Kim Jong-Il's eldest son 'under Chinese protection' 
 
 SEOUL — The eldest son of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-Il has arrived in Beijing as Pyongyang prepares a state funeral for his father, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Monday. 
 
 Citing what it called a source familiar with Kim Jong-Nam's activities, it said he arrived in Beijing from Macau a few days ago and "has been placed under Chinese protection". 
 
 Seoul's National Intelligence Service said it had no information on the report and there was no other confirmation. 
 
 It was not clear whether the son would attend Wednesday's funeral in Pyongyang, Yonhap said. 
 
 Kim Jong-Nam, 40, has lived abroad -- mainly in the Chinese territory of Macau -- for years after apparently falling out of favour with his father for trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001. 
 
 Kim Jong-Il eventually backed his youngest son from another marriage as the next ruler. The North proclaimed Kim Jong-Un the "great successor" after his father died of a heart attack on December 17. 
 
 Kim Jong-Nam's whereabouts have been the subject of intense speculation since his father's death. 
 
 "He's moving here and there. It has been hard to track him down," said Ricardo Pinto, publisher of Macau Closer magazine. 
 
 "It appears that he lives at his house sometimes, and sometimes he stays at different hotels." 
 
 In a January interview with the Tokyo Shimbun, Jong-Nam was quoted as voicing opposition to the planned dynastic succession. 
 
 "Even Chairman Mao Zedong of China did not enforce hereditary succession," he was quoted as saying. 
 
 "(Hereditary succession) does not fit with socialism, and my father was against it as well." 
 
 Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Eldest son of N. Korea's late leader in Beijing under Chinese protection: source 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 By Kim Kwang-taeHONG KONG/SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- The eldest son of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il has arrived in Beijing, a source said Monday, as North Korea is preparing a state funeral for Kim.Kim Jong-nam arrived in Beijing from the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau a few days ago and "has been placed under the Chinese protection," according to the source familiar with Kim's activity. ||||| Mr. Kim thanked the South Korean visitors, the official North Korean news agency, K.C.N.A, said. 
 
 Ms. Lee and Ms. Hyun laid wreaths and walked around Kim Jong-il’s glass coffin to show their respect, K.C.N.A said. In a message in the visitors’ log, Ms. Lee wrote that she hoped the two Koreas would achieve an “early reunification” by honoring a 2000 summit agreement in which her husband and Kim Jong-il had promised to encourage political reconciliation and economic exchanges. 
 
 Kim Jong-il’s funeral is set to take place on Wednesday, and a memorial is scheduled for Thursday. 
 
 Kim Jong-un’s announced elevation to the leadership of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee came two days after the North’s state-run news media published an entreaty for him to become supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, whose support is considered crucial to his consolidation of power. The top officers also moved quickly to swear their allegiance to Mr. Kim. 
 
 Since Kim Jong-il’s death was announced on Dec. 19, a series of pronouncements from North Korea have indicated that Kim Jong-un, his third and youngest son, was rapidly consolidating his grip on power by assuming top titles, or that whoever was rallying the key agencies of power behind the young leader was ensuring that the son would not share power, at least in the public eye. 
 
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 Kim Jong-un is believed to be in his late 20s. There has been no indication that he had worked in the government or the military before his father, who had a stroke in 2008, unveiled him as his successor last year and put him on a path to be groomed as heir. 
 
 On Monday, the North’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, urged North Koreans to “defend the party’s Central Committee headed by respected Comrade Kim Jong-un.” 
 
 The same slogan was used for his father when he was alive. Over the weekend, the North Korean news media were giving the son the same honorifics previously reserved for his father: “heaven-sent leader,” “the sun of the 21st century” and eobeoi, the Korean word for parent, which North Korea has used only for Kim Jong-il and his father, Kim Il-sung, the North’s founding president. 
 
 Under the charter of the Workers’ Party, the head of its Central Committee doubles not only as general secretary but also as chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission. 
 
 Kim Jong-un was made vice chairman of the Central Military Commission when he was chosen as successor. 
 
 The Seoul government said that Ms. Lee and Ms. Hyun were reciprocating for the North Korean delegations that visited Seoul to express condolences over the deaths of Kim Dae-jung and of Chung Mong-hun, the former Hyundai chairman. 
 
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 Hyundai Asan led a flurry of South Korean investments that followed a 2000 meeting between leaders of the two Koreas. But the South suspended its signature project in North Korea, a hiking and spa resort near the North’s Diamond Mountain, after North Korean guards shot and killed a South Korean woman, a tourist who had strayed off the resort in 2008.
– North Korea today awarded Kim Jong Un yet another title—he's now the head of the ruling Workers’ Party. But for his brother, no such accolades. South Korea's Yonhap news agency today reported on the whereabouts of Kim Jong Il's oldest son, Kim Jong Nam: He apparently arrived in Beijing several days ago, and "has been placed under Chinese protection." The AFP notes that the 40-year-old has long lived outside of North Korea, mostly in the Chinese territory of Macau. It's not clear if he'll return for his father's funeral. Back in North Korea, the country's main newspaper today instructed the people to "defend the party's Central Committee headed by respected Comrade Kim Jong Un." The New York Times explains that the head of the Workers' Party's Central Committee serves as both general secretary and chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission. The Times notes that Kim is racking up a number of titles that were formerly bestowed on his father: Over the weekend, North Korean media referred to him as "heaven-sent leader," "the sun of the 21st century," and "eobeoi," which means "parent."