Kim Jong Il (R Front), top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), meets with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie (L2 Front) in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, on Nov. 25, 2009. (Xinhua/Zhang Binyang)

Kim Jong-il met with Chinese Defense Minister, General Liang Guanglie, in Pyongyang on Wednesday.  General-Secretary Kim and Gen. Liang had “a cordial and friendly talk” and General-Secretary Kim sent a hi and howdy to PRC President Hu Jintao.  General Liang said that “the Chinese Government was unshakeable in its commitment to consolidate and develop the cooperative relations of the two countries.”  General-Secretary Kim was accompanied at this meeting by NDC Vice Chair and Minister of the PAF Kim Yong-chun and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Sok-ju.

Because this is General-Secretary Kim’s first appearance meeting a foreign dignitary since Wen Jiabao’s visit in October, let the mindless health and body double speculation begin!

Xinhua just released this photo of Defense Minister Liang Guanglie (梁光烈) surrounding Kim Jong Il with PLA generals in Pyongyang.   Suffice it to say, we have the appearance of a power imbalance.

via Xinhua, Nov. 25, 2009

What would Kim Il Song say?

What is it about the historical strength of fashion that makes the novice  mass murdering despot adhere so completely to the historical wardrobe preferences of past aspirants to tyranny on the world stage? Forget about quitting smoking, losing weight, and eating healthy, this is the real thing. Green military fatigues and poorly made suits have given way to green military fatigues, poorly made suits and red sweat suits. Some attempts at individuality have been driven by the gray Primark jacket found in the bazaars of Istanbul, they remain isolated in their efforts.
Let’s begin with the poor relations over there across the Volga…old Yosif Vissarionovich Dzugashvili…or Joseph Stalin or Joe Steel to you…looking
good in this black and white version of  his blood spatter resistant over shirt, old Joe established a style that would prove hard to resist for  future despots with an eye for tradition.

The idea of culture was certainly not lost on the murdering chairman mao…he even incorporated it into his “revolution,” while continuing the tradition of  Joe’s blood spatter resistant tunic….

Suddenly, there emerged a “rebel” on the political front….Sadly, his sense of rebellion was as dated as his choice of wardrobe…

Same old military-inspired styling…same old blood spatter resistant fabric…YET NO FASHION FORWARD THOUGHT……

Before we go on, let’s remember there was a time,  prior to these three, when tyranny embraced fashion…..

Here we can see the source of their jealous deconstructions…the original mass murderer looks smart in his coat and tie, accessorized with a clever hat and important papers carried in the left hand…..a fashion statement not lost on forward thinking despots of the future….

Limits on time require we skip over some minor (less than 6 million) murdering despots at this point….

Fashion suddenly takes a turn with the arrival of the north korean “chairman of the hidden gulag,” ….in more ways than one…

Here we see the traditional blood spatter resistant fatigue fabric over-shirt boldly replaced by the blood spatter resistant gray jacket….a bold combination acknowledging both traditional and future concepts in despotic fashion…..a combination which will not be lost on the upcoming despot with an eye for style….

And here we have it….the evolution of  despotic fashion culminates in an ensemble which suddenly places the contemporary classic open neck shirt underneath  a bright new interpretation of the  old green  blood spatter resistant military-like over-shirt…the  “gray jacket!”

We here at despotfashion.com realize  that beyond the general UN rant,  the occasion for more formal dress may arise.  In such cases we could do worse than recommend the “old blue suit:”

or the oversized blue suit…..

or the classic “birthday suit…..”

We wanted to include running suits in this review but suffice to say, they’re red and habitually worn by despots…..

click on any picture….

Kim Ok

JoongAng Daily has a highly fascinating report about Kim Ok.  Ms. Kim was featured in my posting about the ladies around General-Secretary Kim.  According to JAD’s sources in ROK intelligence, Ms. Kim is no longer employed in Kim Jong-il’s Personal Secretariat and no longer blowing out the candles in the General-Secretary’s boudoir during the wee hours.  Kim Ok is reported to have married a KWP official and her profile diminished since the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly.

The JAD report also includes other information about Ms. Kim’s background.  She is the daughter of Kim Hyo, a deputy director of the KWP Finance and Accounting Department (a separate entity from the Financial Planning Department, headed by Pak Nam-gi).  Kim Hyo was a member of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly representing electoral district # 271.  Kim Ok’s brother is Kim Kyun, who is an associate dean at Kim Il-sung University and was given the title “Merited Scientist” this year.  Kim Kyun was seen escorting General-Secretary Kim around KISU during a guidance tour in March of this year. JoongAng Daily’s ROK sources believe that Kim Ok’s functions at the Personal Secretariat have been assumed by Kim Kyong-hui, General-Secretary Kim’s sister.

My two-cents:

Kim Kyong-hui and her brother during a guidance visit to the Tongbong Cooperative Farm in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province. Photo: Korea Central News Agency

Kim Kyong-hui already had links into the Third Floor (which is linked to the Personal Secretariat) much of its inception being the product of the clever mind of her husband, Jang Song-thaek.  Kim Kyong-hui also likely has personal social and familial ties to some Personal Secretariat employees, including her own late brother-in-law VMAR Jang Song-u who was political commissar of the Guard Command and then a military adviser to General-Secretary Kim.  This is the first report where Kim Kyong-hui is observed as operating in the Personal Secretariat.  This is somewhat unprecedented in the context of the Personal Secretariat: Kim Jong-il deliberately sequesters the Personal Secretariat from other North Korean elites and KWP directors and operatives.  This latter group has all but the most superficial contact with the Personal Secretariat even though its senior officials have OGD and diplomatic titles.

If Kim Kyong-hui has undertaken some or all of Kim Ok’s previous responsibilities, then this places Mrs. Jang squarely in the daily management of the Third Floor.  More interesting than that, Kim Kyong-hui is serving as General-Secretary Kim’s gatekeeper, managing (with her niece Kim Sol-song) his calendar, appearances and security.  This positions her in a role of influence over the general policymaking in the DPRK–as the Personal Secretariat controls what paperwork and policy proposals and North Korean elites reach General-Secretary Kim’s scrutiny.  Kim Kyong-hui is well-positioned to influence succession and power transfers, particularly if she has daily personal access to General-Secretary Kim.  To a hereditary successor or collective regime, she can also transfer the significant pecuniary and personnel resources of the Personal Secretariat to the succeeding regime; the successor will have a ready-made apparatus to implement decisions.

More importantly, Kim Kyong-hui’s position could help the DPRK avoid any potential messy transition problems.  She can communicate a transition, even a situation that portends to transition, to her husband who controls the DPRK’s security apparatus.  This would allow them to assume management of the Guard Command and Military Security Command.  With these two agencies–which are completely outside any other Party or Army control or reporting channels–in coordination with the State Security Department and Ministry of Public Security, any influential elite opposition to the succeeding regime can be quelled rather rapidly.

If this report is accurate, General-Secretary Kim has inextricably linked his fate with Mr. Jang and Kim Kyong-hui.

Kim Jong-il has continued his spate of weekend inspection and concert going activities, according to KCNA.  This weekend he conducted an inspection of the  Ministry of Public Security headquarters.  In his last batch of appearances,  General-Secretary Kim attended a concert put on by the MPS musical groups.  This is a highly unusual appearance over which I shall offer a meditation when I do a more thorough write-up on General-Secretary Kim’s public appearances this week.  Kim Jong-il most recent appearance (Saturday night, presumably) was his attendance at a KPA art performance given by KPA unit 147.  Among the tunes performed was a solo number “Soldiers Live Close to the General.”  I appreciate that “close” is metaphoric, but if one takes a cursory glance of General-Secretary Kim’s villas one will find Guard Command stations, so soldiers literally live close to the General.

