For the second time this year, hopes that successor Kim Jong Eun might accompany his father on an overseas trip have been dashed.
Chosun Central News Agency released a full list of Kim’s accompanying delegation on Sunday. It includes: Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Kim Young Chun, Cabinet Vice-premier Kang Sok Ju, National Defense Commission Vice-chairman Jang Sung Taek, Party secretaries Kim Yang Gun, Park Do Chun, and Tae Jong Su, Party department heads Ju Kyu Chang and Park Bong Ju, North Hamkyung Province Chief Secretary Oh Su Yong, Kim Kye Gwan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, North Korean Ambassador to Russia Kim Young Jae, and Sim Kuk Ryong, the Consul General in Nakhodka.
Thus, it is apparently still considered to be too early, and also unnecessary, for the young successor to officially appear on the diplomatic stage.
There is clearly value in Kim remaining in Pyongyang to gain experience of governance in Kim Jong Il’s absence, not to mention offsetting anxiety caused by a power vacuum in his father’s absence. In his rumored role as head of the National Security Agency, there is also evidently much for Kim to do on the home front.
At the same time, Kim Jong Il has taken a good number of heavyweights in the Party leadership along with him to Russia; from that perspective it is being treated as just as important as his trip to China in May. But looking in more detail, it is clear that Kim has constructed a team focused on economic issues, implying that this is the main focus, as preliminary diplomatic contacts between the two nations also strongly implied.
The presence of Kang Sok Ju and Kim Kye Gwan also implies that President Dimitry Medvedev intends to raise the issue of the Six-Party Talks, while Kim Yang Gun, who is the Party secretary in charge of South Korean affairs, will need to play a role if a gas pipeline project connecting Russia-North Korea-South Korea is to get off the ground. But there is nothing in particular for Kim Jong Eun, in any of his official roles, to do.
