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.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS