North Korea to hold elections next year for post-Kim era

North Korea will use parliamentary elections in 2009 to lay the groundwork for the post Kim Jong-II era, by promoting younger economic experts, a South Korean government think-tank says. The Institute for National Security Strategy, an arm of the National Intelligence Service, said in a report carried by local media Wednesday that the current Songun (army first) policy was expected gradually to give way to more pragmatic policies.
Elections for the rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly did not take place this year when its five-year term expired. The report said they are expected to be held next July or August. South Korean and US officials have said the communist state's leader Kim Jong-II suffered a stroke in mid-August, although Seoul officials say he made a good recovery.
His health is the subject of intense interest since the 66-year-old has not publicly nominated a successor to rule the impoverished but nuclear-armed state. The institute said certain elderly politicians will be replaced and middle-aged ones will emerge via the elections.