Tweet of the Day: Kim Jong-un Purging the Wealthy Elite?
The crackdown suggests Kim Jong Un is looking to silence critics and shore up his regime’s finances in the face of international sanctions https://t.co/1CsX1O0m6m
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) February 20, 2019
Anyone with a WSJ Online subscription want to fill us in?
Appears this is a WSJ exclusive, no other outlet has it, they all link to the WSJ article.
He will also be purging Commie Moon’s Krooks soon enough.
I found a similar article on the Chosunilbo:
ChosunMedia THE CHOSUNILBO
North Korea
Kim Jong-un Purges Reactionary Elite
By Cho Yi-junFeb 21, 2019 12:18
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is purging reactionary members of the elite who are against dialogue with South Korea and the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
The daily quoted a report by the North Korea Strategy Center, a defector group in Seoul, based on interviews with 14 former North Korean officials, six current officials, and others.
It said Kim “has exiled, imprisoned or executed suspected opponents of his diplomatic outreach to the U.S. and South Korea, while also targeting his country’s moneyed elite with asset seizures,” the WSJ wrote.
“The sweep, which took off late last year, seeks mainly to confiscate foreign-cash piles amassed by the North Korean establishment, and is thought to have netted the regime as much as several million dollars.”
Some of those who were purged “are senior members of powerful military units that [Kim’s] father never touched, lest he alienate the most ardent domestic supporters of the family’s rule,” the daily said.
The move reflects Kim’s goal “of taming the hawkish military and solidifying his authority while empowering doves within his cabinet as he continues diplomacy with Seoul and Washington,” it added.
It sounds to me like this is all about creating optics before the summit. There is no evidence this so called purge even happened. The optic trying to be created is that Kim Jong-un has really changed this time because he is putting his hawkish supporters in their place, so let’s drop sanctions and trust him to denuclearize.
GI, I think the consensus might be that we can trust KJU to denuke the north by moving them all to formerly South Korean bases right after Moon abdicates to him…
I still hold out hope that Trump knows more about how to handle this than has been reported in the carefully-crafted narrative we’re being fed…
Why doesn’t the fact that Kim’s still executing people at his whim seem to not bother the international community. They are still negotiating with a thug. This only shows that when he takes over the south, there will be mass executions to take what money he thinks he deserves.