North Korean leader Kim Jong-un drives a tractor while touring a factory. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the story on Nov. 15, 2017, without elaborating on the timing of the visit. (Yonhap)
Released by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 4, 2017, this composite photo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting the March 16 Factory, a truck manufacturing plant, with officials. (Yonhap)
If President Trump did want to meet with Kim Jong-un I hope it is not in North Korea where it would be a propaganda bonanza for the regime. Instead the meeting should be at the United Nations which was the organization that officially fought the Korean War. Forcing Kim to come to New York would mitigate any propaganda value of a meeting and show how serious the regime is about talks in my opinion:
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would “certainly be open” to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as he embarked on his first trip to Asia last week.
In an interview aired Sunday, Trump was asked on U.S. news program “Full Measure” whether he would sit down with a dictator.
“I would sit with anybody I feel,” the president said. “I don’t think it’s strength or weakness. I think sitting down with people is not a bad thing. So I would certainly be open to doing that.”
He made no commitment, though, saying, “But we’ll see where it goes. I think we’re far too early.” [Yonhap]
Chinese police arrested several North Koreans dispatched to Beijing on suspicion of plotting to murder Kim Jong Un’s 22-year-old nephew, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.
Two of seven North Korean agents were arrested over the alleged plot to kill Kim Han Sol, whose father Kim Jong Nam was assassinated in Malaysia earlier this year, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified person familiar with North Korean issues.
Some agents are being interrogated in special facilities on the outskirts of Beijing, the paper said, without elaborating on whether the other five were arrested. China’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. [Bloomberg]
You can read more at the link, but if this plot was broken up in China it leads me to believe that Kim Han-sol must be in hiding in China under Chinese protection.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory in this photo released by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 29, 2017. (Yonhap)
This prank video was pretty funny, but what amazed me the most was how many people thought this was the actual Kim Jong-un. It just goes to show despite all the headlines how little people still know about North Korea to think he would just pop up in New York and walk around with a one-man escort. However, doing this again with Dennis Rodman walking with him would be hilarious!:
Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling party and known to be one of the closest aides to leader Kim Jong-un, has been picked as a member of the party’s powerful military commission, the North’s state-run media reported Sunday.
Choe, 67, was elected to the Central Military Commission of the North’s Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) during the second plenum of its seventh central committee Saturday in Pyongyang, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Choe is currently one of five standing committee members of WPK’s politburo — which also includes Kim Jong-un, President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly Kim Yong-nam and Hwang Pyong-so, director of the general political bureau of North Korea’s armed forces.
He was once believed to have fallen out of Kim’s favor and punished for mishandling a hydro power plant project in November 2015 but has apparently returned to the party leadership.
The KCNA added that Choe was also appointed a director at the party’s central committee without specifying which division or branch he would head. Saturday’s reshuffle raised the number of Choe’s official roles in the party to eight in total. [Yonhap]
When Choe fell out of favor he was sent for reeducation at the Kim Il Sung Higher Party School. South Korean intelligence predicted this was just a minor setback and he would make a political comeback which ended up being accurate. So why is Choe Ryong-hae so important to Kim Jong-un? There have been reports that his son is married to Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong. If so having Choe as a regime inner circle figure makes sense because the inner circle is traditionally limited mostly to the Kim family.
Speaking of Kim Jong-un’s sister, she received a promotion as well:
Kim Yo-jong
In the reshuffle, conducted ahead of the founding anniversary of the party which falls on Oct. 10, Kim’s younger sister, Yo-jong, has also been elected as an alternate member of the WPK central committee’s Political Bureau, according to the report.
Yo-jong, 30, was first elected a member of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, in March 2014 and then a member of WPK’s central committee in May last year. She is believed to have been educated in Switzerland along with her brother Kim Jong-un.
All these promotions are showing is that Kim Jong-un is continuing to solidify has political power base with family members he trusts that will stay loyal to him.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) attends a central committee meeting of the North’s Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang on Oct. 7, 2017, ahead of the founding anniversary of the party which falls on Oct. 10. (Yonhap)
Over at the PBS Frontline website their latest program “North Korea’s Deadly Dictator” can be watched. The program focuses on the assassination of Kim Jong-nam and has a number of interviews with his friends that he went to school with in Europe. Former North Korean diplomat turned defector Thae Yong-ho and ex-CIA analyst Su Mi Terry also features heavily in the program.
It appears the reason for the assassination was Kim Jong-nam’s criticism of Kim Jong-un combined with the fact that based on his friends’ testimony he planned to move to Switzerland and defect to the West. For those that regularly read this site there is really nothing new in the program, however for those not familiar with the issue it is a great run down on who Kim Jong-nam was and why his half brother Kim Jong-un is doing the things he has done.
