Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) –North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il has named his successor: it will be his youngest son Kim Jong-un, who many in the past to as the probable heir to power in the Communist State. The news was reported by the South Korean conservative daily JoongAng Ilbo, quoting secret sources in the North.
“Kim Jong-un, 26, is the chosen one” announces the paper adding that the North’s leadership had made the decision in the aftermath of the stroke suffered by Kim Jong-il, in August 2008. A North Korean source says that the regime is promoting “songs of praise” for Kim Jong-un, who is a keen skier and has studied English, German and French in a Swiss school.
Experts have linked the North’s recent nuclear test to the issue of succession, saying it was an attempt to show solidarity with the military, whose support “is essential for the smooth transition of power” in Pyongyang. The last succession of Kim Jong-il was settled 20 years before the death of his father Kim Il-sung in 1994, and publicly announced at a party congress in 1980.
JoongAng Ilbo reports their source indicates changes to the country’s chain of command as the junior Kim emerged as the likely successor. Moreover until last March the name of the Dear Leaders youngest son did not appear among the list of candidates at the Supreme Assembly of the People. According to that source, officials such as O Kuk-ryol, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission; Kim Yong-chun, minister of the People’s Armed Forces; and Choe Ik-gyu, head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department at the ruling Workers’ Party, have led efforts to make Kim Jong-un the next leader of the country.
Kim Jong-un is the second son of Kim Jong-il’s third wife, Ko Yong-hee, who passed away in 2004. Speaking on a condition of anonymity a South Korean source reports that “there hasn’t been any official nominating process in Pyongyang, nor has North Korea informed its overseas embassies of any move.” There has been no official confirmation, or denial, so far from Seoul.
