North Korea has continued its hard-line domestic and South Korea policy since later in 2008. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s health problem has triggered succession politics in Pyongyang since the middle of 2008. The determinant factor that has de...
North Korea has continued its hard-line domestic and South Korea policy since later in 2008. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s health problem has triggered succession politics in Pyongyang since the middle of 2008. The determinant factor that has decided North Korea’s internal and external policy since then is the
politics of succession. The Success of succession politics in North Korea depends on both ideological
and pragmatical legitimacy. Ideological legitimacy is more important in political process of succession to establish the succession system in North Korean political system. The essential issue of ideological legitimacy is to succeed Kim Jong-il’s nuclear capability-Military-First policy which contains fundamentally hard-line and
belligerent stance in dealing with internal and external problems. In other words, the successor to Kim Jong-il inevitably has to continue socialist economic system and confrontational stance against Seoul. In this context, the future of post-Kim Jong-il era is very gloomy. The appearance of three generations of hereditary succession is the symptom of the demise of the Kim’s crumbling dynasty. Therefore, Seoul has to maintain a strategic North Korea policy stance in order to prepare for emergency situation in North Korea and achieve reunification of two Koreas in the end.