North Korea mourns Kim Jong Il; son is ‘successor’

A woman reads an extra issue of a Japan­ese news­pa­per at Ginza dis­trict in Tokyo Mon­day, Dec. 19, 2011. The paper reports Kim, North Korea’s mer­cu­r­ial and enig­matic long­time leader, has died of heart fail­ure. He was 69. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

RAFAEL WOBER

Asso­ci­ated Press

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Kore­ans marched by the thou­sands Mon­day to their capital’s land­marks to mourn Kim Jong Il, many cry­ing uncon­trol­lably and flail­ing their arms in grief over the death of their “Dear Leader.”

North Korean state media pro­claimed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, a “Great Suc­ces­sor,” while a vig­i­lant world watched for any signs of a tur­bu­lent tran­si­tion to the untested leader in an unpre­dictable nation known to be pur­su­ing nuclear weapons.

South Korea’s mil­i­tary went on high alert in the face of the North’s 1.2 million-strong armed forces fol­low­ing news of Kim’s death after 17 years in power. North Korea said Kim died of a heart attack on Sat­ur­day while car­ry­ing out offi­cial duties on a train trip. Pres­i­dent Barack Obama agreed by phone with South Korean Pres­i­dent Lee Myung-bak to closely mon­i­tor developments.

On the streets of the North Korean cap­i­tal, Pyongyang, peo­ple wailed in grief, some kneel­ing on the ground or bow­ing repeat­edly. Chil­dren and adults laid flow­ers at key memorials.

A tear­ful Kim Yong Ho said Kim Jong Il had made people’s lives hap­pier. “That is what he was doing when he died: work­ing, trav­el­ing on a train,” he said.

Other North Kore­ans walked past a giant paint­ing of Kim Jong Il and his late father, national founder Kim Il Sung, stand­ing together on Mount Paektu, Kim Jong Il’s offi­cial birth­place. Wreaths were neatly placed below the painting.

“How could the heav­ens be so cruel? Please come back, gen­eral. We can­not believe you’re gone,” Hong Son Ok shouted, her body shak­ing wildly dur­ing an inter­view with North Korea’s offi­cial television.

A for­eigner who teaches at a uni­ver­sity in Pyongyang told The Asso­ci­ated Press that stu­dents told about Kim’s death looked very seri­ous but didn’t show any out­ward emotion.

“There was a blan­ket of silence,” said the teacher, who spoke on con­di­tion of anonymity because of wor­ries about his secu­rity. “Peo­ple were going about their busi­ness. Lots of peo­ple were lin­ing up to lay flow­ers at offi­cial por­traits. Peo­ple looked a lit­tle stunned and very seri­ous, but com­posed and respectful.”

“He passed away too sud­denly to our pro­found regret,” said a state­ment car­ried by the North’s offi­cial Korean Cen­tral News Agency. “The heart of Kim Jong Il stopped beat­ing, but his noble and august name and benev­o­lent image will always be remem­bered by our army and people.”

He was 69, accord­ing to offi­cial records, though some reports indi­cate he was 70.

North Korean state media fell short of call­ing Kim Jong Un the country’s next leader, but gave clear indi­ca­tions that Kim Jong Il’s third son, who is believed to be in his late 20s, would suc­ceed his father.

The North said in a dis­patch that the peo­ple and the mil­i­tary “have pledged to uphold the lead­er­ship of com­rade Kim Jong Un” and called him a “Great Suc­ces­sor” of the country’s rev­o­lu­tion­ary phi­los­o­phy of juche, or self reliance.

The death could set back efforts by the United States and oth­ers to get Pyongyang to aban­don its nuclear weapons ambi­tions, because the untested suc­ces­sor may seek to avoid any per­ceived weak­ness as he moves to con­sol­i­date control.

“The sit­u­a­tion could become extremely volatile. What the North Korean mil­i­tary does in the next 24–48 hours will be deci­sive,” said Bill Richard­son, a for­mer U.S. ambas­sador to the United Nations who has made sev­eral high-profile vis­its to North Korea.

The death comes at a sen­si­tive time for North Korea as it pre­pares for next year’s 100th anniver­sary of the birth of Kim Il Sung. The prepa­ra­tions include mas­sive con­struc­tion projects through­out the city as part of Kim Jong Il’s unful­filled promise to bring pros­per­ity to his people.

Seoul and Wash­ing­ton will worry that Kim Jong Un “may feel it nec­es­sary in the future to pre­cip­i­tate a cri­sis to prove his met­tle to other senior lead­ers,” said Bruce Klingner, an Asia ana­lyst at The Her­itage Foun­da­tion think tank in Washington.

