N. Korean leader boasts of heir apparent son's boldness over 2009 rocket launch

SEOUL, Aug. 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il boasted of his heir apparent son Kim Jong-un's boldness when the isolated country fired a long-range rocket in 2009 that drew international condemnation, a former senior intelligence official said Wednesday.
The North claimed it successfully launched a satellite into space in April 5, 2009, as part of a peaceful space program.



However, South Korea and the United States said the launch was made to test North Korea's ballistic missile technology and that no object entered orbit.
The same day Kim said that if enemies had intercepted the rocket, his youngest son would have struck back, said Han Ki-bum, who handled North Korean affairs at Seoul's National Intelligence Service between 2008 and 2009.
Kim's threat appeared to have meant that the North's leader-in-waiting could have retaliated by attacking a South Korean missile site, said Han, who now is affiliated with the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification.
Han said Kim's comments were carried in a North Korean public document in June 2009, which the expert said was designed to promote Jong-un's artillery prowess as part of a campaign to idolize the heir apparent son.
Kim Jong-un, a four-star general who is widely believed to have expertise in artillery systems, is being groomed to succeed his father as the country's next leader.
The succession, if made, would mark communism's second hereditary power transfer. The elder Kim inherited power from his father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
In 2009, North Korea quit talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs in protest of the international condemnation over its rocket launch, and subsequently conducted its second nuclear test.
Still, the North has expressed interest in returning to the disarmament-for-aid talks that involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.