NKoreans Mythologize Kim Jong Il on His Birthday North Korea's grief has taken on a supernatural air: Mountains glow crimson, lakes shake, a family of bears weeps by the side of a road, hundreds of shrieking magpies hover over mourning sites. As North Koreans prepare for what would have been the 70th birthday of late leader Kim Jong Il this week, the country's propaganda machine has gone to great lengths to build up the man who led the nation for 17 years. As his young son and successor, Kim Jong Un, takes over the country's helm, North Korea is raising Kim Jong Il in death to a level that it refrained from - at his insistence - during his life. That contrasts with the full-fledged personality cult that surrounded his father, national founder Kim Il Sung, even before his death in 1994. Kim Jong Il himself reportedly explained in a speech delivered on his 60th birthday that he wasn't ready to accept such adulation while his promise of building an affluent society in the nation of 24 million remained unfulfilled, according to excerpts published in state media after his death in December. During Kim's reign, the country suffered from famine and nuclear tension. But now postage stamps, new songs and commemorative coins for Kim Jong Il have been rushed into production; slogans have been carved on the sides of mountains in honor of his birthday. Kim Jong Il gold medals have been given to senior officials who served as his confidants, state media said Tuesday. Most significantly, a monumental bronze statue of Kim Jong Il - the first of its kind in size and significance - was unveiled Tuesday in Pyongyang as part of events marking his birthday Thursday, which has been newly dubbed "Day of the Shining Star." The sculpture depicts him on horseback with his father. "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. This isn't quite how Pyongyang's political leaders planned for 2012 to play out. For years, North Koreans prepared for three major milestones in 2012: Kim Jong Il's 70th birthday, the centenary of Kim Il Sung's birth and the 80th anniversary of the Korean People's Army, the backbone of Kim Jong Il's "military first" rule. Kim Jong Il's death of a heart attack in mid-December upended those plans. Daily life ground to a halt, with many shops, bars and restaurants in Pyongyang shutting their doors during 11 days of mourning. But as Kim Jong Un swiftly stepped into his new role, North Koreans went back to work, turning celebration plans for Kim Jong Il's Feb. 16 birthday into commemorations. The nation remains in a semiofficial state of mourning for the man often referred to as "our fatherly general" as North Koreans observe the traditional 100 days of grief that follow the death of a family member. Though the popular pubs that line the Taedong River are open again, displays of drunkenness are taboo and the plugs have been pulled from karaoke machines in restaurants across the city. On Monday, workers in Pyongyang took advantage of the first respite in weeks from frigid temperatures to decorate the city streets for Kim's birthday. They pounded at frozen flower beds with picks, making space to plant row after row of plastic flowers.