North Korea con­ducted at least one short-range mis­sile test Mon­day, a South Korean offi­cial said. South Korea’s mil­i­tary sees the fir­ing as part of a sched­uled rou­tine drill, instead of a provo­ca­tion, said the offi­cial, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymity because of a pol­icy that bans com­ment­ing on intel­li­gence matters.

How­ever, Kon­stan­tin Makienko of the Moscow-based Cen­ter for Analy­sis of Strate­gies and Tech­nolo­gies said the test “undoubt­edly is con­nected to the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.”

“Its goal is to show the world that … the armed forces of this coun­try now are com­pletely battle-ready and will react to any devel­op­ment,” he told the Russ­ian news agency RIA-Novosti.

North Korea con­ducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and is thought to have enough plu­to­nium for at least a half-dozen weapons. But experts doubt the North has mas­tered the tech­nol­ogy needed to mount a nuclear war­head on a missile.

In Seoul, res­i­dents wor­ried about insta­bil­ity in the North. A par­lia­men­tary offi­cial, Lee Kyu-yun. said he was think­ing of stock­ing up food in case of soar­ing mil­i­tary tensions.

Lee Byung-joon, 27, feared South Korea might have to fight a war against the North if high-ranking offi­cials chal­lenge the inex­pe­ri­enced Kim Jong Un.

“I def­i­nitely think the chance of war break­ing out between the South and the North is higher now than before,” Lee said.

Some ana­lysts, how­ever, said Kim’s death was unlikely to plunge the coun­try into chaos because it already was prepar­ing for a tran­si­tion. Kim Jong Il indi­cated a year ago that Kim Jong Un would be his suc­ces­sor, putting him in high-ranking posts.

“There won’t be any emer­gen­cies in the North, at least in the next few months,” said Baek Seung-joo of the state-run Korea Insti­tute for Defense Analy­ses in South Korea.

Another ana­lyst said an inter­nal power strug­gle could break out between Kim Jong Un and his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was ele­vated in the gov­ern­ment last year and likely will be given a care­taker role in the new administration

“Ten­sion will arise between Jang and Kim Jong Un, because Kim will have no choice but to share some power with Jang,” said Ryoo Kihl-jae, a pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­sity of North Korean Stud­ies, which is in South Korea.

The North said it would place Kim’s body in the Kum­su­san memo­r­ial palace in Pyongyang and that his funeral would be Dec. 28. No enter­tain­ment will be allowed dur­ing an 11-day mourn­ing period, and the coun­try will accept no “for­eign del­e­ga­tions hop­ing to express con­do­lences,” it said.

South Korea’s Pres­i­dent Lee urged his peo­ple to remain calm while his Cab­i­net and the par­lia­ment con­vened emer­gency meet­ings. The Defense Min­istry said the South Korean mil­i­tary and the 28,500 U.S. troops sta­tioned in South Korea bol­stered recon­nais­sance and were shar­ing intel­li­gence on North Korea. Lee also talked with the lead­ers of Japan and Russia.

The Obama admin­is­tra­tion called Mon­day for a peace­ful and sta­ble lead­er­ship tran­si­tion in North Korea.

The United States is still look­ing for bet­ter rela­tions with the North Korean peo­ple despite the “evolv­ing sit­u­a­tion” there, said U.S. Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton. “We both share a com­mon inter­est in a peace­ful and sta­ble tran­si­tion in North Korea as well as ensur­ing regional peace and sta­bil­ity,” she said.

How­ever, U.S. offi­cials said Kim’s pass­ing and assump­tion of power of his son, Kim Jong Un, will likely delay antic­i­pated devel­op­ments on resum­ing nuclear dis­ar­ma­ment talks with the North and sup­ply­ing the nation with food aid.

The admin­is­tra­tion had been expected to decide on both issues this week. The offi­cials said the U.S. was par­tic­u­larly con­cerned about any changes that Kim’s death might spark in the mil­i­tary pos­tures of North and South Korea, but were hope­ful that calm would prevail.

In a spe­cial broad­cast Mon­day from the North Korean cap­i­tal, state media said Kim died on a train due to a “great men­tal and phys­i­cal strain” dur­ing a “high inten­sity field inspec­tion.” It said an autopsy was done Sun­day and “fully con­firmed” the diag­no­sis. Kim suf­fered a stroke in 2008.

Posted by AP News on Dec 19 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.