The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is expected to join the communist party leadership at an upcoming meeting, paving the way for his eventual succession, a report said yesterday.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said Kim Jong-un is expected to be elected as a member of the ruling party’s central committee at a meeting of key party delegates next month.
The agency, in a report from Beijing and Pyongyang, said Kim Jong-un is also expected to become a member of the party’s political bureau presidium at a central committee general meeting to be held soon after the delegates meet.
Kyodo, quoting informed sources, said the party is expected to convene a congress in 2012 at which Kim Jong-un would be officially appointed as successor.
The 68-year-old leader, who suffered a stroke in August 2008, is widely reported to be grooming Kim Jong-un, his third son, to take over eventually.
Kim Jong-il, who among his other titles is party general secretary, is currently the only member of its political bureau presidium.
North Korea in June announced plans for the delegates’ meeting, which will be only the third since the communist state was founded in 1948.
It is seen as the most important party event since 1980, when a convention of all party members made public Kim Jong-il’s status as Kim Il-sung’s eventual successor.
Analysts have previously said next month’s meeting, for which no date has been announced, will probably designate Kim Jong-un as next leader.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
RSS