in mood. Photos show him displaying a warmth that was not often associated with his father and predecessor, the late Kim Jong Il.

As he tours facilities and poses for photographs, the younger Kim is often seen holding hands with - or being firmly gripped by - soldiers, generals and other people. In a report today, The Associated Press notes Kim's tactility and associates it with a desire to be seen as a man of the people:

While the late Kim Jong Il mostly stayed aloof in dark shades, his son holds hands and hugs his soldiers.

The style harkens back to Kim Il Sung, his grandfather and revered founder of the country and ruling dynasty, and may reflect an attempt to turn a corner on the periods of hardship and famine under Kim Jong Il, analysts say.

"He'll try to look comfortable among the masses. He'll try to form an intimacy with the people, perhaps more than his father did," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea professor at Seoul's Dongguk University. Read the full story.

Related content:

• October 2010: Kim Jong Il eyes his heir apparent
• Ex-classmates: Kim Jong Un 'good for a laugh'
• Like father, like son: Kim Jong Un looking at things
• Kim Jong Un joins soldiers for group photograph
• Slideshow: Kim Jong Il through the years

KCNA via AFP - Getty Images

This picture taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Jan. 1, 2012 shows new North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (front row, center) posing for photos with soldiers of the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People's Army, honored with the title of the O Jung Hup-led Seventh Regiment, at an undisclosed place in North Korea.

KCNA via AFP - Getty Images

Related content:

• North Korea holds rally, shows young Kim meeting troops
• North Korea military strategy superior, says think-tank
• US envoy visits China after Kim Jong Il's death
• Like father, like son: Kim Jong Un looking at things

After the death of Kim Jong Il, the flow of obscure images of North Korea's late leader looking at things came to a halt. Thanks to his son, hope has been restored for those who take joy in viewing North Korea through the window of state-controlled media.

But less than three weeks after his passing, and much to my delight, his son and successor Kim Jong Un has picked up where his father left off.

These images were issued by North Korea's government-run news service, and were accompanied by a seemingly loosely-related message: "North Korea called on its people to rally behind new leader Kim Jong Un and protect him as "human shields" while working to solve the "burning issue" of food shortages by upholding the policies of his late father, Kim Jong Il."

Korean Central News Agency via Reuters

North Korea's new leader Kim Jon Un visits the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People's Army in Pyongyang on Jan. 1, 2012. North Korea called on its people to rally behind new leader Kim Jong Un and protect him as "human shields" while working to solve the "burning issue" of food shortages by upholding the policies of his late father, Kim Jong Il.

Korean Central News Agency via Reuters

North Korea's new leader Kim Jong Un visits the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People's Army in Pyongyang on Jan. 1.

Korean Central News Agency via Reuters

North Korea's new leader Kim Jong Un visits the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People's Army in Pyongyang on Jan. 1.

Korean Central News Agency via Reuters

Kim Jong Un visits the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People's Army in Pyongyang on Jan. 1.

Related content:
Slideshow: Funeral and reaction to death of Kim Jong Il
Slideshow: Daily life in North Korea
Photographer talks about looking for the familiar in isolated North Korea
Slideshow: Journey into North Korea

KRT via Reuters TV

North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un looks on, as he is flanked by President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea Kim Yong-nam (R) and Chief of General Staff of the Korea People's Army Ri Yong-ho (L), during the memorial for late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, in this still image taken from video Dec. 29, 2011. North Korea's military staged a huge funeral procession on Wednesday in the snowy streets of the capital Pyongyang for its deceased "dear leader," Kim Jong-il, readying a transition to his son, Kim Jong-un.

AP reports: PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea declared Kim Jong Il's son and successor "supreme leader" of the ruling party, military and the people during a memorial Thursday for his father in the government's first public endorsement of his leadership.

Kim Jong Un — head bowed and somber in a dark overcoat — stood watching from a balcony at the Grand People's Study House overlooking Kim Il Sung Square, flanked by the top party and military officials. Also on the balcony was Kim Jong Il's younger sister, Kim Kyong Hui, who is expected to play a guardian role for her young nephew

KRT via Reuters TV

An overhead view of North Koreans gathering during the memorial for late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, in this still image taken from video Dec. 29, 2011. North Korea's military staged a huge funeral procession on Wednesday in the snowy streets of the capital Pyongyang for its deceased "dear leader," Kim Jong-il, readying a transition to his son, Kim Jong-un.

Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images

North Korean flags fly at half-mast on fishing boats after the funeral of the late leader Kim Jong-Il, at the Chinese North Korean border area near Dandong on Dec. 29, 2011.

