Apricot and pear trees have been blooming in autumn at factory sites in famine-struck North Korea and fishermen have caught a rare, white sea cucumber. That could mean only one thing, according to Pyongyang's state media - Kim Jong-il had the mandate of heaven to succeed his father as undisputed leader of the most isolated Stalinist state - a state that is starving but still surviving.
Kim has been running day-to-day internal affairs since his father, Kim Il-sung, died of a heart attack in 1994. But the man known as "Dear Leader" was formally confirmed this week in one of the two key posts held by his father - general secretary of the ruling Workers' Party.
Fishermen in Najin-Sombong said - according to an official report - "The rare, white sea cucumber had come to hail the auspicious event of electing Comrade Kim Jong-il as party secretary general.
"Seeing the mysterious natural phenomena, Koreans say Comrade Kim Jong-il is indeed the greatest of great men produced by heaven and that flowers come into bloom to mark the great event."
Relying on oracles, augury and heavenly portents may seem out of place in a totally atheist society. But in the three years since the death of the "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung, his son has come to be hailed as nothing less than a god in North Korea.
Kim's first nomination as party general secretary came late last month and was greeted in idolatrous terms, with the official media reporting the nation "absolutely worships, trusts and follows the general as god."
Vice-President Ri Jong-Ok also declared that the younger Kim could have replaced his father as general secretary some three years ago, but had refused out of loyalty and an ardent desire to complete the traditional three-year mourning period.
This week's succession marks the first dynastic succession in any communist state. But Vice-President Ri may have hinted at a deeper symbolism - for 4,000 years, three years was the traditional mourning period for great Korean monarchs in the "Hermit Kingdom."
The hallelujah chorus for Kim began on September 21st, when officials in South Pyongan province unanimously endorsed him as general secretary. The following day, the army weighed in, saying Kim inspired soldiers with "the spirit of human bombs".
The backing of the army, which Kim heads as supreme commander, was decisive. Since then, one branch after another of the Workers' Party has nominated him for the job.
The two-week process ends with a rally of party workers in Kaesong today, marking the 52nd anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers' Party. Officials are now gearing up for a final conference in Pyongyang to elevate Kim Jong-il as general secretary.
The party constitution requires a plenary session of the party's 173member Central Committee to elect a new secretary general. But in recent days, analysts in Seoul predicted Mr Kim's elevation could be endorsed through other mechanisms.
Under normal procedure Kim should have been elected by a party plenary congress - but none has been held since 1980. Official communiques said he had been declared general secretary by the central committee and the central military commission, but it is very possible that the central committee did not meet.
Analysts in Seoul remain divided over whether Kim will also fill the post of state president, and some say he may wait to assume the office until next September, when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea marks its 50th anniversary.
"The president in any communist system is primarily a protocol post. It's long been rumoured Kim Jong-il doesn't like to meet foreigners anyway," one observer pointed out.
Some analysts believe he has taken this long to become formal head of state because he needed to consolidate military power. In the past year, he has replaced 120 older officers with younger ones thought to be more loyal.
Nevertheless, Kim's standing in North Korea is so exalted and so precious that a ripped newspaper photograph of the "Dear Leader" threatened North-South co-operation on a new nuclear reactor earlier this week.
The dispute erupted when his picture was found torn out of the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper and thrown in a waste basket at a South Korean workers' dormitory. In protest, North Korea demanded an apology from South Korea and for four days withdrew its workers from the construction site in the northern port of Sinpo.
Despite the official biographies that praise Kim Jong-il for being "unusually clever and wise" from childhood and mastering military tactics at an early age, little is known about the man. Mystery shrouds the chubby-cheeked, bespectacled Kim (55), whose public appearances are as rare as a white sea cucumber and whose own activities are as enigmatic as fruit trees blooming in autumn.
Despite a relentless propaganda barrage, his voice is almost never broadcast. He is rarely photographed and rarely greets foreign guests.
In the outside world, Kim Jong-il has a reputation as an unstable playboy who ordered several violent attacks on South Korean targets. These include the bomb that killed senior ministers visiting Rangoon in 1983 with President Chun Doohwan, and the explosion that destroyed a civilian airliner over the Indian Ocean, killing all 115 aboard, in 1987.
Official biographies have described him as a wunder-kind who writes operas, pilots jet planes and helped his father plan battles as a 10-yearold during the Korean War.
He frequently tours military bases in his capacity as head of the armed forces, but is rarely seen in public and has made only one official overseas visit, to China in 1983.
Flowers may be blooming but far too little food is growing in North Korea after a two-year famine, which aid agencies say has left 80,000 children malnourished. Some reports last week even said up to a million Koreans had starved to death.
Earlier this week, a senior official of the UN World Food Programme warned that North Korea has fallen deeper into famine.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post has quoted internal documents saying one million people have already died in North Korea. Aid workers confirm that the situation is deteriorating.
The Post also quoted a North Korean military officer as saying people were turning to cannibalism to survive the famine, and that some had been executed for selling human flesh.
The most urgent task for the new party leader is to break North Korea's isolation and end its grave economic crisis. But a leading Japanese expert on Korea, Prof Hajime Izumi of Shizuoka University, says, "It is difficult to see how Kim Jongil's North Korea will manage to overcome all the internal and external problems."
Many experts doubt if North Korea will be able to survive. Analysts say Kim must open up the country to rebuild its economy, without allowing the implosion of the last bastion of Stalinism.
"The collapse of North Korea is simply being delayed by international food and energy aid, as well as the violent social control exercised by the police and army," said Chikara Nishioka, editor of Modern Korea review. "Whatever happens, the regime of Kim Jong-il will probably not reach the 21st century."
Book of the Day and Reader's Choice have been held over due to pressure on space.