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Pyongyang is undergoing preparations to designate the third son of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as Kim's eventual successor. The announcement would be made next Feb. 16, the leader¡¯s 62nd birthday.
The third son, Kim Jeong-woon, is 20 and the son of Kim Jong Il and his second wife, Koh Young-hee, who has been campaigning for the exaltation of Jeong-woon. In the past, North Korea watchers considered as the most likely successor one of Kim's two older sons - Jeong-nam, 32, the son of Sung Hye-lim, or Jeong-cheol, 22, the first son of Koh Young-hee.
One North Korea watcher in Seoul said, ¡°To make her second son Jeong-woon the successor, Koh Young-hee has ordered the Workers Party and high officials to call Jeong-woon the ¡®Morning Star King.¡¯ This is already a well-known story in North Korean society.¡±
Koh is also said to be obsessed about making herself an icon. A recent defector said that North Koreans have been calling Koh the "Mother of Pyongyang" since 1999, and that propaganda insisting on her greatness are broadcasted at lectures and such.
¡°The National Security Department warns that anyone who criticizes the 'Mother of Pyongyang' will be strictly punished as a political criminal,¡± the defector said.
(Kwon Kyung-bok, kkb@chosun.com )
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