The youngest son and heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could assume a powerful military post next year as the communist regime inches toward a third-generation hereditary succession, a South Korean report said Wednesday.
The Research Institute for National Security Affairs (RINSA) at the Korea National Defense University said Kim Jong-un could be named the first vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission next year. Kim Jong-il serves as the chairman of the organization.
Its report, which previewed regional security situations for next year, said the move could be made during a session of the North's Supreme People's Assembly sometime in the first half of 2012.
Kim Jong-un was named vice chairman of Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party and a four-star general in September 2010, the clearest sign to date that he will be the next leader in Pyongyang.
"With this move, the authority and the status of the heir apparent will be further strengthened," the report said. "North Korea will intensify its process of institutionalizing the power transfer."
The report also predicted that North Korea will likely demonstrate its military might by unveiling new weapons around April 25, the 80th anniversary of the foundation of its armed forces, and solidify the path for the Kim family succession in the process.
The succession, if made, would mark Pyongyang's second hereditary power transfer. The elder Kim inherited control from his father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
The RINSA's report said North Korea, which is aiming to become a strong and prosperous nation by 2012, will seek to engage South Korea and may push for an inter-Korean summit for some economic gains. It also predicted that the North may propose a military meeting to discuss the tense Northern Limit Line, a maritime border in the Yellow Sea, and South Korea's flying of anti-communist propaganda leaflets north of the border.
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