The birth centenary of "war heroine" Kim Jong-suk is currently being celebrated in a big way there.

Kim is no ordinary woman though, but the first wife of North Korea's founding leader Kim Il-sung and the grandmother of current leader Kim Jong-un.

She is believed to have been born to a poor farming family on Christmas Eve in 1917, and is said to have fought with guerrilla forces against the Japanese in the 1930s.

She died in 1949, aged just 31, and official accounts ascribe her death to the hardships she endured as a guerrilla fighter.

To mark her birth centenary, North Korean media have been describing her wartime exploits in typically hyperbolic language.

Kim is not just an "outstanding woman revolutionary" and "the sacred mother of the revolution", "her marksmanship was so marvellous that even her comrades-in-arms used toguess the number of killed enemies by counting empty bullet pockets of her cartridge belt after battles," says a report in the state-run KCNA news agency.

North Korea says it has released new postage stamps, minted new gold and silver coins, and held cultural performances in her honour.

To read the complete article, see:
N Korea marks the birth of Kim Jong-un's grandmother (http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-42479956)