Prakash Singh / AFP - Getty Images

People watch the memorial service for late North Korea leader Kim Jong-Il on television at a train station in Seoul on Dec. 29, 2011. North Korea staged a massive memorial service for late leader Kim Jong-Il attended by tens of thousands, and declared his untested young son and successor the supreme party and military chief.

North Korean TV via AFP - Getty Images

Aa car carrying Kim Jong Il's body during the funeral procession in Pyongyang on Dec. 28, 2011.

KRT via Reuters TV

A uniformed man tries to control crowds attending the funeral procession for Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang.

NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services report:

North Korean TV via AFP - Getty Images

Kim Jong Un saluting during his father Kim Jong Il's funeral at Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang.

Wailing and clutching at their hearts, tens of thousands of North Koreans lined the snowy streets of Pyongyang on Wednesday as the hearse carrying late leader Kim Jong Il's wound its way through the capital for a final farewell.

Son and successor Kim Jong Un led the procession, which is part of a two-day state funeral. Top military and party officials, including uncle Jang Song Thaek, were also part of the lead group. Continue reading.

North Korea TV via AFP - Getty Images

Military personnel bowing their heads during Kim Jong Il's funeral at Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang.

North Korea TV via AFP - Getty Images

North Korean soldiers mourning during the funeral ceremony for Kim Jong Il.

KCTV / AFP - Getty Images

This TV grab taken from Korean Central Television (KCTV) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C-front) and other top military and civilian officials walking beside the car carrying the coffin of his late father Kim Jong-il on its roof in Pyongyang on Dec. 28, 2011. North Korea began the funeral of late leader Kim Jong-Il, Russian media reported from a snowy Pyongyang, as the grieving communist state bolstered his son's status as "great successor".

KCTV / AFP - Getty Images

This TV grab taken from Korean Central Television (KCTV) shows North Korean new leader Kim Jong-Un (C) and other top military and civilian officials walking beside the car carrying the coffin of his late father Kim Jong-il on its roof in Pyongyang on Dec. 28, 2011.

NCTV / AFP - Getty Images

This tv grab taken from North Korean TV on December 28, 2011 shows North Koreans mourning during the funeral ceremony for the late leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang.

NCTV / AFP - Getty Images

This tv grab taken from North Korean TV on Dec. 28, 2011 shows a portrait of the late leader Kim Jong-Il on a car arriving at Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang. North Korean state television began broadcasting the funeral of late leader Kim Jong-Il December 28, with footage of tens of thousands of troops bowing their heads in the snow outside a memorial palace.

Slideshow: Funeral and reaction to the death of Kim Jong Il

KCNA via EPA

News of the North Korean leader's death sparks tears from his followers and concerns around the world as power is handed over to his successor.

Launch slideshow

Reuters

North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un cries as his father, North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il, lies in state during the run-up to his funeral in Pyongyang in this Dec. 27, 2011, still image taken from video.

This is the most emotion I have seen Kim Jong Un show since the death of his father, former North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il. I wonder what is going through the new young leader's mind? Surely, he is grieving over the loss of his father, but the "great successor" has also inherited major responsibilities as the new leader of an impoverished country, and with only a few years of experience in politics. According to the Guardian, little is known about Kim Jong Un. He is believed to be in his late 20s, and his father spent the past year grooming him for this role.

See more photos from North Korea on PhotoBlog.

Related slideshows:

• The life of Kim Jong Il
• Reaction to the death of Kim John Il

Kcna / Reuters

Lee Hee-ho, widow of former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, shakes hands with new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after she paid her respect to North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il lying in state in Pyongyang in this still image taken from video broadcasted on Dec. 27, 2011. Lee Hee-ho whose husband drew up a now-abandoned policy of engagement with the North led a delegation across the border on Monday. The South Korean group laid wreaths at the mausoleum where Kim Jong-il's body is on display. North Korean media said the footage is said to have been shot on Dec. 26th and was released by state broadcaster KRT the next day.

Berne International School via Yonhap - EPA

An undated photo made available by the Berne International School believed to show Kim Jong Un (circled) posing with schoolmates during his school days in Switzerland.

Reuters reports:

Former pupils of a school in Switzerland believe the young lad who loved playing basketball and watching action movies and was always "good for a laugh" may have been none other than Kim Jong Un, son and anointed successor of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Harold Cunningham / Getty Images

A general view of the International School of Berne in Guemligen, Berne, Switzerland, on Dec. 19, 2011.

