North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has appointed his youngest son as a four-star general, the communist state's official media said Tuesday in its first mention of the man widely seen as heir apparent.
The announcement comes hours before the scheduled opening of the biggest ruling party meeting for 30 years. The conference is expected to anoint the son Kim Jong-Un as eventual successor to the ailing 68-year-old leader.
The dude is 27 years old. The North Koreans are really going to annoint this guy--who lacks even the relatively advanced experience of being a community organizer--to four star general and then supreme ruler?
Really? The rest of the government is fine with this? The army is fine with this? It seems so, as the article notes that "the 1.2 million-strong military plays a dominant role in the nation under a Songun (army-first) policy." The implication is that the army is backing this promotion.
Perhaps the promise of support is why the army is going along with the shoulder constellation on the kid. North Korea is so broke that they had downgraded the conventional army in favor of relying on secret police to control the people and army; and relying on nuclear weapons to keep foreign invaders away. But last year, it seemed like Kim Jong Un had gotten the support of the spooks. What happened to that template for regime survival? Do the rulers think that sectet police are no longer enough to control the people and army? Are the rulers so worried about the military that they need to buy them off again?
Perhaps The Un bought the military's support by promising more money for the military. Is that the new plan? Going back to the old plan? The plan that required Soviet cash in large amounts?
Which will be interesting, since North Korea seems way too broke to buy the support of the army. Where will they get the money? Was that the purpose of the recent visit to China? Have the Chinese promised to send military aid to North Korea to repair that pillar of the regime? Could that really be China's plan?
Somebody's plan sucks. I wonder if it is North Korea or China?
UPDATE: The military is on board:
“This is a step toward turning Kim Jong-un into a ‘songun’ leader, a symbolic gesture of upholding him as a military leader,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute near Seoul.
“This is the beginning of the process of promoting him to chief of command of the North Korean military,” Mr. Cheong added.
Songun is the military-first policy adopted by Kim Jong-il, a companion philosophy to the “juche” ideology of self-reliance established by his father, Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder.
"Military first" is all well and good, but where will the money come from to make "first" anything worth having? The article says nothing on that question. The way China has been acting all ornery lately, I'll guess that China has decided to provide the money. Ah, soft power!
