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North Korea Is Said to Plan for Dynasty's Next Generation
By JAMES BROOKE
Published: February 1, 2005
TOKYO, Jan. 31 - North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, plans to stretch the family dynasty into a third generation, handing over power one day to one of his three sons, the South Korean media quoted North Korea's state radio as saying in a recent broadcast.
Cloaking the succession plan in the legitimacy of his charismatic father, Mr. Kim made the announcement on Thursday, three weeks before his own 63rd birthday, on Feb. 16. When his father, Kim Il Sung, was 62, North Koreans first learned that Kim Jong Il was being groomed to succeed him.
"I will uphold Father President's instructions," a South Korean newspaper, JoongAng Ilbo, said North Korea's state radio quoted Kim Jong Il as saying. His father, the founder of North Korea, had "stressed that if he falls short of completing the revolution, it will be continued by his son and grandson," the commentary said. Neither South Korea's National Intelligence Service, which monitors North Korean radio, nor the Unification Ministry would make available a transcript of the Jan. 27 broadcast, Reuters said.
Thirty years ago, North Korea's state media presented the younger Kim to the nation as the most competent man for the job. This time, with the world's only Communist dynasty well entrenched, the state radio emphasized the importance of blood lines.
"Kim has reached the right age by their traditional reckoning to start talking about a successor," Bradley K. Martin, author of a new book, "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty," said in a telephone interview from his home in Louisiana. Referring to Kim Jong Il's three sons, he added: "But we are going to have a hard time figuring out who it is. He may not have chosen yet. He may let them fight it out among themselves."
South Koreans have traded rumors in recent weeks about a shootout involving one son in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and an assassination plot against another son while he was in Europe.
The oldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 34, is believed to have fallen from favor after he was detained in 2001 at Tokyo's international airport as he tried to enter Japan with a falsified Dominican Republic passport. Mr. Kim, who attended Swiss boarding schools and speaks English and Japanese, told the authorities that he was planning to visit Tokyo Disneyland. In addition, his mother, Sung Hae Rim, long ago fell out of favor with Kim Jong Il, increasing his handicap in the competition. She went into exile in Moscow, and died there in 2003.
The other two sons, Kim Jong Chol, 24, and Kim Jong Un, 22, lost their most important backer in August, when their mother, Ko Yong Hee, died. Kim Jong Il is said to see Kim Jong Chol as effeminate, and instead favors the younger son, who has a hard glare, according to a Japanese sushi chef who has written two memoirs about his years working for the Kim family, from 1988 to 2001.
"The first son is too soft," the chef, who writes under the pen name Kenji Fujimoto, said last summer.
By JAMES BROOKE
Published: February 1, 2005
TOKYO, Jan. 31 - North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, plans to stretch the family dynasty into a third generation, handing over power one day to one of his three sons, the South Korean media quoted North Korea's state radio as saying in a recent broadcast.
Cloaking the succession plan in the legitimacy of his charismatic father, Mr. Kim made the announcement on Thursday, three weeks before his own 63rd birthday, on Feb. 16. When his father, Kim Il Sung, was 62, North Koreans first learned that Kim Jong Il was being groomed to succeed him.
"I will uphold Father President's instructions," a South Korean newspaper, JoongAng Ilbo, said North Korea's state radio quoted Kim Jong Il as saying. His father, the founder of North Korea, had "stressed that if he falls short of completing the revolution, it will be continued by his son and grandson," the commentary said. Neither South Korea's National Intelligence Service, which monitors North Korean radio, nor the Unification Ministry would make available a transcript of the Jan. 27 broadcast, Reuters said.
Thirty years ago, North Korea's state media presented the younger Kim to the nation as the most competent man for the job. This time, with the world's only Communist dynasty well entrenched, the state radio emphasized the importance of blood lines.
"Kim has reached the right age by their traditional reckoning to start talking about a successor," Bradley K. Martin, author of a new book, "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty," said in a telephone interview from his home in Louisiana. Referring to Kim Jong Il's three sons, he added: "But we are going to have a hard time figuring out who it is. He may not have chosen yet. He may let them fight it out among themselves."
South Koreans have traded rumors in recent weeks about a shootout involving one son in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and an assassination plot against another son while he was in Europe.
The oldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 34, is believed to have fallen from favor after he was detained in 2001 at Tokyo's international airport as he tried to enter Japan with a falsified Dominican Republic passport. Mr. Kim, who attended Swiss boarding schools and speaks English and Japanese, told the authorities that he was planning to visit Tokyo Disneyland. In addition, his mother, Sung Hae Rim, long ago fell out of favor with Kim Jong Il, increasing his handicap in the competition. She went into exile in Moscow, and died there in 2003.
The other two sons, Kim Jong Chol, 24, and Kim Jong Un, 22, lost their most important backer in August, when their mother, Ko Yong Hee, died. Kim Jong Il is said to see Kim Jong Chol as effeminate, and instead favors the younger son, who has a hard glare, according to a Japanese sushi chef who has written two memoirs about his years working for the Kim family, from 1988 to 2001.
"The first son is too soft," the chef, who writes under the pen name Kenji Fujimoto, said last summer.
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