In other news, Xinhua is reporting that Liang Guanglie, China’s Minister of National Defense arrived in Pyongyang on 22 November (Sunday).  Minister Liang remarked that he is visiting the DPRK “to forge closer friendly contacts between the armed forces and promote exchange and cooperation between the peoples and armed forces.”  He also noted that “the China-DPRK traditional friendship has solidified and developed and shown enormous vigor and vitality.”  Minister Liang is being hosted by NDC Vice Chair and Minister of the PAF VMAR Kim Yong-chun.

He attended a greeting ceremony and ceremonial troop review at the Monument to Victorious Fatherland Liberation (Korean) War which was also attended by Chinese diplomatic personnel and Chinese students studying in the DPRK, as well as Vice Minister of the PAF Gen. Pak Chae-kyong, Deputy Director of the GPB Gen. Sim Sang-tae and Deputy Chief of the KPA General Staff, Lt. Gen. Ri Su-hak.  Minister Liang’s trip was invited during GPB Senior Deputy Director Gen. Kim Jong-gak’s trip to Beijing last week.

Kim Jong-il has emerged from his recent hiatus and conducted a guidance tour of the KPA-run cattle farm Unit 580.  I shall hold off doing a full posting until we see where the guidance train stops next.  It is a poetic irony that the Korea Times asked, “Where’s the beef?” and General-Secretary Kim turned up at a cattle farm.  His travel party was certainly a greatest hits list, reported as consisting of KPA Generals and NDC Directors Hyon Chol-hae and Ri Myong-su, KWP Secretary Kim Ki-nam, KWP Financial Planning Director Pak Nam-gi and husband and wife KWP Directors Jang Song-thaek and Kim Kyong-hui.

DailyNK published two (2) English Language reports (see here and here) regarding the the Is he?/Isn’t he? status of rumored hereditary successor Kim Jong-un.  DNK has actually been rather skeptical about the Kim Jong-un successor rumors, and to its credit held off from conveying the rumors and half-baked speculation about the the Captain of Paektu.  According to their sources, a pattern has emerged whereby memos are floated and indoctrination sessions held to boost the young Mr. Kim’s profile and a few months later another memo is issued through the KWP Propaganda and Agitation Department [PAD] advising the campaigns to slow down or cease altogether.  The last reported memo issued demanding the succession campaign quiet down came early this month.

Last weekend, saw the performance of two (2) songs that may be associated with the Kim Jong-un succession campaign, “Sound of the General’s Footsteps” and “Chollima of Songun Korea Runs at Full Gallop.”  So, it is difficult to determine what qualifies (or not) as muting the succession campaign.  One reason cited by Daily NK is that the propaganda drive in support of Captain Kim is that the campaign is more intense than that which ushered in Kim Jong-il’s succession.  This may be true from an internal perspective, but by the mid-1970’s propaganda media targeted to an external audience, particularly books, were attributing things to the (pick your descriptive) creative/imaginative/innovative/glorious Party Center.

There is another problem with the succession campaign, also conveyed by Daily NK and in previous reports from other sources, which is that it is may well be eclipsing General-Secretary Kim’s power.  Kim Jong-un has been reported to have begun a process of installing his own loyalists into certain Party and State positions in coordination with Organization and Guidance Department Senior Deputy Director Ri Je-gang.  There is also an account that Kim Jong-un has convened a small working group studying how the DPRK can initiate some economic policy reforms and engage with the Western world.  This summer a report emerged that Kim Jong-un may have crossed a bridge too far when he attempted to install his own loyalists into key positions in the Guard Command.  While General-Secretary Kim may have tolerated shuffling Provincial Party Committee bosses or mid-level management changes, the Guard Command is under his direct control.  Kim Jong-il may also be establishing boundaries on how a possible hereditary succession will proceed, and may not appreciate his son displacing the control and reporting channels in place.   General-Secretary Kim may also be send a signal to his son, his son’s loyalists and Pyongyang watchers that hereditary succession is not certain.

With his arrival today in Seoul, US President Barack Obama’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” tour of East Asia is quickly drawing to a close.  The DPRK is expected to dominate any discussions President Obama has with ROK President Lee Myung-bak.  President Obama has opened security and economic doors to the North Koreans in Tokyo, held a “town hall” (just as stage managed in China as they are in the US) in Shanghai and met with PRC President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.  All the while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was futilely pressing Chinese diplomat Dai Bingguo over Iran and DPRK nuclear issues.  And now, President Obama is soon to meet with Kim Jong-il’s arch-nemesis Lee Myung-bak.

Aside from Rodong Shinmun editorials calling for increased Inter-Korean discourse, there has been nary a word, a peep, from the DPRK propaganda apparatus on President Obama’s statements or travels in East Asia.  I can only presume that General-Secretary Kim is waiting to see what happens in ROK before the PAD revs its single-mindedly determined engine.

Foreign policy?  Don’t bother me when I’m getting my nails done, you know better!   Take a message.  I am serious.  I don’t care about Japanese bird flu.  Not now, did you hear me?  You’re worse than my kids.

What?  Junior needs soccer equipment?  Authorize it!  I don’t care if Congress has to pass a spending bill.  I don’t want to hear about my kids now, get the governess to make those decisions.

North Korea can go fuck itself.  Kim Jong Il is a madman, how can I deal with him?  Hey, watch my cuticles, you’re hurting me!  The man has nukes up his ass, okay.   Subject closed, don’t even talk to me about that narcissist.  (flips hair)

Ow!  Look what you did, you nicked the polish.  This has to be perfect for my visit with the Irish President, we’re going shopping.  Oh and we’re going to that new little bistro on F Street, you know?  It’s adorable, she’ll love it.

Somali pirates?  Oh my god that reminds me, Jorge get that DVD for the kids tonight, put it on your list.  You know, Somali Pirates of the Carib — anyway you know what I mean, Jorge.  You know how I depend on you, darling.  Don’t disappoint me.  Good boy.

Where is my husband?  He’s lunching with who?  The Egyptian prime minister?  That’s my job.  Let go of me, unh!  Damn the polish is nicked again.  Get my coat Celeste, I’m joining them for lunch.  Insubordination!  Huh?  They’re not at the restaurant, well where are they then, the Map Room?

Dial Leo’s cell, gimme that phone.   “Leo darling, where are you and Hosni?”

“Camp David!  I don’t care if Hosni is the President and Ahmed is the prime minister.  For fuck’s sake Leo, you are trying to hurt my feelings!”

“Peace talks?  How come I didn’t know?  No one told me!  Am I PMS’ing again?  You’ve ruined my manicure, I hope you’re happy.”

“Oh–waiting for me?  Ahem. Yes, I’m the elected one, of course.  I’ll be there, hold the presses darling, I – I had to finish my nails, they look gorgeous.  And I had this new facial treatment — oh, they’re waiting.  I’ll be there in a jiffy!”

“Jorge, look after the kids for a couple of days.  Get the Somali pirate movie for tonight, you’re a jewel Jorge.  I’m going to Camp David to make world peace!”  (Sweeps out to waiting limousine.)

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Kim Jong-Il

Kim Jong-Il, the notorious dictator of North Korea.   The one man who can grant civil rights to millions of humans, as well as withhold them.

Why is the freedom of expression (or lack thereof) so important to Kim Jong-Il?

It’s all about maintaining the image and status of the leaders of North Korea, especially Kim Jong-Il.   To the North Korean people, Kim Jong-Il is a god with powers to control the weather.   Almost everything about his life is similar to the Bible.  It is said (by the government of course) that there were flashes of lightning and thunder and rainbows when Kim Jong-Il was born.   The people are constantly being reminded that the food and water they consume are “graciously” provided by their beloved leader.

