North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid tribute to his grandfather Kim Il-sung on Wednesday to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the death of the state founder, the North's official media said.

Accompanied by senior military officials, the North's young leader visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun at midnight where the embalmed body of his grandfather is entombed, according to the Korean Central News Agency. He died in 1994.

Kim has visited the Kim Il-sung mausoleum in Pyongyang on the death anniversary of the state founder every year since he took power in late 2011 following the sudden death of his father Kim Jong-il. Last year, he took part in the anniversary event while slightly limping, spawning speculation about health problems.

The North held an anniversary event in a quiet mood, but it stressed the importance of showing respect and loyalty to the current leader in a country where power has been passed down for three generations.

"Kim's words and orders should be taken as an absolute truth," said North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, the communist party's official newspaper. "In particular, senior officials should be in the forefront in following the North's leader."

It came amid reports that about 10 mid-ranking North Korean party officials have sought asylum out of fears of being purged as the North's leader is intensifying his so-called reign of terror.

Kim, who is widely viewed as consolidating his power, has stressed that his regime will pursue dual goals of developing nuclear weapons and boosting its fragile economy.

South Korea's state spy agency earlier said that Kim has tightened his grip on his power base in a brutal way, including the execution of about 70 senior officials.

In late 2013, the North's leader ordered the execution of Jang Song-thaek, the husband of Kim's aunt and once the country's second most powerful official, on charges of treason. The North's former defense chief Hyun Yong-chol is believed to have been executed in April for his disloyalty toward Kim.

At the ceremony, Kim's entourage included Hwang Pyong-so, director of the general political department of the Korean People's Army, and Pak Yong-sik, who is presumed to be the North's new defense chief.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based nonprofit organization for the promotion of rights, said that the late founder's legacy of keeping complete power through mechanisms that generate fear and aggravate human rights abuses still lives on in the regime of his grandson.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at the agency, said that the United Nations and the global community should use the North's anniversary as an occasion to demand the current leader Kim take responsibility for the crimes against humanity in North Korea. (Yonhap)