The eldest son of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il says he has "no interest" in succeeding his father, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports. "No one can say for sure and only father will decide," Kim Jong-nam told reporters in Beijing.
Kim Jong-nam reportedly added he had no information about reports his youngest brother Kim Jong-un would get the job. "It is not good to assume and imagine before the decision is made," Kim Jong-nam was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
Yonhap, citing an unnamed intelligence source, last week named Kim Jong-un as the most likely successor to "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il. But Japan's Yomiuri newspaper, quoting an unspecified US intelligence report, named Kim Jong-nam as the most likely candidate.
Kim Jong-il, who turns 67 in February, disappeared from public view in 2008, raising health concerns after he failed to make an appearance at a commemorative event in September. It is thought he suffered a stroke in August. This week he met a Chinese envoy in the North Korean capital Pyongyang - his first public appearance in months.
Other figures named as possible successors include the second son, Kim Jong-chol, as well as senior figures from the country's powerful military and its ruling communist party, the Worker's Party of Korea.
Kim Jong-il's late wife, Ko Yong-hi, was the mother of both Kim Jong Chol and Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-nam was born to the actress Sung Hae-rim, who is also dead. |