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Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un

By Park Jung-eon, Senior staff writer

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s heir apparent and youngest son Kim Jong-un was given powerful political posts during the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) meeting of party representatives Tuesday, after he debuted as a four-star general the day prior.

Kim Jong-un was named vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and a WPK Central Committee member, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in reports monitored in Seoul. North Korea seemed to have created the post of vice chairman in the WPK Central Military Commission, as it was reportedly not included in the previous official organization.

Kim Jong-un has seemingly become the true second-in-command of the military of North Korea and secured the foundation to gain the control of military.

“As a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Kim Jong-un will strengthen his grip on the military,” said Yang Moo-jin, an expert at the University of North Korean Studies, to the Yonhap News Agency. The North Korean military operates 1.2 million troops and forms the basis of the Kim dynasty’s power.

The reports said Ri Yong-ho, chief of the general staff of the Korean People’s Army, has been elected as the other vice chairman of the commission that is headed by Kim Jong-il. Ri has emerged suddenly as a formidable power in the military, as he was also elected a standing committee member of the WPK Political Bureau.

North Korea and South Korea will hold working-level military talks on Thursday for the first time in nearly two years, South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.

The ministry reported that Pyongyang, who proposed the meetings, agreed to hold the talks at the truce village of Panmunjom on the date proposed by Seoul.

Although the Lee Myung-bak administration has labeled its 2011 budget “working class friendly,” the 309.6 trillion Won ($269.4 billion) proposal increases the social welfare budget by only 6.2 percent, much lower than the average rate over the past five years of 9.5 percent. The budget also slashes the number of basic livelihood security recipients receiving benefits, the core beneficiaries of social welfare policy.

In light of those facts, experts have criticized the budget as “pro-working class friendly only in name.”

The Lee administration plans to spend 5.8 trillion Won on the controversial Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, a 15.6 percent increase from this year.

The budget proposal will be submitted to the National Assembly this Friday.

More than 200 South Korean schoolchildren committed suicide last year, giving in to pressure from family problems, depression and grades, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) data showed Wednesday.

According to a MEST report submitted to ruling Grand National Party (GNP) Lawmaker Hwang Woo-yea, 202 students in elementary through high school took their own lives, marking a 47 percent increase from 2008.

Local credit rating agency NICE Investors Service reported Tuesday that a number of households in South Korea are mired in debt and it takes the average household about seven years to pay off their loans.

The amount of household debt is 7.2 times larger than household savings after basic living expenses and taxes are deducted, which means households have to save money for at least seven years to clear their debts, the agency said. At the end of June, the nation’s household debt stood at 754 trillion Won ($656.9 billion), which is equivalent to 15 million Won of debt per person.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]