Today North Korea ends three years of official grieving for Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011. Soldiers and citizens will lay flowers at statues of the late ruler; all forms of fun, already in short supply, will be banned. His son and successor, Kim Jong Un, will use the occasion to make the elite pay homage to his father—and by extension to himself. Some say the anniversary opens the way for Mr Kim to create new power structures and economic policies. In many ways he has tightened his grip already, mourning or no mourning. He has purged close aides of his father and had himself elected chairman of the country’s top executive body. (Kim Jong Il waited for the full three years after the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, before assuming the equivalent title.) Mr Kim may give an indication of his next moves in an address on New Year’s Day.