Pyongyang announces rare leadership election

The DPRK leadership has announced a special leadership election which Pyongyang watchers say is to consolidate the rise to power of Kim Jong-il's son, Kim Jong-un.

From the New York Times:

North Korea said Saturday that its ruling Workers’ Party would hold a rare meeting of delegates in September to elect a new party leadership, a move analysts in Seoul said was intended to help a son of the ailing North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, consolidate his power as heir.

The gathering will be the most important meeting of the party since it held a convention in 1980 to elect Mr. Kim to its Politburo, an event that signaled his rise to power under his father, Kim Il-sung.

Saturday’s announcement, carried by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, said only that the party was convening its representatives “in early September to elect its highest leading body.”

The outcome of an election in North Korea carries all the suspense of, say, any World Cup match involving North Korea.

I think what this is really about is that the politburo had planned a World Cup watching party for the quarterfinals and they had to scramble to find something else to make it about.