N. Korea began succession campaign years ago with eye on younger son: U.S. report

SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea started preparing for a hereditary
succession eight years ago with leader Kim Jong-il's younger sons in mind and
accelerated the process after the leader's alleged stroke last year, a U.S. spy
agency report said.

The report by the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Center, dated May
6, suggests the recent emergence of Kim's youngest son, Jong-un, as the heir was
not sudden or impulsive but a result of thought-out, long-term preparation.
It said North Korea's succession campaign began in 2001 with media propaganda but
was put on hold after the death of the mother of Kim's two younger sons, Ko
Yong-hui, in 2004.
The succession campaign resurfaced following Kim Jong-il's suspected illness with
a more explicit reference to the youngest child, it said. Jong-un's elevation was
timed with the nation's campaign to become prosperous by 2012, the birth
centennial of Kim Il-sung, the North's founder and his grandfather.
"While Kim's stroke last year may have accelerated the process, it appears that
Kim has been planning and preparing for the move since at least 2001," the report
said.
The North's state media then began rationalizing Kim Kong-il's succession to his
father, citing historical and ideological reasoning, and emphasized the need to
emulate it. Kim Jong-il was internally designated as successor in a Workers'
Party meeting at age 32 in 1974 and publicly declared as the heir in the party
convention in 1980.
The report cited a political essay carried by a party newspaper on July 21, 2001,
as the first sign of the succession campaign. The article titled "A Brilliant
Succession" underscored Kim Jong-il's leadership credentials and called
father-to-son succession a North Korean "tradition."
The report says the propaganda from the outset honed in on Kim's sons with Ko
rather than his first son Kim Jong-nam, born out of wedlock to Song Hae-rim, who
became Kim's second wife. Starting in 2002, state media began running reverent
commentaries on Ko, who died of breast cancer.
The succession propaganda nearly disappeared until Kim Jong-il reemerged after
supposedly suffering a stroke in August last year. It then generally employed
indirect references, using words like "bloodline" or "Mount Paektu," a mountain
sanctified by North Korea as Kim Jong-il's birthplace.
"Recent signals have been extremely subtle, suggesting they are designed to
inform internal audiences without alerting outsiders," the report said.
The first sign appeared on Nov. 6 last year with a political essay that
repeatedly used the word "grandson" to underline a paternal bloodline required to
become the eventual successor to Kim Il-sung.
Days after Kim's birthday, state television broadcast a fictional children's
program, "Good Heart of the Third Child," which emphasized the moral virtue of
the youngest of three brothers.
Some signs were more forthright, the report said. An essay on Kim's steel mill
visit last year said, "The heroes of history, their average age is 25. Age 25.
What a heart-stirring reality that is." Jong-un was 25 at the time when the visit
was made.
But South Korea's Unification Ministry downplayed the notion that North Korea's
succession campaign began in a specific year. References to bloodlines and Mount
Paektu are a perennial theme in state media, and also appeared in the 1980s and
90s, an official in charge of North Korea analysis said, though he acknowledged
their use has become more frequent in recent months.
Also, the Korean word for "succession" -- "gye-seung" -- is translated in North
Korea's English reports as "inheritance" rather than power transfer.
"Such words were there from long time ago, and it's difficult to say there was a
certain point of time when the succession campaign began. These are subject to
interpretation. North Korea has never said the references are to a successor,"
said Kim Sang-gook, the ministry official.
The U.S. report also presents an age-progression photo of what Jong-un may look
like now at 26, based on a picture that South Korean broadcaster KBS released
after acquiring it from Kim Jong-il's former sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto. The
photo envisions Jong-un with a stronger jaw, a more prominent nose and eyebrows
and having outgrown his baby cheeks.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)