The government works tirelessly spitting out this type of propaganda on a daily basis.  With no access to outside information, North Korean citizens have no reason to believe Kim Jong-Il is not a god.  They have no reason to challenge what is being told to them.  Therefore, Kim Jong-Il and his officials find  expression freedom to be very problematic.  With so much effort spent on preserving Kim Jong-Il’s godlike status, it is no wonder that anyone that is caught speaking ill about the dear leader or the country is immediately detained.   Apparently, Kim Jong-Il knows how powerful and influential word-of-mouth can be.

Imagine for a moment you were in that situation in the US.  Suppose you made a comment to your friend about how you think President Obama is leading the country in the wrong direction.   Somehow the word travels and you (and possibly your family) are suddenly wanted for conspiracy.   Your right to exist is basically void at this point.   You are sent to a prison camp where you have to memorize all of Obama’s speeches word for word and if you made any mistakes, you were brutally beaten.   Your health declines because you are denied medical care.  You go for days without food or water.  You watch helplessly but without remorse as you have no strength in you to worry about anyone but yourself as your fellow prisoners die off one by one.   You are physically tortured to the point that you wish you were dead.  Soon enough, whether or not you really wanted it, you get your wish.

All this because of a single comment.

Something to ponder:

In its simplest terms, the kingdom of God that Jesus announced and embodied is what life would be like on earth, here and now, if God were king and the rulers of this world were not (Borg, Crossan). Imagine if God ruled the nations, and not Obama, Medvedev, Kim Jong-il, Mugabe, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Every aspect of personal and communal life would experience a radical reversal. The political, economic, and social subversions would be almost endless—peace-making instead of war mongering, liberation not exploitation, sacrifice rather than subjugation, mercy not vengeance, care for the vulnerable instead of privileges for the powerful, generosity instead of greed, humility rather than hubris, embrace rather than exclusion, etc. The ancient Hebrews had a marvelous word for this, shalom, or human well-being.

This Sunday is the last Sunday of the lectionary year, celebrating Christ the King / the Reign of Christ.

Kim Jong-il has temporarily shut down the guidance train.  For the last moth, General-Secretary Kim was reported by KCNA and KCTV to be out and about, primarily at economic locations, offering praise, assurances and attempting to implement policy.  Since, the NLL skirmish between the DPRK and ROK navies, however, Yonhap reports that Kim Jong-il seems to have gone to ground, despite making appearances after previous West (Yellow) Sea dust-ups.  In a post-DPRK media availability, France’s Special Envoy Jack Lang said that DPRK officials told him General-Secretary Kim was not in Pyongyang at that time the French delegation visited.  US President Barack Obama’s visit to the region also does little to assuage Kim Jong-il’s characteristic caginess.  Then again, maybe a batch of foreign DVD’s has arrived and the General-Secretary is catching up on his movie watching.

Kim Jong-il may be out of sight, but he is not out of mind, having sent a hi and howdy to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.  Before folks start activating General-Secretary Kim’s virtual EKG machine, these are communications which only he can authorize.

Meanwhile, Chosun Ilbo reports that among the agreements signed between China and the DPRK, one included an arrangement between the DPRK’s External Liaison and Operations Department and Chinese public security officials.  Chinese officials are notorious for repatriating North Korean migrants back into the DPRK, and the DPRK is known to use China has a transshipment locale for narcotics and counterfeit currency.  The gist of the agreement finds China working with DPRK authorities on the former in exchange for North Korean cooperation with regard to the latter.

Has the Kim Jong-un tribute song been performed under a new title?  On Friday (13 November) a schoolchildren’s poetry and song recital was held at the Central Youth Hall in east Pyongyang.  The event ostensibly commemorated the 55th anniversary of Kim Jong-il expressing his filial piety to Kim Il-sung.  Among the poems and music numbers performed by the young artistes was “Oungum ensemble ‘Sound of the General’s Footsteps.’”  Pyongyang watchers (including this one) have been on the hunt for performances of a tune called “Footsteps.”  “Footsteps” was listed as being performed under that title in May of this year.  But, a quick and dirty check of the North Korean press has not found any record of a previous performance of “Sound of the General’s Footsteps” until Friday.  Tramp, tramp, tramp.  And stay tuned.

(n.b. This will be the first in a series of occasional postings about the people and personalities close to Kim Jong-il.  Some of this will relate to succession issues or to the broader dynamics of Pyongyang’s internal politics.)

Kim Kyong-hui in June 2009.

Kim Kyong-hui

No other North Korean knows Kim Jong-il better, or has a longer relationship with him, than his sister, Kim Kyong-hui.  When Kim Il-sung remarried in the early 1950’s, Kim Kyong-hui and Kim Jong-il more or less formed their own family unit, and General-Secretary Kim became highly protective of his younger sister from their step-mother and their father.  When the late DPRK President Kim Il-sung attempted to break up her courtship with future husband Jang Song-thaek , Hwang Jang-yop was struck by how “she was direct and very intelligent.”  Kim Kyong-hui has served in a few key KWP positions working in the International Department (under Kim Yong-nam) and the Korean Democratic Women’s Union (under her step-mother, Kim Song-ae).  For twenty-one (21) years she has been a member of the KWP Central Committee and since 1987 director of its Light Industry Department or Economic Policy Inspection apparatus.  She also had an informal executive role in Office #35 (the External Liaison Department).

Kim Kyong-hui has served as her brother’s eyes and ears in the DPRK and within the Kim Family.  During the 1990’s Ms. Kim conducted her own inspection tours under the auspices of her management of the Light Industry Department.  Not requiring the elaborate security preparations for Kim Jong-il’s appearances, Ms. Kim has reportedly dropped in on North Korean factories.  This has afforded General-Secretary Kim more candid reporting than he receives from his subordinates.  Kim Kyong-hui has also managed General-Secretary Kim’s sometimes thorny relations with the Kim Family.

Kim Kyong-hui

The extended Kim Family is more or less hermetically sealed from all but the top elite of the North Korean population, and Kim Jong-il does not have a subordinate to whom he can delegate such sensitive interpersonal tasks, as he does in managing the Party or State.  Ms. Kim maintains General-Secretary Kim’s relationships with Kim Il-sung’s elderly in-laws and members of the Kang family.  Kim Kyong-hui was tasked as an intermediary with the late Song Hye-rim, and informed Ms. Song of her exile from the DPRK.  Ms. Kim was said to have a close relationship with the late Ko Yong-hui.  It is highly likely Kim Kyong-hui who dispatched Kim Jong-nam (with whom she has a very close relationship) to Europe to solicit medical treatment after Kim Jong-il’s stroke in late summer 2008.

Kim Kyong-hui currently enjoys a more public profile.  She is the only woman who holds a Department Director title in the KWP Central Committee’s subordinate departments.  According to reports in early 2008, she and Jang Song-thaek have hosted dinner and music parties for North Korean elites at their palatial Pyongyang residence.  She attended the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly (a body of which she has been a member since 1990) and was listed on the platform list of the KWP Central Committee’s memorial meeting on the 15th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s death. She has joined General-Secretary Kim’s travel party on his guidance tours, most recently in October of this year watching a performance at the North Hwanghae Provincial Art Theater.  Kim Kyong-hui has personal ties to KWP Secretaries Kim Ki-nam and Kim Jung-rin, SPA Presidium President Kim Yong-nam, United Front Director Kim Yang-gon and KPA Gen. Hyon Chol-hae.

Kim Kyong-hui’s role in succession politics and potential contingencies is significant.  Singly, she will ensure the extended Kim Family supports the succeeding regime.  With her husband Jang Song-thaek she will be an essential adviser and operative in support of Kim Jong-un, the alleged hereditary successor, or she work with her husband to guarantee a less rocky transition than expected by Pyongyang watchers, and hold a key management position in the post-KJI era.  Conversely, if there is a power competition among North Korean elites or General-Secretary Kim loses central command and control, Kim Kyong-hui will most likely be one of the first elites to depart the country.

