Rare Party Conference in N. Korea Raises Succession Questions
30 August 2010
A South Korean man watches a TV reporting on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea. News reports say North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may have traveled to China in what would be his second visit to the country this year, 26 Aug 2010.
North Korea's state media are promoting the meeting, expected to be held around September 6th, through public announcements, airing on state television.
The announcement declares: "Let us meaningfully greet the Workers' Party of Korea Representatives' Conference as an auspicious event that will forever shine in the annals of our party and the fatherland."
It will be a rare event. The last time a similar meeting convened was in 1980. And the previous party representatives' meeting, attended by thousands, occurred in 1966.
Power and tranisition
In the intervening years, power has increasingly rested with the military - not the party - under the firm rule of Kim Il Sung and, since his death in 1994, his son, Kim Jong Il.
Balbina Hwang is a visiting professor at the U.S. National Defense University. She says moving the spotlight in Pyongyang back to the party is significant. "The fact that they seem to be shifting the center of power, possibly, away from the National Defense Commission and the military and toward the Workers Party signifies, I think, that there is a very substantial succession and transition underway, institutionally," she said.
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