BEIJING — North Korea’s new leader faces a steep political learning curve: His doting father, Kim Jong-Il, is now officially gone, memorialized Wednesday in a state funeral that saw hundreds of thousands of mourners flailing at themselves in sadness along the snowy streets of Pyongyang.
A quiet presence who presided over the solemn procession, the youthful Kim Jong-Un, boyish looking in his close-cropped haircut and chubby cheeks, must now set upon the task of leading an impoverished and vilified regime that in recent years has failed to adequately feed its people.
The 27-year-old, Swiss-educated successor has the mature guidance of two players from his father’s old inner circle: his uncle Jang Song-Taek and Kim Kyong-Hui, Jang’s wife and the late dictator’s younger sister.
Yet experts predict that many perhaps-competing interests will be whispering into the young leader’s ear as world leaders ponder whether he will follow in the footsteps of his father’s take-no-prisoners diplomacy or set his own course.
For days, the state-controlled media has bestowed one new title on the young Kim after another, including the “great successor,” “supreme leader” and “sagacious leader.”
Many expect the younger Kim to maintain the old military-first policy, finding his way into the hearts and minds of military leaders old enough to be his grandfather. That means giving priority to their funding needs and playing out old agendas of nuclear arms building and off-the-leash attacks against South Korea.
“After the funeral, the first thing Kim Jong-Un has to do is shore up his power with the military with a title that will legitimately give him power,” said Moon Hong-Sik, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, South Korea.
But some scholars expect the North under Kim to step back from its aggressive policy toward the South.
“North Korea’s internal resources have dried up. To solve the biggest problem, which is the economic issue, they will have to reach out to the nearby countries,” said Koh Yu-Hwan, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University in Seoul.
“They are unlikely to carry out military provocation,” added Koh, who said he expected North Korea to return to the six-party talks aimed at convincing the regime to drop its nuclear weapons program.
Others, including some of the 20,000 defectors who have fled their homeland for South Korea, hope that Kim helps foster an economic recovery that will mean less deprivation and hunger for the nation’s 24 million residents.
“Right now, the food shortage is severe, and in or der to reduce the civilian discontent, he will have to focus on bettering the economy,” said Moon.
Today, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans packed Pyong yang’s main plaza as Kim Jong-Un looked on from a balcony on a second day of funeral ceremonies. He was flanked by the top party and military officials.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