Kim Kyong-hui is also mother of another dark-horse succession candidate, Jang Kim-sung (born ca. 1979).  The young Mr. Jang studied in Sweden in the late 1990’s.  He should not be confused with a man named Kim Hyun, said to be the love child of Kim Il-sung and his nurse and adopted into the Jang-Kim household.  An account surfaced this year that Kim Hyun was executed around 2001.

Kim Ok

Kim Ok

Kim Ok perhaps has the closest relationship to General-Secretary Kim.  She is said to be his fifth domestic partner, although there are disputes as to whether she bore any children from her relationship with Kim Jong-il.  She was born in the early 1960’s and attended the Pyongyang University of Music and Dance.  She was a pianist in the 5th Cadres’ Section of Kim Jong-il’s Personal Secretariat, providing musical entertainment at dinner parties and music performances for General-Secretary Kim and members of the KWP Central Committee.  In the late 1980’s, Kim Ok was promoted within the Personal Secretariat and became an administrative secretary and household manager to Kim Jong-il.  Unlike Kim Jong-il’s previous wives/domestic partners who were related to North Korean elites (Hong Il-chon; Kim Yong-suk) or professional entertainers (Song Hye-rim; Ko Yong-hui), Kim Ok was actually involved, albeit in a clerical context, in the policy process in the DPRK and has some personal and professional ties to North Korean policymakers.

For a number of years, Kim Ok was said to been in the support staff on VMAR Jo Myong-rok’s 2000 trip to the United States.  Former sushi chef Kenji Fujimoto disputes that Ms. Kim is the same woman who appeared in photographs from that trip.  Kim Ok did appear in 2000 with Kim Jong-il, at the Inter-Korean summit meeting with the late ROK President Kim Dae-jung.  She also traveled with General-Secretary Kim in 2006 to China where she may or may not have been introduced to Chinese officials as Kim Jong-il’s wife.

Since 2006, Kim Ok’s power in Kim Jong-il’s Personal Secretariat has steadily increased.  She is said to have daily operational control over the Third Floor, managing General-Secretary Kim’s personal finances and ladling out gifts to North Korean elites.  This is due in part to the 2006 Macau arrest of Personal Secretariat Director Kang Sang-chun, who was allegedly involved in illegal land swaps; Mr. Kang was released, but like Kim Jong-nam’s 2001 passport arrest, this stained his reputation in the Haebangsan-dong court.  Kim Jong-il’s 2008 health problems saw Kim Ok becoming a conduit between General-Secretary Kim’s sickbed and the National Defense Commission.  It seems Ms. Kim took on a kind of Edith Wilson role communicating messages from and to the General-Secretary, and facilitating the paper traffic.  No doubt, Kim Ok did not operate independently, as Jang Song-thaek is reported to have assumed some executive powers at this time.

Kim Ok’s power is found in her daily, personally intimate access to Kim Jong-il.  Many Pyongyang watchers believe that she is highly influential in the succession process–which is to say she can tip the scale in favor of one person over the other.  Kim Ok is said to be a supporter of Kim Jong-un.  However, if Kim Jong-un did trespass the Guard Command, as alleged by some reports, it is likely Ms. Kim was involved, to a certain degree, in the punitive response, the tamping down, if you will.

Kim Ok is reputed to have close personal ties to OGD Senior Deputy Director Ri Je-gang.   While Ms. Kim interacts with Jang Song-thaek, Kim Kyong-hui, Gen. Hyon Chol-hae and Gen. Ri Myong-su, the nature of their relationships is not known and accounts are mixed.  Things can not be so bad, as all of the above-named individuals have daily access to General-Secretary Kim, and Jang/Kim and Gens. Hyon and Ri have seen their respective power and influence continue to ascend.

Ms. Kim is purely a creature of the Personal Secretariat which is to say any power and influence she has is predicated on a living, sentient General-Secretary Kim.  Members of the Personal Secretariat seldom interact with other North Korean elites and are forbidden from forming the kind of political networks on which elites base their power.  Personal Secretariat employees also possess neither State identification documents nor social security cards, exacerbating their “non citizen” status.  This differentiates her from North Korean elites such as Jang Song-thaek/Kim Kyong-hui, Ri Je-gang or Gens. Hyon and Ri.  It is highly unlikely in the event of a contingency or Kim Jong-il losing his command and control, Ms. Kim will seize power or make any attempt so to do.  Kim Ok could buy time for the succeeding regime, if General-Secretary Kim were to pass away or become physically incapacitated.  News of the Wonsu’s demise are the informational means for the succeeding regime to take command and control over the internal security apparatus, constituencies that manage civilian and military life in the DPRK.  If Kim Ok unexpectedly turns up in Europe with heavily weighted luggage and a sheet of paper with account numbers, this would indicate a serious power competition in the DPRK.

Kim Sol-song

Kim Sol-song

Arguably Kim Jong-il’s favorite child, Kim Sol-song was the first grandchild acknowledged and, in conforming with tradition, named by Kim Il-sung.  She was born around 1974.  Unlike her half- and step-siblings she was educated domestically in the DPRK, including attending Kim Il-sung University  She speaks several languages (including English and Russian) and is conversant in foreign policy, economics and literature.  Kim Sol-song worked in her late grandfather’s Presidential Office and the KWP Propaganda and Agitation Department.  Since the late 1990’s, she has been employed in Kim Jong-il’s Personal Secretariat where she holds a Department Director’s position, presiding over Office #99 which is said to manage some of General-Secretary Kim’s financial accounts and as well as technology (computers and software) acquisition.

Kim Sol-song has escorted her father on his guidance and inspection tours, as his aide.  She has also served as her father’s interpreter in meetings with foreign heads of state, and traveled to Russia with him in 2002.  Kim Sol-song is highly valued as an adviser and aide to General-Secretary Kim.  According to a couple of reports, she was reported as wearing a KPA Lieutenant Colonel’s uniform on guidance tours and may hold an unofficial rank in the Guard Command, over which she is likely tasked with some administrative oversight.  With Kim Ok, she shares responsibility for managing Kim Jong-il’s calendar, travel schedule and security arrangements.  Unlike Kim Ok, Kim Sol-song has political and policy credibility and should be viewed as highly influential in decisions affecting succession and contingency planning.  Circumstantially, she has a position of import among North Korean elites as she is directly and legitimately linked to Kim Il-sung, in addition to years of service in KWP departments.  She most likely has personal and professional ties to MAR Ri Ul-sol, Gen. Hyon Chol-hae, Gen. Ri Myong-su, KWP Secretary Kim Ki-nam, PAD Director Cho Ik-gyu and PAD Senior Deputy Director Ri Jae-il.  She has familial and political ties to Jang Song-thaek, Kim Kyong-hui, VMAR Ri Yong-mu and Kang Sok-ju.

One might want to view Kim Sol-song as a Third Generation Kim Kyong-hui, in that she is not only a descendant of Kim Il-sung, but educated, politically savvy and, at the age of 35, a seasoned veteran of the bureaucratic competitions among North Korean elites.  Because of Kim Ok’s alleged ties to deputy directors in the Organization and Guidance Department and the National Defense Commission, it is highly likely that her opinions regarding succession and contingency planning may be taken more seriously by General-Secretary Kim because she could be viewed as a disinterested party.  It is also likely that an important role has been designed for her in a post-KJI regime, and it would not be surprising to see her holding a significant support role in both a hereditary, or collective succession.  If the North Korean elites (including General-Secretary Kim) could subsume their patriarchal sexism, Kim Sol-song is the ideal candidate for hereditary succession.  This would be the Empress Myeongseong scenario previously put forth by the eminent Dr. Mansourov.

