As North Korea mourns the death of Kim Il Sung, the only leader the communist nation has known in its five decades, his son and heir is a mystery and cause for concern.
"This is the biggest loss of the Korean people," says Hyon Hak Bong, second secretary at North Korea's United Nations mission in New York.
Reassurances are emerging on the most critical question: North Korean and U.S. officials say Kim's death won't cripple the dialogue on nuclear weapons the two nations have just begun after more than 40 years of hostility.
North Korea is expected to "continue on the course that Kim Il Sung had set . . . to negotiate a settlement to the nuclear issue," Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci said Sunday after speaking with his North Korean counterpart.
But questions abound about Kim Il Sung's son, Kim Jong Il, 52, long groomed to lead the nation of 23 million people. He is expected to emerge as president before the July 17 funeral.
It is unknown whether Kim Jong Il has the power or will to continue the momentum toward new relations with the West initiated just weeks ago by former president Jimmy Carter's visit to North Korea.
Known as "Dear Leader" by North Koreans, Kim Jong Il has a profile so low analysts can't predict how effectively or how long he might hold power.
He has never given a public speech. He has traveled out of the country once or twice, and rarely sees visitors, including Carter, who asked to meet Kim Jong Il during his recent trip.
"This is uncertainty on top of an enigma. And no one can have any confidence the next few days will be comfortable or constructive," says retired Navy admiral Eugene Carroll, director of the private Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C.
Reports circulating in the West draw a composite picture of a weak, erratic playboy with an unpredictable temperament, a portrait rejected in some circles.
"We've been fed a pretty steady diet of managed news . . . by the White House and CIA," says Carroll.
Myth and rumor say he:
-- Is an obsessive womanizer who imports foreign women, especially Swedish beauties, for his personal pleasure.
-- Drives fast cars and maintains a vast collection of Western films and videos.
-- Was the malevolent brain behind terrorist attacks, including a 1983 bombing in Rangoon, Burma, that wiped out most of the South Korean Cabinet, and the 1987 explosion that blasted Korean Airlines Flight 858 out of the sky, killing 115.
-- Leans toward economic reform and easing his country's xenophobia.
Kim is "neither a horrendous, bad person nor the smartest person in the world. He's somewhere in between," says Suh Dae Sook, director of the University of Hawaii's Korean Studies Center.
Kim, with his father's support, has wielded power.
He's been the military commander in chief of North Korea since 1991. Before that, he held top offices in the Communist Party central committee and was once the country's chief of propaganda.
"There are indications he is really in full control, not only of the military but also of the entire apparatus of the North Korean regime at this time," Drexler University Korea analyst Roy Kim told CNN.
North Korea, a "hermit kingdom" since 1947, has been economically starved by the West.
It sought to use the new talks to re-enter global trade, in return for which the West hopes to gain full inspection privileges to monitor the North's suspected nuclear weapons industry.
The announcement that the North wants to keep talks on track is seen as a "good sign" that moderates are in charge, says former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Eugene Brown.
But military hard-liners may pressure Kim to toughen his position or pull out of talks altogether, Brown says.
"Any change in that stance would be extremely significant," says Brown. "It would be an indication a harder-line faction is taking precedence."
Ultimately, Kim's rise may offer a new opportunity for U.S.-Korea relations, says Sugwon Kang of Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. "Kim Jong Il is in the making. We must do everything we can to bring him over to our side instead of scaring him off," says Kang.
"Spoiled brat he may be, but we must never lose sight of the potential this turn of events offers us."
