He may have lost weight, but he is still morbidly obese by weighing approximately 120 kilograms (264 pounds):
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, seems to be have reached his lowest weight in at least the past few years.
Korea Times
In a photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Dec. 29, Kim was wearing a black suit with a white button-down shirt and silver tie, while attending a plenary session of the Workers’ Party.
The photo immediately drew attention, as there was some space between his neck and the shirt. Previously, he has rarely worn button-down shirts and even if he has, they looked very tight around the neck.
Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported in a parliamentary audit in October that Kim had shed around 20 kilograms compared to 2019, when he weighed 140 kilograms (308 pounds).
You can read more at the link.
Looking back it is amazing that 93,000 people fell for the “Workers’ Paradise” scam, but it was a very different time back in the 1960’s compared to today:
Eiko Kawasaki stood at the port of Niigata, the place from which she left for North Korea more than 60 years ago, and tossed chrysanthemum flowers into the sea to pray for her peers who could not come back. Then she burst into tears.
As a 17-year-old girl seeking a better life, Kawasaki joined a resettlement program led by North Korea that promised a “Paradise on Earth” — where everything was supposed to be free and those with Korean roots like her could live without facing discrimination.
Kawasaki was among some 93,000 ethnic Korean residents in Japan and their relatives who joined the program only to find the opposite of what was promised. Most were put to brutal manual labor at mines, in forests and on farms and faced discrimination because of Japan’s past colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
One of the rare survivors who made it back to Japan, her birthplace, Kawasaki, now 79, is on a mission to keep alive the tragic stories and memories of the deceived “resettlement” victims.
She aspires to open a museum and revitalize a street in Niigata to commemorate the resettlement program under the auspices of Japanese and Korean friendship groups.
Associated Press
You can read more at the link, but it is likely that most of the 93,000 ethnic Koreans from Japan are dead considering their very low social status in North Korea that would have led them into forced labor and little food.
Kim Yo-jong is back in the news again with another alleged promotion within the Worker’s Party:
Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister, is believed to have been promoted to a higher official position, according to a North Korean media report Saturday.
In the report on a memorial event for late former leader Kim Jong-il held a day earlier, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) listed Kim Yo-jong alongside members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party as having attended the ceremony.
Kim was listed between eight sitting members of the Political Bureau and other alternate members, suggesting she may have been named a member or an alternate member of the organ.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Russia has slowly been reducing the personnel in their embassy in South Korea to where now they are down to only two diplomats:
Russia has withdrawn most of its embassy staff in North Korea, a Seoul official said Thursday, as pandemic-driven shortages of everyday commodities and anti-virus restrictions have driven many foreign diplomats out of the impoverished country.
NK News, a media outlet on the North, reported earlier dozens of Russia’s embassy personnel left Pyongyang on Wednesday via train, leaving behind only two diplomats, including Ambassador Alexander Matsegora, and other technicians.
“Russia used to have a large embassy that could originally station around 100 people, but the government understands that most of them have left,” the official at the unification ministry told reporters on the customary condition of anonymity.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if they had to use a hand pushed trolley to leave North Korea like the prior diplomats.
Next month Kim Jong-un will have ruled North Korea for 10 years. Yonhap has a look back at how he has increased his grip on power in North Korea:
One of the first things Kim did upon taking the throne was to restore the party system to keep the military — which had developed immense power under his father’s military-first policy — in check and give authority to the relatively young leader’s decision-making process.
In 2016, North Korea held a four-day party congress, the first of its kind in 36 years, and announced the “byongjin” policy of simultaneously pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development.
In January this year, the North held another party congress and endorsed Kim as the “general secretary,” a title previously held by his father.
Having secured a political system to back his reign, Kim had no hesitation in eliminating those who were considered obstacles to his absolute power.
One of the most high-profile incidents that contributed to Kim’s reputation on the global stage was the 2013 execution of his once-powerful uncle Jang Song-thaek on charges of treason.
In 2017, Kim’s estranged half brother, Kim Jong-nam, was poisoned to death at a Kuala Lumpur airport, an assassination also blamed on Pyongyang.
Despite the brutality, Kim used tightly-controlled state propaganda outlets to position himself as a leader devoted to improving the lives of ordinary people across the nation while seeking to makeover the North’s image into that of a “normal state.”
Kim has put his wife, Ri Sol-ju, in the public eye, unlike his father, and released images of him drinking beer and smoking with party officials.
On the diplomatic front, Kim held a historic first summit with then U.S. President Donald Trump and met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in three times in 2018.
Though the nuclear talks and inter-Korean exchanges are both at a standstill, such a meeting with a U.S. leader was touted as a major achievement of the young leader inside North Korea.
“After achieving a certain level of diplomatic accomplishments, Kim no longer had to depend on the shadows of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il to legitimize his leadership,” Cheong Seong-chang, the director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, said. “He made that clear in the 2019 constitution revision by redacting all phrases related to his father’s military-first policy.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear that Kim Jong-un was able to increase his grip on power by neutering military leaders that could rival him and then killing anyone, even family members that could replace him.
