Tag: North Korea

The Daily NK has an interesting read that compares the 1956 August Faction Incident which was the largest conspiracy to topple Kim Il-sung since he rose to power in 1948 with the 2013 Jang Song-taek purge by current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.  The bottom line is that the author believes we will continue to see a lot more killing due to the lack of idolization of Kim Jong-un in North Korea compared to his father and grandfather:  

Right now, North Korea is still in the process of beginning to idolize Kim Jong Un. In North Korean power politics, is there a more important element than idolization? The relationship with China and Russia, along with the policies related to industry have all been pushed back and delayed. In a totalitarian dictatorship, the leader’s authority is not guaranteed without idolization firmly in place. To accomplish this, the regime must kill many people. To put it another way, as the regime continues to snatch up important people and examine them, they’ll need to kill more and more. As Kim Jong Un continues to secure his place, we will most likely see a revamp of the North Korean totalitarianism that occurred from 1960-1980.

In all likelihood, about 30-40 years remain. In the road ahead, Kim Jong Un will not likely be able to establish power in the way his father and grandfather did. During the time of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the foundation for their absolute dictatorship was already in place. If Kim Jong Un wishes to command the power and respect that his forebears did, he still has many, many people left to kill.   [Daily NK]

You can read the rest at the link.

Considering how North Korea has never apologized or compensated any families of the people killed in the 1987 Korean Air bombing like Libya did to get off of this list, the North Koreans should have never been removed from this list in the first place:

The United States left out North Korea from its list of states sponsoring terrorism despite calls for adding Pyongyang to the list in the wake of a massive hacking attack on Sony Pictures late last year.

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987,” the State Department said in Country Reports on Terrorism 2014, referring to the North’s official name.

North Korea was put on the U.S. terrorism sponsor list for the 1987 midair bombing of a Korean Air flight that killed all 115 people aboard. But the U.S. administration of former President George W. Bush removed Pyongyang from the list in 2008 in exchange for progress in denuclearization talks.

Calls grew for redesignating Pyongyang as a state terrorism sponsor after the FBI determined the North was responsible for the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures last November, but the State Department was negative about its effectiveness.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but notice that they were removed from the list in 2008 by the Bush administration for promises of making progress in denuclearization.  History has now shown how well that has worked out.

I think it depends on what one defines economic development as meaning.  If making enough money to keep the ruling elites in power is the goal of the Kim regime they are doing a good job of that along with developing their nuclear weapons:

The United States and China will use next week’s high-level strategic talks to discuss ways to get North Korea out of the “fantasy” that it can revive its broken economy without having to give up its nuclear program, a senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday.

Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel made the remark during a Foreign Press Center briefing previewing the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) to be held in Washington from Monday through Wednesday, saying Washington and Beijing share the same goal of ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

“North Korea harbors the fantasy that it can have its cake and eat it too,” Russel said. “North Korea is hoping to be able to rescue itself from the economic failure of its system through external aid while simultaneously and brazenly carrying forward on its nuclear and missile program. That’s just not going to happen.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but as I have long said there is right now no good reason why the North Koreans should stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons.  Promises of “economic development” only matter if the Kim regime cared about the welfare of all their citizens.  Right now they are doing enough to keep the elites in power by getting enough aid from China and managing their global illicit operations.

Pyongyang's trade fair was very well-attended, but dwindling number of foreign companies: http://t.co/Ph3d5keUnd

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 20, 2015

What is likely going on here is that North Korea is using the MERS crisis in South Korea for maximum domestic propaganda purposes.  The Kim regime is able to claim that their government has been able to develop a cure for MERS unlike the South Koreans who a dieing from the virus. I would not be surprised if the domestic propaganda had a racist element to it criticizing the South Koreans for contracting these diseases by mixing with dirty foreigners in the first place.  For those that are not familiar with North Korea’s race based nationalism I highly recommend reading B.R. Myers great book, “The Cleanest Race“:

North Korea said Friday it has developed an injection that is highly effective in preventing and curing the MERS virus and other contagious diseases.

But doubts have arisen over the credibility of its claim given its poor health care system.

North Korea’s Pugang Pharmaceutic Co. has developed “Kumdang-2,” made of extracts from ginseng with the injection of rare earth elements, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“As a strong immune-activator, the injection has been recognized to prevent different malignant epidemics,” the KCNA said, citing remarks by Jon Sung-hun, a doctor and director of the pharmaceutical company.

The report came as South Korea has confirmed the 24th death from and 166 infections of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome since the first case was reported in May.

The reclusive North’s claim couldn’t be verified independently by the outside world. Observers here said chances are slim that the North has developed such an injection, given that many North Koreans are suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases amid a lack of vaccination and the poor health care system.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

North-South family reunions: contact cut off afterwards and gifts confiscated http://t.co/xeC3AIEKZn

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 16, 2015

A new type of anti-ship rocket, which is being deployed at the North’s naval units, is launched from a warship as the communist country conducts a test-firing drill of the rocket, in this photo released on June 15, 2015, by the North’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper. The paper, published by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea., did not report when the test was carried out. (Yonhap)

Syrian delegation in Pyongyang clearly has an inside track to Kim Jong-un, who regales them w/ mushrooms & dolphins http://t.co/m1JqvWMx1i

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) June 15, 2015

I wonder if this means there is some kind of back channel negotiations going on or this could just be simple propaganda BS:

North Korea claimed through its state-controlled media Saturday that the United States has recognized it as a nuclear weapons state, a claim that has never been acknowledged by Washington.

Rodong Sinmun, an official newspaper of the North’s ruling Communist Party of Korea, said in an editorial that the United States is reluctantly moving to accept Pyongyang as a nuclear power.

The editorial, carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), said that the Communist country, in reality, has nuclear weapons, whether other countries recognize it or not.

After carrying out underground nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, North Korea has openly declared itself as a nuclear weapons state and is now demanding that the U.S. and other countries accept it as a fact.

The United States, South Korea, Japan and other regional players have refused to comply with the North’s demand, saying that their position on the matter won’t change.

North Korea, in that newspaper article, did not say why it thought the U.S. has acknowledged its nuclear status but it has long been demanding that the United States sit with it at the negotiating table to discuss mutual disarmament.  [Yonhap]

Here is a rare method of defection from North Korea:

A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea through the inter-Korean border Monday, an official from the Ministry of National Defense said.

“A North Korean man presumed to be a serviceperson defected to our side earlier this morning,” a ministry official said, requesting anonymity.

“He crossed the border in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, on foot, and expressed his will to defect,” he added, noting that he has been under investigation by relevant authorities.

Other details including the identity of the man and his motive are yet to be known.

Over the past several years, South Korea has seen a series of defection cases from the poverty-stricken communist neighbor. But it is not usual for North Korean soldiers to walk crossing the Military Demarcation Line to defect. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I hope this soldier did not have any immediate family because if he did they are likely heading to the gulag.