HONOLULU – North Korea’s leadership in the past few years has exhibited tensions stemming from the conflicting legacies of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, an academic said Friday.

Resolving that tension, he indicated, may be key to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Prof. Heonik Kwon of Trinity College at Cambridge University’s remarks were rooted in the ideas of German medieval historian Ernst Kantorowicz. In The King’s Two Bodies, Kantorowicz referred to the idea that, in addition to their physical presence, kings have a “body” serving as the embodiment of the territory they rule over. Kwon said this