New Leader of North Korea

North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, has named his successor, Kim Jong Un. He is his youngest son. Already, Kim Jong Il has his son the ropes of being the leader of one of the most hostile dictatorships. Here is an article posted on yahoo:

N.Korea’s heir apparent watches military drill

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AFP/KCTV/File – An image from Korean Central Television (KCTV) shows Kim Jong-Un — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s …

Play VideoNorth Korea Video:North Korea releases video of heir apparent AFP

Play VideoNorth Korea Video:Pictures of North Korean heir apparent AP

Play VideoNorth Korea Video:North Korea’s next leader on show Reuters

by Lim Chang-Won – 1 hr 22 mins ago

SEOUL (AFP) – The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has watched a military exercise along with his father, state media said on Tuesday, his first such inspection since he was confirmed as heir apparent.

The report signalled a rapid rise to public prominence for Kim Jong-Un. The son’s name and photograph had never appeared in official media until last week, when he was made a four-star general and given powerful ruling party posts.

The live-fire drill, also attended by top party and military officials, was staged ahead of a ruling party anniversary this Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

It did not say when or where the drill took place but referred to the younger Kim as vice-chairman of the party’s central military commission, one of the posts he took last week.

“The troops powerfully displayed the power of the Korean People’s Army that grew into invincible forces through training and under the guidance of General Kim Jong-Il,” it said.

“This report shows to the outside world that Jong-Un has a firm position as heir apparent,” Dongguk University professor Kim Yong-Hyun told AFP.

“By accompanying his father during field trips, the son is now being trained openly as successor. The drill also implies the son will inherit the father’s army-first policy.”

The North has a 1.2-million-member standing military whose welfare takes priority over civilians under the Songun (army-first) policy.

South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young predicted on Monday that the son would now begin public activities, as eventual successor to his ailing 68-year-old father.

The minister said the North appeared to be using the anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party on October 10 to celebrate “the formation of a succession platform”, and planned a major military parade and war games.

The leader-in-waiting of the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation remains a mystery to the outside world. The Swiss-educated Jong-Un, thought aged around 27, is not known to have held any formal posts before last week.

South Korea said it was closely monitoring work detected on satellite images at the North’s Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the source of its weapons-grade plutonium.

Minister Kim said the North was restoring some facilities at the plant, closed in 2007 under a disarmament deal which Pyongyang angrily renounced in April 2009. A month later, it staged a second nuclear test.

Cross-border relations have been icy since the South accused the North of torpedoing one of its warships and killing 46 sailors in March, a charge it denies.

The South has warned of further possible provocations by the North as it puts its succession plan firmly in place and in the run-up to the G20 summit in Seoul in November.

The defence minister told parliament Tuesday the South would launch a full-scale propaganda war in response to any fresh provocation.

The South’s military printed hundreds of thousands of leaflets and installed border loudspeakers as part of reprisals for the warship sinking.

Minister Kim said preparations were under way to float the leaflets and small radios by balloon across the tense and heavily fortified border.

“We will immediately switch loudspeakers on and launch leaflets” if there is a new provocation, or if a political decision is made to apply pressure on North Korea, he told legislators.

The North has threatened to open fire at the loudspeakers if they are switched on.

The minister also said that a North Korean jamming device capable of disrupting guided weapons poses a fresh threat to the South’s security.

He said the North had imported Russian equipment to jam South Korea’s Global Positioning System reception.

North Korea Military Propaganda

A poster smuggled from North Korea showed a sailor smashing an enemy ship, splitting it in two. Suspiciously, the Cheonan was also split in 2, resulting in the deaths of 46 sailors. North Korea has also handed out medals to a submarine crew.

North Korea adds insult to injury

CHOE SANG-HUN, SEOUL

July 18, 2010

A PROPAGANDA poster recently smuggled out of North Korea depicts its military smashing an enemy warship in half, a scene evocative of the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year.

Although the poster did not identify the ship in the poster as the Cheonan, the South Korean corvette sunk in March, it raised suspicions that North Korea may have begun bragging about the sinking for domestic propaganda purposes, said Radio Free Asia, which released a photograph of the poster.

With the caption, ”If they attack, we will smash them in a single blow”, the poster shows the red fist of a North Korean sailor splitting an enemy ship.

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// The Cheonan was split in two and sunk in waters near the disputed western sea border between the two Koreas. Forty-six sailors were killed.

A South Korean-led team of international investigators concluded in May that the ship was destroyed by a North Korean torpedo attack, though the North has vehemently denied involvement.

But North Korea secretly awarded medals to the crew of a North Korean submarine and boasted of its victory during propaganda lectures for its military and party elites, according to recent reports by South Korean websites that collect news from sources inside the North.

The government in Seoul could not confirm those reports, and the North’s official news media have repeatedly accused the South and the United States of fabricating the Cheonan sinking to raise tensions.

Radio Free Asia, which is supported by the US, said it obtained the photograph of the poster from a Chinese businessman who recently returned from North Korea.

It remained unclear whether the poster was made before or after the Cheonan sinking, or whether it depicted an earlier North-South naval clash and had been distributed now to put up a fierce face amid rising tensions with the West. Posters and public slogans are a major tool of propaganda in the isolated North.

NEW YORK TIMES

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