North Korea’s top leader Kim Jong-un (C), wearing a short-sleeved shirt, pours underground ultra-saline water onto a salt field during a visit to a saltern in the North’s South Pyongan Province in this photo released by the North’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on May 24, 2016. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Some of you ROK Heads out there still have a chance of marrying Kim Jong-un’s sister if you are interested. It also appears that the ubiquitous “car accident” continues to be a problem for regime figures in North Korea:
Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a central committee member of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), is not married, a high-level North Korean official-turned-defector said.
The Voice of America (VOA) reported Thursday that the 29-year-old sister Kim has yet to tie the knot, citing its interview with the anonymous defector, whom it reported had defected to the South last year with his father, also a senior member of the North Korean government.
A Unification Ministry official said the government wouldn’t confirm the veracity of the report.
The VOA’s report on Kim Yo-jong’s single life came after many reports by South Korean media that she was married to the son of Choe Ryong-hae, who returned to the power circle during the recent seventh congress with his entry into the five-member presidium of the political bureau of the WPK’s central committee.
The defector, who reportedly had worked for the North’s coal export business with China, said Choe’s son had actually died in a car accident in January 2013. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Via a reader tip comes news that Kim Jong-un may have given up smoking. Considering that this is based off of public pictures this could just be a propaganda campaign by North Korea where pictures of Kim Jong-un smoking are no longer allowed to be published:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is not known for a clean, healthy lifestyle. This is a young man whose ballooning waistline and sudden removal from the public eye almost two years ago was widely (if dubiously) attributed to a powerful addiction to Swiss cheese. Now, however, there is widespread suspicion that the North Korean supreme leader may have finally kicked one of his nastiest habits: smoking.
According to reports in South Korean news outlets like Yonhap and Korea Herald, Kim hasn’t been pictured with a cigarette for at least two months. A quick look at recently released pictures appears to confirm this: The last hint of a cigarette was in mid-May, when Kim was shown sitting next to an ashtray.
There are plenty of reasons to be suspicious about the idea that the North Korean leader may have given up his beloved smokes, however. South Korean media reports on the North are often unreliable. Additionally, Kim’s relationship with cigarettes goes back a long time: He is thought to have begun smoking when he was 15 years old. Over the years, he has frequently been photographed chain-smoking at official functions, much like his father, the late Kim Jong Il, had been before him. [Washington Post]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un tours a tree nursery in Pyongyang with some officals in this combined image released on May 15, 2016, by the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. It marks Kim’s second public outing since the closing of the party’s congress on Monday. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap).
Over at Rimjin-gang they have an interview posted with one of their North Korean contacts in regards to the recent Workers’ Party Convention. The interview concludes with the North Korean explaining why the Kim regime will never implement Chinese style reforms that would improve the well being of the people:
The reporters for the congress should report only about ‘the developing Pyongyang.’ Ordinary people in Pyongyang earn a living through a business. A woman in the photo is selling Chinese made sausages. Taken by Koo Gwang-ho at Moranbong District on June 2011. (ASIA PRESS)
Q: What is your expectation from Kim Jong-un regime?
A: I hope that they would open the door like China. Frankly speaking, if they do so, there would be no people who flee from their hometown (North Korean defectors). I don’t know why they fear so much about opening, or reform. While drinking, an official, one of my acquaintances, said: “If we open like China, we would be overthrown. So the top never open our door.”
Q: Do you mean that they don’t try to reform since they know their regime to be overthrown even if the opening would bring better off for the people?
A: Absolutely! Those son-of-bitches (Kim Jong-un and his followers) think that they should survive to the last. That is why they don’t. (open the door) [Rimjin-gang]
Clad in a suit and accompanied by key aides, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un tours a machinery and equipment exhibition in Pyongyang in this combined image released on May 13, 2016, by the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. It marks Kim’s first public outing since the closing of the party’s congress on Monday. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Kim Jong-un is once again making it pretty clear to the rest of the world that he has no intention to ever denuclearize:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country will not use nuclear weapons as long as the country’s sovereignty is not threatened and called his regime “a responsible nuclear state” at the seventh congress of the Workers’ Party in Pyongyang.
“Our republic will not use a nuclear weapon unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by any aggressive hostile forces with nukes,” Kim was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday. Kim made the remark in a report on the achievements of the Workers’ Party during the congress. KCNA didn’t specify whether Kim made the remark on Friday or Saturday.
It was considered a clear rebuff to calls from the international community that he drops North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has hailed the country’s nuclear test and long-range rocket launch early this year as a success in his opening address at its first party congress in nearly four decades.
Clad in a black western-style suit and tie, Kim called the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) congress, which kicked off on Friday, a “historic landmark” for the country, according to footage aired by the communist country’s state-run TV station.
The seventh party congress, the first in 36 years, was held as the U.N. Security Council slapped tougher sanctions on Pyongyang in March over its January nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in February.
“This year, our military and people successfully carried out the first hydrogen bomb test and launched a satellite (into orbit), boosting the country’s dignity and national power,” Kim said in an opening speech, flanked by his key aides.
The party gathering is the first of its kind since October 1980 and also the first under the current leader, who assumed power in late 2011 following the sudden death of his father, Kim Jong-il. [Yonhap]
The rumor mill is circulating that Kim Jong-un is going to use his big political convention this week to promote his younger sister Kim Yo-jong to a higher level within the government. It makes sense for him considering she is trusted family and is female, thus no threat to replace him in male dominated North Korea:
Kim Yo-jong
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may promote his youngest sister to a ministerial-level post as he moves to consolidate power during the ruling party congress that begins Friday, experts say.
The 7th Workers’ Party Congress — the first in 36 years — is expected to last three days, It comes against the backdrop of rising international tensions after the North staged its fourth nuclear test in early January, followed by a long-range rocket launch and other attempted missile tests despite harsh new U.N. sanctions.
Kim has given little hint of what he plans for the congress. But the 33-year-old leader is expected to use the chance to put his stamp on power and extinguish doubts about his lack of experience and military credentials after inheriting power from his father, who died of a heart attack in late 2011.
North Korea watchers say one possibiluty would be promoting his youngest sister, Kim Yo Jong, who is one of his closest confidantes. [Stars & Stripes]
