POWER PLAY

N. Korea Succession Remains a Mystery

Might have already happened.

As usual, the rest of the world is in the dark about events inside North Korea. What we know is that the nation’s communist party is holding its most important gathering in 30 years, a meeting that is widely believed to be laying the groundwork for a handover of power from Kim Jong-Il to his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un. When exactly the meeting is occurring, or whether it has already happened, is a mystery. The last official word on it came in June, when the Korean Central News Agency said that the party would meet early in September to elect its "highest leading body." It is possible that no further news will trickle out until the meeting is over. It is almost fitting that Kim Jong-Un’s accession is so shrouded, since so little is known about him, besides the fact that he was educated in Switzerland and is roughly 27. In North Korea, he has recently been the subject of many propaganda songs and poems.