KIM JONG-UN, the youngest son and likely heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, made a secret visit to China last week and let it be known that he had been appointed successor to the ruling communist dynasty, a Japanese newspaper reported.
Mr Kim met Chinese president Hu Jintao and other leaders of the ruling Communist Party when he flew to Beijing around June 10th, the Asahi newspaper said, and the Chinese leader urged him to halt any further nuclear tests.
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 report said.
Last week China, which usually is reluctant to back sanctions, agreed to a UN Security Council resolution that banned all weapons exports from the hermit state in response to a nuclear test last month, the country’s second after one in 2006. Some believe Beijing may take a soft approach to enforcing the resolution, which includes an arms embargo and authorisation for ship searches on the high seas in a bid to derail North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.
The test and a subsequent bout of sabre-rattling are believed to be part of a policy by Mr Kim snr to secure the succession of his youngest son.
Jong-un is the Swiss-educated third son of Kim Jong-il and was born in 1983 or 1984 to his late wife, Ko Yong Hi. Earlier this month South Korean media said Pyongyang had asked the country’s main bodies and overseas missions to pledge loyalty to him, indicating he will take over from his 67-year-old father, who is believed to have suffered a stroke last year.
China is North Korea’s only major ally, often seen as an ideological “little brother”, although relations have been strained by the nuclear tests, which happened without giving warning to China.
South Korea’s foreign ministry and unification ministry said they could not confirm the report. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news conference in Beijing yesterday that he had no knowledge of any such meeting.
North Korea has ratcheted up regional tensions in recent months by also test-firing missiles, threatening attacks and restarting a plant to produce arms grade plutonium. Pyongyang has threatened another intercontinental ballistic missile launch after the UN council punished it for firing a long-range rocket over Japan in April.
