YESTERDAY KIM JONG-IL named his youngest son, Jong-un, an Army general – fuelling speculation that he will soon secede power to his son in the face of reportedly ailing health.

To mark the inevitable rise to power of the third generation of the Kim family, the Korean Central News Agency – the state’s official news organ – has issued a story describing the leadership of Jong-il’s father, the Eternal President, Il-Sung.

One autumn day in Juche 51 (1962), President Kim Il Sung went round Pyongyang with an official.

When the car carrying them reached a street near Pyongyang Railway Station, the President watched signboards of shops on the ground floor of many-storied apartment buildings and noticed that a store disappeared.

It had been a small daily-necessities store.

He asked the official why the store disappeared.

Discomfited by his question, the official found no word in reply. The President told him that officials responsible for the economic life of the citizens should know well about shops in the city and asked him to learn why the store disappeared and take relevant measures.

The official learned soon that the building was being used by an organ as its office.

Being briefed on the fact by the official, the President said the organ could move its office to other place and put off its business, but the store was very important as it was closely related with citizens’ living.

Thus the store reappeared on the spot.