Tag: Kim Jong-un

This could be the Kim regime preparing their people for an upcoming provocation cycle and whatever repercussions come from it:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for waging another “arduous march” to fight severe economic difficulties, for the first time comparing them to a 1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands.

Kim had previously said his country faces the “worst-ever” situation due to several factors, including the coronavirus pandemic, U.S.-led sanctions and natural disasters last summer. But it’s the first time he publicly drew parallel with the deadly famine.

Stars & Stripes

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You can tell that President Trump loves taking shots the intellectual elites in the U.S. government:

 U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday acknowledged that he had considered sending former Chicago Bulls basketball player Dennis Rodman to North Korea to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“He really does like Dennis Rodman, I will tell you. It’s sort of great. I always said Dennis would be better than some of these staffs that they used to send over to get to know him (Kim),” Trump said in an interview with Fox Sports Radio.

The sudden revelation came after the show’s host asked if Trump and Kim had ever talked about basketball.

Trump and Kim held three meeting between June 2018 and June 2019.

“He really did like Dennis Rodman. And they said we should maybe use him instead of somebody that graduated No. 1 at Harvard. Maybe we should use that and so I thought about that,” said Trump.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if there is any North Korean reaction to this latest news from Woodward’s book:

The headless body of Kim Jong Un’s executed uncle was displayed to senior North Korean officials, US President Donald Trump told the author of an upcoming book on the US president.

Jang Song Thaek, the North Korean leader’s uncle by marriage and a hugely powerful figure within the regime, was purged for treason and corruption in 2013, in what was widely seen as Kim mercilessly asserting his authority.

Kim “tells me everything. Told me everything,” Trump told the Washington Post investigative journalist Bob Woodward, according to his forthcoming book “Rage”.

“He killed his uncle and he put the body right in the steps,” Trump said, in an apparent reference to a building used by senior officials.

“And the head was cut, sitting on the chest,” he added in excerpts from the book seen by AFP.

AFP

You can read more at the link, but with many stories from North Korea who knows how true they really are.

Here is the latest on the big, boy up North:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has handed over some of his powers to his younger sister Yo-jong, the National Intelligence Service said Thursday. 

Kim Yo-jong now handles any dealings with South Korea and the U.S. affairs but reports back to her brother. She was apparently given authority to blow up the inter-Korean liaison office in June. 

The NIS in a briefing to the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee said the power-sharing arrangement seems aimed at “alleviating leadership strain and dividing responsibility for failed policies.”

Kim Jong-un has been leading the North for nine years and is trying to avoid taking all the blame for his disastrous policies. 

But the NIS believes there are “no problems” with his health. Earlier this year Kim disappeared from view for three weeks, leading to fevered speculation that he was ill.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest headline from John Bolton’s book:

U.S. President Donald Trump didn’t want South Korean President Moon Jae-in to join him during his third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in June 2019, according to John Bolton, the former U.S. national security adviser, in his memoir.    
   
“The Room Where It Happened,” the Bolton memoir set to be published Tuesday, details the three Kim-Trump meetings and the considerable amount of energy expended by Bolton to thwart any U.S. concessions to North Korea.  
   
In a tweet on June 28, 2019, Trump — who was on an official trip to Japan and Korea — offered to shake hands and say hello with North Korean leader Kim, which led to the impromptu meeting days later on June 30 in the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom. This marked the first time a sitting U.S. president stepped onto North Korean soil, and took place during Trump’s visit to Seoul for a summit with Moon.    
   
According to Bolton, “Trump wanted Moon nowhere around, but Moon was determined to be present, making it a trilateral meeting if he could.” Bolton had “entertained the faint hope that this dispute with Moon could tank the whole thing, because it was certain Kim didn’t want Moon around.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Kim Jong-un is feeling much better after having not been seen publicly in three weeks:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a Central Military Commission meeting and discussed “new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country,” state media reported Sunday.

Also discussed at the enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party were important military steps and organizational and political measures to further bolster up the overall armed forces, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

“Set forth at the meeting were new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country and putting the strategic armed forces on a high alert operation in line with the general requirements for the building and development of the armed forces of the country,” the KCNA said.

It did not elaborate what the “new policies” for nuclear deterrence were.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.