N. Korea power transfer expected to start

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may use a meeting of Workers' Party officials as the first step for transferring power to his son, experts said.

South Korean experts and officials said Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong Eun, is widely expected to receive at least one leadership position, the first step to claiming authority on a level similar to his father's, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

North Korean officials haven't announced when the party delegates will meet in Pyongyang, however, Good Friends, a Seoul-based humanitarian group with ties to North Korea, said the forum would begin Saturday. Other experts said it would open Monday, with Kim Jong Eun being promoted on the final day, the Post said.

North Korea celebrates the anniversary of its founding Thursday.

Observers say Kim Jon Il, who had a stroke in 2008, was accelerating the transfer-of-power process because of health issues.

"This conference would be an opportunity to lay the foundation of the post-Kim Jong Il era," said Kim Heung-kyu, a professor at Sungshin Women's University in Seoul.

The Post said analysts in Seoul and Washington expect Kim Jong Il will try to rebuild power in the Workers' Party -- which has lost influence to the military and watched its membership decline -- or water down the military's power.