N Korea lines up successor for Kim - Dictator’s youngest son tipped as heir

N Korea lines up successor for Kim - Dictator’s youngest son tipped as heir
By Christian Oliver in Seoul
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: June 2 2009 04:23 | Last updated: June 2 2009 09:49
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a466c4d2-4f24-11de-8c10-00144feabdc0.html


After months of speculation that North Korea’s ailing dictator, Kim Jong-il, has been looking to appoint a successor, South Korean spies said on Tuesday the communist state’s most powerful institutions had sworn loyalty to his third and youngest son.

Political analysts said Mr Kim, who probably suffered a stroke last year, has heightened military tensions on the peninsula as a show of internal strength, deterring any challengers to the succession of his dynasty. The test of an atomic bomb last week and a long-range missile launch last month have sparked UN Security Council condemnation.

“Yesterday, I was notified by the government that there is such move [towards succession] in North Korea. The North has brought Kim Jong-woon forward and pledged loyalty,” Park Ji-won, a parliamentarian in South Korea’s National Intelligence Committee told a radio programme.

South Korea’s security services say North Korea’s parliament, military and embassies all received instructions on May 25, directly after Pyongyang detonated its second atomic bomb, to swear allegiance to the Swiss-educated Kim Jong-woon, still in his mid-20s.

“We can say the evidence now all points to the third son, but with things as sensitive as they are at the moment, anything can still happen,” one South Korean security official said.

The appointment could not be independently corroborated and North Korea’s official media have still never mentioned any of Kim Jong-il’s sons by name. North Korean missions contacted by the FT could not confirm the news.

The absence of a clear succession has long been one of North Korea’s biggest strategic weaknesses. Kim Jong-il was styled as heir apparent for more than a decade before his father, Kim Il-sung, died in 1994.

Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at Seoul’s Sejong Institute, argued last week that the second atomic test was a perfect set-piece for the third boy to play his first major political role. Mr Cheong has long argued that Jong-woon seemed the most likely successor.

“The oldest boy, Kim Jong-nam, would not do, because the relationship between Kim Jong-il and his mother was seen as improper,” he said.

Kim Jong-il never married Jong-nam’s mother, a divorcee. However, there are also disputes over whether Kim Jong-il ever married Jong-woon’s mother, a former dancer.

Kim Jong-nam also developed a reputation as a bon viveur in the gambling dens of Macau and angered his father by trying to get to Disneyland in Japan on a false passport. The second son has seemed equally unsuitable, only gaining notoriety for inviting rock guitarist Eric Clapton to play in North Korea.

According to Kim Jong-il’s Japanese chef Kenji Fujimoto, Jong-woon was always the dictator’s favourite and bore the closest physical resemblance to his father. Fujimoto noted Jong-woon, who is thought to speak English and German, was a competitive basketball player who liked to coach the other players. Mr Cheong said the dictator had always been wary about promoting him because of his youth.

The moves to consolidate power at home come amidst a rapidly deteriorating security situation on the peninsula. South Korea has deployed an extra warship equipped with missiles to the Yellow Sea, where the North has raised fears of a naval confrontation by telling its merchant seamen to stay in port until the end of July. Sea battles were fought in 1999 and 2002.

South Korean and US officials say Pyongyang is also moving a second long-range missile into place for a launch, possibly in the next two weeks. South Korean media also warned yesterday that North Korea was planning to fire a medium-range missile from the east of the country.

Despite escalating tensions, Seoul’s KOSPI stock index closed flat.

Additional reporting by Kathrin Hille, Peter Shadbolt and John Aglionby