N. Korea to elect new party leaders
Source: Agencies |
June 27, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
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NORTH Korea said yesterday it would elect new party leaders at a meeting in September in what analysts say could be a move to strengthen a campaign to hand over power from supreme leader Kim Jong Il to his youngest son.
Kim, who suffered a stroke in 2008, is believed to be grooming his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to succeed him as leader of the nation of 24 million. His health has raised concerns about instability and a possible power struggle if he were to die without naming a successor.
North Korea's ruling Workers' Party will convene its conference in early September to elect "its highest leading body," the country's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
The planned conference sparked speculation that North Korea could publicly announce Kim Jong Un as his father's successor by giving him senior party jobs.
Kim Jong Il was tapped in 1974 to succeed his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung.
The decision was made public at a 1980 party convention. Kim Jong Il assumed leadership on his father's death in 1994.
"Kim Jong Un was named as a successor last year, though it was not made public to the outside world," Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the security think-tank Sejong Institute, south of Seoul, citing South Korea's top spy agency.
Little is known about Kim Jong Un, including his age, though he is believed to be in his mid-20s. Kim Jong Il's former sushi chef said in a 2003 memoir that the son looks and acts just like his father and is the leader's favorite.
Kim, who suffered a stroke in 2008, is believed to be grooming his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to succeed him as leader of the nation of 24 million. His health has raised concerns about instability and a possible power struggle if he were to die without naming a successor.
North Korea's ruling Workers' Party will convene its conference in early September to elect "its highest leading body," the country's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
The planned conference sparked speculation that North Korea could publicly announce Kim Jong Un as his father's successor by giving him senior party jobs.
Kim Jong Il was tapped in 1974 to succeed his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung.
The decision was made public at a 1980 party convention. Kim Jong Il assumed leadership on his father's death in 1994.
"Kim Jong Un was named as a successor last year, though it was not made public to the outside world," Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the security think-tank Sejong Institute, south of Seoul, citing South Korea's top spy agency.
Little is known about Kim Jong Un, including his age, though he is believed to be in his mid-20s. Kim Jong Il's former sushi chef said in a 2003 memoir that the son looks and acts just like his father and is the leader's favorite.
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