Eric J. Ballbach

Institute of Korean Studies

Freie Universität Berlin

Introduction

The news of Kim Jong-Il’s death, which became public on Monday, December 19, 2011, sent a wave of confusion around the globe. What does it mean for the future developments in North Korea, for the negotiations surrounding the North’s nuclear program and for the larger political sphere in Northeast Asia in general? While it is both too early to  conclusively answer these questions  just  yet and impossible to precisely trace and reconstruct the  developments within North Korea’s inner power circle, several aspects of immediate relevance shall nevertheless be put up for discussion: firstly,  while  Kim Jong-Un’s path to succession  may have been utterly different than the one of Kim Jong-Il it is safe to assume that the important question of succession was not answered ad hoc. Nevertheless, the actual legitimacy of the leadership will steadily decrease the further the “family line” moves away from Kim Il-Sung. Lastly, North Korea’s political regime, which was  characterized by an authoritarian leadership style since its inception in the 1940s, does not change as long as the general power structures and thus the nature of the regime itself do not change.

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