NORTH KOREA **6 Sep 2010 North Korean regime meets to decide leadership succession

North Korean newspapers say a conference of key delegates of the ruling party will be held in September, only the third such meeting since the founding of the nation in 1948. They are believed to be meeting to choose and name a successor to ailing leader Kim Jong-il, who is thought to have suffered a stroke in 2008. He has not named one of his three sons to succeed him, raising the possibility of a power struggle at his death or even the end of the dynasty.

There is speculation the regime could scrap the dynasty started by founding North Korean President Kim Il-sung, the father of Kim Jong-il, who died in 1994.

Kim Jong-il's oldest son, Kim Jong-nam, was expected to be his father's choice, but was disgraced in 2001 after his arrest in 2001 in Tokyo for traveling with a forged passport. The money is on youngest son Kim Jong-un, 27, but his tenure might last only as long as his father is alive.

Yonhap news agency, citing a Western source in an AFP report, said Kim's own power had weakened since his stroke and a hardline group was becoming more influential. The source speculated that after Kim Jong-il's death, group military leadership would be established, possibly with Kim Jong-un only as symbolic leader. (LAST UPDATED AUG 2010)

**Date to be confirmed

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