SEOUL // The North Korea leader Kim Jong-il has appeared at his first major event since he was suspected of suffering a stroke last year when parliament re-elected him the country's supreme military leader. The appearance at the new rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly ? while unanimous and totally expected ? marked Mr Jong-il's return to centre stage as the reclusive communist state celebrates what it calls a triumphant satellite launch at the weekend.
North Korean TV broadcast footage that showed Mr Jong-il looking thinner than he did before his suspected stroke in August. As he walked onto the stage at the newly elected assembly followed by other officials, delegates broke into thunderous applause. He walked ten steps to the podium, limping slightly on his left leg and raised both hands while clapping, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which monitored the North's TV broadcast.
"Leader Kim Jong-Il was present at the session," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said after the first meeting of the SPA elected last month. It said the legislators unanimously adopted a law "on revising and supplementing the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK (North Korea)" but gave no details. Yonhap said the revision, the first for 11 years, may be a sign of political restructuring in anticipation of the leadership after Mr Jong-il.
The 67-year-old, with a history of diabetes and heart problems, is not known to have nominated any successor. Mr Jong-il, 67, who typically does not speak when he attends the annual parliament sessions, did not appear to address the delegates. He has been conspicuously absent from major public events since his illness, which raised questions about his iron grip over Asia's only communist dynasty and whether anyone was waiting in the wings to succeed him.
KCNA said Mr Jong-il was re-elected chairman of the National Defence Commission, the seat of power in North Korea, which named state founder and Mr Jong-il's father Kim Il-sung eternal president after his death in 1994. Analysts said the carefully choreographed session of the assembly would give Mr Jong-il a mandate that cements his legacy of building a military-first state and could pave the way to transfer power to one of his three sons.
* Reuters and AFP
