PYONGYANG // Kim Jong-il's son was identified yesterday as the head of a top decision-making body of the ruling Workers' Party, a post that now gives him authority over political as well as military matters in North Korea.
A week after state media reported Kim's December 17 death, the campaign to install successor Kim Jong-un was gaining momentum.
On Saturday, state media referred to him as "supreme leader" of North Korea's 1.2 million-strong armed forces and said the military's top leaders had pledged their loyalty to him.
Yesterday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper described him as head of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party - a post that appears to make him the top official in the Workers' Party.
Kim Jong-il ruled North Korea as head of three main state organs: the Workers' Party, the Korean People's Army and the National Defence Commission.
His father, the North Korea founder Kim Il-sung, meanwhile, remains the nation's "eternal president" long after his 1994 death.
Kim Jong-un, who is in his late 20s and was revealed last year as his father's choice among three sons for successor, is the third generation Kim to rule the country.
He was named a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party, but was expected to ascend to new military and political posts while being groomed to become the next leader.
People continued lining up yesterday in central Kim Il-sung Square, where a massive portrait that usually features Kim Il-sung has been replaced by one of Kim Jong-il, to bow before his smiling image and to lay funereal flowers.
Heated buses stood by to give mourners a respite from the cold, and hot tea and water were distributed from kiosks.
South Koreans were among the mourners. The widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Kim Jong-il in 2000, and the Hyundai Group chairwoman, Hyun Jeong-eun, whose late husband had ties to the North, each led delegations that drove across the heavily fortified border to Pyongyang.
steelers vs ravens jack dempsey lake malawi hines ward warren jeffs phaedra parks oklahoma earthquake
No comments:
Post a Comment