“Collective Spirit” Update

The Chosun Ilbo reports that despite international sanctions, Kim Jong Il still manages to import ample quantities of rice and infant formula add “between $200 and $300 million every year” to his personal slush fund:

With the money, North Korea would be able to import between 400,000 to 600,000 tons of rice, which would be enough to cover half the country’s food shortage of 1 million tons of rice per year.

What? Since when isn’t cognac food anymore? Isn’t it an agricultural product you ingest? Well???

The North is estimated to have imported more than $100 million worth of high-quality liquor, cars and other luxury goods in 2008. And also on the list are pet dogs, which the Kim family are said to adore. Kim buys dozens of German shepherds, Shih Tzus and other breeds from France and Switzerland every year.

You’re on your own with that one.

Key departments within the Workers Party are pressuring agencies under their control to offer “loyalty funds” for the successor, a source familiar with North Korean affairs said. “A separate company has been established under the leadership of Kim Jong-un to secretly amass foreign currency.”

The source said Kim senior uses his slush fund to finance his expensive tastes, build monuments in his own honor and buy gifts for his loyal aides. Faced with increasing difficulties bolstering his slush funds under international sanctions, the Kim is said to have issued an ultimatum to his top officials in February, saying from now on he would judge their loyalty based on the amount they contribute to the fund.

I can scarcely believe that Barack Obama, Nobel Laureate, Eurotrash cult figure, and healer of all that is nasty in our world could be such a peace-hating crypto-neocon who persists in imposing his imperialist, hegemonic sanctions and interfering with the sovereign right of the Sun of the Nation to be a river unto his people:

Before nation founder Kim Il-sung’s birthday on April 15 this year, Kim imported around 200 high-end cars from China at a cost of some $5 million. A North Korean source said secret funds are also used to finance nuclear missile development and other state projects Kim Jong-il orders personally.

The Chosun estimates that the Emperor’s Slush Fund is worth about $4 billion — on a similar scale to that of Saddam, Marcos, or Mobutu — but I’d be skeptical of any particular estimates. I’ve seen others, and they vary widely. The Chosun also also reports that most of the cash comes from Bureau 39’s various criminal enterprises and (sit down for this) “the joint tourism business with South Korea,” and possibly North Korea’s state development bank.

As regular readers know by now, there are some whose alternative reality would be difficult to reconcile with reports like these, who insist that “[t]he persistence of famine [in North Korea] is due to economic sanctions led by the U.S. and its refusal to end the 50-year Korean War,” not any cause that can be attributed to an “evil dictator.” After all, “North Korea lacked the foreign currency to buy food on the global market,” right?

Right?