North Korea’s new leadership began showing raw bellicosity toward the South Korean government immediately after the mourning period for Kim Jong-il. Key state organizations issued statements attacking President Lee Myung-bak and the ruling group in Seoul for deterring South Koreans from paying tribute to the dead North Korean leader. A joint editorial of major official newspapers on the New Year’s Day also condemned the “traitors” in the South for their “inhuman and anti-national acts.”
This was not unexpected, but we would rather interpret the virulent words released from Pyongyang as signs of weakness on the part of whoever manages the dynastic power transition. Installing an unprepared young heir as the ruler of 24 million people cannot be as easy as staging a majestic funeral ceremony. They are again blaming the South to divert public attention from a process that lacks legal, moral and political legitimacy.
On Dec. 30, 2011, Kim Jong-un was appointed as the supreme commander of the North Korean People’s Army, one of the multiple titles his father had until his death on Dec. 17. The next steps will be confirming the new leader as the chairman of the National Defense Commission, the most powerful position in the North’s governing system under the April 2010 revision of the DPRK constitution, and then making him the general secretary of the Workers’ Party.
