Kim Jong-il's women banned from planning succession

Interesting look at the players in the coming power struggle for who will replace Kim Jong-il. [Link]

Despite his recent stroke and with his isolated country stricken by food shortages and locked into a political battle with the West over its nuclear arsenal, analysts say Mr Kim is reluctant to allow any of his three sons access to the levers of power. He is said to be unimpressed with their political abilities.

He has more confidence in his previously little-known daughter, who has recently emerged from the shadows and has his ear, but is ruled out by her sex in North Korea's chauvinistic society.

Mr Kim's sister, who is close to him and whose husband is one of the most powerful men in the regime, is said to be supportive of the dictator's oldest son, Jong-nam. One report in South Korean media suggests his personal assistant, widely believed to be his mistress, backs one of the other two.

But none of these women has dared to propose any of the three for power, and Mr Kim himself is said to be resolved to prevent either them or anyone else from raising the subject until 2012.