North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Mangyongdae Funfair in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

This just in: North Korea is not a paradise in some ways — and this news comes from Pyongyang’s official mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency.

On Wednesday, KCNA reported that newly anointed leader Kim Jong Un had visited an amusement park where he scolded park officials for poor upkeep of the park, according to the Yonhap News Agency in South Korea.

The criticism from the young leader was the first publicly reported rebuke since he inherited leadership of the country in December, and a rare occurrence in the history of the normally laudatory "inspection tours" taken by his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather Kim Il Sung, who ruled before him.  

Kim’s criticism of the Mangyongdae Funfair in Pyongyang was strong and detailed, going so far as to describe the state of the grounds by the Viking ride as “pathetic,” Yonhap said.

He found problems with the roller coaster, the paint on the rides and the safety of the waterpark, the report said, and instructed officials to draw a lesson from touring the site and take it as a warning of the need for a "proper spirit of serving the people."

PhotoBlog: Kim Jong-Un looks at things... and then shoots them

Analysts cited by Yonhap viewed this report as a means of the burnishing the image of Kim, thought to be about 28, as a competent and detail-oriented leader interested in citizens' welfare.

"The aim is to instill an awareness among ranking officials across North Korea that Kim Jong-un is a benevolent leader but also strict when it comes to principles," Jang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University told Yonhap.

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Kim’s apparent efforts to consolidate his position as leader of the country’s Communist Party, government and military has not been entirely smooth.

In April, North Korea attempted a rocket launch — seen as a way of bolstering the regime’s legitimacy — despite protest from the international community. North Korea said the rocket was for putting a civilian satellite into orbit, but its critics said it was a missile test.

The rocket exploded.

The launch attempt prompted the United States to suspend 240,000 tons of planned food aid to North Korea, which is believed to be suffering a severe shortage.

Some North Korea experts are predicting that Pyongyang is planning an underground nuclear test, which likely would further isolate the regime.

Fighting between North Korea and U.S.-backed South Korea ended in armistice in 1953, but the two nations are technically still at war.

Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader, was a Communist fighter who emerged as the first leader of the north after World War II.

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Stf / EPA

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, left, and his son Kim Jong Un watch from a podium during a parade celebrating the 65th anniversary of the ruling Korean Workers Party in Pyongyang on Oct. 10, 2010. The elder Kim died on Dec. 17, handing power over to his son.

Think tanks in Seoul have obtained documents that they say are excerpts from the last will and testament of North Korea’s late leader Kim Jong Il, reports said on Thursday.

The documents, which were made public by the Sejong Institute, a South Korean think tank, urge heir-to-power Kim Jong Un to renounce war with South Korea, according to a report Thursday in Japan's Manaichi Daily News.  

In the purported will, the Great Leader, who died on Dec. 17, notes that war on the Korean Peninsula would be devastating, and leave both North and South far behind other nations.

At the same time, the former dictator urged his son to pursue a military advantage by developing weapons of mass destruction, according to Manaichi.

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"Keep in mind that constantly developing and keeping nuclear (weapons), long-range missiles and biochemical weapons is the way to keep peace on the Korean peninsula, and never drop your guard," Kim said in the will, according to the report, which cited a Japanese translation.

That portion of the document was obtained and released by a high-level defector from North Korea, Lee Yun-keol, who heads another Seoul think tank, the North Korea Strategic Information Service Center, the report said.

The pursuit of peace, and eventual reunification with South Korea would have to wait until Seoul replaced its current President Lee Myung-bak, Kim said in the documents, according to a report in the Telegraph, a UK news site.

Lee has advocated tougher policies toward the North and a stronger relationship with the United States, which has more than 28,000 troops bolstering South Korea's military.

North Korea and South Korea have been faced off across a demilitarized zone at the 38^th parallel since 1953. Combat ended the three-year Korean War at that point, but the two sides are technically still at war.

