Only a few more days left to vote for LiNK! ____________ Must Read No. 1: Christian Whiton, “How to Weaken Kim’s Grip” ____________ Must Read No. 2: B.R. Myers, “North Korea’s Race Problem” ____________ Must Read No. 3: Don Kirk writes on China and sanctions-busting. ____________ Despite all the food aid North Korea is receiving, one-third of North Koreans are still in need. ____________ Oh, No: I sense a great disturbance in the force. ____________ You Don’t Say, Pt. 1:...

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...

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...

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...