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North Korean Party to Take Up Leadership Issues

   First conference of delegates since 1966 to open next week

   VOA News 21 September 2010
   In  this  undated  Korean  Central News Agency photo released by Korea
   News  Service  in Tokyo, 11 Sep 2010, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il,
   left, inspects the March 5 Youth Mine in Jakang, North Korea

Photo: AP

   In  this  undated  Korean  Central News Agency photo released by Korea
   News  Service  in Tokyo, 11 Sep 2010, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il,
   left, inspects the March 5 Youth Mine in Jakang, North Korea

   North  Korea's  ruling  communist  party  says  it  will  hold a major
   conference next week to elect a new leadership.
   North  Korea's  state-run  news agency, KCNA, announced Tuesday that a
   conference  of  delegates  of  the  ruling Workers' Party will open on
   September 28. Â
   The  last  previous  conference  of  delegates took place in 1966, and
   there has been no full party congress in North Korea since 1980.
   The  Workers'  Party  meeting  will  be  closely  watched for clues to
   whether  the  country's aging supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, will choose
   his third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as his successor.
   North Korea had announced weeks ago that a party conference would take
   place in early September.  Tuesday's announcement did not explain the
   change in schedule.
   Kim Jong Il is 68 years old and is believed to be in poor health.  He
   is  believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008, and he looked frail in
   photographs taken during his trip through northern China last month.
   His son, Kim Jong Un, is rarely seen in public.  He is believed to be
   in his 20s.

   Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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