N. Korea s succession faces challenges: minister

N. Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il faces challenges in transferring power to his youngest son, according to South Korea s top official on cross-border affairs.

"I assume that the power succession is under way, though the internal and external environment is not that good," Unification Minister Yu Woo-Ik told Yonhap news agency in an interview published Sunday.

Kim, 69, is believed to have speeded up the succession plan after suffering a stroke in August 2008.

In September last year he gave his youngest son Jong-Un senior party posts and appointed him a four-star general, in the clearest sign yet that he is the heir apparent.

Yu, whose comments were confirmed by his ministry, told Yonhap in the interview conducted Friday that the leader is healthy enough to perform his job.

He did not elaborate on Kim s health or what he meant by an unfavourable environment for the succession.

It is unclear whether the untested Jong-Un, in his late 20s, faces political opposition to what would be the second dynastic succession. Kim senior took power when his own father Kim Il-Sung died in 1994.

The North suffers severe economic problems, exacerbated by sanctions, and persistent serious food shortages. It is also under international pressure to shut down its nuclear weapons programme.

The North is calling for an unconditional resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks which it abandoned in April 2009, one month before staging a second atomic weapons test.

Washington and its allies insist that Pyongyang must first show its seriousness about the process, notably by shutting down a uranium enrichment programme which could be reconfigured for bombs.

"At this point, there are few signs that indicate a new nuclear test or an armed provocation" will take place, Yu said.

But he said the North s desire to trumpet its achievements next year may make it consider these options.

The regime has set the goal of becoming a "great, powerful and prosperous" country by 2012, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-Sung.

Last week the North s military threatened to turn South Korea s presidential office into "a sea of fire" in an angry response to South Korea s military exercise near the tense Yellow Sea border.

That exercise was staged on the first anniversary of a North Korean shelling attack which killed four people and sent tensions soaring.

Yu was chosen in August to replace a hardliner as unification minister, prompting speculation the South is trying to ease tensions. He has promised flexibility in dealing with Pyongyang.

In the interview Yu called for patience in handling the North.

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