HARDLINERS have tightened their political grip on North Korea while Kim Jong-il, the Stalinist state’s dictator, has retreated into virtual seclusion after the death of his favourite consort from cancer.

Kim has all but vanished from the official media and North Korea’s message of condolence to the Palestinians on the death of Yasser Arafat, a longtime ally, was signed by Kim Yong-nam, head of the Supreme People’s Assembly.

Chinese and western sources say the regime has prepared for a state of siege as it confronts a re-elected US administration determined to break its will and disarm it of nuclear weapons.

As Japanese envoys tried to persuade the North Koreans last week to rejoin multinational talks, Kim’s absence from the scene led to speculation that a debilitating power struggle may have paralysed the ruling clan. This followed the death of Koh Young-hee, a dancer who had provided Kim with an heir apparent to the world’s only communist dynasty.

“The loss of this woman was a blow,” said a foreign diplomat. “But John Kerry’s loss in the US election was a harder one. These are now very worried men.”

Diplomats and aid officials in Pyongyang noticed the first signs of a clampdown when some members of their North Korean staff were abruptly reassigned to new jobs and others became even more nervous than usual about discussing current affairs.

Restrictions have been imposed on foreigners’ movements, they said. Telephones used by foreign residents have been cut off and the secret police have assumed control of the country’s mobile phone service. Entry permits for foreigners have been curtailed.

“The hardliners in the security services are in charge again and the reformists are on the run,” said one envoy.

The story of how personal bereavement and international crisis became intertwined began with the shipment of an elaborate coffin from Paris to Pyongyang during the summer.

North Korean diplomats had ordered it for Koh, 51, who flew home to die after specialists at an exclusive Paris clinic decided that she could not be saved from breast cancer.

There was no public funeral but North Koreans noticed that extravagant praise for a figure called Omonim (respected mother) had vanished from propaganda documents.

Koh, whose family arrived from Japan in the 1960s, caught Kim’s roving eye when she was dancing in the respected Mansudae Art Troupe.

The dictator, 63, has had at least two wives and many affairs, but defectors say Koh emerged as the most influential woman at an imperial court beset by dynastic rivalries.

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