North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has won support from key ally China for a second father-to-son succession, South Korea’s spy chief was reported yesterday as saying.
National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Won Sei-hoon, quoted by the Chosun Ilbo, also said Kim might have taken his heir apparent and youngest son, Kim Jong-un, on his secretive trip to China late last month. Won was addressing a closed session of parliament’s intelligence committee on Monday. The newspaper was quoting lawmakers at the meeting.
Yonhap news agency carried a similar report.
“In terms of securing aid, Kim [Jong-il]’s visit to China was not so successful. However, it was a considerable achievement that he got the succession plan recognized,” the agency quoted Won as saying.
Asked whether the NIS believed Kim Jong-il had been accompanied by his son, Won said: “Isn’t it possible to see it like that, judging from the places he visited?”
Kim and his entourage made a pilgrimage to places in northeastern China linked to his own father and North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung, who led a band of anti-Japanese guerrillas. The visits were seen as a bid to confer legitimacy on another dynastic succession.
A meeting scheduled for this month of the North’s ruling party is expected to pave the way for an eventual succession. However, there have been no reports that the conference, the nation’s most important political gathering for 30 years, is under way.
One media report has said the apparent delay is due to the 68-year-old leader’s health problems.
However, Won said the meeting was likely to take place this week. He noted that the North had announced in June that it would take place this month in a period known as sangsun.
Some experts say the term in North Korea refers to the first half of a month.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was