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December 9, 2013

China not sounding so happy about N. Korean purge (Update: Park warns of “reign of terror,” unstable relations)

[If you haven’t read yesterday’s post on the purge in Pyongyang, start there.] China has summoned Kim Jong Un to Beijing “as soon as possible” to kowtow and offer tribute discuss what Yonhap describes as “the North’s long-term stability and bilateral relations.” China seems displeased with Jang’s ouster, and in case that message was too subtle, China also staged a 5,000-man night landing exercise on the Yellow Sea coast near North Korea (ht: Adam Cathcart). Kim Jong Un now faces a...
Categories Kim Jong Un/Kremlinology
December 8, 2013

Breaking: N. Korea announces purge of Jang Song Thaek for “anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts” (Updates below)

KCNA has just published a lengthy denunciation of Jang Song Thaek after an unusual, hastily scheduled meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. In this connection, the Political Bureau of the C.C., the WPK convened its enlarged meeting and discussed the issue related to the anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts committed by Jang Song Thaek.  [….] The Jang Song Thaek group, however, committed such anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts as gnawing at the unity...
Categories Anju Links/Kim Jong Un/Kremlinology
July 19, 2012

A Mickey Mouse Monarchy: Thoughts on the Sacking of Ri Yong Ho (Update: A Gun Battle?)

North Korea watching is an inherently speculative hobby.  How could it be otherwise when our most reliable information comes from satellite images and reports from KCNA, the world’s least credible news organization?  The problem with having no solid facts to argue is that no one is really an expert, and anyone can pretend to be, present company included. Even “inside” sources are suspect; after all, much of their information is probably disinformation. That’s why you’ll see a lot divergent and...
Categories Kim Jong Un/Kremlinology
May 2, 2012

Kim Jong Il’s Testament Leaked?

Say it with me: this report could not be verified independently. This document could easily be as fake as the Hitler diaries, but it does make for interesting reading: These instructions casually referred to Kim family business, indicating that ‘the teachings should be executed by Kim Kyong-Hui’ (Kim Jong-Il’s sister), that ‘Kim Kyong-Hui and Kim Jong-Un should take care of the family,’ and that ‘Kim Kyong-Hui should handle management of all assets inside and outside the country.’ Foreign media often...
Categories Anju Links/Kremlinology
February 18, 2012

How do you suppose Kim Jong Nam would like Vegas? (Update: Or not?)

I figured something bad was going to happen to Kim Jong Nam after that book came out. Well-known playboy and occasional critic of his father’s regime, Kim Jong-nam has been kicked out of luxury hotel in the Chinese gambling hub of Macau, according to a Russian newspaper.  The Arguments and Facts weekly claimed Jong-nam ran up a bill of £9,500 but was unable to pay because his credit card had been cancelled. Jong-nam’s decadent lifestyle saw him ditched as the...
Categories Anju Links/Kremlinology
January 26, 2012

Grafs from the new Kim Jong Nam book

Rather than spoon-feed you the parts that interest me, I’ll just link to this, this, and this and let you read and judge for yourself. You may also find this related article by Scott Snyder interesting. My reaction on reading these excerpts? Disappointment, mostly. Few of Jong Nam’s broader conclusions about North Korea are surprising or even divergent from the consensus of outside speculators. Most are either obvious, unsupported by any credible new revelations of fact, or both. An exception...
Categories Kim Jong Il/Kim Jong Un/Kremlinology
January 3, 2012

Consistency or worse

The death of Kim Jong Il, while a joyous occasion on a metaphysical level, has generated little enthusiasm to curb (though I can’t fail to mention that Ban Ki Moon saw fit to lower the U.N. flag to half-staff for a mass murderer who flagrantly defied so many U.N. resolutions). Recognizing that it’s still a bit early to say, all signs point to a dreary consistency, or worse, in North Korea’s policies toward Earth and its various political subdivisions.  Whoever...
Categories Korean War II/Kremlinology
December 29, 2011

KIm Jong Il’s Funeral Ride Was in an American Made Car

Source: KCNA via NK Leadership Watch Well if this doesn’t take the cake!   I suspected it, but then thought twice about it — surely even the North Korean higher-ups wouldn’t go against their own propaganda for an event to be watched into perpetuity by every one of their subjects.  Yet commenter Thomas was the first here to come out and say it, and now ABC News Radio says it’s true: …But a curious detail was that the boxy black...
Categories Kim Jong Il/Propaganda/WTF?
December 21, 2011

