Pyongyang, December 29 (KCNA) -- Memorial services for leader Kim Jong Il have been held by headquarters and branches of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) on his demise.

They included those in Kanagawa, Chiba, Fukushima, Aomori, Iwate, Aichi, Kyoto, Gifu, Tochigi, Niigata, Nishi Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka prefectures.

Officials of Chongryon and compatriots placed flowers before the portraits of smiling Kim Jong Il and paid silent tribute to his memory.

The participants in the memorial services praised Kim Jong Il as peerless patriot and kind-hearted father of Chongryon and Koreans in Japan.

They vowed to lay a springboard from which to bring about the new golden days of the movement of Koreans in Japan under the leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong Un.