Kim Yong-suk

Kim Yong-suk is the daughter of a KPA General tied to Kim Il-sung, and was a clerical worker for the Ministry of Public Security’s provincial branch in North Hamgyong when her marriage to Kim Jong-il was arranged in 1973.  She is Kim Jong-il’s official wife, which is to say his legal wife and the only domestic partner recognized by Kim Il-sung.  Kim Yong-suk and General-Secretary Kim have two daughters: Kim Sol-song and Kim Chun-song.  She was living with General-Secretary Kim in the early 1980’s, prior to his establishing his household with Ko Yong-hui.  Kim Yong-suk appeared in formal photographs with Kim Jong-il as recently as 2002, but she does not participate in DPRK political or public life.  There are accounts that like members of Kim Jong-il’s Personal Secretariat, she does not possess pertinent citizens’ documents.  A handsome woman at the age of sixty-two (62), Kim Yong-suk resides in a villa in Pyongyang and is reported to travel regularly to Europe.

Slechts 49,95 euro in de betere boekwinkel

Fidel Castro, wie kent hem niet? U weet toch, dé broer van Rául Castro, de huidige president van Cuba!!! Welnu, die Fidel Castro staat/stond bekend om zijn urenlange redevoeringen… tegenwoordig is het even anders want de man ondergaat de ene operatie na de andere om het lijf levend te houden opdat aangetoond worde dat het communisme, zoals de Castro’s voorstaan, heilzaam is voor lijf en geest! Een ander voorbeeld, de Oost-Duitse Honecker stierf pas nadat hij uit de DDR was gevlucht en dat ondanks zijn eigen schietbevel! Of neem de Noord-Koreaanse Kim Il Sung. Ook een fervent aanhanger van het totalitaire systeem. De man is dood, maar volgens de Noord-Koreanen leeft hij voor eeuwig! Zijn plaats is dan ook niet ingenomen, want dood of niet, hij blijft tot in ‘eeuwiggeit’ dé president van Noord-Korea! Zijn zoon, Kim Jong Il, is dan ook geen president, maar de Grote Generaal, zoals hij het liefst genoemd wordt, hoewel hij meer iets weg heeft van een garnaal. Zijn naam staat ook bekend in het Engels dat hij al ‘jong ziek’ is… Nu was zijn vader de man die zelf een of andere leer heeft ontwikkeld: Juche Idee (een filosofie) waarin de samenwerking tussen volk en leider werd benadrukt. Dé bijbel voor Noord-Koreanen en de tegenhanger van Mao’s Rode Boekje.

We dwalen af…

Zoals Fidel Castro urenlang kon fulmineren tegen het onwillige doch straatarme Volk van Cuba, zo heeft Jan Peter Balkende zijn eigen record gebroken door tijdens het debat over de AOW ze-ven-tien uur zijn ‘gelijk’ aan de Kamer te verkondigen… Je zou als oppositiepartij al akkoord gegaan zijn met het voorstel om het korter te houden…

Balkenende verbreekt record

AMSTERDAM -  Premier Jan Peter Balkenende verbeterde gisteren zijn record: zeventien uur onafgebroken in de Tweede Kamer.

Foto: Serge Ligtenberg

Het begon om 10.15 uur ’s ochtends met het debat over de AOW en het ging door tot na drie uur ’s nachts over de Crisis- en Herstelwet. Balkenende klaagde vorige week nog dat de Tweede Kamer hem en andere ministers te vaak wil spreken.

De premier kreeg donderdag rond tien uur ’s avonds complimenten van SP-kamerlid Emile Roemer voor zijn uithoudingsvermogen, meldt de site van Elsevier.

Even though Kim Il-Sung died in 1994, officially he is still the “Eternal President” of North Korea.  So when official visitors call, they are expected to present not one but two gifts, one to Kim Il-Sung and the other to his son, the country’s current ruler, Kim Jong-Il.  All of these gifts are reverently collected and displayed in two extensive underground galleries burrowed deep into Mount Myohyang, several hours north of the capital.  As tourists, we weren’t expected to offer any gifts, but we were taken to visit this exhibit as part of our one and only overnight trip outside Pyongyang.  When I first saw this item on our itinerary, I thought it sounded kind of boring, and maybe you’re thinking the same.  Quite the contrary, it turned out to be one of the most bizarre and memorable places I’ve ever visited.

Mt. Myohyang is located in the mountains that dominate the northern half of the DPRK and ultimately rise higher and higher to form a rugged boundary with China.  We drove there after sunset, so we couldn’t see a thing along the way, except for a few lights in the distance that one of our minders told me was a Fiat joint venture auto plant.  After several hours of unrelenting darkness, we arrived at the Hyangsan Hotel, a pyramid-shaped tourist facility built in 1986.  Although it’s described as a “luxury” hotel, it proved to be a lot more spartan than our quarters back in Pyongyang.  The beds were hard as boards and there was certainly no BBC, just two channels with poor reception featuring the staple fare of North Korean TV: an army drama on one, women in colorful hanboks (traditional Korean gowns) singing patriotic folks tunes on the other.  We soon fell asleep.

The next morning, after breakfast, we had a rare opportunity.  For the entire trip, I don’t think I had stepped more than 20 feet from one of our minders, and even that made them nervous.  Just outside the hotel’s front door, though, there was a long, straight driveway that stretched maybe 100 feet to meet the main road.  At the foot of the driveway there was a small bridge over a rock-strewn stream, which wound its way between two misty hillsides whose trees were just turning autumn red and gold.  Local villagers were riding past on bicycles, and every so often a truck would drive by, its open cargo bay filled with North Koreans hitching a ride.  Several of us asked whether we could walk down to the road “to take a picture of our hotel” (which qualifies as a “good thing” to take a picture of).  Our minders could hardly deny such a flattering request, but watched us warily from, what to them, must have been an uncomfortable distance.

It might seem silly, but it was essential to ask permission.  A few months before, a 53-year South Korean woman, a tourist visiting a similar tourist enclave (Mt. Kumgang, along the country’s east coast), woke early and strolled down to the beach by herself to watch the sun rise.  She was killed — shot in the back of the head — by a North Korean soldier who must have taken her for a spy.  Conflicting reports said she had actually been shot twice, once at point blank range.  So you didn’t play games with these folks.  You didn’t wander off.  “Stay with the group” was more than your typical tour guide’s happy chatter.

Our first visit that morning was to the Pohyonsa Buddhist monastery, a charming collection of ancient temples and pagodas set in a thickly wooded valley.  As we admired the elaborately painted panels and roof timbers, and soaked in the serenity of the pristine surroundings, a monk or two stood gazing at us from shadowed doorways.  But Pohyonsa, which dates from 1024 AD and was reconstructed in 1979, is more a monument to Korea’s cultural heritage than a functioning religious community.  According to official government statistics, more than half of the country’s population are practicing Buddhists, but outside sources place the actual number at barely more than a million, or less than 5%.  The cult of Kim is a jealous god, and the real places of holy pilgrimage on Mt. Myohyang are across the valley, on the opposite slope:  the father-and-son treasure houses of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, officially known as the International Friendship Exhibition.

The Exhibition is comprised of two separate tunnel complexes carved deep into the mountainside.  The entrance to each is a set of large metal doors at the base of an imposing marble pagoda-like structure, which you reach by walking up an asphalt driveway.   Unsmiling guards in crisp military uniforms stand at attention outside, holding automatic rifles — otherwise, you might think you had happened upon the garage door of some Asian tycoon’s vacation mansion.  The first pavilion we approached belongs to Kim the Elder.  The doors rolled open as though someone had spoken the magic word “Open Sesame” at the entrance to Aladdin’s Cave.   Once we filed in, they shut behind us with a resounding clang.