Since the death of Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17, his son Jong Un has been consolidating power and positions in the government, military and party. Other nations continue to study the young leader for signs of policy changes in the isolated totalitarian state. But so far, most Korea experts have not registered any change from past policies.

North Korea attempted a rocket launch on April 13 that provoked worldwide criticism. It ended in failure. Pyongyang said the launch was to place a civilian satellite in orbit, but many believed it was part of ballistic missile development.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first public speech called for a push toward "final victory" Sunday during a massive celebration marking the 100th birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung.

Kim, 29, in the 22-minute speech broadcast on state-owned television, praised his grandfather as tens of thousands gathered in Pyongyang's main square for meticulously choreographed festivities that came two days after a failed rocket launch.

"I offer the purest respect and the greatest honor to great comrades Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il," he told cheering crowds, referring to his late grandfather and deceased father. Kim called his grandfather as the eternal leader of the country and "founder and the builder of our revolutionary armed forces."

He also said it was important to keep the military strong and to remember the military is more than rockets.

"Let's go forward toward final victory," he concluded.

Kim also reviewed a military parade as soldiers bedecked with rifles and medals marched and tanks, missiles and other hardware rolled past and military jets flew overhead, the Voice of America reported on Twitter.

The parade included the unveiling of what appears to be a new missile, The Associated Press reported.

While its contents were uncontroversial, the speech itself was a big surprise after many years of silence from Kim's father when he presided over similar events.

Sunday's celebration followed North Korea's attempt to launch a long range rocket, which ended in failure on Friday.

Washington and others had said the Friday rocket launch was a covert test of long-range missile technology.

The state that Kim inherited in December after the death of his father boasts a 1.2 million-strong military, wants to possess a nuclear weapon and to develop the ability to hit the United States with it.

Behind those ambitions are 23 million people, many malnourished, in an economy whose output is worth just $40 billion annually in purchasing power parity terms, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, compared with South Korea's $1.5 trillion economy.

This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press.

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Failed rocket launch? What rocket launch? 

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NBC's space expert Jim Oberg on N.Korea launch failure

US cancels food aid to North Korea after missile launch, warns of more sanctions 

KCNA via Reuters file

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (L) watches a military exercise of the Korean People's Army in an undisclosed location, in this undated picture recently released by the official Korean News Agency KCNA.

The current ruler of nuclear-armed North Korea was a laggard student who frequently skipped class when he was attending a school in Switzerland in the 1990s, according to the Daily Record news site.  

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The UK publication, citing leaked documents, reported that the Kim Jong Un, 29, who took the helm of the isolated totalitarian country upon the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December, missed 75 days of school his first year of school at the International School in Berne.

Kim missed 105 days his second year at the elite private school, where he registered under a pseudonym as the son of a North Korean diplomat. It was not clear from the report which grade levels he was in at the time, but he would have been in his mid-teens.  

An unnamed source who said he was a school friend of Kim said that Pak Un — as Kim was known there — often did not show up at school until afternoon, preferring instead to play video games or watch basketball on television.

His grades seemed to suffer accordingly. According to the report, he failed science and got minimum pass grades in English and German, the main language used in the Swiss capital of Bern, but did well in music and technical studies.

Kim Jong Un was enrolled in the Kim Il Sung Military University in Pyongyang from 2002 to 2007, most analysts agree.

Kim Jong Un, now dubbed the "great successor," is the third-generation North Korean leader in his family, though virtually nothing was known about him before he was appointed to a set of powerful positions in 2011. His father, Kim Jong Il, came to power in a similar fashion, moving into the top military, government and party roles left by his father, Kim Il Sung, a communist guerrilla fighter who is considered the father of the country.

North Korea analysts continue to puzzle over the newest Kim in charge. It remains unclear how much support he has within the military, and whether he has any inclination toward reform — seen as essential to restarting the country’s moribund economy and breaking the country’s isolation.

The United States, South Korea and other allies were discouraged by Pyongyang’s recent insistence that it soon will launch a rocket — purportedly to put a satellite in orbit — but widely viewed as a pretext for a long-range missile test.

