Tag: Kim Jong-un

That is what this North Korean defector who once worked as a body guard for Kim Jong-un’s dad, Kim Jong-il thinks:

A former bodyguard to the late Kim Jong Ilsaid the current North Korean leader leads a life of luxury while ordinary North Koreans die of hunger.

After speaking at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, defector Lee Young-guk told Voice of America Tuesday Kim Jong Un should be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

According to Lee, Kim has built 14 luxury villas for his enjoyment and makes seasonal visits to each retreat to go hunting or swimming.

The defector said that as the leader of North Korea Kim should be taking care of his people, but is instead pursuing his own interests.

Lee added Kim should take responsibility for the countless North Koreans languishing in political prison camps, where they are dying from hunger, malnutrition and beatings.

Information control in North Korea is tight, and the Pyongyang regime “closes the eyes and ears” of the people – preventing most, even senior officials, from ever knowing anything about Kim’s lavish lifestyle and the abject conditions in the prison camps.

Lee said Kim needs to be referred to the ICC, if it means North Koreans can now know the truth about the leadership.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

I would think that anyone that is part of the ruling regime would appear to have a lavish lifestyle compared to ordinary North Koreans:

North Korea‘s first lady Ri Sol Ju is rarely seen in public, but according to a recent report, the wife of leader Kim Jong Un is not well liked.

Ri is best known for her love of luxury goods that suggest she leads a lavish lifestyle, Asia Press reported Wednesday.

North Korean reporters who went undercover to gather opinions about life in the secluded country said Ri gets bad ratings for her choices at a time when many North Koreans say their standard of living has worsened since Kim came to power.

North Koreans who were interviewed anonymously called Kim a “rookie” and “fearsome.”

But they reserved their most negative remarks for Ri, who, according to the report is 26 years old and traveled to South Korea in 2005 with a North Korean cheerleading squad during the Asian Athletics Championship in Incheon.

Some North Koreans complained that they were irritated with her debut on state media, where she was touted as “Respectable Comrade Ri Sol Ju.”

One male worker in the North Korean province of Yanggangdo said the title was undeserved, adding, “What did she do to earn such praise? And why does she carry a moneybag everywhere she goes? Is she giving out money?”

Ri is often seen with an expensive French purse on her arm.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

"Kim Jong-un is the executor of the legacy." Some of my notes noted by @BBC @EvanstheAirwave https://t.co/7gGcaJd6Ql pic.twitter.com/LFzVZ6xzHP

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) February 24, 2016

This does make you wonder if for security precautions the North Koreans kept Kim Jong-un indoors somewhere or maybe he was just to lazy to show up for the picture?:

Recent photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to have been doctored, prompting speculation regarding Kim’s wariness about his personal safety as tensions rise on the peninsula.

The photographs that ran on the seventh page of state newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Friday show Kim surrounded by a large group of party officials, posing before the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported.

Kumsusan is also the mausoleum of the late Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder.

But something doesn’t look quite right.

On closer inspection, the main flag at the top of the building flutters in one direction, while a group of flags in the background flies in the opposite way, an unlikely phenomenon if wind was blowing at the time the photograph was taken.  [Business Insider]

You can read more at the link.

Dennis Halpin at NK News has a long article about how the Chinese could turn to Kim Jong-un’s half brother, Kim Jong-nam to lead North Korea if they tire of Jong-un’s antics.  It is a good read about Kim Jong-nam if you don’t know much about him, but it seems installing him with a palace coup would be tough to do in North Korea:

Kim Jong Nam, despite a globetrotting playboy image which has seen him periodically surface in Southeast Asian watering holes in Indonesia and Malaysia, has voiced criticisms of his younger brother similar to those espoused by his own student son. Kim Jong Nam reportedly emailed a Japanese journalist in 2012 a prediction that “the Kim Jong Un regime will not last long.” He has also voiced support for economic restructuring, stating that “without reforms, North Korea will collapse,” which would be music to the ears of the leadership in Beijing. Kim Jong Nam’s close familial ties to his purged uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was widely seen as Beijing’s point man in Pyongyang, would also likely earn him kudos among the Chinese leadership facing a quandary of what to do about North Korea. The question is how to preserve a reliable buffer state against American influence in South Korea while curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs which increasingly threaten regional stability. Kim Jong Nam, despite his bad boy image, would likely prove far more pliant than his disagreeable and defiant little brother.  [NK News]

You can read the rest at the link, but I look at Kim Jong-nam more likely taking power if a regime collapse scenario was to happen and the Chinese intervened and needed to get a new leader quickly in place.  Kim Jong-nam could then open up the country following the Chinese model becuase Kim Jong-nam does not have any human rights violation, crimes against humanity, or any other excess baggage hanging over his head if he decides to open up the country and the reality of the North Korean gulags becomes public.  He can blame it all on the old regime and vow that he is working on fixing the problems the old regime created.  This may be enough to get world leaders to except him and work to drop sanctions and offer financial assistance in exchange for ending their nuclear program.

Those are just some quick thoughts I have, does anyone else see any other scenario that Kim Jong-nam could take power?

This image, captured on Feb. 7, 2016 from the North’s Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station, shows a document signed the previous day by the country’s leader Kim Jong-un authorizing the launch of the “Kwangmyongsong-4” satellite. North Korea said in a special broadcast it has succeeded in placing the satellite into orbit. The rocket launch is widely viewed as a disguised ballistic missile test. (Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) is featured being heartily greeted by women workers of the Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang Textile Mill that he visited in this photo carried by the country’s official media, the Korean Central News Agency, on Jan. 28, 2016. The news report said Kim expressed deep satisfaction “picturing to himself students going to and from school with cheerful laughter, carrying with them locally produced fashionable bags” manufactured at the facility. (Yonhap)

If anyone knows about high quality food products it is Kim Jong-un:

Kim Jong Un provided field guidance at a food production plant on Saturday, Pyongyang time, marking his first public factory visit of 2016.

Pyongyang’s state-controlled media outlet KCNA reported Kim called on factory workers at Gold Cup Athletes Comprehensive Food Factory to produce more gustatory and nutritious food products for the state’s athletes.

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South Korean outlet Newsis reported it’s likely the plant was recently renovated and Kim was marking the new opening with an official visit.

Kim expressed satisfaction with the factory and said it had improved over the past year.

“Great improvements to the lives of the people will come, if everyone, like the factory’s cadres and employees here who make [North Korea] products that are the envy of the world, work with ambition and determination for the good of the [North Korean people],” Kim reportedly said.

The North Korean leader added cadres from other factories should learn from the plant’s example.

Pyongyang has previously stated the country’s top priority is to transform itself into an “economic powerhouse.”  [UPI]

You can read the rest at the link.

Korean newspaper runs with @NewYorker Kim Jong Un cartoon to show other leaders with toys. https://t.co/tjojZFN2Dl pic.twitter.com/i9PSkVaT2b

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) January 18, 2016

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un makes a congratulatory visit to the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces for the new year, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reports on Jan. 10, 2016. Kim said the hydrogen bomb test carried out last week was an act of self-defense, according to the report. (KCNA-Yonhap)