‘Kim’s son escaped two death plots’

The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il escaped assassination attempts in China and Austria last year, Yonhap news agency quoted an official from the South’s intelligence agency as saying.

The plots against Kim Jong-nam, 34, indicated a growing power struggle over succession in the reclusive communist state, an unnamed official at South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told the news agency.

‘‘It is true there was an assassination attempt on him in China last year,’’ the official was quoted as saying, adding there had been a similar plot against him in Austria in November.

Yonhap said the attempts are suspected to have been the work of supporters of Ko Yong-hi, the purported official wife of the North’s leader who died of a heart ailment last year. —Reuters