Kim’s death ups tension
NEIGHBOURS of North Korea as well as the US yesterday appealed for stability after the death of leader Kim Jong-il plunged the region into fresh uncertainty.
China and Russia offered support for their ally’s new leaders as North Koreans took to the streets in scenes of apparently staged-managed mourning. Western states expressed hope that a change could ease the nuclear nation out of decades of extreme isolation.
Kim suffered a heart attack while travelling on a train, North Korean state media said, anointing Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jung-un, as the “Great Successor”. Little is known about how he would run a state with one million troops and missiles that the US fears could reach its shores.
Yesterday the North test-fired a short-range missile off its eastern coast, according to reports in media in the South.