Inside, absolutely no photos are permitted.  They’re not taking any chances, either:  all cameras must be surrendered to the cloakroom immediately upon entering.  That’s too bad, too, because one glance at the palatial marble interior told us this would be a place worth taking pictures of.  Each “exhibition” is really a vast underground museum, a labyrinth of rooms filled with glass cases containing every doo-dad and gee-gaw the Kims ever collected in their 60+ years of rule.  The official tally is 223,500 items from 180 countries, displayed in over 150 rooms.  The rooms are arranged by geography, with several countries – such as guilt-ridden Japan – accounting for several chambers.  One great hall is devoted entirely to gifts the Elder Kim received from fellow dictators:  medals and plaques given by Idi Amin, Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe, and Nicolae Ceauşescu, all comrades in a sort of mutual admiration society.

When I say every doo-dad, I mean it.  Some gifts are huge, like the bullet-proof limousines and railway cars sent by Joseph Stalin.  By most are tiny, the size of a small clock or sports trophy, and reading the inscriptions often proved a surprising source of amusement.  One item was from the Communist Party of San Marino (a tiny country of 30,000 people), which can’t be comprised of more than a dozen or so regulars.  But that’s the big leagues compared to the “Study Group of Kim Il-Sungism for Latin Americans in Scandinavia” or a similar Kim fan club catering to Nigerians in New York City – truly, I kid you not.  And you have to figure, these guys are probably the ones who splintered off from the original Kim Il-Sungism study group because it didn’t meet their standards of ideological purity.

Regardless, the North Koreans are pretty wowed by it all.  Like Kim Il-Sung’s mausoleum, the gift exhibition is part of the indoctrination circuit; every work unit in the country is regularly cycled through.  In their eyes, the seemingly infinite collection of treasures and awards is testament to the adulation the entire world feels for the Great Leader and his son, the Dear Leader.  Nowhere was the gap between their perception and ours more evident than in the rooms devoted to gifts from South Korea.

In recent years, a number of South Korean business leaders have courted the Kims in the hope that, under their country’s “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with the North, they might be allowed to sell their goods or open a factory in the DPRK.  As a matter of course, they sent samples of the products their companies make, which duly ended up on display in the International Friendship Exhibition.  Entire bedroom sets from South Korean furniture manufacturers are set up on pedestals beside widescreen TVs, as though they were valuable works of art.  Slightly outdated MP3 players, laser printers, and computer monitors lie protected in glass cases like precious relics of some lost civilization.  But what looked to us like used belongings at a garage sale appeared to the North Koreans – who had never seen such things – like the world’s most marvelous technology laid out as tribute to the Great Leader.  Their jaws dropped and their faces grew puzzled as they pressed noses against the glass between them and a dusty old VCR.  Who could imagine such wonders?  Who could inspire them but the Great Leader?

But as odd as that felt, something much weirder was about to unfold.  We had nearly completed our tour of the Elder Kim’s treasure chambers when our resident guide, a middle-aged women in a bright hanbok gown, rather urgently directed us to line up in formation in front of a large wooden door.  Her tone grew hushed and excited, and it was hard to decipher exactly what she was saying, except that behind the door was an “image” of the Great Leader that had been donated from Japan.  It was so lifelike, she blurted, that it was almost like standing in the presence of the man himself.  Many people, she said, experienced almost a religious experience upon viewing it.  One Japanese girl fainted, she said, and later reported “it was almost like the Great Leader was entering my mind.”  Before we could figure out what to make of all this, the door opened and we were ushered inside.

The room was bare and its lights dim.  Along the wall opposite the door stood a smiling, life-size wax statue of Kim Il-Sung – the same kind you’d find at Madame Tussaud’s – his hand raised in greeting.  With great solemnity, the guides motioned for us to line up in three rows facing him, arms neatly at our sides.  I glanced to my side and caught the eye of one of my companions.  From the look on her face I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was:  We have just entered the Twilight Zone.  I literally had to bite down hard on my lip to keep from breaking out laughing, as we bowed deeply in unison to this earthly avatar of the Great Leader.  At Kim’s mausoleum, I found the idea of bowing upsetting and ultimately balked at it.  This time, the whole situation was so surreal it seemed mad to take it seriously.  I briefly considered falling to the floor in a fit and speaking in tongues – the Great Leader has entered my brain! – but doubted whether I could carry it off. 

At this point I half expected them to hand us the kool-aid.  Emerging from our face-to-face encounter with … whatever that was … we looked at each other with stunned expressions, words entirely failing us.  The rest of the tour, including our visit to the Younger Kim’s underground display, passed in a haze.  We saw the basketball signed by Michael Jordan that US Secretary of State Madeline Albright brought with her on her historic visit to Pyongyang, as well as a gun presented by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, both enshrined like holy relics before a gigantic – and rather flattering – gleaming white statue of Kim Jong-Il seated on a throne.  I’m told there is also a standing stuffed crocodile presenting a tray of cups, courtesy of the Sandinistas, and some silver coconuts from Saddam Hussein, but by then it was all just a blur.

Soon they were loading us back on the bus, and it was time to head back to Pyongyang.  This time it was still light out, and I stared out the window in a haze as we drove back along a shallow, winding river with gravel banks.  Suddenly I realize that this was the Chongchon River valley.  Our guides certainly weren’t going to point it out, but for any American with an interest in military history, this was hallowed ground.  It was here, in November 1950, that Chinese forces that had secretly crossed the Yalu River surprised and almost totally destroyed the entire Eighth U.S. Army.  Four whole U.S. divisions plus accompanying allied troops were (just barely) saved from complete annihilation by the heroic holding actions of the Turkish Brigade, but the army was broken.  Defeat turned into a headlong, chaotic flight – the longest retreat of any American military unit in history.  In 19 days of fighting, nearly 12,000 U.S. soldiers were killed, wounded or missing, not including 22,000 more crippled by frostbite or frozen feet.   The army’s commanding general, General Walker, was killed when his jeep crashed along the road back to Seoul.  All hopes of achieving a quick victory in Korea – which had seemed all but certain before the disaster – were dashed.  The war was to drag on as a bloody stalemate for two and half more years, and even now has not officially ended.

We were probably among just a handful of Americans who had passed this way ever since.  I bowed my head — for real this time – and thought about the more than 8,000 Americans, and countless others, still counted as missing from the war.  Many of them, no doubt, still lay here, among the quiet forested hills and meandering streams.   We couldn’t visit them, or pay our respects, but we could remember them. 

As the road leading back to Pyongyang left the mountains and reentered the plains, I spotted a train forlornly chugging its way through the empty fields, under slate grey skies.  It was pulling empty tank cars back to China, to be filled with oil.  This is the lifeline, the slender thread of support that keeps North Korea going.  It seemed, at that moment, like a phantom crossing a landscape of ghosts, a land where the past still haunts the present, ruled by remote and terrible gods.

Next installment:  What North Koreans believe, and the journey home.

All photos were taken by the author.  Please ask permission before copying.

Or perhaps better to ask, What is really *not* going on? Korea expert Andrei Lankov, writing in the Asia Times, argues that for once, the Obama Administration’s foot-dragging and dithering in the foreign policy arena is actually a good strategy when it comes to North Korea:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KK12Dg01.html

Lankov’s essential point is that North Korea has been “playing” the US for many years, and the Administration, led by Secretaries Clinton and Gates, has decided to turn the tables on them. In the past, North Korea had an edge because the US wanted something from them – denuclearization – and needed at least the appearance of an agreement badly enough to make concessions without insisting on verification of the NK side of the agreement, which was never fulfilled.

Instead, the US is now giving lip service to negotiations but not actually pursuing them. This sends a message to North Korea: If you are not serious about reaching an agreement, we won’t take you seriously.

