Tag: Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong Un pictured without cane – North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun has published pictures showing Kim Jong Un walking… http://t.co/smusHUlk6E

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) November 5, 2014

The fact that watching South Korean dramas was added to the charges of these officials likely had nothing to do with their purge, it was just something throw in as a point of emphasis to everyone else not to watch these dramas that the Kim regime views as subversive media:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seeking to erase the remaining influence of his dead uncle, executing about 10 senior Workers’ Party officials on charges from graft to watching South Korean soap operas, according to an aide to a South Korean lawmaker.

The deaths by shooting are part of Kim’s latest round of purges, said Lim Dae Sung, a secretary to ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo who attended a briefing at the National Intelligence Service yesterday in Seoul. Kim had Jang Song Thaek, his uncle and de facto deputy, killed in December last year. Lee didn’t say when the executions took place, or who the officials were. [Bloomberg]

You can read more at the link.

The South Korean intelligence is probably pretty accurate on this:

South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday it has solved the mystery of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s 6-week public absence, which set off a frenzy of wild speculation around the world.

The National Intelligence Service told legislators that a foreign doctor operated on Kim in September or October to remove a cyst from his right ankle, according to Park Byeong-seok, an aide for opposition lawmaker Shin Kyung-min. The aide said the spy agency also told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that the cyst could recur because of Kim’s obesity, smoking and heavy public schedule.  [Associated Press]

So I wonder if we will see a number of retractions from all the people claiming a coup happened or other theories that were floated around with no evidence to support them?

Now, after several painful weeks with no Kim Jong Un photos at all (the young despot was incommunicado, thought to be recovering from either gout or an ankle injury), the hard-working men and women of the Korean Central News Agency have gifted us with one of the finest specimens in months. Behold, via the Washington Post’s Adam Taylor, Kim Jong Un and stern North Korean officials visit the Pyongyang Baby Home and Orphanage:  [VOX.com]

This picture is just begging for a caption contest. What is Kim Jong-un looking at?

This Week's Tongil Sinbo is out | @KCNAWatch http://t.co/YGXR54t2C2 pic.twitter.com/tZxDdIeANL

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) October 25, 2014

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects the newly completed Yonphung Scientists Rest Home, south of Pyongyang, in this Rodong Sinmun photo released on Oct. 22, 2014. (Yonhap)

So much for all the “coup” talk, Kim Jong-un has reappeared. He was seen walking with a cane which confirms he likely was recovering from a surgery of some kind possibly to his ankles or knees:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made his first public appearance in more than a month, giving a “field guidance” at a newly built housing complex, according to Pyongyang’s state media.

The visit to the Wisong Scientists Residential District marked the first time Kim has appeared in public since he attended a musical concert on Sept. 3.

“Watching the exterior of the apartment houses and public buildings nicely decorated with diverse color tiles, he was very pleased to see them. He said they looked very attractive, presenting fantastic scenery,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim’s prolonged absence from public view, including his failure to show up at important national events, has spurred speculation and rumors ranging from health problems to a military coup, though the U.S. has dimissed rumors of a coup as “false.”  [Yonhap]

I wonder if the next time Kim Jong-un drops out of view for a while the same people will be publishing sensational articles again of a coup?  Unfortunately when it comes to North Korea it seems a lot of people’s wishful thinking is mistaken as analysis.

Kim Kyong-hui (inside the red circle), the aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is shown on state television on Oct. 12, 2014, reinforcing views that she hasn’t been removed from the country’s power elite despite the execution of her once powerful husband, Jang Song-thaek. (Yonhap)

N. Korean leader fails to show on key national celebration http://t.co/pF8bPfhqTs

— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) October 10, 2014