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Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, waves after an interview with South Korean media in the Chinese territory of Macau in June 2010.

Kim Jong Nam, the wayward eldest son of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, has been kicked out of his luxury lodgings in the gambling mecca of Macau after failing to pay $15,000 in arrears, according to a report Friday by the Russian news website Arguments and Facts.

Jong Nam, 41, was bypassed by his father as the next leader of North Korea. Kim Jung Un, a half-brother to Jong Nam who is thought to be about 28, was instead anointed to head the isolated Communist nation upon his father’s death in December.

Jong Nam has been living in comfortable virtual exile for about a decade -- gaining a reputation for drinking and gambling while staying mainly in the Chinese territory of Macau.

Arguments and Facts, a mass circulation news weekly and website, reported that he was renting at least one place at Macau’s five-star Grand Lapa Hotel, which is run by the Mandarin Oriental Group, but quoted a source at the hotel as saying that he was expelled from the 17^th floor room because his credit card had been canceled.

Jong-Nam’s luxury apartment was paid for by Beijing, according to an unnamed Macau administration official cited by the Russian site, while his spending money came mainly from Pyongyang.

The report speculated that Pyongyang had cut Kim’s cash, and that Beijing followed suit, after he said unflattering things about the secretive regime.

In January, Tokyo Shimbun quoted Kim Jong Nam expressing his opposition to hereditary leadership in North Korea and openly doubting that the regime could survive. The reporter, Yoji Gomi, interviewed Jong Nam extensively for a recently published book, "My father Kim Jong Il and Me."

North Korea's first family

The Macau official also said that the local administration was nervous about Kim Jong Nam’s presence in Macau, fearing that he might become a target of the Pyongyang regime, according to the report.

"Who knows what might happen to him," the official told Arguments and Facts. "What if there is an assassination attempt against him, a blast or a contract killing? We do not need problems."

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David Guttenfelder / AP

North Koreans gather to put flowers on a stage in front of a portrait of Kim Jong Il as they pay their respects on the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Monday.

PYONGYANG, North Korea - Bundled up against the freezing cold, soldiers and children lined up Monday at Pyongyang's main plaza to pay their respects again to late leader Kim Jong Il.

It was North Korea's unique way of marking the lunar New Year which was celebrated in China and elsewhere in the region with fireworks.

A massive portrait of Kim that had been taken down after a mourning period following his Dec. 17 death was back up at Kim Il Sung Square.

People scurried across the vast plaza to get in line to bow and lay single red flowers, the late leader's namesake "kimjongilia" begonias, made of fabric. The song "It's snowing" blared from the loudspeakers, a reminder of Kim's solemn funeral procession through the capital city's snowy streets late last month.

For several weeks after the funeral, Pyongyang was barren and somber. But almost overnight the city has filled with color again. North Korea's red, white and blue national flag fluttered from signposts. Banners celebrating "Juche 101" — the current year, according to the North Korean calendar, which begins with the 1912 birth of national founder Kim Il Sung — and posters marking the holiday were pinned to buildings and walls.

• Report: Kim Jong Un won't 'last long,' half brother says

At the plaza in front of the Pyongyang Grand Theater, hundreds of children scampered and shouted as they played traditional Korean games in frigid temperatures. Signs in front of the theater spelled out "We are happy" in big, bold letters.

Pyongyang residents said they were encouraged to celebrate the traditional holiday as they usually do, despite the death of Kim Jong Il, only the second leader North Koreans have known since the nation was founded in 1948. State television aired a segment late Sunday on making rice cake soup, a traditional New Year's meal in both Koreas.

The holiday comes as new leader Kim Jong Un makes a round of visits to military units.

• North Korea generals vow to be 'human bombs'

Outside observers have raised questions about whether Kim Jong Un — who's believed to be aged in his late 20s — is ready to rule a country of 24 million with a nuclear program as well as chronic food shortages.

But the North has dismissed such worries, and state media have put out a stream of reports and images meant to show that Kim has strong military and governing experience. Late last week, for example, North Korea credited Kim Jong Un with spearheading past nuclear testing and said he was "fully equipped" with the qualities of an extraordinary general.

Kim Jong Un, anointed his father's successor at least three years ago, was declared "supreme leader" of the North Korean people, party and military after his father's death. He has pledged to uphold his father's "military first" policy.

The new era of leadership comes as North Korea prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary in April of the birth of his grandfather, late President Kim Il Sung.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Kyodo News via AP

Mourners cry during the funeral procession for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Dec. 28, 2011.

North Korea is punishing citizens who didn’t cry during the orchestrated public mourning over the death of Kim Jong Il, sentencing them to six months in a labor-training camp, according to a report.

The South Korea-based Daily NK newspaper said authorities have held “criticism sessions” for those who “transgressed” during organized weeping in the wake of the dictator’s death.

It said North Koreans accused of criticizing the world’s only hereditary totalitarian regime are being sent to re-education camps or being banished with their families to remote rural areas.

The news website quoted a source from North Hamkyung province saying: “The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine.”

The source added that the recriminations "created a vicious atmosphere of fear.”

Authorities are also forcing citizens to idolize Kim Jong Il’s youngest son, Kim Jong Un, newly-installed as leader.

“Every day from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., they have vehicles for broadcast propaganda parked on busy roads full of people going to and from work, noisily working to proclaim Kim Jong Un’s greatness,” the source said.

The website also reported that school children and factory workers are being made to study “the greatness of Kim Jong Un” in education sessions “packed so tightly together without a break that people are just exhausted.”

It added that it was able to verify the public trial claim, but noted authorities had earlier ordered the shooting of anyone who attempted to defect to South Korea during the mourning period.

Adrienne Mong

All was quiet on the Demilitarized Zone on the Korean Peninsula on the Kim Jong Il's state funeral took place.

SEOUL, South Korea — As one journalist put it, it said how much we all knew about North Korea that for the better part of Wednesday morning, most of the world remained in the dark about just when — if at all  — the state funeral for the country's late leader Kim Jong Il had begun. 

But finally around 2 p.m in Seoul, a feed of the funeral proceedings began transmitting. We watched online, impressed by the staging and the direction. 

Thousands of people in olive drab stood under snowfall in front of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace — where Kim Jong Il’s body had been lying in state and where that of his father Kim Il Sung is also housed — as a procession of vehicles drove past, including the hearse led by Kim Jong Il's son and successor, Kim Jong Un.

Under a dramatic soundtrack and the emotion-laden voice of a North Korean broadcaster, the continuous wailing of mourners could be heard. Cameras pushed into close-ups of rows and rows of men and women in military uniform sobbing. 

• PhotoBlog: North Korean heir leads procession

As the procession wound its way through Pyongyang and the snowfall grew heavier, footage of civilians began to appear.  Dressed in thick winter coats, they craned their necks and covered their mouths as they wept.  Those in the front — closest to the cameras —jumped up and down with great emotion.  Occasionally, a row of soldiers appeared expressionless and stoic.

As the video was broadcast — and despite the "live" banner on some cable stations, it was still unclear whether the footage was being transmitted live or had been recorded earlier until one news agency confirmed it was indeed the former.

The mood in Seoul was decidedly different.

'Like father, like son'
Among a small community of North Koreans who fled their homeland years ago, there was scorn for the man they once called their "Dear Leader" and a touch of hope that his death may usher in long-awaited change.

"Kim Jong Il made three million people starve to death," said Kim Jung-geum, a reporter and radio announcer with Free North Korea Radio.  She escaped from the North eight years ago and has been living in Seoul for the past six years.

• Will younger Kim's aunt, uncle be puppet masters?

"Initially I thought, wow, now we can go home. But the feeling didn’t last even a day," said Kim Sung-min, founder of the station —which broadcasts a one-hour shortwave radio program back into the North every day.  

