North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s eldest son, Jong-nam, claims that his father had, in the past, been opposed to the idea of a third-generation father-to-son power succession.

In an interview with Japan’s Tokyo Shimbun newspaper on Friday, Kim Jong-nam said he believes that his father has decided to pursue succession, despite being opposed to it, for the sake of national stability.

Jong-nam added that he does not believe a third-generation succession is in line with socialist ideals, noting that China’s Mao Zedong had not even pursued father-to-son succession.

On the North’s artillery attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island last November, Kim said that the shelling was an act committed by the North’s military leadership to justify Pyongyang’s possession of nuclear weapons and its military-first politics.

Kim said that as long as confrontations with the U.S. persist, the North is highly unlikely to scrap its nuclear weapons program.