Tag: Kim Jong-un

Apparently Kim Jong-un does not like to be reminded that he is a young leader:

Former North Korean Defense Minister Hyon Yong Chol was executed for making disparaging remarks about Kim Jong Un, and the North Korean leader poses a greater threat than his father to South Korea, an analyst said Wednesday.

Chung Sung-jang, a researcher at South Korea’s Sejong Institute said intelligence gathered from a defector indicated the purged Hyon often referred to Kim as a “young person,” Yonhap reported.

Hyon also held several other grievances toward Kim and had criticized him for neglecting his duties, according to a Seoul spy agency report in May.

Hyon’s complaints eventually reached Kim, and they factored into the North Korean leader’s decision to eliminate his defense minister.

But Kim’s purge of Hyon was not an impromptu gesture that emerged from a personal vendetta, South Korean outlet Newsis reported.

According to Chung’s analysis, Hyon’s execution is part of Kim’s larger strategy of reducing a bloated military elite, a plan that includes the ongoing personnel changes and demotions taking place within the elite ranks of North Korea’s military.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link, but as always keep in mind that this analysis is based on defector testimony which is not always reliable.

It looks like there is an update to the cult of personality going on in North Korea:

In North Korea, there’s no escaping the Kim family.

“Eternal President” Kim Il Sung continues to reign — according to North Korean lore — 21 years after his death. His son, “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il, died in 2011 but lies in state with his father in a huge mausoleum the size of Buckingham Palace on the outskirts of Pyongyang. And the grandson, “Great Successor” Kim Jong Un, is making sure none of his subjects forget about the family line — by strengthening the bizarre personality cult that the family has perpetuated during the past 60 years.

The latest outlet for Kimism: new statues. The regime has been tearing down statues of Kim Il Sung around the country — an act that must be require all sorts of hoopla since it’s a treasonous offense to even place a newspaper with a photo of one of the Kims face down — and replacing them with huge new statues of Kim Senior and Kim Junior.

“This looks like part of Kim Jong Un’s plan to solidify his hereditary succession, carry on his father’s mantle,” says Curtis Melvin, a North Korea researcher at the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, Johns Hopkins, who has studied the country’s geography extensively using satellite imagery. He has noted the steady replacement of the statues over time, thanks to his remarkable knowledge of the country through Google Earth.  [Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link.

This photo published in the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivering a congratulatory address during a national meeting of veterans in Pyongyang on July 25, 2015. (Yonhap)

It appears that Kim Jong-un’s plane may have crashed near Wonsan, but Kim was not on the plane which makes me wonder who was?

A small North Korean plane, the same type of plane used by leader Kim Jong-un, has crashed, an official said Thursday.

The Cessna went down near the eastern port city of Wonsan, home to Kim’s special villa, on July 15, said the South Korean official familiar with the issue.

The crash was confirmed with intelligence assets of South Korea and the U.S., she said, without elaborating on the assets or the Cessna model.

She did not provide any further details of whether there were any casualties of those who were on board the doomed flight.

Kim was apparently not on board the ill-fated plane. On July 15, North Korea’s state television aired footage of Kim taking photos with participants of an ambassadors meeting in Pyongyang.

On Sunday, Kim cast a ballot in the elections to select deputies to local assemblies, which were held for the first time in four years, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea’s state media remained silent on the accident. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Kim Jong Un Gives Field Guidance to Rangnang Sanitary Goods Factory | @KCNAWatch http://t.co/pPD1WBLpxF pic.twitter.com/8wSCmKOGvo

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) July 14, 2015

The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) definitely has the best intelligence within North Korea because they confirmed this two months ago:

Kim Jong Un is an impatient autocrat who single-handedly decided to execute North Korean Defense Minister Hyon Yong Chol, according to Seoul’s spy agency on Tuesday.

South Korean lawmakers said National Intelligence chief Lee Byung-ho made the statements at a briefing before the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, Yonhap reported.

Kim also was the executive decision maker behind the undeleted footage of Hyon in the weeks that followed after his disappearance.

According to Seoul’s spy chief, North Korean television continued to run past footage of Hyon under Kim’s orders.

Kim, Lee said, believed the international community could use conspicuous deletions against Pyongyang because the erasure would serve as evidence of Hyon’s execution.

South Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo reported Hyon was executed at the artillery range at Pyongyang’s Kang Kon Military Academy.

Hundreds watched the execution, according to the NIS, and Kim forced top-ranking military officers to attend.

Kim may have executed other military personnel if they were loyal to Hyon or held grievances against Kim, Lee said, according to South Korean lawmaker Shin Kyung-min.

Shin said Kim had labeled Hyon as “anti-Workers’ Party, and a counter-revolutionary.”  [UPI]

You can read the rest at the link, but according to the article Kim Jong-un is trying to weaken the power of the military in North Korea.

Here is what I think it going on.  I have said this before that I do not believe that Kim Jong-un has the absolute power that many people believe him to have.  I believe that his grandfather Kim Il-sung had absolute power, but when his son Kim Jong-il took over that the absolute power was diluted between the ruling Kim inner circle, the Worker’s Party, and the North Korean military.  These three sectors competed for power with the military ultimately becoming the most powerful bureaucracy in North Korea under Kim Jong-il.  These sectors of power in North Korea though likely ruled by consensus and when consensus could not be reached Kim Jong-il was likely the deciding vote which was heavily influenced by his backing of the North Korean military.

After Kim Jong-il’s death these sectors of North Korean power likely competed for influence again after Kim Jong-un took over.  Kim Jong-un’s uncle Jang Song-taek appeared to be trying to challenge the status quo by increasing the power of the Worker’s Party.  With the power of the Worker’s Party increasing, the military may have felt like their power was decreasing too much and took action to get rid of Jang to put the status quo back to where it was.  However, the status quo likely meant Kim Jong-un has less power than his father did after the execution of Jang and the following purge of Party officials loyal to him.

His recent purge of military officials shows that Kim Jong-un understands this and is trying to re-establish absolute power for himself like his grandfather had.  His grandfather had to rely on a number of purges to gain the power he had.  Kim Jong-un first focused on purging the Worker’s Party of people that he perceived as a possible challenge to his authority.  Now he is focusing on the North Korean military.  After the military is purged that leaves Kim and his family inner circle as the biggest power brokers in North Korea.  It is a dangerous game he is playing, but we will see over the years how well it works.

I guess it was only a matter of time, but now North Koreans get to wear another face on their clothes:

North Korea is printing new badges showing leader Kim Jong-un alongside his grandfather and father.

North Korean officials have so far worn badges with the faces of former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, but now the personality cult clearly includes the current leader.

A company in Pyongyang’s Pyongchon district is making the badges with the faces of the three Kims on the occasion of the anniversary of the Workers Party on Oct. 10, a source said on Tuesday.

The company is printing the first batch of 3,000 to give out to senior party officials and senior members of the socialist youth league.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/613867812486905857

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects drill of female pilots http://t.co/bB00j5ILX8 pic.twitter.com/Jia4LJCngw

— The Korea Observer (@koreaobserver) June 22, 2015

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.