North Korea names deceased leader as 'Eternal President'

By Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times News Service

TOKYO -- North Korea announced yesterday that it had revised its Constitution to make its late "great leader," Kim Il Sung, the country's "eternal president."

Adjusting to the inconvenience of having a president who died four years ago and is thus unable to make speeches, the Supreme People's Assembly listened soberly to a tape recording of an address Kim delivered in 1990.

The upshot of the announcement is that, as expected, Kim's son Kim Jong Il -- the country's longtime "dear leader" -- will in effect be head of state, based on his position as chairman of the National Defense Commission. It is not clear whether it will matter that North Korea does not have a living president: the country has already functioned with a vacant presidency since Kim Il Sung died.

There is no doubt that Kim Jong Il controls North Korea firmly and that he could have had the presidency if he had wanted it. But analysts cite two reasons why he may have preferred to let his late father retain the post.

The first is simply to show respect and filial piety to the man who founded North Korea half a century ago and ruled it virtually as a god until his death. Though he was often condemned as a dictator in the West, Kim Il Sung seems to have been genuinely revered by many North Koreans, a point that even defectors usually acknowledge.

The second reason Kim may have been reluctant to take on the presidency is that it would make him a far more public figure and would oblige him to meet foreign visitors. He has always been an intensely private figure, a man who virtually never travels or meets with dignitaries.

Under the new Constitution, the tasks of receiving ambassadors and representing the state for diplomatic purposes will be taken over by the president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the legislature. The president of that presidium will be Kim Yong Nam, the previous foreign minister.