Kim Jong-il chooses third son as his successor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...successor.html
Kim Jong-il chooses third son as his successor
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 6:56AM BST 02 Jun 2009
Kim Jong-il has formally named his third son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor as he prepares to stand down as North Korea's leader.
Kim Jong-il, 67, who is known as North Korea's "Dear Leader", suffered a stroke at the end of last year and has been incapacitated ever since.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service has now confirmed that the Korean People's Army, the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and the ministerial cabinet have been asked to pledge their allegiance to Kim Jong-un, 25, the youngest member of the world's only Communist ruling dynasty.
"I was notified by the South Korean government of such moves and the loyalty pledges," said Park Jie-won of the South Korean Democratic Party, and a member of the government intelligence committee.
Kim Jong-un's elevation comes at the expense of his two older brothers, each of whom had previously been in contention to take the helm. Kim Jong-nam, the eldest, ruled himself out when he was caught trying to visit Disneyland in Japan on a fake passport in 2001. The middle brother, Kim Jong-chul, is apparently too "girlish" to rule.
By contrast, Kim Jong-un is a "chip off the old block" according to the memoirs of Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-il's former personal chef in Pyongyang.
Mr Fujimoto said he always called the youngest Kim "Prince". "When he shook hands with me, he stared at me with a vicious look. I cannot forget the look in the Prince's eyes: it's as if he was thinking: 'This guy is a despicable Japanese'."
Such is the secrecy of the Hermit Kingdom that Mr Fujimoto's account is almost the only information available about Kim Jong-un. The one existing photograph of Kim is a snapshot the chef took when North Korea's new ruler was 11-years-old.
However, the chef said the youngest Kim is "a spitting image of his father in terms of face, body shape and personality." He described his competitive spirit at basketball, when the young Kim would coach his teammates and analyse the game.
Kim Jong-un was born in Japan and studied in Switzerland under a pseudonym.
Until 2007 he attended the Kim Il-sung military academy in Pyongyang. He is also thought to be overweight and may suffer from diabetes.
Analysts said North Korea's nuclear bomb test last week, and the firing of several short-range missiles, could be designed to create a personality cult around its new leader. "I think the campaign is aimed at building up achievements that the successor can later claim credit for," said Cheong Seong, a professor at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.
Posters on the streets of the capital show workers soaring into the sky alongside rockets, as part of a campaign to instil North Koreans with pride in Juche, the quasi-religious ideology invented by Kim Il-sung exhorting "self-reliance".
Technically, the country is still ruled by Kim Il-sung, who continues to hold the titles of Eternal President of the Republic and "Great Leader" despite his death in 1994. Kim Jong-il's rule is based on the idea that he is a physical incarnation of his father, using "Yuhun Congch'i" (politics in accordance with the wishes of the ghost) to legitimise his position.
When Kim Jong-il took over the leadership, a calculated campaign attributed super human powers to him, including the ability to manipulate time.
Meanwhile, South Korea bolstered its defences against the North by deploying a high speed gun ship to the Western sea border. The deployment of the 440 ton Yun Yeong Ha came after North Korea scrapped the 1953 Korean War armistice and threatened war. The stealth ship is equipped with guided missiles, a 76mm gun and a 40mm gun.
The two Koreas clashed near the border island of Yeonpyeong in 1999 and 2002, resulting in the deaths of dozens of soldiers on both sides.
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