SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that U.S. officials and allies are scrambling to prepare for the possible departure from power of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, a development she said threatened turbulence in one of the world’s most heavily armed regions.
Arriving in Seoul for security talks, Clinton said persistent signs within North Korea’s secretive government suggest a change of leadership might be at hand. She said the South Korean government has been especially concerned about possible developments inside its impoverished northern neighbor.
“Everybody’s trying to read the tea leaves about what’s happening and what’s likely to occur,” Clinton told reporters on her plane during a flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Seoul, broaching a topic that has been rarely discussed publicly by U.S. officials.
Clinton said that even a peaceful succession “creates more uncertainty, and it could create conditions that are even more provocative” as the ascendant leadership tries to consolidate power.
The comments from the top American diplomat are certain to provoke a sharp reaction. Hours earlier, the North Korean regime stepped up its confrontational rhetoric, saying its forces were “fully ready” for war with South Korea.
Clinton was on the fifth day of a week-long trip to East Asia focused in part on what to do about North Korea, which is believed to have nuclear weapons.
U.S. intelligence agencies reported in August that the 67-year-old “Dear Leader,” who has led the country since 1994, might have suffered a stroke. Clinton’s comments suggested there is a widespread conviction that Kim is on the way out and that the South Koreans, Chinese, Americans and others are formulating plans on how best to deal with the successor regime.
Clinton said the U.S. and its allies were trying to determine how to form a “common front” to restart nuclear negotiations but pointed out that North Korea “has shown very little willingness to get back on track.”
The dangers of dealing with North Korea have been highlighted in recent weeks by reports that the regime is preparing to test a Taepodong-2 missile that some believe is potentially capable of striking U.S. territory. North Korea isn’t yet able to mount a nuclear weapon on the tip of its missiles, experts say.
One of Clinton’s goals in her one-day visit to Seoul is to convince President Lee Myung-Bak that the United States intends to stand up to the North, despite U.S. promises that it will seek greater diplomatic engagement with adversary regimes.
Clinton early today named ex-Ambassador Steven Bosworth as her special envoy to North Korea. The former senior State Department official and ambassador to South Korea is currently dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
