By Kim Young-jin
Staff reporter
North Korea said Saturday that delegates of its ruling Workers' Party will hold a rare meeting in September to elect new leaders, a move experts say that will set the stage for ailing leader Kim Jong-il to transfer power to his youngest son.
The party said through the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that the session, the first such meeting of delegates since 1966, will be "to elect its highest leading body" called the Political Bureau.
It would be the party's most significant gathering since the 1980 convention that named Kim ― in his first public appearance ― to the Political Bureau, a move which sealed his status as successor to his father and president, Kim Il-sung.
The KCNA fell short of revealing which posts will be up for grabs, but it is speculated the session will fill seats left vacant by the deaths of elderly members.
More significantly, experts here say it will pave the way for a hereditary power transfer.
Kim's health is reportedly flagging after he suffered a stroke in 2008, and South Korean intelligence officials believe that his youngest son, Jong-un, is being groomed to succeed him.
Earlier this month, North Korea held a rare parliamentary session and tapped Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law, Jang Song-thaek, as a vice head of the National Defense Commission.
Jang was named to the influential post to shepherd Jong-un into power, analysts say.
Andrei Lankov, a Seoul-based North Korea expert, told The Korea Times that the September gathering will likely smooth the path for the succession in an official manner.
"It seems that one can say with a very high level of certainty: the party conference is meeting to formally announce the promotion of Kim Jong-un as the successor to his father," Lankov said.
The Kookmin University professor noted that such an appointment is set to take place much faster for Jong-un than for the elder Kim, for whom it took eight years.
"The most likely explanation is that Kim Jong-il's health is deteriorating very fast, so the top leaders believe that they cannot afford to lose time," he said.
Some forecast that Kim Jong-un will earn key party titles at the meeting or his confidants will be installed in important posts, as measures to firm up his power base.
The KCNA report emphasized that 2010 will be a year of "great changes to be specially recorded in the history of the country."
Little is known about Jong-un, who is thought to be around 28 years old and was educated in Switzerland.
Seoul's intelligence chief, Won Sei-hoon, told lawmakers Thursday, Pyongyang had recently publicized songs and poems extolling the younger Kim.