The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam (36) has returned to Pyongyang and is working at the Organization and Guidance Department of North Korea's Worker's Party, an intelligence source said Sunday. The department is the key agency that controls all of the party, the military and the government of North Korea. This has prompted analysts to speculate about a reconciliation and the possibility that Jopng-nam, who has been living in exile in Macau, could inherit the leadership instead of his younger half-brothers Jong-chul (26) and Jong-woon (24), who were variously tipped for the succession.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son, Kim Jon-nam, 36, was caught on camera in Macau by Japan's TBS television on Feb. 2. Entering a taxi, he told the driver his destination in Chinese. /YTN
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South Korean intelligence authorities have been closely monitoring developments. According to intelligence sources and former senior North Korean officials who defected to the South, Kim Jong-nam ended his exile and returned to Pyongyang around June, coinciding with the unfreezing of allegedly illicit North Korean funds in a Macau bank. On Feb. 11, Kim junior became the target of intensive media attention when he showed up at Beijing Capital Airport, with press reports focusing on his lavish lifestyle in Macau. At the time, there was speculation that he went to Beijing to buy presents for his father's birthday on Feb. 16, but the prevailing view was that he did not then fly to Pyongyang.
In 2001, Kim Jong-nam was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport. He had been living overseas because he fell out of favor with his father. Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea specialist at Korea University, said, "Kim Jong-il could not ignore the existence of his eldest son Jong-nam. It seems that Kim Jong-nam is being given new weight, so North Korea has apparently entered a new phase in choosing Kim Jong-il's successor."
A South Korean intelligence officer said the son¡¯s return ¡°may have something to do with the death of Ko Young-hee, the mother of Jong-chul and Jong-woon, in May 2004." The implication is that Kim Jong-nam and his supporters may have gained the upper hand since then. Jong-nam is close to his aunt Kim Kyung-hee (61) and her husband Chang Song-taek (61). Jong-nam's mother was Sung Hae-rim, a former actress who died in May 2002.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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