Tweet of the Day: How Has Kim Jong-un Clung to Power?

The answer is simple. Kim is supported by the bureaucracy that supported his father and grandfather, folks who see the rest of the country starving and don’t want to try the soup du jour the average Cho is having.

This is backed up by a built-in network of paranoiac informers who denounce any and all efforts to look elsewhere for a leader. And executing people with exotic weapons and dogs adds a bit of urgency to being a loyal party member. No one wants to be the last one to denounce a traitor lest their own loyalty be tested by anti-aircraft fire.

It’s tragic for the people of the country and their relatives in the south and elsewhere.

It does pop right up, but as soon as I started to scroll, a sign covers tha page saying it’s for subscribers. Sometimes I can get around it, but sometimes not. This time I did: right click to download the link, then restart the link in a new window. I’ve had trouble before with NK News wanting me to subscribe, and I sympathize: journalism has to be paid for. It’s just, I ain’t rich, and yes, I know that’s a morally shabby answer.