Of course, there is the possibility that North Korea may try to raise the stakes by committing further provocations. The recent naval skirmish between North and South Korea may be the first sign of this. The Administration will have to steel itself not to give ground no matter how many missile tests or belligerent announcements come from Pyongyang. If NK leader Kim Jong-Il becomes convinced that there is an iron fist inside the US’ velvet glove, he may decide that it’s better to shake hands than play ratslap.

Achewood is a web-comic I like. You could almost say that it is Summer Carlson’s fault that I know about it because she introduced me to a little song called “Perfect Day” back in 2005-ish and that led me to Toothpaste For Dinner which led to Achewood.

Over the past few weeks in Achewood magical realism has been hell of going on. Kim Jong-il has sent Todd Squirrel to the Punishment Side of Tree more than once and peeling out has also happened.

I would like to share it with you.

The following links are to the Korean Magical Realism story-arc. The titles of the links are from the strip’s alt-text (the text that comes up when you hover on a picture or a link). #5 and #6 are not listed because they are not quite family-friendly. If you feel as this girl does, I would not suggest you visit Achewood. Read my post about Mr. Rogers instead.

You are Todd. You have Barn-in-Package. There are no exits.

Kim Jong-Il is arrogant in the way that he tries to make his hair look like that of both Elvis AND a young Peter North. He is a Hair Icarus.

Reading cult propaganda through a film of animal urine is the new Fox News.

Slanted-mirror Hokum and Jive. Colonel Trader and the Kansas Silos, 1956.

#5

#6

When he did not eat enough chocolate, there was hell to pay.

Cheers.

(n.b. Kim Jong-il’s last known appearance was around 1 November at the Unhung Cooperative Farm in Thaechon County, North Pyongan Province)

At the 8 Feburary Vinalon Complex. (Photo: KCNA)

Continuing with his working for the weekend m.o., Kim Jong-il (or his body double or auto-icon) rode his customized train coach to South Hamgyong Province, and undisclosed locations, for five (5) guidance tours and two (2) concert performances.  This marked his first visit to South Hamgyong since late June/early July of this year.  General-Secretary Kim visited three famous production sites during his swing through South Hamgyong and he participated in his first inspection of a North Korean military base since he watched KPN exercises in mid-September.

He began his tour of the Hungam area attending a concert of the “art squads” of the 8 February Vinalon Complex and the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex.  These music groups are supposedly quite versatile, singing and playing “colorful numbers of diverse genres.”  It was neither disclosed nor photographed by the Korean Central News Agency whether “Footsteps” was performed among old chestnuts such as “Are We Living in Days Like Those?” and “My Beloved Factory.”  Although in his remarks to the art squad’s secretaries General-Secretary Kim referred to the “revolutionary position of the workers of the DPRK thanks to the large contingent of such dependable workers of the new generation.”  Kim Jong-il moved on to the 8 February Vinalon Complex and the construction site of a gas facility at the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex.  The art squads of the respective factories moved onto Pyongyang (most likely on General-Secretary Kim’s orders) for an engagement earlier this week at the People’s Palace of Culture.

Hungnam Fertilizer Complex construction site (Photo: KCNA)

General-Secretary Kim’s last visit to these industrial sites was in early February of this year.  At the 8 February Vinalon Complex he “looked round the dyes and agricultural chemicals produced at the newly-built production processes for hours.”  During the guidance tour, Kim Jong-il alluded to the Taean Work System, juxtaposing it against the circumstance that the management and labor of the 8 February Complex were basically left to fend for themselves in renovating the place.  He praised them for the renovations, “even under hard conditions where everything was in short supply. . .demonstrat[ing] the might of the Juche-based industry.”  Several hours later, Kim Jong-il and his travel party took a short ride (less than 2 miles) to the construction of an ammonia factory at the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex.  It is a bit puzzling why a person with a few health problems would decide to visit chemical factories.  Nevertheless, General-Secretary Kim conducted a bit of a pep rally in order to ensure the project’s completion before the end of the 100 Day Battle Campaign ( “setting forth the tasks to be fulfilled to wind up the project earlier than scheduled”).

A day or two later, Kim Jong-il and his travel party moved on across the

(n.b.: I found this text already entered into the photo description when I went to upload it) Hamju, DPRK: Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, gives field guidance to the Tongbong Cooperative Farm in Hamju County. He goes round various places including a mechanized workteam and a store for seed potato and sees varieties of crops produced by the farm to acquaint himself in detail with the farming this year. (Taken recently) KCNA PHOTO

Songchon River to Jongpyong and Hamju Counties.  The first stop was to the “newly-built” Kumjin River Kuchang Youth Power Plant, named after the Kumjingang Youth Shock Brigade members who helped construct it.  The Kuchang Power Plant is the second power plant constructed in Jonpyong County, and was under construction since 2006.  While the project is complete, it is not clear whether it will be fully functional, a concern which Kim Jong-il highlighted in his instructions to the Party officials escorting him during the tour.  However, General-Secretary Kim stuck to his laudatory guns, “expressing great satisfaction over the fact that the senior functionaries of the county. . .have invented the valuable things that can contribute to improving the people’s standard of living.”  Whether they know how to game their political connections or have direct connections to KPA shock brigades, Jonpyong officials such as Ri Yong-hun and Choe Kum-sun were held by Kim Jong-il as Party and People’s Committee officials whom “other functionaries should emulate.”

Kim Jong-il then moved on to Hamju County, where he maintains a residence and in 2007 where he voted in Local People’s Committee elections.  For the third time in 2009 he visited the Tongbong Cooperative Farm.  Hamju County has several cooperative farms and a third tour of the same cooperative farm may indicate something about the DPRK’s problems with its agriculture.  That said, Tongbong Cooperative Farm was serving General-Secretary Kim’s propaganda purpose because it is “upholding the great general’s teaching on farming methods” and conforming to the methods of two-crop farming and the use of organic fertilizers that are forming the dual cornerstones of the KWP’s green and agricultural revolutions.

Over the weekend, General-Secretary Kim inspected KPA Unit 1224, at an undisclosed location.  This may be his first visit to the KPA unit, which may be part of the Operations Department.  During his inspection tour he visited the living quarters and ideological education centers and watched training exercises.  In the KCNA bulletin, Kim Jong-il’s remarks about the role of

Huzzahs at the photo session with the workers at the power plant (Photo: KCTV)

the KPA are taken directly from the DPRK Constitution.  The KCNA report noted that the “interior facilities with all the amenities and their compound kept neat and tidy like a park.”  While I don’t want to question the housekeeping of a KPA unit, it should be noted that the cleaning of KPA barracks prior to an inspection tour is mandatory, and compelled by both commanding officers and the State Security Department.  Kim Jong-il began, and ended, this batch of guidance tours with an art performance, a concert.  His final recent appearance was attending a concert given by the art squad of the Ministry of Public Security.  The musically-inclined members of the “interior forces of the supreme commander” broke out the guitars for “Let’s Defend Socialism.”  Again, no word on whether any of the singers performed “Footsteps.”

The dispatch that Kim Jong-il was either dead or using a stand-in seems to have found its way to the General-Secretary.  While this activity will do little to allay the naysayers, the number of Kim Jong-il’s appearances is staggering.  His recent guidance tours and concert going bring the number of appearances to 135 for 2009.  It can only be expected that he will continue this kinetic pace through year’s end which dovetails with the conclusion of the 100 Day Battle Campaign.  The reports made a particular effort to underscore that his health is at least stable, and sought to establish that he has whatever physical and mental stamina pre-existed his stroke(s).

