S. Korea Places Troops on Alert : Asia: A day after the death of Communist leader Kim Il Sung, Seoul says it is responding to similar action by North. But Pyongyang remains silent on its movements, and capitals appear calm.

Suspicion and fear of war returned to South Korea on Saturday as President Kim Young Sam put his nation’s armed forces on alert immediately after hearing of the death of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.

Daily life in both Seoul and the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, remained normal, however, and officials of the United States, which maintains 37,000 troops in South Korea, said no signs of military movements had emerged and that American forces were not on alert.

A Western diplomat in Seoul also said that fears of an imminent military confrontation, or even a significant rise in tensions, were overdrawn. Visual inspections showed that the Demilitarized Zone that separates the North and the South was “quiet, calm and subdued,” he said.

“North Korean soldiers haven’t even taken modest precautions to increase readiness,” the diplomat said. “Across the board, we are not aware of anything being done to prepare for military hostilities.”

The South Korean alert for its 625,000 soldiers was ordered in response to one that Seoul officials said the North ordered earlier in the day. North Korea itself made no such announcement.

Urging the people “to attend to your daily life without concern,” Kim Young Sam said the South Korean government can “safeguard peace . . . under any circumstances. We are well prepared.”

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. Soviet and U.S. occupation forces divided the onetime Japanese colony after World War II.

The influence of the 1.1-million-strong North Korean military is expected to increase with the demise of the 82-year-old charismatic leader who claimed, in propaganda, to have liberated Korea from Japan and who in fact launched the bloody 1950-53 Korean War and a series of terrorist attacks against the South over the years. Kim’s lifelong goal had been to reunify the country under Communist rule.

Communist neighbor China will be one of the countries most affected by Kim Il Sung’s death.

Of the same generation and background as the leaders who have ruled China since 1949, Kim was personally close to the late Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung and to current senior leader Deng Xiaoping, who will turn 90 in August.

“With the passing away of Comrade Kim Il Sung,” Deng said in a statement released Saturday night in Beijing by the official New China News Agency, “the Korean people lost a great leader and I a close comrade-in-arms and comrade.”

Historians recall that the last generation of Chinese leaders, Mao and Zhou En-lai on the mainland and Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan, all died during an 18-month period in 1975-76. Cycles of natural disasters and deaths of elder leaders are viewed as ominous signs in Chinese politics.

Because of his close personal and generational ties, Kim Il Sung’s death of a reported heart attack Friday is sure to increase speculation about Deng’s own failing health and the ambitions of those who would replace him. The rapidity with which the government released Deng’s statement Saturday was intended, in part, to quell this speculation by showing that the Chinese leader was up and alert to events, including the death of his North Korean friend.

For the Chinese, another troubling aspect of Kim Il Sung’s death is that they feel much less comfortable with his eldest son and designated successor, Kim Jong Il, than they did with the father.

Despite a public calm about the North Korean nuclear issue, Chinese officials are known to be very worried about the prospect of a rogue nuclear power on the Korean peninsula.

The younger Kim, 52, took what was regarded as the first step Saturday toward the dynastic succession that his father had promoted for two decades, as North Korea announced that he will head a committee to organize a funeral next Sunday.

No foreigners will be allowed to attend the funeral, the announcement said. During a mourning period until the rites, Kim’s body will lie in state in the Parliament building and all forms of amusement will be banned throughout the country. Memorial rites are to be held in all offices and factories, it added.

Kim Young Sam said he was disappointed that he would 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. He had been scheduled to travel to Pyongyang on July 25-27.

“(We) were prepared to sit down and discuss peace on the peninsula and the future of the two Koreas. It is sad,” he said.

Neither the North nor the South canceled plans for the summit, but staging it appears highly unlikely.

Before the summit was announced, “we were worried about all that talk of war. Then, we were relieved by news of the summit. Now, we are back to worry again,” a businessman visiting Seoul from Pusan said.

An elderly pedestrian, who said he fled the North during the Korean War, said he was worried about “an abrupt incident” occurring. “But who knows? This may shorten the time for unification.”

In Pyongyang, a correspondent for Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency reported that citizens were gathering in front of a massive statue of Kim. “Some were crying,” he said. No military movements or police reinforcements were seen, he added.

The sudden death of Kim, who welcomed former President Jimmy Carter in Pyongyang last month, also interrupted talks that had just begun between the United States and North Korea in Geneva aimed at resolving doubts about North Korea’s suspected development of nuclear weapons. Carter’s visit opened the door to both the planned Korean summit and the renewal of U.S.-North Korean talks.

Television footage of the meeting with Carter had shown Kim in high spirits and apparent good health. Carter himself described Kim as alert and well informed.

Now visiting Japan, Carter issued a statement urging Kim Jong Il and other North Korean leaders to “honor the memory of their country’s ‘great leader’ . . . by maintaining the commitment toward peace that (he) made 2 1/2 weeks ago.”

The younger Kim now heads both the armed forces and the Korean Workers’ Party but had not taken over the third key post in the North--that of head of government, or president. Kim Il Sung, while retaining the presidency, had turned over daily operation of the government to his son.

Although the United States regularly conducts air surveillance of North Korea, intelligence information about politics remains little more than guesswork. Knowledge of Kim Jong Il is even more sparse than insights into how the government as a whole works.

Possibilities of what may happen range from Kim Jong Il launching a war against the South to consolidate support within the armed forces to a sudden turn toward reform of a stagnating economy that has declined for three consecutive years. In between is the possibility of a power struggle among figures unknown to the West.

Pessimists, who outnumber the optimists, believe that the son may be even more unpredictable than the father.

Analysts in both Washington and Seoul presume Kim Jong Il will succeed his father. But the big question is for how long. Forecasts for a short reign--”anywhere from five minutes to five years”--prevail.

Donald P. Gregg, former U.S. ambassador in Seoul, has said that South Korea’s history could suggest a potential scenario for the North. Much as in 1960-61 in the South, when an unstable government came into power only to be ousted a year later by a coup, Kim Jong Il is likely to lead the country briefly and then be ejected by a general, he has said.

Kim assumed leadership of the massive military only in December, 1991. How much influence he has won with the only force capable of holding the country together is unknown. Kim had never served in the army until his father named him to run it.

But recently, some analysts have noted that Kim’s status as his father’s anointed heir makes him the only possible leader who can bring legitimacy to a new government. To protect its own prerogatives and status, the ruling group needs at least his name, if not his actual decision-making power, these analysts say.

A minority of experts have pointed out that the shroud of secrecy over North Korea has produced “a tendency to demonize the son and short-circuit careful analysis.” Actually, Kim Jong Il has been associated with attempts to bring about economic reform since the early 1980s, they say.

Times staff writers Rone Tempest in Beijing and Teresa Watanabe in Tokyo and researcher Chi Jung Nam in Seoul contributed to this article.

* KOREATOWN ABUZZ: Kim Il Sung’s death dominated discussions in Koreatown. B1

* FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNT: B1