North Koreans voted yesterday to elect legislators to the country’s rubber-stamp parliament — a poll outside observers are watching closely for hints leader Kim Jong-il may be grooming a successor.
The election is the first since Kim, 67, reportedly suffered a stroke in August. Polls scheduled for last year were postponed as Kim disappeared from the public eye, sparking concerns that the authoritarian leader’s sudden death could trigger instability in the impoverished country.
But Kim appears to have recovered, South Korean officials say, and has been making a busy tour of factories, farming collectives and military units around the country. Still, this year’s election is being watched closely for any sign he is preparing to name a successor.
Kim’s 26-year-old son, Kim Jong-un, is reportedly running for a seat in what analysts say would be a strong sign he is being groomed to inherit power from his father.
The polls come as the isolated North faces off against the US and other regional powers over its refusal to abide by a 2007 disarmament pact, and its preparation to launch what it says is a satellite but many fear will actually be a long-range missile.
North Korea also is warning the South and the US not to hold upcoming joint military drills it sees as a precursor to an attack on the North, and has threatened South Korean passenger jets flying near its airspace if the exercises go ahead today. Several airlines have rerouted flights to steer clear of North Korean airspace.
Since assembly members hold key party, government and military posts, the results of yesterday’s vote are expected to provide a peek into who will ascend to the North’s ruling elite.
Parliament has 687 deputies including Kim Jong-il, who has led the country since his father’s death in 1994 and is running for his third five-year term. Experts predict he will fill the new parliament with finance-savvy figures and close associates to help revive the country’s shattered economy and further consolidate his military and political base.
Voter turnout was more than 93 percent by 2pm, Korean Central News Agency said.
The elections for five-year terms are largely a formality since candidates are widely believed to be hand-picked by Kim Jong-il and the ruling Workers’ Party, and meet only a few times a year to rubber-stamp bills. Only one candidate runs in each constituency.
Footage aired on state TV showed hundreds of soldiers dancing and singing in the plaza outside the polling booth at Constituency No. 333, where Kim Jong-il was the sole candidate running for a seat.
They danced and clapped to a brass band and a singing military trio on a nearby stage.
Inside, soldiers waited in line for their ballots, which they placed solemnly with both hands in a white box flanked by red flowers. The name “Kim Jong-il” was visible in red on the ballots.
They then gazed up at the portraits of Kim Jong-il and his father, North Korea founder Kim Il-sung, before backing away respectfully.
“Our Korean People’s Army personnel will ... dedicate our lives and safeguard our dear supreme commander and comrade,” said Jung Ryong-ho, a soldier.
The election is officially a secret vote. But in reality, if a voter opposes the one candidate listed, they must go to a special booth to cross out the name before placing it in a ballot box — an act of rebellion defectors say no North Korean would dare commit.
Polls were expected to close at 6pm and results are expected today.
US President Barack Obama dispatched his new envoy on North Korea to discuss the country with his counterparts in the region. Stephen Bosworth, who arrived in Seoul on Saturday, urged the North to refrain from making further threats and to return to the negotiation table.
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
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.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS