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Category: Kim Jong Il

April 10, 2007

North Korea by Google Earth: Kim Jong Il’s Largest Palace

[Updated; The Mystery of the Tangun Tomb] Remember my March 28th post, a stream of consciousness that washed against the subject of EU sanctions against North Korea? Among the items sanctioned were pure-bred horses, which are the kind not even North Koreans would dare eat — because of who owns them. That led me to the one location in North Korea where I suspected that such horses might be kept. I had recently found that location on Google Earth while...

Categories Google Earth/History/Kim Jong Il
March 28, 2007

A novel definition for ‘denuclearization;’ and where to keep a horse (from being eaten) in N. Korea

According to this Chosun Ilbo report, North Korea recently floated a novel interpretation of “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” under which it could, you know, keep its nuclear weapons.  I wonder what they expected: The assistant secretary of state made it clear that Washington’s goal is complete denuclearization saying, “The U.S. will not form any kind of ties with a nuclear-armed North Korea. He stipulated that “the case of India (which signed a nuclear pact despite possessing nuclear programs) will...

Categories Human Rights/Kim Jong Il/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Six-Party Talks/WMD
March 12, 2007

Kim Jong Nam’s Bachelor Pad Burgled, and How the Other Side Lives

The Zhuyuan Haoyuan villa complex is 15 minutes from downtown Macau and its 80 villas are among the territory’s most exclusive. The average price of each villa is estimated HK$15 million, roughly US$1.92 million. Yellow sunflower symbols adorning the doors of nos. 361 and 371 easily identify them as Kim Jong-nam’s.  [Chosun Ilbo] If Kim Jong Nam is really estranged from his father, you really have to wonder where this money came from.  Meanwhile, the Daily NK reports on the...

Categories China & Korea/Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK/Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
February 21, 2007

Kim Jong Il Loses North Korean Soccer Mom Demographic

According to the Daily NK’s various sources, Kim Jong Il has  banned  either some or all Japanese cars, after one of them broke down on the road and blocked his path. So far, most of the middle-class North Koreans or low-ranking party officials have been using Japanese cars, whereas the richest riding Mercedes. Also, Korean-Japanese who immigrated into the North are fond of the cars they used to drive in Japan. So the number of Japanese-built cars is more than...

Categories Inside NK/Kim Jong Il
February 12, 2007

Acting Out

Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, appeared in Beijing on Sunday. Immigration officials at Shoudu Airport in Beijing said that Kim Jong-nam was included on a list of VIPs who arrived in the Chinese capital that day. Kim, wearing a cap, sunglasses, and blue jeans, was first spotted in the afternoon by Japanese television crews at the airport. He stopped briefly in front of a hotel in Beijing to answer reporters’ questions. “I have nothing...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
February 3, 2007

Diverted N. Korean Food Aid Traced to Single Recipient

Update 2/5/07: The Joongang Ilbo thinks Kim Jong Nam is on the clock for his father after all: While staying abroad, Jong-nam has been reporting back to his father on the situation here and in the United States,” the source said. “What is important is that he has been allowed by his father to make contact with people from South Korea and the United States at will. This, from an unnamed source. It’s a terrific argument for keeping that $25...

Categories China & Korea/Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
January 26, 2007

Coup Rumors Swirl in North Korea

Update:   More coup rumors.  Thanks to a friend for alerting me to this one, although it doesn’t seem to have worked out the way I hoped: The South Korean government on Friday denied a Japanese report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could be ill or faced a military coup. Japan’s Jiji Press reported that Kim may be under house arrest at his villa in Wonsan along the east coast. “The Japanese report on Kim Jong-il seems groundless because...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
December 8, 2006

Kim Jong Il Glimpses His ‘Pleasure Squad’ in the Afterlife

The Korea Economic Institute was kind enough to send me what turned out to be one of the most interesting and readable papers I’ve ever read on North Korea — a psychological study of Kim Jong Il. The bad news is that KEI has not released the full text yet, but the good news is that if you follow the previous link, the author will participate in a public discussion of his paper at the National War College on December...

