ID :
54544
Thu, 04/09/2009 - 12:12
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/54544
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N. Korea's parliament set to reappoint Kim Jong-il, shake up power elite
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, April 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korean citizens reaffirmed their support for leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday ahead of his expected reappointment as the country's top military commander, following a rocket launch that strengthened his standing at home despite international pressure.
Kim is set to renew his five-year term as chairman of the National Defence
Commission, the highest military decision-making body, when a new parliament
holds its first meeting Thursday. The meeting was timed to follow Sunday's rocket
launch, which North Korea says put a satellite into orbit but is dismissed by
outside monitors as another failed attempt.
"He is the great statesman of the general-type who has performed immortal feats
to shine forever in history," the Rodong Sinmun, the country's main newspaper
published by the Workers' Party, said in an editorial on Kim's envisioned
reappointment. It praised Kim as an "illustrious commander born of Heaven."
The Supreme People's Assembly, newly elected last month, is a rubber stamp
parliament, but its first meeting is politically significant in North Korea, with
its agenda items including the renewal of Kim's term, shake-ups in the Cabinet
and the military, and ratifications of foreign policy directives.
In Thursday's meeting, new lawmakers are expected to reaffirm Pyongyang's tough
stance defending its rocket launch, Seoul officials said. The North's foreign
ministry has warned that Pyongyang may quit the six-party nuclear talks if the
United States and its allies -- who suspect Sunday's launch was a test of the
North's ballistic missile capability -- punish it with U.N. sanctions. Amid
tensions with the George W. Bush administration in 2003, North Korea's then new
assembly approved the foreign ministry's motion to boycott the nuclear talks.
"The peaceful use of the outer space is an inalienable legitimate right of a
sovereign state," Kim Chang-ryong, an army general, was quoted as saying in a
dispatch by the official Korean Central News Agency. The launch demonstrated "our
invincible military power" as well as the North's scientific power, he said.
For North Korea watchers, the biggest question is how broadly Kim will reshuffle
the National Defence Commission and whether he will revise the constitution to
restructure state agencies, indicating a policy shift.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow with the non-governmental Sejong Institute in
Seoul, said Kim tends to keep senior officials until their deaths. But if Kim
replaces the second-ranking post in the National Defence Commission with a
younger official, that may be a sign that the leader is eyeing quick senior-level
talks with Washington, Chang said.
Jo Myong-rok, 81, the commission's current first vice chairman, traveled to
Washington in 2000 as Kim's envoy to meet with U.S. President Bill Clinton, but
his ill health makes him unfit for the high-profile task now, Cheong said.
"If Jo Myong-rok is replaced, that could suggest Chairman Kim is thinking of
high-level talks with Washington. But his style in personnel management is
conservative -- 'keep them as long as they are alive,'" Cheong said.
As opposed to the past, Kim, 67, now has to consider his own health. After he
allegedly suffered a stroke last August, the expected parliamentary elections
were delayed. In Thursday's meeting, Kim will likely aim to tidy up the power
structure for whoever his successor may be, said Hong Ihk-hyun, an analyst with
the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul.
"Kim must have realized when he fell ill that the official absence of a successor
could expose a weak point in his regime that could be exploited by outside
forces. That could lead Kim to try to strengthen internal unity and settle the
succession issue early," Hong said.
Sources say Kim has named his third and youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor,
but Seoul officials say there is no hard evidence to back those reports.
State media reports have tied the rocket launch and Kim's envisioned
reappointment to the country's campaign to build a "great, prosperous and
powerful socialist nation" by 2012, the centennial anniversary of the birth of
Kim's father and late President Kim Il-sung.
Compared to recent years, Kim has nearly tripled his number of field inspections
in the past three months, revving up the economic drive. Among his 44 trips so
far, 20 visits were to industrial facilities, compared to 13 military visits,
according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.
SEOUL, April 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korean citizens reaffirmed their support for leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday ahead of his expected reappointment as the country's top military commander, following a rocket launch that strengthened his standing at home despite international pressure.
Kim is set to renew his five-year term as chairman of the National Defence
Commission, the highest military decision-making body, when a new parliament
holds its first meeting Thursday. The meeting was timed to follow Sunday's rocket
launch, which North Korea says put a satellite into orbit but is dismissed by
outside monitors as another failed attempt.
"He is the great statesman of the general-type who has performed immortal feats
to shine forever in history," the Rodong Sinmun, the country's main newspaper
published by the Workers' Party, said in an editorial on Kim's envisioned
reappointment. It praised Kim as an "illustrious commander born of Heaven."
The Supreme People's Assembly, newly elected last month, is a rubber stamp
parliament, but its first meeting is politically significant in North Korea, with
its agenda items including the renewal of Kim's term, shake-ups in the Cabinet
and the military, and ratifications of foreign policy directives.
In Thursday's meeting, new lawmakers are expected to reaffirm Pyongyang's tough
stance defending its rocket launch, Seoul officials said. The North's foreign
ministry has warned that Pyongyang may quit the six-party nuclear talks if the
United States and its allies -- who suspect Sunday's launch was a test of the
North's ballistic missile capability -- punish it with U.N. sanctions. Amid
tensions with the George W. Bush administration in 2003, North Korea's then new
assembly approved the foreign ministry's motion to boycott the nuclear talks.
"The peaceful use of the outer space is an inalienable legitimate right of a
sovereign state," Kim Chang-ryong, an army general, was quoted as saying in a
dispatch by the official Korean Central News Agency. The launch demonstrated "our
invincible military power" as well as the North's scientific power, he said.
For North Korea watchers, the biggest question is how broadly Kim will reshuffle
the National Defence Commission and whether he will revise the constitution to
restructure state agencies, indicating a policy shift.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow with the non-governmental Sejong Institute in
Seoul, said Kim tends to keep senior officials until their deaths. But if Kim
replaces the second-ranking post in the National Defence Commission with a
younger official, that may be a sign that the leader is eyeing quick senior-level
talks with Washington, Chang said.
Jo Myong-rok, 81, the commission's current first vice chairman, traveled to
Washington in 2000 as Kim's envoy to meet with U.S. President Bill Clinton, but
his ill health makes him unfit for the high-profile task now, Cheong said.
"If Jo Myong-rok is replaced, that could suggest Chairman Kim is thinking of
high-level talks with Washington. But his style in personnel management is
conservative -- 'keep them as long as they are alive,'" Cheong said.
As opposed to the past, Kim, 67, now has to consider his own health. After he
allegedly suffered a stroke last August, the expected parliamentary elections
were delayed. In Thursday's meeting, Kim will likely aim to tidy up the power
structure for whoever his successor may be, said Hong Ihk-hyun, an analyst with
the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul.
"Kim must have realized when he fell ill that the official absence of a successor
could expose a weak point in his regime that could be exploited by outside
forces. That could lead Kim to try to strengthen internal unity and settle the
succession issue early," Hong said.
Sources say Kim has named his third and youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor,
but Seoul officials say there is no hard evidence to back those reports.
State media reports have tied the rocket launch and Kim's envisioned
reappointment to the country's campaign to build a "great, prosperous and
powerful socialist nation" by 2012, the centennial anniversary of the birth of
Kim's father and late President Kim Il-sung.
Compared to recent years, Kim has nearly tripled his number of field inspections
in the past three months, revving up the economic drive. Among his 44 trips so
far, 20 visits were to industrial facilities, compared to 13 military visits,
according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.
