Kim Hyon / Kim Hyon-nam - Leadership Succession

Soon after the death of Kim Jong Nam's mother in mid-2002, Japan's Jiji Press reported that a previously unknown son of Kim Jong-il, Kim Hyon, had been appointed head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the ruling Korean Worker's Party (KWP). Citing Chinese diplomatic sources, the August 2002 report claimed that son, possibly also known as Kim Hyon-nam, was 30 years old at that time. Since Kim Jong-il had headed this department when he began his political ascent in the early 1970s, it was thought that the Kim Hyon was being groomed to succeed his father. But nothing has been heard since about a Kim Hyon, suggesting that the Jiji Press story was in error.