NKorea to hold biggest political convention in 30 years next week amid succession speculation

North Korea will hold its biggest political meeting in 30 years next week, state media said Tuesday, as observers watch for signs that the secretive regime's aging leader will appoint his son to succeed him.

Now 68, and reportedly in poor health two years after suffering a stroke, Kim Jong Il is believed to be setting in motion a plan to tap a son to take the Kim dynasty into a third generation by appointing his heir to top party posts at the Workers' Party convention.

Delegates will meet Sept. 28 to elect new party leaders, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang....