PYONGYANG, North Korea — Tens of thousands of North Koreans lined the snowy streets of Pyongyang today, wailing and clutching their chests as a black hearse carried late leader Kim Jong Il’s body through the capital for a final farewell.

The procession also put his young son and successor, Kim Jong Un, on center stage. He was head mourner on a gray and freezing day, walking with one hand on the hearse, the other raised in salute, his head somberly bowed against the wind.

At the end of the 2½-hour procession, Kim Jong Un stood flanked by the top party and military officials who are expected to be his inner circle of advisers as rifles fired 21 times, then saluted again as goose-stepping soldiers carrying flags and rifles marched by.

Kim Jong Il — who led the nation with absolute rule after father Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994, through a devastating famine that killed hundreds of thousands and a controversial drive to build up nuclear and missile programs that earned North Korea international sanctions and condemnation — died of a heart attack Dec. 17 at age 69.

Mourners in parkas lined the streets of Pyongyang, waving, stamping and crying as the convoy bearing his coffin passed by. Some struggled to get past police holding back the crowd.

“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.”

The dramatic scenes of grief showed how effectively North Korea has built a personality cult around Kim Jong Il despite chronic food shortages and decades of economic hardship.

Even as North Koreans mourned the loss of the second leader the nation has known, the transition of power to Kim Jong Un was well under way. The young man, who is in late 20s, is already being hailed by state media as the “supreme leader” of the party, state and army.