Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 10, 1994                   TAG: 9407100032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press
DATELINE: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA                                LENGTH: Medium

2 KOREAS PUT TROOPS ON ALERT SON LIKELY TO RULE AFTER KIM'S DEATH

South Korea said its alert for its 625,000 soldiers was ordered in response to one officials said the North had ordered. North Korea itself made no such announcement.

The United States, which maintains 37,000 troops in South Korea, said no signs of military movements had emerged.

High-level talks had begun Friday with the United States about improving relations and resolving the dispute over whether North Korea is building nuclear weapons. The talks, in Geneva, were suspended Saturday, and prospects for restarting them were not clear.

The alert underscored fears of what might happen in secrecy-shrouded North Korea now that the Stalinist country has lost the only leader it has had since separate governments were set up in the North and the South in 1948.

A Western diplomat in Seoul said that fears of an imminent military confrontation were overdrawn.

The influence of the North Korean military is expected to increase with the death of Kim, who launched the 1950-53 Korean War and later a series of terrorist attacks against the South. His lifelong goal had been to reunify the country under communist rule.

Kim's son, Kim Jong Il, 52, took what was regarded as the first step Saturday toward the succession that his father had promoted for two decades as North Korea announced that he will head a committee to organize a July 17 funeral.

South Korean President Kim Young Sam said he was disappointed that he will not be able to meet Kim Il Sung in what was to have been the first-ever meeting between leaders of the North and the South on July 25-27.