Power succession in North seems to emerge as priority quite recently: Hill By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may have begun seriously thinking about picking up his successor quite recently after his health apparently failed in August, the chief U.S. nuclear envoy said Friday.

"The fact that he was quite ill a few months ago is leading to the question of
who's going to succeed him," Christopher Hill said in an interview with C-Span's
Washington Journal. "It's very clear that North Korea is beginning to think about
succession."
Hill, who doubles as assistant secretary of state for Asian and Pacific affairs,
said, however, that he did not know "whether these stories we're reading about in
the press in the last 24 hours are true, that he's named his youngest son as a
successor."
Reports said that the 66-year-old Kim has recently named his third and youngest
son, Jong-un, as his heir apparent apparently due to his health failure.
Kim Jong-il is believed to have suffered a stroke and undergone a major heart
surgery in the summer of last year when he failed to make public appearances for
a couple of months.
"He clearly had a health event, let me put it that way. He was clearly in some
ways, back in August, not making critical decisions," Hill said. "The best of our
knowledge, he seems to be kind of on the mend."
Hill said no one can say for sure what's going on in the opaque society, but
added, "Who succeeds him, I think, would be very important."
Kim's third son, Jong-un, now 26, is born to the leader's third known wife, Ko
Young-hee, who died of breast cancer in 2004. Some think he may be too young to
assume power but he is said to be heavily favored by his father because of his
resemblance to him both in appearance and temperament.
Kim Ok, 44, the current de facto fourth wife of Kim Jong-il who also serves as
his personal secretary, is believed to be supporting Jong-un. The woman is
believed among the most powerful group of people in North Korea, with the
leader's brother-in-law, Chang Sung-taek.
If Kim Jong-il's choice of his youngest son as his heir is proven, it would set
up another father-to-son transfer of power in North Korea. The leader took over
when his father and president, Kim Il-sung, died in 1994.
Some experts are skeptical about another dynastic power succession in the North,
citing a lack of time to groom an heir. Instead, they believe a collective
leadership may appear, with party and military leaders consolidating power around
one of the leader's three sons.
Some reports say that the brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il, Chang, is believed to be
assigned by the leader to serve as Jong-un's guardian. A senior party official,
Chang is said to be the No. 2 in the North's power hierarchy only after Kim
Jong-il.
Kim Jong-il is said to have punished some of his close confidants, including
Chang, years ago when they suggested the leader's oldest son, Kim Jong-nam, 37,
be groomed as a successor.
Chang, the husband of Kim Jong-il's only sister, Kim Gyeong-hee, was reportedly
demoted to a job at a remote province in 2004 but was reinstated in 2006.
The leader's second son, Jong-chol, 28, who was also born to Ko Young-hee, seems
to be sidelined in the succession, reports say. He reportedly suffers a
hormone-related disease and is said to be too weak to control power.
Kim Jong-il's oldest son, Jong-nam, who was born to the leader's late second
wife, Song Hye-rim, had been adrift abroad, mostly in China. In 2002, he was
expelled from Japan for trying to visit Disneyland in Tokyo along with his son
and wife on a forged passport.
The 37-year-old is said to be favored by China, North Korea's only major
communist ally. But despite his status as the oldest son, many believe that he is
handicapped in his qualifications to become an heir, because his mother was a
divorcee before meeting the leader in the early 1970s.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)