hankyoreh

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was opposed to the third-generation succession, but had no other option in order to stabilize the impoverished communist state, Japanese Tokyo Shimbun quoted Kim’s eldest son as saying in its Friday edition.

According to the paper’s exclusive interview in a southern Chinese city earlier this month, Kim Jong-nam, elder brother of North Korea’s heir apparent Kim Jong-un, said, “Even Chairman Mao Zedong of China did not carry out hereditary succession. (It) doesn’t fit with socialism and my father was also against it.”

“North Korea’s national power stems from nuclear weapons. As long as the confrontational situation with the U.S. continues, the possibility is low,” he said.

Kim Jong-nam, who has apparently fallen out of his father’s favor, denied the rumor that he is facing the threat of being assassinated, saying it is “groundless.”

South Korea's Minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Yoo Jeong-bok offered Friday to step down from his post taking responsibility for slack monitoring and belated quarantine measures against the country’s worst foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.

“I will do my best to put an end to this crisis as soon as possible and resign after clearing up the situation,” Yoo said at an urgently called news conference.

Yoo, a second-term lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party, however, said that the politicians’ blame game won’t help resolve the situation.

“I determined that I must take responsibility rather than having a debate on who is responsible,” he said.

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