Tag: North Korea

One analyst believes that key decision making for the Kim regime has shifted towards the Workers’ Party due to an increase in meetings of its Central Military Commission after key events:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have made the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party the country’s primary institution to formulate and communicate policy, a U.S. researcher said.

Michael Madden, an expert on North Korean leadership, made the claim in an article contributed recently to the website 38 North, noting that Kim convened two CMC meetings in August alone, though such meetings were held only twice a year in previous years.

“From 2012 to 2014, the CMC gathered twice a year, about once every six months. The August meetings took place within a week of each other, by contrast, bringing this year’s total to three after a gathering held in late February,” Madden said in the article.

The first of the two August meetings was held on Aug. 20 when military tensions were running high with South Korea following an exchange of artillery fire across the border. During the meeting, Kim declared a “quasi” state of war between the North and the South.

Kim convened the second CMC meeting on Aug. 27, two days after a peace deal defused the military standoff, and replaced several CMC members during the meeting.

“The personnel changes and the commission’s high profile role in the crisis reflect broader indications that Kim is building the CMC into a more inclusive and powerful organization,” Madden said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Even North Korea one cannot escape pop music:

Going to see North Korea’s most popular musical groups is kind of like a night at the concert anywhere — except for just about everything.

There will be a pretty good light show. The skill of the performers will be unquestionable, their melodies pleasing to the ear. The arena will probably be packed and the crowd will rise to their feet several times to applaud. But for most non-North Koreans, that’s where the feeling of familiarity quickly tapers off.

In authoritarian North Korea, everything must have a political message — even, and perhaps especially, its state-sponsored entertainment.

After a spectacular military parade and mass rally in Pyongyang to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the country’s ruling party on Saturday, North Korea’s capital was filled with the sound of music Sunday as some of its most popular performers took the stage, one of which was built specifically for the festivities and floats on a river.

Headlining the effort to give the normally dour capital a more celebratory mood for the next few days are the State Merited Chorus and its orchestra, who on Sunday shared the stage with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s own hand-picked girl group, the Moranbong Band.

Yet to be seen is the Chongbong Band, which remains somewhat mysterious but has been hailed by the state-run media as the next big thing on the North Korean music scene.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

This photo taken on Oct. 9, 2015, from an observatory in the South Korean border city of Paju, north of Seoul, shows the North Korean national flag flying on the top of a blue steel tower in Kijong-dong, a propaganda village in the northern sector of the 4-kilometer-wide zone that separates the two Koreas. North Korea will hold a military parade and other events the next day to mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. (Yonhap)

North Korea's military parade features mobile statues of Kim I & II. pic.twitter.com/xQToUgWCKN

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) October 10, 2015

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) holds hands with Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party’s fifth-ranked leader, as they respond to the crowd during a large-scale military parade at Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung Square on Oct. 10, 2015, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, in this image captured from the North’s Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station. (Yonhap)

In this image captured from the North’s Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station on Oct. 8, 2015, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (front) visits the northern free-trade city of Rason, which has been devastated by a flood caused by Typhoon Goni. The broadcaster did not report when he made the visit. Among Kim’s entourage was Ma Won-chun, director of the design department at the North’s powerful National Defense Commission in his first public appearance in a year to quell rumors of his purge. Kim reportedly purged Ma, who spearheaded the construction of a new airport terminal in Pyongyang which opened in July. (Yonhap)

I guess we will see if these family reunions happen or not, but I think the Kim regime is hoping these reunions will open the door to the South Korean government reopening the Kumgang Resort on the North Korean side of the DMZ.  This resort was a good source of foreign currency for the regime before South Korea discontinued the joint venture after a North Korean soldier shot a South Korean tourist in the back:

South and North Korea Thursday exchanged the final list of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War to join the upcoming reunions, the Unification Ministry said.

South Korea’s Red Cross handed over a list of 90 South Koreans hoping to meet their relatives living in the North, the ministry said. In return, North Korea delivered a list of 97 North Korean family members to the South.

Last month, South and North Korea agreed to hold the reunions for 100 separated family members from each side on Oct. 20-26 at a scenic resort on Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast.

But the actual number of people to join the reunions will be less than 100 as living separated families, mostly in their 80s and older, suffer from health problems or their beloved ones living across the border have already died.

The upcoming event is the outcome of the two Koreas’ landmark deal that was reached on Aug. 25 to ease military tension and follow through with the family reunions.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Oops. North Korea official reportedly executed (http://t.co/bHYUlvhPSl) turns up in state media report today: pic.twitter.com/fLJYMaMwFW

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) October 8, 2015

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/651633830688747520

Photographer Mihaela Noroc is on a mission to document diverse beauty by photographing women in every country of the world. Last month, that odyssey took her to North Korea.

“When entering North Korea you step in a different world,” Noroc wrote in a description of the series for The WorldPost. “You already know that you will see huge monuments, statues and communist celebrations but you almost know nothing about North Korean women.”

Noroc, 30, quit her job in Romania to work on the “The Atlas of Beauty” photography project, which has taken her to dozens of countries, from Ethiopia to Iran. [Huffington Post]

You can see her photos of North Korea women at the above link.