Seoul: North Korea posturing linked to Kim succession (Roundup)

Seoul - North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test and missile launches are linked with efforts by ailing Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Il to secure the succession of one of his sons to power, a senior South Korean official said Wednesday. Kim Jong Il was determined to ensure a 'hereditary transfer of power,' South Korean Defence Minister Lee Sang Hee was quoted as saying by the official Yonhap news agency. By increasing global tension, including the May 25 nuclear weapons test, Kim was creating conditions to hand over power to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, Lee wrote in remarks directed at South Korea's troops. 'Bent on his effort to engineer a hereditary power succession, Kim Jong Il is pushing ahead with nuclear development, missile launches and moves to raise tension,' said Lee, who described Pyongyang's Stalinist regime as an 'immoral, irresponsible and inhumane group,' which put its own survival above the lives of the North Korean people. South Korea should not expect Pyongyang to refrain from provoking an armed conflict, he added. Pyongyang notched up tension in the region since April, when it test-fired a long-range ballistic missile, followed by May's nuclear test which coincided with tests of several short-range missiles. On Tuesday, Russia's Interfax news agency, quoting diplomat sources in Moscow, reported that North Korea was preparing for yet another missile test. At the United Nations Security Council in New York, debate on further sanctions against North Korea is ongoing. 'We are engaged in intense and productive negotiations, we are making progress, but we are not done yet,' US Ambassador Susan Rice said Tuesday. South Korean media, quoting intelligence sources, reported last week, that Kim Jong Il, 67, named his youngest son, who is believed to be around 26, his successor. Kim Jong Il, who is believed to have suffered a stroke last summer, was said to have informed government organizations and North Korea's missions abroad of his plans. While there has been no official confirmation from Pyongyang, Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of the North Korean leader, told Japan's Nippon TV last week that he believed Jong Un was to succeed his father. The two Koreas are set to meet Thursday amid the growing tension to discuss the future of a joint industrial park located at the North Korean border town Kaesong. In mid-May, Pyongyang nixed all existing agreements regarding the park, following earlier demands for higher wages and an early end of preferable land usage terms for the South Korean companies producing goods at Kaesong.