North Korea set to make succession official

Going, going…

It really looks like North Korean “Dear Leader”, Kim Jong-il, is on the way out.

North Korea has summoned a Chosun Workers’ Party delegates conference in early September, the first such event in 44 years.

This is most likely to make it official that his third son, Kim Jong-eun will take the reigns.

Complying with precedent, the apparatus of the Workers’ Party and its leading officials are likely to be reshuffled in September, most likely in order to set in place the Kim Jong Eun ruling core. There is also the possibility that Jang Sung Taek, who just became a vice chairman of the National Defense Commission during the last Supreme People’s Assembly session, will be elected to the Standing Committee of the Politburo.

Cheong Seong Chang, a North-South relations researcher at the Sejong Institute explained, “It may be that through this conference Kim Jong Eun’s succession is publicized across the country. This may be done by selecting Kim Jong Eun as a core official on the Central Committee or the Military Committee of the Party.”

The kid is only in his late 20s, so it’s unlikely this succession is being announced just for the heck of it. Most of the Nork leadership is a very old bunch of men and that would indicate that any announcement of Kim Jong-eun’s succession would occur when he’s older… unless, of course, time is not on his father, Kim Jong-il’s, side.

*cross-posted