Kim Jong-il chooses third son as his successor

Telegraph UK ^ | June 2, 2009 | Malcolm Moore

[SolidWood]

Kim Jong-il has formally named his third son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor as he prepares to stand down as North Korea's leader.

Kim Jong-il, 67, who is known as North Korea's "Dear Leader", suffered a stroke at the end of last year and has been incapacitated ever since.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service has now confirmed that the Korean People's Army, the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and the ministerial cabinet have been asked to pledge their allegiance to Kim Jong-un, 25, the youngest member of the world's only Communist ruling dynasty.

"I was notified by the South Korean government of such moves and the loyalty pledges," said Park Jie-won of the South Korean Democratic Party, and a member of the government intelligence committee.

Kim Jong-un's elevation comes at the expense of his two older brothers, each of whom had previously been in contention to take the helm. Kim Jong-nam, the eldest, ruled himself out when he was caught trying to visit Disneyland in Japan on a fake passport in 2001. The middle brother, Kim Jong-chul, is apparently too "girlish" to rule.

[SolidWood]

[allmost]

He’s not long for this world anyway you slice it.

[mmanager]

Finally a world leader that Obama probably can connect with!

[M. Espinola]

North Korea's Stalinist cabal. What a missed opportunity!

[Lurking in Kansas]

... caught trying to visit Disneyland in Japan on a fake passport in 2001. The middle brother, Kim Jong-chul, is apparently too "girlish" to rule.

LOL... you can't make this stuff up ... what's the problem? ...obviously the 2 older boys are just like their old man...

[SampleMan]

I had an interesting thought the other day. Kim wants to continue the dynasty, but there are rumblings that powerful generals do not want to continue it.

What he needs is a good old Stalinist purge of the generals, however if they are powerful enough they may strike back in self defense before he can complete it.

So what to do? How about setting off nukes and threatening the world in the hope that the U.S. will conduct some strategic strikes. Some of the generals Kim wants dead would then get taken care of by us, while he could kill others and blame the deaths on the Americans.

Just a thought.

[lafroste]

It may be just the opposite. If chia pet provokes the US to strike, we’d likely be aiming right at him. Thus we take him out for the general puppet-masters that engineered the fiasco.

[A Navy Vet]

AIT. What think you? Good or bad?

[SampleMan]

To quote Bugs Bunny, “Could be.”

[AmericanInTokyo]

Bad. But expected. Thing is, there will be a lot of disatisfaction among the 朝鮮労働党 (Workers Party) and KPA military elite that none of them can never hope to rise to "leader" because they are not a member of the Dynasty. That is bound to piss off some people, most of them armed in some way. Who knows how Jong Nam and Jong Chul and their factions will respond as well. Defect to the West? Be offered plumb positions? Liquidated? Even now, mass party and military reeducation campaigns are commencing, reports have it, on the legitimacy and importance of General Kim Il Sung's rule being passed down to his grandson, General Kim Jong Un, be allowed to occur unimpeded. A coup d'etat, only if for good reasons, will probably be a good thing long term wise but not when it occurs. Particularly if a reformer gets in and liquidates the inner circle to the Kim Family....I might add, this of course would be a near miracle and would offer very unstable days for awhile.

[magellan]

Oh great. A millennial dynastic communist crown prince.

[Numbers Guy]

Is he rone-ry?

[Dallas59]

Happy Days

[AppyPappy]

He’ll be lucky to last the week after Kim is gone.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Maybe his second son wouldn’t be “girlish” if they got him a boys haircut and didn’t dress him in pink. Just a thought.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yes but that certainly was the craze and the fashion in the early 1970s!

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[LayoutGuru2]

Kim Jong-Un

The Un-Jong

[theDentist]

“Spirit of the Season!”

[hoosiermama]

Unstable days we can do. Unstable months, years, decades are a different story. Thanks for your analysis.