Priests of the Moscow Patriarchate served a panikhida/trisagion (memorial service) in Pyongyang for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, who died on December 17, 2011, ITAR-TASS reports. Kim Jong-il was never baptized.
Two Korean priests, Frs. Theodore and John, who studied at the Moscow Theological Academy, conducted the memorial service. Present were Valery Sukhinin, Russian Ambassador to North Korea, with Russian colleagues, and Kung Sok-Ung, deputy foreign minister in charge of Russian affairs.
“Comrade Kim Jong-il left us too suddenly, too unexpectedly,” said Fr. Theodore. “The leader of our country has left this world, but his radiant image and ideas will forever remain with us,” he added.
Tags: Heresy, Moskow Patriarchate, North Korea, Politics in Church