"It is the third generation leadership," said Kim, who defected from North Korea 11 years ago. "Like father, like son.  There is no hope. There is zero per cent chance of change as Kim Jong Un inheried Kim Jong Il's system."

Adrienne Mong

The streets of Seoul suggested it was business as usual in South Korea as Kim Jong Il's state funeral was held.

His colleague was willing to be a bit more optimistic.  "The dictatorship is over," said Kim Jung-geum quietly.  "A new era will begin with 2012.  I expect that."

Both of them, however, did agree on one thing.  They remembered when North Korean founder Kim Il Sung died.

"I was so sad that I skipped two meals," recalled Kim Sung-min, who was serving in the North Korean military in a northern province at the time.  "It was as if the sun had fallen to earth."

• Archival video: Kim Il Sung dies

"I cried for Kim Il Sung," said Kim Jung-geum, who was a propaganda teacher at the time.  "We had a food ration system.  People had salaries then.  So I genuinely grieved for his death."

Among South Koreans there was largely indifference.

A trio of college students said they were initially worried about the possible ramifications of Kim Jong Il’s death.  "But now I feel a lot better," said Lee Kyung-min, more keen on visiting a nearby museum than thinking about regional security. None of them were interested in the funeral proceedings.

"It was big news," said Cho Nam-hyun, a reporter for Dong-A Ilbo. "But personally, I think of it just as a head of state who died."

• Were circumstances of Kim Jong Il's death fabricated?

The indifference doesn't come as a surprise to analysts in South Korea. 

"We've been living under the gun for the past 60 years," said Dr. Hahm Chaibong, president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.  "You can’t count the number of crises that we've had over the years.  Be it assassinations, commando raids, downing of airplanes, terrorist bombings, and of course more recently nuclear experiments and shelling of islands."

Hahm also offered a final somber thought.

"By and large everyone has learned a lesson as far as to what to expect," he said.  "Everybody knows that there isn’t all that much to expect in terms of radical change….  If North Korea is going to change, it's not going to because of something we do in the outside world.  They will be the ones who will be undertaking changes because they think it's necessary and because they decide it's time they do it."

Follow NBC News' Adrienne Mong (@adriennemong) on Twitter.

• SLIDESHOW: The life of Kim Jong Il
• SLIDESHOW: Reaction to death of Kim Jong Il
• SLIDESHOW: Journey into North Korea
• Browse more of msnbc.com's North Korea coverage

Updated at 8:08 a.m. ET 

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- 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.

Sobs and wails filled the air along the memorial route, which state media said was about 25 miles long.

At the end of the procession, Kim Jong Un walked along with the limousine with his hand cocked in a salute. He stood head-bowed with top officials as rifles fired 21 times, then saluted again as goose-stepping soldiers carrying flags and rifles marched by.

The funeral procession, which began and ended at Kumsusan Memorial Palace, passed by huge crowds of mourners, most of them standing in the snow with their heads bare. Many screamed, stamped their feet, flailed their arms and wept as soldiers struggled to keep them from spilling onto the road.

• As North Korea mourns, its neighbor shrugs

The mourners included many members of the country's 1.2 million-strong armed forces.

Kim's two other sons, Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Chol, were not spotted.

Kim Jong Il, who led the nation with an iron fist following his father Kim Il Sung's death in 1994, died of a heart attack Dec. 17 at age 69, according to state media.

• PhotoBlog: North Korean heir leads procession

Heavy snow was falling in Pyongyang, which state media characterized in the early days of mourning as proof that the skies were "grieving" for Kim as well. 

"How can the sky not cry?" a weeping soldier standing in the snow said to state TV. "The people ... are all crying tears of blood."

A national memorial service is due to take place at noon Thursday, state media said.

Updated at 7:03 a.m. ET: Speaking from Seoul, NBC News' Adrienne Mong tells TODAY that as video footage of procession was only available via state media, it is not possible to know how much of the grieving was "staged."

