No surprise as Kim re-elected to parliament

Kim Jong Il was unanimously re-elected to North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, in elections closely watched for signs of a political shift or hints the autocratic leader was grooming a successor.

All eligible voters in Constituency No 333 cast ballots for Kim, renewing their “unshakeable determination to devotedly safeguard” the leader, the official Korean Central News Agency said in first results from the poll.

Observers are watching the results closely for clues to how Kim, 67, and his 12th Supreme People’s Assembly ruling elite will govern the communist nation over the next five years. He reportedly suffered a stroke last August, but North Korea denies he was ill.