Legendary Seoul tycoon with an inside track on Kim Jong-il

LEGENDARY tycoon Kim Woo-choong - the industrialist most South Koreans cite as their most-admired captain of industry - smiles while giving his assessment of Pyongyang's most likely new leader, Kim Jong-il.

''He's not mad,'' said Kim Woo-choong, with a hint of sardonicism indicating that as the acknowledged point man for North-South trade he wants to reserve public judgement of Kim Jong-il.

Kim Woo-choong, South Korea's version of the salesman selling fridges to the Eskimos, is acknowledged as the only South Korean industrialist known to have met Kim Jong-il, who has been vilified in the past by Seoul as everything from a foaming at the mouth lunatic to a psychopath.

After debunking one of the public myths that the late Kim Il-sung's son and designated heir stutters, he told Business Post that he expected no immediate changes in North Korea's economic policy.

''In the short-term, he will follow in his father's footsteps,'' he said.

He was convinced that there would be an eventual opening up of the economy. ''North Korea simply has no choice,'' he said. Kim Woo-choong visited Pyongyang in 1992, returning with agreements for textile investments worth US$10 million, which have since failed to eventuate.