Joao Micaelo, who now works as a chef in a Vienna restaurant, told Reuters he was a good friend of a North Korean teenager with a different name when they both attended the German-speaking Steinhoelzli school in Berne from 1998 to 2000.

But he only learnt of his true identity in mid-2009 from Japanese and South Korean journalists, he said, adding he recognized him in photographs.

"He was a big fan of the Chicago Bulls ... His life was basketball at this time," Micaelo said. "I think 80 percent of our time we were playing basketball."

Local administration education director Ueli Studer told Reuters that a boy known as Pak Un, registered as a child of a North Korean embassy employee, attended the Steinhoelzli school in the Berne suburb of Liebefeld from 1998 until just after starting 9th grade in late 2000.

Harold Cunningham / Getty Images

A basketball court at the school in Berne.

"The student Pak Un attended the school for two to three years and left abruptly in the middle of a school year," he said, adding that this was not unusual for children of embassy employees.

"Pak Un attended a class for non-German speaking pupils but then quickly moved over to another class. He was described as well-integrated, diligent and ambitious. His hobby was basketball," Studer said.

Studer said he could not confirm nor deny that Pak Un was in fact Kim Jong Un.

Marco Imhof, another former schoolmate, told Swiss television last year that his friend Pak Un spoke a mixture of German and the local Bern dialect of Swiss German.

"He was funny. Always good for a laugh," Imhof said. "I can't believe that I played basketball with him here and now he could rule North Korea." Read the full story.

Korean Central TV of the North via Reuters

Kim Jong Un pays his respects to his father Kim Jong Il who is lying in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Dec. 20, 2011.

Related content:

• Kim Jong Il's body is put on display
• Will younger Kim's aunt and uncle be North Korea puppet masters?
• NYT: In Kim's death, an extensive intelligence failure
• Mourning in North Korea, worries in South after Kim Jong Il's death
• PhotoBlog: Satellites document North Korea's dark ages
• PhotoBlog: North Koreans mourn the death of Kim Jong Il, the 'Dear Leader'
• Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong Il
• Slideshow: Journey into North Korea

Korean Central TV of the North via Reuters

The body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang in this still picture taken from video footage of still images aired by KRT (Korean Central TV of the North) on Dec. 20, 2011.

The Associated Press reports from PYONGYANG, North Korea:

The body of North Korea's long-time ruler Kim Jong Il was laid out in a memorial palace Tuesday as weeping mourners filled public plazas and state media fed a budding personality cult around his third son, hailing him as "born of heaven."

Indicating the leadership transition in the world's only communist dynasty is on track, Kim Jong Un — Kim's youngest known son and successor — visited the body with top military and Workers' Party officials and held what state media called a "solemn ceremony" in the capital, Pyongyang, as the country mourned.

The Korean people were in "deep sorrow at the loss of the benevolent father of our nation," Ri Ho Il, a lecturer at the Korean Revolutionary History Museum, told The Associated Press in Pyongyang.

"He defended our people's happiness, carrying on his forced march both night and day," Ri said.

Korean Central TV of the North via Reuters

Medals belonging to Kim Jong Il are displayed as he lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace.

Still images aired on state TV showed that the glass coffin holding Kim's body was surrounded by his namesake flowers — red "kimjongilia" blossoms. He was covered with a red blanket, his head placed on a white pillow.

The coffin was in a room of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, a mausoleum where the embalmed body of his father — national founder Kim Il Sung — has been on display in a glass sarcophagus since his death in 1994.

The state funeral is to be held at the palace on Dec. 28. Read the full story.

Korean Central TV of the North via Reuters

Kim Jong Un pays his respects to his father lying in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace.

Related content:

• Will younger Kim's aunt and uncle be North Korea puppet masters?
• NYT: In Kim's death, an extensive intelligence failure
• Mourning in North Korea, worries in South after Kim Jong Il's death
• PhotoBlog: Satellites document North Korea's dark ages
• PhotoBlog: North Koreans mourn the death of Kim Jong Il, the 'Dear Leader'
• PhotoBlog: Flowers and North Korea
• Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong Il
• Slideshow: Journey into North Korea

Vincent Yu / AP

North Korea leader Kim Jong Il, right, and his son Kim Jong Un attend a massive military parade to mark the 65th anniversary of the communist nation's ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea on Oct. 10, 2010. Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade, has died. He was 69.

Now, as we learn of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s death, one wonders more than ever what the North Korean leader was thinking about his son and preferred successor.

Related coverage

• Story: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies at 69
• Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong Il
• Slideshow: Journey into North Korea
• See more coverage of Kim Jong Il in PhotoBlog

Follow @msnbc_pictures