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(2nd LD) No major change in N. Korea's new Assembly, leader's youngest son not on list
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been reelected as a lawmaker, the country's state media said, but his youngest son, who is rumored to be the successor, was not listed among the new Assembly members.
There was also no major generation change, according to the list of 687 members of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly that was released by the North's state media.
The Supreme People's Assembly is a rubber stamp parliament, but Sunday's election drew keen outside attention because of the possibility that it would provide a clue to who will be the country's next leader.
Rumors had mounted that Kim's third and youngest son was running for a seat in a possible succession process. But Kim Jong-un, 26, was conspicuously absent from the election list.
"There was no surprise. Neither Kim Jong-un nor Kim Jong-nam (the leader's first son) was on the list," an official of Seoul's Unification Ministry, who was analyzing the new North Korean Assembly, said on customary condition of anonymity.
With most of the senior officials retaining their posts, fewer members were replaced than in the 2003 election, when new faces accounted for 50 percent of the new legislature, the official said.
Kim Jong-il was elected in a military district in Pyongyang with 100 percent approval.
"This is the expression of all servicepersons and people's absolute support and profound trust in Kim Jong-il," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. It is Kim's sixth election since he first ran in 1982, two years after he was officially named successor to his father, North Korean founder Kim Il-sung.
Speculation has mounted over a power succession in North Korea since Kim, 67, reportedly suffered a stroke last summer. The North's media have recently emphasized the themes of "bloodline" and "inheritance" in reports and commentaries, which many analysts viewed as a possible indication that the country may be preparing for another hereditary transfer of power.
Kim took over after his father's death in 1994 in the first father-to-son succession in a communist country.
The parliamentary elections, originally expected to be held before last September, were bypassed amid rumors of Kim's poor health. When the North earlier this year rescheduled the elections, many outsiders interpreted it as a sign that the leader had made a full recovery.
The new lineup backed rumors that North Korea has sacked one of its point man on South Korea amid rising inter-Korean tension. Choe Sung-chol, vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee handling inter-Korean affairs, was removed from the Assembly, according to its new list. Rumors have said he was dismissed in early 2008 for not accurately assessing South Korea's Lee Myung-bak government.
Voter turnout was 99.98 percent, and all the candidates received 100 percent approval, the KCNA said. There is no competition in the North's parliamentary elections, as only one candidate is nominated to run in each district. Virtually no dissenting vote is allowed.
The outgoing North Korean parliament was formed in 2003 for a five-year term.
The new parliament is expected to convene in early April. In their first meeting, the new lawmakers will reappoint Kim as chairman of the National Defense Commission, the highest decision-making body that oversees the country's 1.19 million-strong military. They also decide on policy goals and reshuffles in the military and the Cabinet.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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