North Korea speaks of Kim Jon-il succession to a son

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will in time hand over power to one of his sons, South Korean media quoted North Korea state radio as saying in a recent broadcast.

The report has intrigued analysts not only with its content, but with its timing.

South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said the North's official KRT radio quoted Kim Jong-il as saying he would stand by the will of his father, North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, that the revolution would be continued by a grandson.

The reclusive state has been ruled for 60 years by a father and son leadership, making it the world's only communist dynasty.

"I will uphold father president's instructions," the JoongAng Ilbo quoted Kim Jong-il as saying on KRT.

Kim Il-sung had "stressed that if he leaves the job unfinished, it will be continued by his son and grandson", the commentary said.

Kim Il-sung died in 1994 and over a three-year period his son, Kim Jong-il, took over as chairman of the powerful Defence Commission. Hee never took on the presidency in deference to his late father, who is still surrounded by a personality cult.

"If our tradition is great, then the inheritance of it should be great as well," the newspaper quoted the commentary as saying.

Analysts and former South Korean officials saw little to surprise in the plan to pass power from Kim Jong-il to one of his sons, but said the timing of the commentary was unexpected.

"Why now?" asked Peter Beck of the International Crisis Group, a non-government group headquartered in Brussels.

Former South Korean presidential secretary Hwang Won-taek said the report should not necessarily be seen as a surprise considering work to lay the foundation for the succession of Kim Jong-il started when he was in his 20s.

"And the North might be thinking external circumstances make it ripe for the start of this kind of work now," said Hwang, who accompanied former President Kim Dae-jung to Pyongyang in 2000 for an unprecedented summit between the two Koreas.

Both the South's National Intelligence Service, which monitors North Korean radio, and the Unification Ministry declined to make a transcript of the broadcast available.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which also monitors the broadcasts, did not receive the Jan. 27 commentary.

Reports last year said portraits of Kim Jong-il - long a fixture in public sites and in homes - had been taken down in some places, raising speculation his grip on power may be slipping.

South Korean officials have said there was nothing to support the theory, and US legislators who visited Pyongyang in early January said the portraits remained in place.

Kim Jong-il is known to have three sons from two marriages, and his younger sons, Jong-chol, 24, and Jong-un, 22, are believed to be prospective successors.

Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese who spent 13 years in the 1980s and 1990s as Kim's cook and spent time with his family, has cast doubt on the likelihood of the second son being picked.

"Kim Jong-il has frequently spoken badly of Jong-chol," Fujimoto said in the book "Kim Jong-il's Cook" published in 2003.

His eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, was detained a few years ago travelling into Japan on a fake passport and is believed to be out of favour.

- REUTERS