S. Korea says North raising tension for power succession

By Sam Kim

SEOUL, June 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top defense official accused North Korean leader Kim Jong-il of being obsessed with handing power to his son, calling it a motive behind his reclusive state's nuclear and missile tests.

"Bent on his effort to engineer a hereditary power succession, Kim Jong-il is
pushing ahead with nuclear development, missile launches and moves to raise
tension," Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said in a message delivered this week to
South Korean troops.
The comment is a rare acknowledgment by a high-ranking South Korean official that
Kim has begun preparations to transfer power to his third son, Jong-un.
It also comes as North Korea raises tension on the Korean Peninsula by scrapping
the 1953 truce that effectively ended the three-year Korean War.
North Korea conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 and has since test-fired
a series of short-range missiles off its east coast. Some experts suspect the
North's latest moves are aimed at solidifying internal unity ahead of the
succession.
Calling the North Korean leadership "immoral, irresponsible and inhumane" against
its own people, Lee warned his military to shed any expectation that Pyongyang
would stop short of provoking an armed conflict.
"What we need is the ability and attitude to sternly punish the enemy for its
provocation," he said. The message was carried in Tuesday's edition of the
military-run Korea Defense Daily.