Succession Rumors Spread Inside North Korea

There may or may not be any truth to rumors that third son Kim Jong Un will the figurehead successor to His Porcine Majesty, but word seems to have spread inside the kingdom:

The source said, “People who have secretly been listening to South Korean radio seem to be circulating these stories but the Party in Pyongyang has not issued a special decree about it. Many people have an interest in the successor issue, so the rumors have been spreading even more rapidly.

According to the source, the rumor began to circulate in mid-January. This coincides with the issuance of a related report from South Korea. [Daily NK]

The Daily NK sees significance in the regime’s lackluster efforts to tamp the rumors down:

The source said, “A majority of the people heard then for the first time the fact that the General (Kim Jong Il) even has a third son! After hearing the rumor, most people were unmoved, questioning whether a third-generation of Kims would continue to rule.

The North Korean authorities have shown awareness of the circulation of these rumors, but have not implemented anything as a consequence. This is quite a different situation than the strict prohibition of the spread of rumors regarding Kim Jong Il’s sickness, as given in “People’s Unit” lectures at the time.

It’s interesting that the regime isn’t more aggressive about this in light of Jong Un’s illegitimacy and how that contradicts the state’s Confucian morality, and its attribution of that morality to Kim Jong Il. The most interesting point, of course, is that the regime lacks the ability to keep rumors like this out of North Korea today. It’s doubtful that Sunshine-era engagement allowed rumors like these to reach the provinces. Instead, it was most likely illegal border crossers, smugglers, and banned cell phones. As with economic change, political change will come from the bottom up, not from the top down.