Clapping, waving and even cracking
a smile, Kim Jong Il's heir apparent joined his father Sunday at a
massive military parade in his most public appearance since being
unveiled as North Korea's next leader.
Kim Jong Un, dressed in a dark blue civilian suit, sat next to
his father on an observation platform at Kim Il Sung Plaza as
armored trucks with rocket launchers and tanks rolled by as part of
celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of the reclusive state's
ruling Workers' Party.
It was a momentous public debut for Kim Jong Un less than two
weeks after he was made a four-star general in the first in a series
of appointments that set him firmly on the path to succession, which
would carry the Kim dynasty over the communist country into a third
generation.
Just days earlier, the world got a first glimpse of the son from
photos published in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper. However, Sunday's
appearance was carried live by state TV, beaming him into North
Korean households and giving the people their first good look at the
future leader.
Seeing the two Kims side by side above a huge portrait of the
country's founder Kim Il Sung, and later waving to the crowd, drew
raucous cheers of "Hurrah!" and some tears from North Koreans
attending the parade in the heart of Pyongyang.
"Kim Jong Il! Protect him to the death!" "Kim Jong Il, let's
unite to support him!" they chanted as the 68-year-old leader
walked the length of the platform, appearing to limp slightly and
gripping onto the banister.
The Kims later also appeared at a nighttime celebration in
Pyongyang that exploded into a grand spectacle of fireworks,
patriotic music and color.
Historical footage of Kim Il Sung played on big screens as
thousands of dancers below performed intricate choreographed
routines. At one point, the dancers seemingly transformed the
stadium floor into a vast sea of ocean waves, then a field of trees.
The earlier parade was said to be the nation's largest ever, an
impressive display of unity and military might for a country known
for its elaborately staged performances that suggested bigger
celebrations than just the Workers' Party anniversary.
Thousands of troops from every branch of North Korea's 1.2
million-member military, as well as from naval officers' academies
and military nursing schools, goose-stepped around the plaza
decorated with banners and flags to the accompaniment of a military
brass band and ordinary citizens waving plastic bouquets.
Trucks loaded with katyusha rocket launchers rolled past. They
were dwarfed by a series of missiles that paraded by, each larger
than the last and emblazoned with: "Defeat the U.S. military. U.S.
soldiers are the Korean People's Army's enemy."
"If the U.S. imperialists and their followers infringe on our
sovereignty and dignity even slightly, we will blow up the
stronghold of their aggression with a merciless and righteous
retaliatory strike by mobilizing all physical means, including
self-defensive nuclear deterrent force, and achieve the historic
task of unification," Ri Yong Ho, chief of the General Staff of the
North Korean army, said at the event.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that the parade included
three never-before-shown types of missiles and launching devices.
One was thought to be a new "Musudan" intermediate-range
ballistic missile with a long, narrow head, NHK said. It has a range
of 1,860 to 3,100 miles (3,000 to 5,000 kilometers) and would be
capable of hitting Japan and Guam, it said.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not immediately
comment on the report. A call to South Korea's top spy agency
seeking comment went unanswered Sunday.
The parade, however, was probably less about showing off the
country's military might than about introducing the heir to the
North Korean people and building up his image as the next leader,
according to Baek Seung-joo, a North Korea analyst at South Korea's
Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
"The parade served as a sign that the military has loyalty to
the successor," said Kim Yong-hyun, an expert on North Korea at
Seoul's Dongguk University.
One thing was clear: The regime wanted the world to see the man
dubbed the "Young General," and was willing to let international
journalists capture the moment after more than two years of
virtually closing its borders to foreign media.
A select group of media outlets was allowed into the country to
cover the festivities, and were given front-row seats at the two
events where the Kims appeared: a performance of the Arirang mass
games spectacle Saturday and the military parade.
Sunday's appearance was a heady debut for the mysterious young
man who until two weeks ago was a virtual unknown outside North
Korea's inner circle of military and political elite.
The question of who will take over leadership of the
nuclear-armed nation of 24 million has been a pressing one since Kim
Jong Il reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008.
Kim Jong Il himself became leader when his father, Kim Il Sung,
died in 1994 in what was the communist world's first hereditary
transfer of power. There were concerns of a power struggle if Kim
were to die without naming a successor.
The leader's Swiss-educated youngest son had emerged in recent
months as the rumored front-runner to inherit the mantle of
leadership, despite his youth and inexperience. There were reports
that children were singing odes to "the Young Commander" and that
his January birthday had been made a national holiday like those of
his father and grandfather.
Kim Jong Un won his first military post with the promotion to
general late last month, and was appointed during the Sept. 28
political convention to the Workers' Party's central military
commission, as well as the party's Central Committee - strong signs
he was being groomed to eventually succeed his father.
Kim is believed to be in his 20s. Kim Tae-hyo, South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak's deputy security adviser, told a Seoul
forum last week that he is 26, born on Jan. 8, 1984.
On Sunday, he was poised in public, every inch his father's son
in both looks and demeanor, joining his father in raising a hand to
salute the troops parading past.
In South Korea, along the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone
dividing the two Koreas, activists protested the succession movement
in the North.
"North Koreans, wake up and resist the people's murderer Kim
Jong Il's shameful three-generational hereditary succession of
power," read one banner.
Activists sent some 20,000 leaflets packed with $1 bills and CDs
carrying anti-Kim Jong Un rap songs floating across the border into
North Korea in hopes of reaching ordinary North Koreans, according
to Park Sang-hak, a defector who now lives in Seoul.
