Kim Il Sung’s Personal Shopper Writes Tell-All Book
Kim Jong Ryul, who spent 16 years under cover in Austria, also described how the “great leader” and his son and successor Kim Jong Il spent millions pampering and protecting themselves with Western goods — everything from luxury cars, carpets and exotic foods, to monitors that can detect heartbeats of people hiding behind walls and gold-plated handguns.
The colonel’s account — told in a new book by Austrian journalists Ingrid Steiner-Gashi and Dardan Gashi — shows the deep divide between the lifestyles of the North Korean leadership and their citizens, who sometimes must subsist eating tree bark, knowing they will be sent to labor camps if they criticize the government. [AP]
Remember this story the next time you see Goebbelsian apologists like Christine Ahn or John Feffer try to blame starvation in North Korea on American anti-proliferation sanctions.
monitors that show heart beats behind walls? i’m surprised they havent been made into bond villains yet.
TigerLikesRooster on FreeRepublic seems to be a very sophisticated observer of the China/DPRk relationship. Here are his most recent comments there:
Actually, China’s calculation is more complicated than that, according to what I know. China wants to develop N.E region known as Manchuria, which is dominated by old state enterprises, which are mostly in heavy industry. Though they were once the backbone of Chinese industry, this region has been seriously lagging behind in recent economic development. They are big money losers but employ huge number of workers. Sudden development of N. Korea with its wage much lower than that of China would hamper China’s plan for Manchuria.
What China would do is to tap on N. Korea’s mineral resources which is known to be plentiful, and use it to develop this region. N. Koreans are not Chinese, and won’t be difficult to assimilate into Chinese. They are brainwashed to be mega nationalists. Historically, they are restive population, fierce in character. China could make them fare better than under Kim Jong-il, but would keep them below Manchuria’s level. Making N. Korean region economically strong could backfire. N. Koreans could reassert themselves. It is China’s interest to keep them subservient politically and economically.
Besides, it would be politically unpopular to develop N. Korea, pouring in lots of resources. There are lots of destitute Han Chinese population in remote China, and urban ghetto. They are the most likely candidate to revolt against Chicom regime, and they would not look kindly to government diverting resources into foreign country, after Kim Jong-il is gone. Ordinary Chinese are far less tolerating than Chinese regime. Chinese Internet is awash on satire on N. Korean regime and denunciation of its ungrateful way as well as its brutal oppression.
You could do a lot worse than invite him to particiapte on your blog!
On the KPA Colonel defection story, NK Leadership Watch has a good write-up.
for teh lulz, 2002 “Die another Day”. Though they directly were not mentioned, the north Korean regime were the villians.