February 25, 2010

The Victory of the Ajummas

Shortly after North Korea announced The Great Confiscation came The Ajumma Rebellion, an event that may prove to be one of the most significant in North Korean history. The historical perspective comes into focus as I read this analysis at the Daily NK, not so much of why The Great Confiscation failed, but why the regime even tried something so clearly predisposed to fail. It concludes with this: Decades after the leader promised “boiled rice and beef soup” to everyone...

Categories NK Economics/Resistance
February 24, 2010

The Emperor’s New Face

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il apparently had age spots removed from his face to look healthy but is becoming more and more fretful and dependent on old friends or family, the National Intelligence Service said in a report at the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. [Chosun Ilbo] You’d think a man with absolute power would set higher expectations than this: No word on the whereabouts of his plastic surgeon, but then again, I’m sure there’s a built-in incentive to...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Kremlinology
February 24, 2010

The History of North Korea’s Political Prison Camps

Open News has an interesting history of the camps that, among other interesting educated guesses, suggests that 50% of the largest camps’ (kwan-li-so) population is composed of people who are merely family members of those accused of disloyalty to the state: The North Korean regime, as it consolidated its power, killed religious leaders, the pro-Japanese, and landowners, while imprisoning their family members in the so called “forced labor camps. In 1947, there were 17 of these forced labor camps. Between...

Categories History/Human Rights/The Camps
February 24, 2010

Last Push to Help LiNK Win $250K

We’re coming up on the final days of the Pepsi’s “Refresh “Everything” campaign. Some of you, like me, have been voting for LiNK faithfully every day. Thank you. For the rest of you, I humbly ask you to join the effort in a last push. You can go here to vote. If LiNK can make it to second place, it wins the money. The problem is, it’s still stuck in 4th place. Now, I’m one of those people who doesn’t...

Categories Activism/Refugees
February 23, 2010

South Africa Intercepts North Korean Arms Shipment (Updated)

Not for the first time, North Korea is implicated in shipping weapons to one or more belligerents in the civil war in Congo, and not for the first time, North Korea is caught selling tank parts to a warring African nation in violation of a U.N. resolution. This time, however, the North Korean shipment has been seized in the course of what “Western diplomats” call a “clear-cut violation” of UNSCR 1874 (full text in my sidebars): South Africa has told...

Categories Africa/Sanctions
February 23, 2010

Great Confiscation Updates

More proof that times have changed in North Korea: in the 1990’s, Kim Jong Il allowed perhaps millions to starve and did next to nothing about it. This year, the regime is ordering the urgent distribution of rice rations to prevent starvation in the most vulnerable areas. Well, it’s a modest step in the right direction that the regime is actually trying to prevent starvation, even if, as the Daily NK suggests, that it’s because the regime is afraid of...

Categories NK Economics
February 23, 2010

23 February 2010: “The Little One”

Kim Jong-Eun still has a way to go to gain the adoration, much less acceptance, of the North Korean elites: According to a high-level source, the nickname of Kim Jong-il’s heir, Kim Jong-Eun, is “the little one.” According to multiple sources, the North Korean elites officially call Kim Jong-Eun “the great leader” and “successor of the great accomplishments of the military-first policy,” but inofficially, Kim Jong-Eun is referred to as “the little one. “The little one” is usually used in...

Categories Anju Links
February 22, 2010

Kremlinology Updates

Will the failure of The Great Confiscation set back Kim Jong-Eun’s “succession?”___________________ Kim Jong Il’s sister, Kim Kyong-Hui, is the reported beneficiary of a power shift in North Korea. That makes sense from a certain logical perspective: the regime needs a “bridge figure” to maintain the magic of Kim Il Sung’s dynastic bloodline, and Kim Jong-Eun just isn’t looking very ready to be that figure.___________________ But behind the scenes, my guess is that Jang Song Thaek will end up in...

