Kim Jong-il: Will North Korean Leader’s Body Be Buried or Embalmed? [PHOTOS]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is dead at the age of 69 following a heart attack on a train Saturday.

The former dicator's body is currently on display in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea. He is laid in a glass coffin, covered with red cloth and surrounded by his namesake flowers, red kimjongilia.

High-level members of North Korea including Kim Jong-il's son and successor, Kim Jong-un, have visited the former dictator at the memorial site. Public gatherings have also occurred with crowds of weeping citizens.

There will be twelve days of mourning for Kim Jong-il. He will be buried on Dec. 28 at a state funeral service, which will include cannons fired across the sky and three minutes of silence reports the Telegraph.

Speculations have been made over whether Kim Jong-il's body will be buried at the scheduled state funeral or whether he will be embalmed like his father, Kim Jong-sung.

Following his death in 1994, Kim Jong-sung, the leader of North Korea before Kim Jong-il, had his body embalmed for a permanent display by Moscow's Centre for Biological Studies. The preparations for the body took nearly a year and costs at least $300,000. The Centre has also embalmed dictators Ho Chi Minh and Stalin reports the Guardian.

Will the impoverished state save money on a burial or will Kim Jong-il be embalmed like his predecessor?