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NEWS FLASH: Kim Jong Il, North Korean Dictator, Dead
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[ Protesters Denounce North Korea’s Political Moves - NTDTV ]
A South Korean man watches a TV screen on Sept. 30 at a railway station in Seoul showing a KCNA group photo taken in Pyongyang. A red ring highlights the man believed to be Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. (Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images)
As the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il continues to degenerate, it is expected that his youngest son, the little-known Kim Jong-un, will take control of the regime.
North Korea released the first picture of Jong-un on Sept. 30 through its state-run media just after it held a Worker’s Party congress—the first of its kind in 44 years. Just prior to the meeting, the 27-year-old Kim Jong-un was promoted to a four-star general . The move is viewed as a precursor to his eventual leadership of the Pyongyang regime.
“I would suppose this is perhaps the ultimate reality show unfolding in North Korea, and we are simply watching this very closely,” said Department of State spokesman Philip J. Crowley during a Sept. 28 daily press briefing.
Internal disputes have already begun to surface over what would be the first communist regime passed down father-to-son through three generations.
The start of the Worker’s Party congress was delayed due to an “internal conflict in ruling clique, including the dissatisfaction of some leaders in the military with Kim Jong-un’s sudden rise,” said Democratic Party lawmaker Shin Hak-yong, citing the National Intelligence Service, South Korean media Chosun Ilbo reported.
There will “absolutely” be internal problems in North Korea if Jong-un is appointed, said Marcus Noland, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, during a Sept. 28 recording by the institute.
Kim Jong-il began a slow move to power in the 1970s and more so in the 1980s. During this time, he began to develop an identity in the country’s system until he took control in 1994 following the death of his father, Kim Il-sung. Jong-il’s youngest son has not gone through such a process, however, and has little identity in North Korea, according to Noland.
The Pyongyang regime has a unique structure. Kim Jong-il presides over the communist Central Committee and the Cabinet, and as the more-recently formed National Defense Commission has grown in power in the country, Jong-il was also appointed as its Supreme Commander.
There are three power centers in North Korea—the Kim family, the Communist Party, and the military—with rivalry and coalitions existing between each, according to Noland.
The National Defense Commission, which presides over the military, has gradually become the ruling force in the country. According to Noland, the succession is expected to be managed by the National Defense Commission.
Jong-Il’s Successor
Talk of Kim Jong-il stepping down began largely in the fall of 2008, when he failed to appear at events for the founding of the North Korean communist regime. “By spring 2009, the beginning of an official process to designate a successor appeared to unfold,” says a January 2010 report in The Washington Quarterly.
“Internal propaganda mechanisms were also mobilized to glorify the short resume of Kim Jong-il’s third son, Kim Jong-un. Increasingly, signs emerged that the 27-year-old Kim Jong-un had been formally designated as Kim Jong-il’s successor,” says the report.
It adds that by the summer of 2009, Jong-il’s health improved, and “propaganda to support Kim Jong-un as the successor mysteriously and suddenly halted, raising additional questions about who might replace Kim Jong-il as North Korea’s leader and how the succession process might play out.”