Kim Jong Eun’s Reign Will Be Unmercifully Brief

By now, the conventional wisdom on North Korea’s succession has solidified around Jang Song-Thaek as the power behind the scenes in North Korea, in concert with other key figures who began to consolidate their power in 2009, after Kim Jong-Il’s strok — Jang’s wife and Kim Jong-Il’s sister, Kim Kyong-Hui, O Kuk Ryol, and Ju Sang-Sung. Much has been said about how little we know about Kim Jong-Eun, officially, the Great Successor.  His anointing began in 2009, after Kim Jong-Il’s...
Categories Kim Jong Un/Kremlinology
December 18, 2011

Kim Jong Il Dead

Good riddance to him. Any bets on who will actually run the place now? It’s hard to imagine that anyone can fill the psychological void he leaves. It doesn’t matter that most North Koreans undoubtedly despised him. He was still a tremendous, terrible presence that no one else can be. [KCNA, Reuters] [Reuters, Kim Kyung-Hoon] Update: Here are some posts that seem freshly relevant: – Boldly, I had predicted that Kim Jong Il would die. But we could see this...
Categories Kim Jong Il
July 16, 2011

Some Fascinating-if-True Reports from North Korea

Everyone knows that North Korea does a lot of things that we can’t explain without resorting to mostly groundless speculation about its internal power politics. This goes beyond cultural differences. I don’t know any South Koreans who can explain things like the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong incidents, which imposed real (if insufficient) financial and diplomatic costs on the regime. In our conversations, not even Kim Kwang Jin claimed to understand for certain why Kim Jong Il does things that appear to...
Categories Inside NK/Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
January 31, 2011

Kim Jong Nam denounces his family’s rule

There is one North Korean who enjoys a measure of freedom of speech: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s eldest son says the North should abandon the “Songun” or military first doctrine and pursue reforms and open up. Kim Jong-nam (39), who was passed over for the succession in favor of his 20-something brother, made the remarks in an interview with the Tokyo Shimbun. He also commented on the North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island, referring to the waters surrounding...
Categories Kim Jong Il/Kim Jong Un/Kremlinology
January 12, 2011

More Purge Rumors from North Korea

According to the week’s juiciest North Korea gossip, the proteges of Jang Song Thaek, Kim Jong Il’s brother-in-law, and O Kuk Ryol, Kim Jong Il’s long-standing associate, are being purged to consolidate Kim Jong Eun’s prospects for succession: A high-level North Korean source said that nearly 200 senior officials were executed or detained by the State Security Department in early December last year. They include many senior officials of trading companies under the military and the party, such as the...
Categories Kim Jong Un/Kremlinology
October 19, 2010

The Boy Who Cried “Sheep!”: One Man’s Mass Murderer Is Selig Harrison’s Reformer

For someone who judged the evidence of North Korea’s uranium enrichment program so skeptically, Selig Harrison sure doesn’t set a very high bar to perceive evidence of “reform” in North Korea. But Harrison’s latest op-ed in the Boston Globe is in equal parts breathless and baseless, and might just extend his dismal predictive record into the next decade. In his desperation to find some sign that North Korea’s new Inner Party is a hothouse of reforms, Harrison pounds the square...
Categories Humor/Satire/Kremlinology/The Camps/Useful Idiocy
July 20, 2010

And today’s Great Purge victim is …

Kwon Ho Ung, who served as North Korea’s chief delegate to inter-Korean talks with the ATM known as Roh Moo Hyun from 2004 to 2007. Today’s winner will receive one execution, presumably by firing squad. Via Sonagi, here’s a blog post that provides a little more information about him. A lot of North Korean officials must be very, very worried right now. I suppose we’ll continue to hear reports like this right up until the big September party conference. Speaking...
Categories Kremlinology
July 12, 2010

Rumor: Kim Jong Il Just Three Years from Becoming “Eternal” Chairman

As much as I admire Open News for its reporting from North Korea’s towns, villages, and markets, these inside-baseball reports from within the royal court in Pyongyang aren’t the sort in which I tend to put much stock, so take this for what it’s worth: Doctors in North Korea have given the country’s leader Kim Jong-il three years to live, Open Radio for North Korea claimed Friday. Quoting what it said was a high-level North Korean source, the broadcaster said...
Categories Kim Jong Il
July 10, 2010

If there was ever any cognizable justice in holding Gomes in a prison cell for peacefully presenting a petition to North Korean border guards, it ended months ago. North Korea says an American man being held for illegally crossing its border has tried to kill himself. A statement issued by the regime’s official Korean Central News Agency says Aijalon Mahli Gomes’ suicide attempt was “driven by his strong guilty conscience,” plus disappointment and despair that the U.S. government “has not...
Categories Aijalon Gomes/Anju Links/Deprogramming/Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology/NK Military/Propaganda/Reconstruction/Refugees