North Korea Clears Way for a Third-Generation Kim

October 9th, 2010 at 01:35am Under Politic

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Little is known inside or outside North Korea about the young man who could become the next leader. Kim Jong Un studied in Switzerland but even his age is a mystery. He is around twenty-seven, the youngest of the three known sons of Kim Jong Il. The North Korean leader is sixty-eight and believed to be in poor health.

This week, North Korea published the first official photo of Kim Jong Un after a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party. Some observers had expected him to be named as the country’s next leader.

But Korea expert Gordon Flake at the Mansfield Foundation in Washington says the process is not that simple.

GORDON FLAKE: “What we’re seeing here is not the succession. What we’re seeing here is the first public indications of the beginning of the process of potential succession. But Kim Jong Il is still in power. And so this really is not an institutional rule. This is a personal family rule.”

Kim Jong Il came to power after his father, North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung, died in nineteen ninety-four.

This week, Kim Jong Un and his aunt, the sister of Kim Jong Il, became four-star generals with little military experience. State media later announced the appointment of Kim Jong Un to the Workers’ Party Central Committee.

He was also named to the powerful Central Military Commission. There, he joins Jang Song Taek, who is considered second in power after Kim Jong Il. Jang Song Taek is married to Kim Kyong Hui, the leader’s sister.

North Korea specialist Andrei Lankov says Kim Jong Il seems to want the couple to help prepare his young son for leadership. Then, in case of Kim Jong Il’s sudden death, he says, they will become “sort of prince-regent and princess-regent.”

ANDREI LANKOV: “That is, people who will be running the country and will be making actual decisions.”

Yet some North Korea experts say Jang Song Taek was not always so trusted. In two thousand four, he disappeared from public for a year-and-a-half.

Much of what experts know or think they know about North Korea comes from North Koreans who fled the country.

Some experts think this week’s political appointments could create tensions with North Korea’s aging generals. One theory is that the military could object if the ruling party looks for friendship with South Korea to help save North Korea’s economy.

Another theory is that Kim Jong Un might try to build power by dismissing opponents and inciting South Korea.

But on Thursday military officials from the two Koreas held their first talks in two years. And on Friday the two countries agreed to hold more reunions of families separated since the Korean War. The last reunions took place a year ago.

The talks are the latest signs of improved relations since a South Korean navy ship sank in March. Forty-six sailors died. An international investigation blamed North Korea but it denied any involvement.

In Washington, a Defense Department spokesman, Colonel David Lapan, said leaders in Pyongyang could change, but American objectives remain the same. Those objectives are for North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons and to look for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson.

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North Korea Vows to Make More Nuclear Weapons

June 14th, 2009 at 12:42pm Under Politic+ VOA

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North Korea has wasted no time in responding angrily to the passage of a new United Nations Security Council resolution. Pyongyang says it will use both plutonium and uranium technologies to create more nuclear weapons.

North Korea announced Saturday it would “weaponize” its remaining supply of plutonium, as well as begin enriching uranium in order to make nuclear weapons.

The statement, issued by the North’s Foreign Ministry and carried on official media, was an angry response to new international sanctions passed Friday by the United Nations Security Council.

Resolution 1874 severely restricts what may or may not be shipped to the North, and opens the door for U.N. members to target North Korean business interests with financial sanctions. It was passed in response to the North’s nuclear weapons test last month.

North Korea said Saturday it has become “absolutely impossible” to even consider giving up its nuclear weapons. The Pyongyang statement warns any attempt to “blockade” its ships will result in military action.

Daniel Pinkston, a senior Northeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group in Seoul, says North Korea’s pledge to “begin a process of uranium enrichment” is a reminder Pyongyang probably has help from partners.

“There are concerns about cooperation with Iran, for example. That’s something I’m quite concerned about,” he said.

North Korea has denied since 2002 U.S. accusations of fostering a covert uranium nuclear program. Now that Pyongyang apparently plans to pursue uranium enrichment openly, Pinkston says Iran may have much to offer.

“Technology, components, materials, parts, designs, data – you know, across-the-board cooperation. And the North Koreans can cooperate and work with the Iranians on the missiles as well,” he said.

The North’s recent acceleration of its nuclear development is expected to top the agenda of next week’s summit between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

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