Kim Deuk Hong, who came to South Korea as an exile with former Secretary of the Workers’ Party of North Korea Hwang Jang Yop in 1997, insists that the successor to Kim Jong Il being mentioned these days is not Jong Woon, but Jong Cheol.
Kim presented a speech entitled “Predictions on Kim Jong Il’s Third Generation Succession and Changes in the Future North Korean System,” on the 20th at a conference held by the 21st Century National Development Institute. In it he claimed, “It is Jong Cheol who is the hidden First Vice-Director of the Guidance Department and taking succession training. He has the highest possibility of succeeding to his father’s throne.”
He explained the reason, “Jong Cheol is working as the General First Vice-Director of the Guidance Department after entering the Central Committee of the Party. He receives reports from the three other First Vice-Directors, takes them to Kim Jong Il, receives instructions from Kim Jong Il and controls the other departments.”
The rumor that Kim Jong Cheol holds the office of Vice Director of the Guidance Department of the Central Committee of the Party has been circulating, but this is the first time that his appointment as First Vice Director of the Guidance Department has been suggested.
Kim claimed, “I have confirmed the fact through direct and indirect sources,” but did not reveal where or from whom it came.
He said, “In the early 1970s, in North Korea not Kim Jong Il but Pyong Il was in the limelight as the successor to Kim Il Sung, but the final successor was Jong Il. The situation of Jong Cheol and Jong Woon looks like that.”
However, Kim foresaw, “If Jong Cheol succeeds his father, he might not be a leader deified by the people as his father has been, because he studied abroad for a long time and has not gone through the national difficulties with the people.”
He added, “After Kim Jong Il’s death, a totalitarian communist system led by Lee Jeh Gang and Kim Jong Cheol might be taken up, but if the new system cannot solve the food problems, it may well collapse.”
