The kid is Kim Jong-Un, who, to judge from the lone known photograph of him as a chubby-cheeked teen at an elite international school in Berne in Switzerland may be a little more photogenic, taller and probably an overall smoother item than his father. That’s to be expected considering that he speaks English, some French and German and was a fan of the National Basketball Association and its all-time greatest star, Michael Jordan.
But what difference is all that going to make when the country may be seething under tensions that are not likely to boil over while Kim Jong-Il is alive? Maybe not much right now, but the answer become more difficult after he goes in view of rivalries that appear inevitable between members of his tight-knit inner family and generals who’ve got to have other ideas.
Look out for the manipulations of Pyongyang’s power couple, Jang Song-Thaek and wife Kim Kyong-Hui, Kim Jong-Il’s younger sister. Jang rose through the ranks of the Workers’ Party but disappeared from view for several years, probably as a result of competition for power among members of Kim Jong-Il’s family, before emerging as influential as ever several years ago.
Jang can likely thank his wife’s influence on Kim Jong-Il in large measure for his resuscitation. Kim, whose power rests in his position as chairman of the national defense commission, not only gave Jang a place on the commission but named him in June as vice chairman.
Jang’s power and prestige were on display when he accompanied Kim in May to Beijing for a session with Chinese President Hu Jintao, at which they made the case for a vast infusion of aid and investment.
Jang’s wife, Kim Kyong-Hui, is also a strong contender for power in her own right. In charge of light industry for the party, she’s been photographed with Kim Jong-Il, as well as her husband, on frequent visits to industrial plants and military bases. She’s a member of the party central committee and might wind up with her husband in a senior party post. It’s even conceivable the party, which is ruled by Kim Jong-Il as general secretary, will wind up competing with the military as the center of national power.
How long, though, will military leaders put up with such authority in the hands of people with no military background? For that matter, what about Kim Jong-Un? Once ensconced on the family throne, will he want to accept Jang as a permanent regent – or will he look for allies within the armed forces, perhaps among younger officers?
To outward appearances, however, there is no sign of dissent in the military establishment. Vice Marshall Jo Myong-Rok, a one-time air force commander who traveled to Washington in October 2000 and met president Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright, then secretary of state, is at the age of 80 believed too old and too loyal to want to challenge Kim Jong-Il’s selection.
Two other generals, however, may present problems.
The first is Gen. O Kuk-Ryol, 79, also a former air force commander. Some see Gen. O as the second most powerful man in North Korea after Kim Jong-Il, whom he has known from his youth. He has served as chief of the staff of the army, lost out in a dispute with another top general, but surfaced again as chief of the defense bureau of the Workers’ Party. He’s said to be an influential strategist, at the center of the debate that may be going on about reforming the party, introducing the dynamic “new leadership” that the North Korean media is hyping as the whole point of the conference.
Then there is Gen. Kim Kyok-Sik, in charge of troops in the southwest of North Korea, including the ports on the Yellow Sea from which the North is challenging the Northern Limit Line set by the United Nations Command after the Korean War but never agreed on by the North.
Kim is certainly a loyalist but believed to have masterminded and ordered the attack in March on the South Korean navy corvette the Cheonan in which 46 sailors died. South Korea’s investigation into the attack concluded that a midget submarine from one of the ports under Kim’s command carried out the sinking, firing the torpedo that split the Cheonan in two.
Gen. Kim, who was placed in charge of the southwestern quadrant of the country after having lost his post as chief of staff, is assumed to have wanted to show his toughness — and have been eager for vengeance after a firefight last November in which a similar South Korean corvette machine-gunned a North Korean patrol boat, sending it back to port “in flames” with an unknown loss of life.
Still in his 60s, Gen. Kim is of an age when he might adopt a more independent course after Kim Jong-Il, suffering from a stroke, diabetes and a kidney ailment, finally passes on. And he might be inclined to ally with Kim Jong-Un if reports of the kid’s enthusiasm for the attack on the Cheonan are credible. According to this theory, Jong-Un endorsed the attack to demonstrate his machismo and win the backing of military hardliners.
Two figures that don’t seem to count, meanwhile, are Kim Jong-Il’s two older sons, Kim Jong-Nam and Kim Jong-Chul, both of whom have missed out in the power game. Jong-Nam, who has gained a reputation as an overweight playboy, spends much of his time in Macau, the gambling center near Hong Kong. Jong-Chul and Jong-Un have the same mother, who passed away six years ago, but Jong-Chul, after rising within the party, lost out as he was deemed “too feminine”.
Exactly what is going to happen at the party conference has to have been meticulously preordained in all these days of waiting, but that’s not to say all will work as planned. “The party conference is kind of adventurism,” said Kim Tae-Woo, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “It also involves the most fundamental decision-making.”
The conventional wisdom is that the conference may fulfill the same role as the last full-scale congress of the Workers’ Party in 1980 when Kim Jong-Il appeared as his heir to his father, Kim Il-Sung. One question, however, is whether the conference is on the same level as a party congress — or is in fact a more exclusive gathering.
In maneuvering to elevate his son as North Korea’s next leader, Kim Jong-Il has to be extremely careful when it comes to timing. He was 38 years old in 1980 when he ascended as his father’s heir presumptive, and he rose not through the party but via the defense commission.
Given the uncertainty, Kim Tae-Woo doubts if reports of large military units outside Pyongyang are there for a post-conference parade. Rather, he said, “They are on guard.”
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