North Korean television on Sunday showed power-behind-the-throne Jang Song-thaek in a general’s uniform in a sign of his sway after the death of Kim Jong-il, as Japan’s prime minister said the region had entered a new phase following Kim’s demise.
The footage, which North Korean television said was shot on Saturday, showed Jang on the front row of top military officers who accompanied Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of Kim Jong-il and his anointed successor, paying their respects before Kim’s body.
The choreography around Kim’s death is one of the secretive North’s few clues to the emerging configuration of power in the isolated state that has rattled neighbours with nuclear tests and military brinkmanship.
A Seoul official familiar with North Korea affairs said it was the first time Jang has been shown on state television in a military uniform. His appearance suggested that Jang has secured a key role in the North’s powerful military, which has pledged its allegiance to Kim Jong-un. A senior source revealed that Pyongyang will shift from a strongman dictatorship to a coterie of rulers including the military and Jang, Kim Jong-un’s uncle. Jang married the daughter of the country’s revolutionary founder, Kim Il-sung, in 1972, joining the ruling family that has forged its own form of dynastic rule.
“A NEW PHASE”: In Beijing, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that their two countries shared a stake in preserving stability in North Korea in a “new phase.”
“The death of Secretary-General Kim Jong-il has brought East Asia to a new phase,” Noda told Wen at the start of bilateral talks in China’s capital.
“Peace and stability of the Korean peninsula is in a common interest for both Japan and China,” Noda told Wen.
“I believe it is timely that we can exchange views and information on this matter with China, which is the chair country of the six-party talks and has the biggest influence on North Korea.”
China is North Korea’s sole major economic and diplomatic partner, and has also hosted the six-party talks, which have sought to coax North Korea into abandoning its nuclear arms ambitions in return for aid and security steps.
Constraining North Korea is especially important for Japan, which is well within range of the North’s long-range missiles and wants Pyongyang to resolve the emotive issue of the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped to help train spies decades ago. “I hope we can sincerely exchange views on how to overcome abduction, nuclear and missile issues,” Noda told Wen, referring to North Korea.
North Korea says South’s stance may be ‘catastrophic’: North Korea on Sunday lashed out at South Korea for a perceived lack of respect towards Kim Jong-Il, as it reported more scenes of mass grieving in the isolated communist state for the late leader. Saying the whole world is in mourning for “a peerlessly great man”, the North for the second time in three days blasted the South over its response to Kim’s sudden death on December 17. There would be “unpredictable catastrophic consequences” for cross-border relations unless Seoul eases restrictions on condolence visits by South Koreans to Pyongyang, it said.
