By This report is about as thinly sourced as the prior report on the assassination attempt on Kim Jong-il’s oldest son Kim Jong-nam so make of it what you will:
Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, secretly visited China last week and his hosts were told he had been appointed heir to the ruling family dynasty, Japan’s Asahi newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The report, citing unidentified sources close to North Korea, said Kim Jong-un met Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders of the ruling Communist Party when he flew to Beijing around June 10.
An aide to Jong-un told Chinese officials the younger Kim had been appointed heir and that he held an important post in the ruling Korean Workers’ Party, the mass circulation Asahi said.
China’s Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment on the report.
Jong-un met with Chinese leaders including Hu and Wang Jiarui, head of the international liaison department of the Chinese Communist Party, the Asahi said.
The Swiss-educated third son of Kim Jong-il was born in 1983 or 1984. Earlier this month, South Korean media, quoting informed sources, said Pyongyang had asked its main bodies and overseas missions to pledge loyalty to Jong-un.
China is the closest thing North Korea has to an ally, and in theory Beijing wields more influence over Pyongyang than any other power, but some experts say the relationship is brittle, and China actually has limited room for maneuver.
Hu apparently asked North Korea not to go ahead with another nuclear test or test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, Asahi reported.
Jong-un was believed to have asked China for emergency energy and food aid, the newspaper said, underscoring the grim economic situation in the impoverished state. Jong-un also visited factories in China’s export hub of Guangdong province, it added. [Korea Herald]
I have a hard time believing that if this story is true that the Chinese are taking a 26 year old with no leadership experience very seriously as the next ruler of North Korea.
