N. Korean leader, aides elected to seats in parliament+

PYONGYANG, March 9 Kyodo - A total of 687 delegates including North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his
close aides have been elected to the Supreme People's Assembly, the country's
parliament, as a result of Sunday's election, the country's official media
reported Monday.

All the delegates, who have five-year terms, won seats with 100 percent of the
votes for them, the Korean Central News Agency reported. The voter turnout was
99.98 percent, according to KCNA.
The list of delegates was announced on state-run television from 8 p.m. local
time over about 40 minutes. The total of the delegates was the same as in the
previous two elections in 1998 and 2003.
Among those elected were the leader's key aides such as People's Armed Forces
Minister Kim Yong Chun and Jang Song Thaek, Kim's brother-in-law and a
department director of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.
Also included were Kim Yang Gon, another department director at the party, and
Kang Sok Ju, first vice foreign minister who holds a key role in foreign
policy.
KCNA had reported earlier that the country's leader had been elected from
Constituency No. 333, with all the voters participating in the election and
voting for Kim.
Following the election, the assembly's first meeting is expected to be convened
as early as April to reappoint Kim as chairman of the powerful National Defense
Commission, the country's de facto top post.
==Kyodo