The bird's eye view is mounted (Photo: KCTV)

With so many different appearances, Kim Jong-il reiterated every ideological mode the KWP is trying to peddle.  There were numerous references to kangsong taeguk, the Three Revolutions and the Green Revolution.  He seemed to bypass Hamhung for Hungnam.  With its organized crime gangs and a problem with methamphetamine, visiting the city centre of Hamhung is a dicey proposition.  The two complexes he visited in Hungnam have production units within them that are subordinate to the Second Economic Committee.   As has been standard practice with his cooperative farm appearances, corn was highlighted as a staple food and General-Secretary Kim addressed the problems affecting North Korean citizens in rural areas.  During his appearance at Tongbong Cooperative Farm, he made a point of setting forth a policy of producing and delivering additional machinery to cooperative farms in the rural DPRK, although whether this is actually possible or any cadres will implement his instructions are anyone’s guess.

On chronic succession watch; Kim Jong-il targeted some of his remarks during his swing through Jonpyong and Hamju Counties  to the virtues of youth.  He noted that “our revolutionary cause. . .is being firmly maintained because the great army of youths–the most lively combat unit–is in charge of the defense of the fatherland and the socialist construction.”   In praising the current Party and State elders in Jonpyong County he said that “members of the Youth Shock Brigade, in the future as well, would continue to take the lead in advancing the glorious struggle for the fatherland’s prosperity and development of the people’s happiness.”  As mentioned above he referred to “the new generation” during the factories’ concert.  The dulcet chimes of “Footsteps” are not sounded and there is no aubade written to the Morningstar General.  But these references to “youths”  now, and in the future, have been interpreted by earlier cogent analysis of a possible second hereditary succession in the DPRK.

Kim Jong-il grinning during his inspection tour of KPA Unit 1224. Gen. Hyon Chol-hae is at the far left, and a man who appears to be MPAF General Political Bureau Senior Deputy Director Gen. Kim Jong-gak is at the far right. (Photo: KCNA)

And in the bucket drop of cohort analysis, the question may be who did not travel or attend a concert with Kim Jong-il?  The usual gang of three appeared at all of these places with General-Secretary Kim: KWP Secretary Kim Ki-nam, the Boswell of the Suryong, was present to attain total coverage; KWP Financial Planning Director Pak Nam-gi was around to allocate whatever monies and resources the National Defense Commission hasn’t already siphoned, and; Jang Song-thaek was hiding from the cameras and otherwise waiting for the General-Secretary to give him the names of cadres’ heads to crack.  Mr. Jang also participated in the inspection of KPA Unit 1224 under the auspices of his NDC membership.  In South Hamgyong, Kim Jong-il was escorted by KWP Provincial Secretaries Thae Jong-su and Kim Yong-gyu.  Seen in photographs, but not named in the accounts were Organization and Guidance Department Senior Deputy Director Ri Je-gang and Propaganda and Agitation Department Senior Deputy Director Ri Jae-il.  At the inspection of KPA Unit 1224, Kim Jong-il was joined by MPAF and NDC Vice Chair VMAR Kim Yong-chun, Chief of the General Staff Gen. Ri Yong-ho and MPAF General Political Bureau Senior Deputy Director Gen. Kim Jong-gak.  Seen in Unit 1224 photographs, but not named in the reports were NDC chiefs Gens. Ri Myong-su and Hyon Chol-hae.  At the MPS concert, Kim Jong-il was joined by most of these other folks, as well as Jang Song-thaek protege Gen. Ju Sang-song, Minister of Public Security, and MPS Political Bureau Director, Col. Gen. Ri Pyong-sam.  Other than a few undisclosed members of the Personal Secretariat, did I miss anyone?

This guidance tour posting is brought to you in part by Taedonggang Brewery Beer.  Taedonggang: the Suryong of Beers.

While Anglophone Korea-watchers are checking up on U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth’s itinerary and insouciantly lining him up in a rhetorical 3-4 formation next to to 1980s football linebacker sensation Brian “the Bozz” Bosworth, France’s envoy Jack Lang has finally hit Pyongyang.

Jack Lang shakes hands with an unnamed North Korean counterpart in Pyongyang, via KCNA/Xinhua/Huanqiu Shibao

He’ll be in North Korea for a total of five days, exploring the possibility of French recognition of North Korea (here, France is alone in Europe [except for Estonia] in not having done so), doing some obligatory finger-wagging about the North’s nuclear program, and hyping French business concerns in areas like energy extraction.

Lang said he had no comment on the question, but it’s unlikely that he will be allowed to meet Kim Jong-il.  In fact, it would be very unusual for Kim to grant him an audience; current and former heads of state and occasionally Secretaries of State (e.g. Madeline Albright) will make the cut, but not special envoys.

And speaking of comments, the French “netizens” are keeping up with their Chinese counterparts by commenting vigorously on the Lang visit.  For a taste, click here for 167+ comments on the latest Liberation story on his mission.   I enjoyed this one in particular, as it addresses some concerns had among the French regarding Lang’s competence to achieve the desired goal (diplomatic relations and business ties) with the North:

Bill Clinton, non plus, ne parle par Coreen. Mais on l’a envoye en Coree du Nord pour negocier le liberation d’otages. C pareil pour Jack lang. Il est relativement connu, mondialement. Il a aussi une competence ministerielle. Il sait comment fonctionne l’etat. 15 ans dans les ministeres et 30 ans al l’assemblee lui ont appris tout cela. A 65 ans, il n’a plus besoin de se battre pour changer le monde. Il veut laisser son emprunte et ses competences au service de son pays. J’en suis persuade.

or, roughly,

Bill Clinton also did not speak Korean, but he was sent to North Korea to negotiate the release of hostages.  It’s the same for Jack Lang.  He is relatively well known, globally.  He also has the ministerial-level qualifications and functions as a state actor.  It’s all there: 15 years as a minister and 30 years in the Assembly.  At age 65, he doesn’t need to do more to prove he can change the world.  Now he wants to lend [emprunte/借入/jie ru] his competencies in service of the state.  I’m convinced.  [Note: unlike on Chinese BBS, this commentor yannick007 has a profile and all]

Jack Lang et entourage en Pyongyang, le capitale l'Coree du Nord -- image KCNA/Xinhua via Huanqiu Shibao

Appointed in May of 2009 as white house communications director, Anita Dunn today announced her acceptance of an offer by Kim Jong Il to assume the position of “under secretary for political communications” in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Dunn acknowledged the apparent suddenness of her decision by offering a quote by chairman Mao, “Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole.” The group of reporters present for the announcement nodded their heads as they pretended to understand what she was talking about. Dunn, the veteran political operative, stressed that her move is not the result of ideological differences with the current US administration. “For me, this is clearly a decision taken with the best wishes of my former employer who, at the end of the day, understands and completely supports the struggles of the world’s oppressed masses.” Dunn’s husband, Robert Bauer, says he will enjoy the relaxing shift toward a socially just and fair agrarian lifestyle, adding that ugliness on the part of North Korean rice farmers is simply a common  example of the  kind of malicious right wing extremism normally associated with starvation. During the interview,  Robert Gibbs was seen making multiple trips to the mens’ room murmuring,  “… Rahm said, she’s got to go!…Rahm said!…must control stupid!…no stupid!…Rahm said!”

Well, this is why I left Seoul right?

Here’s what I was reading today at CFR.org.  I agree with Michael Green:

“Some people say, “well why not just do the talks, why not just sit down with them?” and the reason is because the North Koreans will use the negotiation process to argue that there should be sanctions lifting, and pressure should be taken off. And there may be some merit in that if you think the North Koreans are serious about some level of denuclearization, but the new administration knows they’re not, so they don’t want to send any signal that there’s going to be a loosening of sanctions in exchange for just talking.”

Fun facts:

KJI owns six personal luxury trains. You know he doesn’t like flying, right?

North Korea supposedly ended its “experiment” with capitalism-minded TV commercials after an enraged Jong Il stamped out such nonsense. (North Korea Central TV)