Comments on: Can Kim Jong Il Outlive “Military First?”

By: OneFreeKorea » War on Prostitution Not Working So Well in North Korea, Either

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:16:12 +0000

[...] Prosecution by a civilian court would tend to corroborate previous views of a budding “military second” policy, which I blogged about here.Â If those reports are accurate, the main beneficiary would seem to be first brother-in-law Jang Song Thaek, who has wrested control over the secret police and prosecution since his recent rehabilitation.Â And if the reports of Kim Jong Il’s illness are not complete b.s., that would give the men with all the guns an imperative to make sure that Jang doesn’t end up ruling the country. [...]

By: OneFreeKorea » N. Korea Food Situation Continues to Worsen: Protests Continue in Chongjin; Food Prices Skyrocket; Kim Jong Il Asks China for ‘Massive’ Food Aid

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:52:14 +0000

[...] Women in Chongjin are also said to have protested the summary execution of the 15 people in Onsong I told you about here. The 15 were cross-border traders who were bringing in food on which others depended. Good Friends has previously reported on the widespead and openly expressed public outrage over the executions, something we haven’t seen before in North Korea. Good Friends sought out a security officer’s justification for the executions: The bigger problem was the information leakage. Those women provided information about the inside system or market prices to outsiders. If people get to know that information trading could be a livelihood activity, it would be more problematic. If the public finds out that they earned money through informing the market prices through the linkage of their South Korea families, other people would do the same because it would be much easier than crossing the river. So the residents were not told the true reason; these women were executed not because of human trafficking or collusion to cross the river but because of selling internal information. [...]

By: Food Shortages Reach The N. Korean Elite « Unclemeat

Food Shortages Reach The N. Korean Elite « Unclemeat — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:04:08 +0000

[...] The Beginning of the End: Food Shortages Reach Pyongyang The regime has contained and survived mass-casualty famine and dissent in the countryside before.Â A severe downturn in Pyongyang, however, is a game-changer. Â If the regime canâ€™t even feed its elite, itâ€™s going to have to take some chairs away from the banquet table.Â That meansÂ commissars and apparatchiksÂ willÂ shivÂ each otherÂ for the remaining chairs as though their lives depend on it.Â A rumored phase-out of the â€œmilitary firstâ€ policy introduces a whole new pool of potential coup plotters. This could be the beginning of the end.Â If the report is true â€“Â and if China doesnâ€™t execute an Olympic-sized airlift to reverse those conditions fast â€“Â thereâ€™s aÂ 70% chance of regime collapse within the next year. [...]

By: OneFreeKorea » The Beginning of the End: Food Shortages Reach Pyongyang

OneFreeKorea » The Beginning of the End: Food Shortages Reach Pyongyang — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:30:46 +0000

[...] The regime has contained and survived mass-casualty famine and dissent in the countryside before.Â A severe downturn in Pyongyang, however, is a game-changer. Â If the regime can’t even feed its elite, it’s going to have to take some chairs away from the banquet table.Â That meansÂ commissars and apparatchiksÂ willÂ shivÂ each otherÂ for the remaining chairs as though their lives depend on it.Â A rumored phase-out of the “military first” policy introduces a whole new pool of potential coup plotters. This could be the beginning of the end.Â If the report is true –Â and if China doesn’t execute an Olympic-sized airlift to reverse those conditions fast –Â there’s aÂ 70% chance of regime collapse within the next year. [...]

By: DC

DC — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:38:53 +0000

Yes, this is one more reason human rights groups should do everything they can to embrass the Chinese at the Olympics, not just for North Korean refugees but for the Chinese people. The Chinese government’s human rights abuses need to overshadow the Olympics this year.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:34:45 +0000

The next round of demonstrations will be at the end of April.

By: A Clockwork Mandarin

A Clockwork Mandarin — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:00:10 +0000

Does anybody know when it will be the next worldwide demonstrations in front of Chinese Embassies ? This is a momentum we shouldn’t miss – just before the Olympic, lots of Media attention – let’s do the best we can!!!

(this is my first comment, annyong-haseyo to everybody and my most sincere compliments to Joshua!)

By: Chosun Hapa

Chosun Hapa — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:16:34 +0000

Given the timing of this crackdown and the recent NK Official visits to China/Chinese Embassies do you think it’s possible that China is encouraging or even came up with this Purge. Given the fire China has come under for it’s human rights record while being an Olympics host nation it’s probably looking for any way to sweep the NK refugee situation under the rug. This would explain Kim Jung Il’s harsher than usual crackdown on people caught crossing the boarder into China, as China would want as few of these people as running around as possible during it’s world wide stage show come August. While I realize that NK probably hates taking orders from it’s Big Brother, China definitely has enough pull with the regime to make it happen. Could it also be possible that China is encouraging the shift from Military First back to the Communist Party? China has already voiced it’s displeasure with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and, as this site has noted a number of times, Kim Jung Il’s nuke proliferation was done mostly to appease the NK’s military factions.