Pyongyang Stages Dramatic Funeral For Kim Jong Il
On Morning Edition today, Stephen Bosworth — who until recently was a U.S. Special Representative to North Korea and is currently the Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University — told host Steve Inskeep that the image of Kim Jong Un walking beside that limousine with his hand on the fender, as a senior general walked on the other side, was "clearly an effort to establish a direct lineage between Kim Jong Il and his son."
"Giving this succession legitimacy is the major objective of what we've been seeing out of Pyongyang" today and since Kim Jong Il's death, Bosworth said. ...
... But Bosworth also said that it's likely Kim Jong Un will be, at least for some time, "the face of the regime" but not as powerful a figure as either his father or grandfather were. "The people who are going to be exercising collective decision-making have much more experience" than the new leader, Bosworth said, and it is unlikely that "senior generals and party leaders are going to defer to him the way that they at least seemed to defer to his father."
Listen to the full conversation (more)