Categories Diplomacy/Humor/Satire/Kim Jong Il/Unintended Humor
December 5, 2006

Kremlinology, Luxury Goods, and Stolen Rice

I don’t expect Resolution 1718’s luxury goods ban to have much of a  short-term impact on North Korea, beyond focusing attention  on all of the frivolous things Kim Jong Il would rather buy than rice.   For the longer term, however, Korea watcher Ken Gause, in what is probably the definitive work of North Korean Kremlinology (ht) did a pretty good job before-the-fact of explaining the gradual trends we seem to be hoping we can advance (Gause actually  spends almost none...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Kim Jong Il/Korean Politics/Kremlinology
November 29, 2006

Kim Jong Il Unplugged, Part 15

The United States has leaked a new set of sanctions on “luxury items” that can no longer be exported to North Korea, in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718: [T]he list of proposed luxury sanctions, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim’s swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis. Electronic goods like I-pods and plasma TV’s are also banned.  Defectors helped...

Categories "United" Nations/Appeasement/Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology/Washington Views
November 21, 2006

The Case for Starving the People

I noticed this interesting graf in a story about the effect of the luxury  items sanctions in UNSCR 1718.  For reasons that escape me entirely, some people believe that it’s counterproductive to bar Kim Jong Il from buying sashimi, S-Class sedans, and Omega watches while his people are starving – to – death,  some seem so quick to forget. Over past years, U.S. leaders have described the North Korean regime as an axis of evil, an outpost of tyranny, an...

Categories "United" Nations/Famine & Food Aid/Kim Jong Il/Korean Education/Washington Views
October 11, 2006

TV Ad Satirizes Albright and Kim Jong Il

I’d seen it on TV this morning and tried to post something about  it, but it took Richardson to actually find the ad  (link to video), which the Republicans decided not to use for fear of giving offense.    Not exactly Bush=Hitler stuff, really, but very funny.  I hope it gets good circulation on the net, and let’s especially hope that Albright issues some terse and snippy statement, which will really give this thing  legs.  

Categories Diplomacy/Humor/Satire/Kim Jong Il
September 15, 2006

Daily NK: Kim Jong Il’s Niece Commits Suicide in Paris

After life in Paris, I suppose even a gilded life in Pyongyang would seem less worth living. A niece of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il killed herself in Paris, probably because she did not want to return to her home in the reclusive state, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday. Jang Keum-song, 29, died in Paris – where she was studying – because of what appeared to be an overdose of sleeping pills taken after drinking alcohol, Yonhap cited a...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Korean Society
September 6, 2006

To Your Health!

[Updated] If there’s anything to a new report that Kim Jong Il’s liver is seizing up on him, I may have to admit that Madeleine Albright’s toast of a mass murderer contributed to the cause of world peace after all (the old soldiers’ rumor is that he just drinks colored water to extract cash from naive foreign diplomats). And although I don’t believe everything I hear from GNP lawmakers, I certainly hope we can get this rumor into circulation up...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
August 31, 2006

TKL Interview with Chuck Downs on the Alliance, Diplomacy, Nukes, and Why Kim Jong Il Tested Those Missiles

[Update 2: Thanks to the reader who pointed out that I had accidentally disabled the comments! That’s fixed now; please submit any questions or comments you have.] [Update: This post will “stick” at the top of the page for a couple of days; scroll down for new entries.] Chuck Downs is an author, independent consultant, and former Pentagon official who frequently appears on television news programs to discuss North Korea policy. He has held a number of important positions in...

Categories An Alliance?/China & Korea/Geopolitics/Japan & Korea/Kim Jong Il/Korean Politics/Kremlinology/NK Military/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views/WMD
August 26, 2006

Is He Crazy After All?

A big welcome to the new readers from Gateway Pundit, and as always, many thanks to Jim for his link and his support. All of us who wonder why Kim Jong Il has does some of the bone-headed things he’s done lately have shared a few common assumptions about him as we engaged in this speculative parlor game of ours: * He is sane, rational, calculating, and reasonably well informed about his foes’ thought processes (some, however, would also argue...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology/WMD