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29 Feb 2012 10:32

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World: U.S. scores diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea

  • the deal The U.S. got North Korea to agree to curb its nuclear testing and enrichment processes and allow outside investigators to monitor its main reactor, which is a fairly major breakthrough for the countries.
  • the perk In exchange, North Korea will get 240,000 metric tons of food aid. While the U.S. has long considered offering aid for purely humanitarian reasons, North Korea insisted that it be tied to this deal. source
  • » Significant, if “limited”: This result came after a set of talks last week that initially did not seem to go well, but later proved be palatable for the North Koreans. The two countries previously were close to some sort of deal before Kim Jong-il’s death, but the latest development seems to have gone over. “The United States still has profound concerns regarding North Korean behavior across a wide range of areas,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, “but today’s announcement reflects important, if limited, progress in addressing some of these.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2012 15:41

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World: Kim Jong-Il’s oldest son doesn’t buy his brother’s new rule

  • I expect the existing ruling elite to follow in the footsteps of my father while keeping the young successor as a symbolic figure. It is difficult to accept a third-generation succession under a normal reasoning.
  • Kim Jong Nam, eldest son of Kim Jong-Il • Remarks made in an email to the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, on the subject of his young brother Kim Jong-Un’s ascendancy to power in North Korea. It’s worth noting a couple things in his analysis — for one, he was shirked in the Kim line of succession for, of all things, traveling to Japan on a fake passport in an effort to visit Disneyland. As a result, he no longer lives in North Korea, which means he probably can’t be as informed as he once was; North Korea is one of the most opaque nations on earth. However, when a family this bizarre, powerful, and hugely important gets to feuding, it merits attention. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Dec 2011 10:27

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World: In case you missed it: Kim Jong-Il’s highly-choreographed funeral

  • Last night was just strange: Euronews’ “No Comment” YouTube channel did us a favor and edited down this meandering feed, where (in one scene) the camera focused on a building for ten minutes, down to two minutes that really give you the gist. We’ll choose not to debate on whether the tears were real. Instead, let’s discuss what this shows about North Korean culture. The Telegraph argues that it shows that North Korea is really a monarchy or royal dynasty, despite its reputation as a communist nation — and that Kim Jong-Un is without a doubt the country’s leader. And the Christian Science Monitor disputes (in a slideshow) that the country is really as isolated as the West has come to believe. And MSNBC parses the funeral through the eyes of South Korea — and what they find is a giant bout of disinterest. What did you get out of this? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Dec 2011 20:39

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World: North Korean state media: Jimmy Carter offered condolences

For some reason, right-leaning blogs and news sites are obsessed with this story. Mind you, this is also the same North Korean media which has been using extremely figurative language to describe Dear Leader’s death. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Dec 2011 10:46

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World: Kim Jong-Un: Fully in charge of the North Korean military

  • He will, however, share power with his uncle … at first. Just before the death of his father was announced Monday, Kim Jong-Un issued his first military order. He told all members of the North Korean military to quit their training exercises and return to their bases. This is a biggish deal because South Korean officials didn’t actually think he was in complete control of the military. Meanwhile, as the country currently has no military strongman, it’s likely that Kim will share power with Jang Song-thaek, the brother-in-law of Kim Jong-Il, and the North Korean military. It’ll be interesting to see what changes in the country’s dynamic after this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2011 10:42

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World: Kim Jong-Il lies in state; Kim Jong-Un amongst the mourners

  • A fallen leader makes way for an untested one: On Tuesday, North Koreans mourned the loss of Kim Jong-Il, an official whose outward appearances to the West perhaps didn’t match the sorrow those who lived in the region felt for his loss. (State television was full of images, much like the one above, of the leader lying in a glass coffin.) All of which leaves new leader Kim Jong-Un with some pretty big shoes to fill — especially for a country that has both incredible hardships and nuclear weapons at its disposal. Not that the country didn’t appear optimistic about his chances: “The respected comrade Kim Jong-un’s ideology equals General Kim Jong-il’s ideology and will,” a North Korean state radio report claimed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Dec 2011 01:04

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World: Three things you didn’t know about North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

09 May 2011 13:40

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World: South Korea to North: renounce nukes and you can join summit

  • South’s idea of nuke security is the North not having them: South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has told the North that dictator-for-life Kim Jong-Il (also called “The Dear Leader” or “The Great General” by his population of brutally oppressed, starving citizens) can attend a summit on nuclear security if and only if he renounces his nuclear weapons. If this seems like a stretch, you’re not alone; Kim Jong-Il almost certainly has no interest in such a deal, as his nukes are the biggest thing internationally protecting his totalitarian rule (which uses concentration camps as both a means to forced labor for the state, and an end to disobedient citizens). This seems, sad to say, like Lee Myung-bak making an empty offer, one the North will ignore in the same spirit. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Feb 2011 13:02

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World: A bad time (or rather, several generations) to be North Korean

  • YES Kim Jong-Il parties while his people toil in starvation source
  • » Maybe not the biggest surprise. But still, guy’s an jerk, huh? An especially harsh winter season (most North Korean winters being merely normally harsh) has killed somewhere from 50% to 80% of the wheat and barley crop for the spring season, and high food prices have hamstrung the regime as far as import goes. While this might sound like a humanitarian crisis for most governments, Kim Jong-Il’s regime has always been pretty cozy with the idea of starvation and/or malnutrition – a 2009 Washington Post article mentions a U.S. intelligence study that found brain damage by malnutrition derails nearly 1/4th of prospective North Korean soldiers, to say nothing of the estimated 200,000 North Koreans who are wasting away in concentration camps. But, to be fair, you couldn’t ask the Dear Leader to stop spending on things like this.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 13:13

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World: Another year, another absurdly lavish party for Kim Jong-Il

  • yay birthday For Kim Jong-Il, that is. The “1984”-esque ruler was feted with figure skating, an elaborate festival, and blossoming “Kimjongilia” flowers, which are seeded to bloom on his birthday every year. Of course, North Korea is one of the world’s foremost users of concentration camps, so perhaps the party lacked spontaneity.
  • boo birthday In one of the rare South Korean rituals of open antagonism to the North, balloons were released into the sky, drifting into North Korea bearing anti-Kim Jong-Il messages, and information about the uprising in Egypt. But with a society literally focused entirely around reverence of the Dear Leader, Hosni Mubarak never had it so good. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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