NORTH KOREA’S PARTY CONFERENCE

NORTH KOREA'S PARTY CONFERENCE MAY RUBBERSTAMP KIM JONG-IL'S SUCCESSOR: ANALYSIS

Kim Jong-il's dictatorial reign in North Korea may approach its end next week when a key party conference gathers in Pyongyang to elect a new "supreme leadership body".

Malcolm Moore

The Telegraph, September 21, 2010

The last time the North Korean Workers' Party held a party conference, England were World Cup champions in 1966.

Ostensibly the conference will celebrate 65 years of the Workers' Party and elect new provincial and senior leaders to bring about a "fresh revolutionary surge" in the rogue state.

However, analysts believe that 68-year-old Kim Jong-il will use the conference to unveil his third son, 28-year-old Kim Jong-un, as his successor.

The two previous such conferences, in 1958 and 1966, saw the "election" of several senior officials. Kim Jong-il himself was anointed during a party congress in 1980, although he only formally took over after his father's death in 1994.

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