Updated at 6:28 a.m. ET: An essay in Workers' Party mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun, which was carried in English by the Korean Central News Agency, says Kim Jong Un will take "warm care of the people left by Kim Jong Il."

Updated at 4:22 a.m. ET: Angus Walker, Beijing correspondent for Britain's ITV, examines why North Koreans haven't chosen this moment to overthrow the Kim dynasty. "The regime knows its power relies on the power of propaganda," he writes. "In North Korea he was the only hero, the only film and TV star, the only person pictured in the papers. North Koreans were told he was the most famous person on earth, in a world without Hollywood or the Internet many believe it, he was a religion, a cult, a god and a king combined."

AFP - Getty Images

This screen grab taken from North Korean TV shows a portrait of Kim Jong Il on a car arriving at Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

Updated at 4:15 a.m. ET: Britain's former ambassador to North Korea tells the BBC the future of the country's regime is "unsustainable".

Updated at 4:02 a.m. ET: Sky News' foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall questions how much of the emotion is real. "If the camera is on you ... you know what is expected," he says.

Updated at 3:02 a.m. ET: North Korea state TV broadcast of funeral procession ends.

Updated at 2:59 a.m. ET: Gunfire during ceremony "still doesn't mask the sound of wailing," NBC News' Adrienne Mong (@adriennemong) reports.

Updated at 2:50 a.m. ET: BNO News' Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) cites North Korea state media as saying mourners shouting: "Fatherly general, don't go, please! Never, never! Come back please!"

• Will younger Kim's aunt, uncle be puppet masters?

Updated at 2:26 a.m. ET: Chico Harlan (@chicoharlan), the Washington Post's East Asia correspondent, tweets: "N. Korea is so close to comedy but obviously a tragedy. Seeing this guy, no matter the stagecraft, made me sad." Click here to see the photo.

Updated at 2:16 a.m. ET: BBC News' Lucy Williamson points out that many "senior military and party officials ... may well now be jostling for influence in the new regime.

"Some say North Korea's reluctance to open up the funeral ceremony to foreign delegations may signal that those hierarchies have not yet been fully agreed," she adds.

• Politics trump hunger in North Korea

Updated at 2:12 a.m. ET:  "After motorcade passed, some North Koreans seem to be leaving quickly," BNO News' Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) tweets.

Updated at 1:38 a.m. ET: "I think a lot of that is fake crying," Los Angeles Times' Beijing bureau chief Barbara Demick tells Britain's Sky News. "There is a lot of pressure to out do your neighbor in showing your grief." Demick is also author of "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea."

Updated at 1:22 a.m. ET: Citing U.N. data, Reuters notes that the average North Korean now dies three-and-a-half years earlier than they did when "Eternal President" Kim Il Sung died in 1994.

• Archival video: Kim Il Sung dies

North Korea is one of the most closed and poorest societies on earth, ranking 194 out of 227 countries in terms of per capita wealth, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Updated at 1:15 a.m. ET: NBC News' Adrienne Mong (@adriennemong) tweets that a "soundtrack of wailing" and "emotive announcer" feature as part of North Korean state TV's coverage. 

• Were circumstances of Kim Jong Il's death fabricated?

Updated at 1:08 a.m ET: North Korea carried out a meticulously choreographed funeral for late leader Kim Jong Il on Wednesday and affirmed that the country was now in the "warm care" of his young son, extending the Kim family's hold on power to a third generation.

Footage broadcast on North Korea's state television showed Kim's youngest son and successor Kim Jong Un walking next to his father's hearse.

Foreign dignitaries in the city had been asked to gather at a sports stadium shortly before noon to be taken to see the hearse pass at the start of the funeral procession through Pyongyang, according to a diplomat who asked that her name not be used due to the sensitivity of the details.

• SLIDESHOW: The life of Kim Jong Il
• SLIDESHOW: Reaction to death of Kim Jong Il
• SLIDESHOW: Journey into North Korea
• Browse more of msnbc.com's North Korea coverage

The Associated Press, Reuters, msnbc.com staff and NBC News contributed to this report.