Kim Jong Il names son to succeed him in N Korea

NORTH KOREA’s Kim Jong Il has anointed his 26-year-old son – said to be competitive, proficient in English and a heavy drinker – as the next leader of the communist state, it emerged yesterday.

Two major South Korean newspapers said that North Korea’s military, party and government officials were informed that Kim Jong Un, the youngest of three, is in line to take the world’s first communist dynasty into a third generation.

The announcement was made in the days after North Korea’s provocative May 25 nuclear test, the Hankook Ilbo newspaper reported, citing unnamed South Korean lawmakers briefed by the spy agency.

The son already is being hailed as “Commander Kim”, and North Koreans are learning the lyrics to a new song praising him as the next leader, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said. South Korean lawmaker Park Jie-won told a radio show that the regime already is “pledging its allegiance to Kim Jong Un”. He said he was briefed by South Korea’s spy agency.

The National Intelligence Service would not confirm the reports.

The apparent anointment comes at a time of mounting tensions over North Korea’s April 5 rocket launch and last week’s nuclear test. The North also appears to be preparing to test-fire an array of medium and long-range missiles, reports said. Global powers are discussing how to rein in Pyongyang.

Analysts say the sabre-rattling is part of a campaign to build unity and support for a successor to Kim Jong Il, who reportedly suffered a stroke last August. Kim has three sons, but had not publicly named an heir to lead the nation of 24 million.

He is believed to want to name a successor by 2012 – the centenary of the birth of his father, North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung.

Little is known about Jong Un, the second son of former dancer Ko Yong Hi, who died of cancer in 2004. He studied at the International School in Bern, Switzerland, in the 1990s. A classmate recalled him as timid and introverted, but an avid skier and basketball player.

The eldest son, Jong Nam, 38, was considered the favourite to succeed his father until he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001. Kim considers the middle son, Jong Chol, too effeminate for the job, according to his former sushi chef.