Categories Kremlinology
February 22, 2010

22 February 2010: The End of the Age of Unifictions

Some 56 percent of South Koreans have a negative view of North Korea and 70 percent feel threatened by the North’s nuclear arms, a poll suggests. But 87 percent support another inter-Korean summit. [….] “The percentage of people with a negative view of the North in the latest poll is now as high as before the Sunshine Policy,” said Choi Jin-wook, a senior researcher at KINU. “It seems that the poll reflects how people were affected” by the North’s second...

Categories Anju Links
February 22, 2010

South Korean Leftists Should Take a Tip from Oh Kil-Nam

To Oh, a left-leaning South Korean economist, defecting to North Korea with his entire family seemed like a peachy idea at the time (1985). Today, Oh is one of a very few people who has a souvenir photograph of his family standing in the snow at Camp 15, the infamous Yodok Camp described by Kang Chol-Hwan in “The Aquariums of Pyongyang.” As it turns out, “the relevant organ” means the large intestine. His activism attracted the attention of North Korean...

Categories Defectors/Human Rights/Propaganda/The Camps
February 22, 2010

In Case You Weren’t Listening for the Last 20 Years: North Korea Swears Never to Disarm

The North Korean regime seldom makes a promise, in my opinion, that it really intends to keep. For instance, I don’t think it has the slightest intention of spending all that confiscated cash on meat soup instead of yachts and other goodies of that sort for The Great Fishwife. But I think, for once, they’re sincere when they say this: North Korea vowed Friday (February 19) not to give up nuclear arms for “petty economic aid”, claiming it has only...

Categories Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks
February 21, 2010

Were the Taliban Casing Yongsan?

By what unhappy accident did the muses of Seoul’s urban planning put a large mosque with a significant population of Pakistani fundamentalists in its congregation smack-dab on top of Hooker Hill? Walking through Itaewon shortly after 9/11 and shortly before my DEROS date, watching chitrali hats and shalwar kamiz coexist uneasily with spandex mini-dresses, Dimple scotch, and crowded nightclubs frequented by U.S. military personnel, I confess to having thought: it’s just a matter of when. A Pakistani man who claims...

Categories Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military
February 18, 2010

6.7 Earthquake Hits Tri-Border Area Near Rajin, N. Korea

No word on damage or injuries in the area yet, but 6.7 is a pretty big quake. In 1994, an earthquake of equal magnitude centered at Northridge, California, killed 72 people and injured 9,000 more. Though area residents said they did not feel the quake, office towers in Beijing — about 770 miles (1,240 kilometers) away from the epicenter — swayed slightly for about a minute. The quake occurred 335 miles (540 kilometers) below the earth’s surface. With earthquakes centered...

Categories Inside NK/Russian Far East
February 18, 2010

17 February 2010

Two must-read articles in Foreign Policy by my friend Professor Sung Yoon Lee, on the topics of Kim Jong Il’s mortality and how to manage North Korea’s reconstruction. I don’t agree with all of the ideas, but they’re well worth reading. I wish I had time to analyze them in more depth, but I haven’t had time to so much as skim them myself yet.____________________________________ Been meaning to link this one for a few days — Kushibo notes that President...

Categories Anju Links
February 18, 2010

Succession Watch

A valued reader and friend writes in to draw my attention to reports that North Koreans named “Kim Jong Eun” have been ordered to change their names, echoing a 1974 edict withholding the name “Kim Jong Il” from use by mere mortals. My churlish friend suggests “Chung Hee” as an alternative. Nice. Just to put this in perspective, it’s blasphemy for a North Korean to be called Kim Jong Eun, yet there are millions of kids named Jesus all over...

Categories Kremlinology/WTF?
February 18, 2010

North Korea Has a Meth Problem, Part 3

North Korea’s meth problem continues to worsen as meth gains cultural acceptance. According to interviews with residents of Heoryong and Musan, in North Hamkyung Province on February 5, North Koreans near the border area and Shin-ui-ju, Hamheung, and Pyongyang consume Crystal Meth like food. Especially near the border area, Meth is used by people of all ages, and even students aged 14-15 consume it. In these regions, Meth is served for guests, and the host invite guests to consume Meth...

Categories Drugs & N Korea/NK Military