North Korean leader Kim Jong-un tours a greenhouse at a military farm growing vegetables. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency reported it on Dec. 26, 2014, without elaborating on the venue or timing of the visit. (Yonhap)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observes the North Korean military’s winter training in a photo released by the North’s media on Dec. 5, 2014. (No sale outside of South Korea) (KCNA-Yonhap)
It looks like Kim Jong-un may still be having problems with his feet:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is experiencing a relapse of his recent health problems, South Korean government officials said Monday.
According to the Ministry of Unification, Kim was limping severely in a video clip recently aired by the state-run Korean Central TV. He was limping particularly painfully at an event with female pilots that took place at the end of last month. The Rodong Shinmun, the Workers’ Party’s newspaper, reported Kim’s visit to the air base on Nov. 28 with photos, but no video was aired until Sunday afternoon.
The 30-year-old ruler of the North developed problems with his leg last spring. After his condition deteriorated, he withdrew from public activities for 40 days.
South Korean intelligence authorities have confirmed that Kim received ankle surgery by visiting French, Chinese and Russian doctors. The sources said there was a high possibility of a relapse after Kim quickly resumed his public activities.
Meanwhile, intelligence officials said Kim Yo-jong, the 25-year-old younger sister of the North’s ruler, has quickly risen in Pyongyang’s inner circle, possibly being groomed to succeed her brother in case of an emergency.
At the end of last month, Pyongyang revealed that she is a deputy director of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee. It was the first time the North revealed her official title in a media report, although it did not say which department of the party she belongs to.
She is the youngest deputy director of the Workers’ Party in the history of North Korea. Her father Kim Jong-il became the deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department in 1970 when he was 28. Her once-powerful aunt Kim Kyong-hui became the deputy director of the International Department when she was 30.
North Korea observers note that it took only three years for the youngest daughter of Kim Jong-il, who shed tears at her father’s funeral, to rise to a powerful position in Pyongyang’s leadership. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but it would probably be tough for all the long term leadership and military generals to accept such a young female leader even if she is part of the Kim family. It would be interesting to see how this would play out if something did happen to Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong Un Has Photo Session with Servicemen's Families | @KCNAWatch http://t.co/YAfv4rQoef pic.twitter.com/sVTHzJknHP
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) December 9, 2014
This photo released by Rodong Sinmun on Dec. 5, 2014, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting the North Korean military’s Unit 1313 to inspect its winter training. (Yonhap)
For people in North Korea that were unlucky enough to be named “Jong-un” when they were born, they now have to change their name:
North Korea has ordered its people not to use the name “Kim Jong-un” in a bid to protect the supreme authority of the current leader, according to Pyongyang’s official document confirmed Wednesday.
In January 2011, then leader Kim Jong-il issued a decree urging people with the same name to change it “voluntarily.” As North Korea is regarded as a totalitarian state, it is unclear whether the decree was actually voluntary.
The North has also prohibited parents from registering their newborn babies with the current leader’s name, according to the document titled “a task to achieve.” The use of the given name “Jong-un” is also banned.
While unthinkable in most other countries, the rules are not new in the state long ruled by the Kim family. [Yonhap]
North Korea has reportedly began their routine winter training cycle with Kim Jong-un giving tips to an artillery unit:
The North Korean military has kicked off a winter exercise at the instruction of leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang’s state media reported Tuesday.
All troops of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) started “the new year combat and political drill,” said the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The North’s military routinely holds such training from December through March.
The North’s leader chose an artillery unit for his first “field guidance” during the defense exercise season.
He inspected “the Artillery Company under KPA Unit 963,” teaching ways to make the company “one of the crack shots by conducting the drill suited to the nature of its combat duty,” according to the KCNA. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
It seems that North Korea would be the likely suspect for such an attack, but a skilled criminal group could have used the dispute between North Korea and Sony as good cover for their own hacking attack:
Could an upcoming Seth Rogen–James Franco satire about North Korea have triggered last week’s devastating computer attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment?
On Sunday, Sony internet technicians were still wrestling with the fallout from a paralyzing hacker attack the previous Monday that left the computer, email and phone systems at the TV and movie studio inoperable. A group calling itself Guardians of Peace claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to release sensitive corporate data.
But Sony has not identified the source of the takedown, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation. Among the theories investigators are checking is that North Korea, or someone operating on its behalf, launched the cyber attack in retribution for “The Interview,” another knowledgeable individual told TheWrap. The upcoming Sony comedy film features Rogen and Franco as journalists who land an interview with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, and are then asked by the CIA to assassinate him. [Yahoo]
You can read more at the link, but if North Korea did do this they have only further given Sony free publicity for this movie that will only increase the number of viewers of it.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un poses for pictures with female pilots as he provides field guidance to the flight drill of female pilots of pursuit planes of the KPA Air and Anti-Air Force in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang November 28, 2014. REUTERS/KCNA
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un tours the Korean April 26 Cartoon Film Studio in Pyongyang. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency reported it on Nov. 27, 2014, without saying when the visit was made. Circled is Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s younger sister who serves as a deputy director level official at the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. (KCNA-Yonhap)
