[亞洲] Kim Jong Il's jilted son dismisses ruler brother as a symbol, report says

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MACAU -- The oldest son of North Korea's deceased despot Kim Jong Il blasted his ruler brother as a "symbol" whose role was stage-managed by the Pyongyang elite, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Thursday.  Kim Jong Nam, who fell out of favor with his father for attempting to travel to Japan on a fake passport to visit Disneyland in 2001, was passed over in the race to succeed his father by his youngest brother, the little-known Kim Jong Eun.  Kim Jong Nam reportedly told Japan's Tokyo Shimbun newspaper in an email sent Jan. 3 and published Thursday that he had "doubts about how a young successor with some two years [of training as heir]" can retain absolute power in the nuclear-armed state.
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# c8 l) U+ B0 Y% d公仔箱論壇" Kim Jong Nam reportedly told Japan's Tokyo Shimbun newspaper in an email sent Jan. 3 and published Thursday that he had "doubts about how a young successor with some two years [of training as heir]" can retain absolute power in the nuclear-armed state.  "I expect the existing ruling elite to follow in the footsteps of my father while keeping the young successor as a symbolic figure," he said in the email. "It is difficult to accept a third-generation succession under a normal reasoning." Kim Jong Nam is a reclusive figure who, prior to his father's death, was believed to live in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau. A figure of interest in Japan, he has occasionally given interviews to the Japanese press.