The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is expected to join the communist party leadership at an upcoming meeting, paving the way for his eventual succession, a report said yesterday.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said Kim Jong-un is expected to be elected as a member of the ruling party’s central committee at a meeting of key party delegates next month.
The agency, in a report from Beijing and Pyongyang, said Kim Jong-un is also expected to become a member of the party’s political bureau presidium at a central committee general meeting to be held soon after the delegates meet.
Kyodo, quoting informed sources, said the party is expected to convene a congress in 2012 at which Kim Jong-un would be officially appointed as successor.
The 68-year-old leader, who suffered a stroke in August 2008, is widely reported to be grooming Kim Jong-un, his third son, to take over eventually.
Kim Jong-il, who among his other titles is party general secretary, is currently the only member of its political bureau presidium.
North Korea in June announced plans for the delegates’ meeting, which will be only the third since the communist state was founded in 1948.
It is seen as the most important party event since 1980, when a convention of all party members made public Kim Jong-il’s status as Kim Il-sung’s eventual successor.
Analysts have previously said next month’s meeting, for which no date has been announced, will probably designate Kim Jong-un as next leader.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS