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Category: Kim Jong Un

January 27, 2012

Jabba the Kim among the Ewoks, or worst photo op ever

Maybe the Associated Press’s new vocation as a propaganda outlet for North Korea has a brighter side than I’d originally realized. Today, the AP brings us what must be the worst photo op ever, a barracks inspection by Kim Jong Eun. Where to begin? The unwittingly (I think) subversive decision to surround the morbidly obese kid — has he ever looked so fat? — with these lean, hungry leprechauns and their leathery, wizened officers? Posing him next to the their...

Categories Kim Jong Un/Propaganda/Unfortunate photo ops
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
December 23, 2011

Lankov and Klingner on NK Succession

At the Daily NK, two of the more sober and best-informed analysts offer some fairly scary prognostications (Klingner here, Lankov here).  I tend to agree with the idea that we’re going to see more instability there.  I’ve been saying that for a long time, but I also expect things to accelerate soon.  No one could have imagined that Libya and Syria would become unstable a year ago, and just look at those places now.  The more repressive the regime, the...

Categories Kim Jong Un
December 22, 2011

So he’s a high school dropout, he has a small nuclear arsenal, and he’s into torturing small animals and bondage porn. Anything else?

Soon enough, we’ll see different narratives about Kim Jong Eun emerge. North Koreans are already hearing about Kim Jong-Eun’s badass marksmanship, and I suppose we’ll see him credited with superhuman intellence next. Foreigners will want to believe he’s the next Gorbachev, and trust me, Peter Pan had nothing on our State Department. I’d love to believe that myself. And I suspect a certain former Washington Post reporter and frequent Pyongyang visitor is presently writing an op-ed telling us all that...

Categories Kim Jong Un
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
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
January 8, 2011

South Korean Hackers Hit North Korea’s Twitter, YouTube Accounts

Someone is sending birthday greetings to Kim Jong Eun, the guy who may or may not be North Korea’s next figurehead, but who certainly has tremendous potential as an anti-regime propaganda foil. Most YouTube viewers won’t notice a key detail about this crude (and rather clever) animation — it’s hosted on the pro-North Korean “uriminjokkiri” channel. Mr. Kim, you’ve been hacked: Hat tip to argfoub. The Washington Post’s Chico Harlan reports that they’ve also hit North Korea’s Twitter account (the...

Categories Humor/Satire/Kim Jong Un/Propaganda/Subversion
December 28, 2010

The Wreck of the Tribute Train

Several of you have written in or commented on the reports of a train carrying tribute for Kim Jong Eun derailing between Sinuiju and Pyongyang, North Korea, along with speculation that sabotage caused the derailment. Several newspapers in the U.S. and South Korea pick up the story, but they all attribute it to this one, from Open News: A source in the defense department in North Pyongan province reported on the 23rd that, “The defense department was notified of an...

Categories Inside NK/Kim Jong Un
November 25, 2010

Hey, I wanted to hear more about those pressure points.

Watch my good friend Sung Yoon Lee, appearing on the PBS News Hour, speaking in edited paragraphs. I can hardly write an edited paragraph. In my native language. How does he do that? Oh, and some guy named Victor Cha was there, too. Cha and Lee seem to agree that North Korea’s recent brazenness is related to the succession, and inventing some cred for Kim Jong Eun, which also sounds plausible to me even if I don’t think Jong Eun...

Categories Kim Jong Un/Yeonpyeong Attack
November 20, 2010

Is Kim Jong Eun Already the Most Hated Man in North Korea?

More reports from Open News claim that the deification of Kim Jong-Eun is causing a backlash of discontent among the North Korean people: The source explained that “The punishment for attacking the government within North Korea is execution, so instead there have been outbreaks of criticism through graffiti across train stations, apartment walls, market places, and public buildings”¦according to others the graffiti expresses very strong discontent with Kim Jeong-Eun’s appointment as successor. The last time there were multiple reports of...

Categories Kim Jong Un
October 18, 2010

A Tale of Two Cities

Why does so much of the American reporting from North Korea make me wince? Because so often, the reporters are content to describe the facade without a peek behind the curtain. Take the case of CNN’s Alina Cho, who, contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, tells the Huffington Post how ebullient, well-fed, and prosperous Pyongyang is now that Kim Jong-Eun is ascending daddy’s throne: Even with these constraints, Cho said she noticed seemingly small changes during her four...

Categories Kim Jong Un/Media Criticism
June 30, 2010

North Korea’s Money Men in China

It’s a few days old, but this Daily NK piece is a fascinating insight into how North Korea’s state trading companies put revenue in Kim Jong Il’s coffers, how they’re adapting to the politics of succession: Ri, who is in his mid-40s and living in Dalian, says he enjoys extravagance which he could never have imagined in North Korea. “The Cheonan incident and other issues are complicated,” he explains, “I now believe here (China) is my hometown and where I...

Categories China & Korea/Kim Jong Un/NK Economics
May 19, 2010

Kim Jong Eun Becomes a Focus for North Koreans’ Anger

Interesting report from the Chosun Ilbo: Nonetheless, starving families are said to have swarmed local party headquarters and protested, and even local party officials are openly complaining. Provincial party officials in Chongjn, North Hamgyong Province, and Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province, effectively stopped working, telling party headquarters there is nothing they can do if there is nothing to eat. With rumors spreading that Kim Jong-un led an unpopular “100-day struggle” and “150-day struggle” that pressed people into service on the farms...

Categories Kim Jong Un/Resistance
March 19, 2010

North Korea Shoots Great Confiscation Scapegoat

I suppose this at least implicitly acknowledges that The Great Confiscation didn’t quite earn “widespread support” from “[a]n absolute majority of workers from laborers, farmers and office workers” after all: North Korea has executed a ruling party official blamed for a botched currency reform, in a desperate attempt to quell public unrest and stem negative impact on Pyongyang’s power succession, a news report said on Thursday. The execution by firing squad in Pyongyang last week of Pak Nam-ki, Labour Party...

Categories Kim Jong Un/Kremlinology/NK Economics