PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Soldiers and children, all bundled up against the freezing cold, lined up Monday at Pyongyang's main plaza to pay their respects again to late leader Kim Jong Il on the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday.

A massive portrait of Kim that had been taken down after the mourning period following his Dec. 17 death was back up at Kim Il Sung Square. People scurried across the vast plaza to get in line to bow and lay single red flowers — the late leader's namesake "kimjongilia" begonias — made of fabric. The song "It's Snowing" blared from the loudspeakers, a reminder of his solemn funeral procession through the snowy streets late last month.

For several weeks after the funeral, the capital city was barren and somber.

But almost overnight, the city was filled with color again, flower beds and planters bursting with blossoms.

North Korea's red, white and blue national flag fluttered from signposts. Banners celebrating "Juche 101" — the year 2012, according to the North Korean calendar — and posters marking the holiday called "Sol Myong Jol" here were pinned to buildings and walls.

The Juche calendar begins in 1912, the year founder Kim Il Sung was born.

Lanterns with "2012" and "Congratulations" printed on the sides dangled from the eaves of the downtown Pothong Gate.

At the plaza in front of the Pyongyang Grand Theater, hundreds of children scampered and shouted as they flew kites and played traditional Korean games in subzero temperatures. Signs in front of the theater spelled out "We are happy" and "We have nothing to envy in this world" in big, bold letters.

Pyongyang residents said they were encouraged to celebrate the traditional holiday as they usually do, despite the death of Kim Jong Il, only the second leader North Koreans have known since the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was founded in 1948. State television aired a segment late Sunday on making rice cake soup, a traditional New Year's meal in both Koreas.

The holiday comes as new leader Kim Jong Un makes a round of visits to military units.

Kim Jong Un, anointed his father's successor at least three years ago, was declared "supreme leader" of the North Korean people, party and military in the days after his father's death. He has pledged to uphold his father's "military first" policy.

The new era of leadership comes as North Korea prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary in April of the birth of his grandfather, late President Kim Il Sung.

At the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace, high-ranking military and political officials gathered to watch an annual song-and-dance performance by local students and a troupe of performers from the ethnic Korean community in Japan.

Sniffles could be heard throughout the auditorium during one performance featuring five children named by late leader Kim Jong Il, including a girl called "Regret."

On Mansudae Street, Ro Chang Hae said his first emotion on Lunar New Year's Day was to miss the late leader, whose portrait still hangs on his living room wall, along with those of Kim Il Sung and the president's wife, Kim Jong Suk. He said he went early in the morning to pay his respects at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium.

"He was a leader who traveled the country without taking even a single day of rest," he told The Associated Press. "My eyes sting with tears whenever I think about how he provided us with such a comfortable home and always worried so much about us year after year."

His granddaughters, an 8-year-old dressed in a school uniform and a 3-year-old clad in a pink Korean dress, bowed before him, touching their faces to the ground as they wished him well.

The girls poured a tumbler of Korean liquor for him, saying: "Grandfather, we hope you'll be healthy and hope for your longevity."

Ro, 68, said the whole family would gather at lunchtime for rice cake soup.

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