CINA

본문

Who's the ugly-ass little fat guy(sitting front left)?
 

Yeah, it's the new vice-chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission,

General Kim Jong-eun! (source: Rodong Shinmun, 9.29)

Related "news report":

☞ Kim Jong Il Takes Photo with Participants in WPK Conference (KCNA, 9.30)
 

And here(between the two KPA fools in the front line) we've him again:

...during the WPK Delegates Conference (source: KCTV, 9.28)

본문

KCNA reported last night(KST) that the WPK Conference had come to an end after one full day, saying, “The WPK Delegates’ Conference has been successfully completed, with Kim Young Nam giving the closing address.”

A few hours later KCNA released the results of the Delegates’ Conference to the world:

Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Party are as follows:

Kim Jong Il, Kim Young Nam, Choi Young Rim, Cho Myung Rok, Lee Young Ho, Kim Young Chun, Jeon Byung Ho, Kim Kuk Tae, Kim Ki Nam, Choi Tae Bok, Yang Hyeong Seop, Kang Sok Ju, Byeon Young Rip, Lee Yong Mu, Ju Sang Seong, Hong Seok Hyeong, Kim Kyung Hee

Candidates Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Party are as follows:

Kim Yang Gun, Kim Young Il, Park Do Chun, Choi Ryong Hae, Jang Sung Taek, Ju Gyu Chang, Lee Tae Nam, Kim Rak Hee, Tae Jong Su, Kim Pyong Hae, Woo Dong Cheuk, Kim Jeong Gak, Park Jung Sun, Kim Chang Seop, Mun Kyeong Deok

Members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Party are as follows:

Kim Jong Il, Kim Young Nam, Choi Young Rim, Cho Myung Rok, Lee Young Ho

Kim Ki Nam, Jang Sung Taek, Kim Young Il, Kim Pyong Hae, Lee Young Su, Ju Gyu Chang, Hong Seok Hyeong, Kim Kyung Hee, Choi Hee Jeong, Oh Il Jeong, Kim Yang Gun, Kim Jeong Im, Chae Hee Jeong, Tae Jong Su have been appointed directors of the Central Committee of the Party

Kim Ki Ryong has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Rodong Shinmun, the publication of the Central Committee of the Party.

The members of the WPK Secretariat

The following is the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party

General Secretary of the Chosun Workers’ Party: Kim Jong Il

Secretaries of the Central Committee of the Party: Kim Ki Nam, Choi Tae Bok, Choi Ryong Hae, Mun Kyeong Deok, Park Do Chun, Kim Young Il, Kim Yang Gun, Kim Pyong Hae, Tae Jong Su, Hong Seok Hyeong.”

The Central Military Commission is as follows:

Chairman: Kim Jong Il
Vice Chairman: Kim Jong Eun, Lee Young Ho

Members: Kim Young Chun, Kim Jeong Gak, Kim Myeong Kuk, Kim Kyung Ok, Kim Won Hong, Jeong Myeong Do, Lee Byeong Cheol, Choi Bu Il, Kim Young Cheol, Yun Jeong Rin, Ju Gyu Chang, Choi Sang Ryeo, Choi Kyeong Seong, Woo Dong Cheuk, Choi Ryong Hae, Jang Sung Taek

Members of the Central Committee of the Party are as follows:

Kim Jong Il, Kang Neung Su, Kang Dong Yun, Kang Sok Ju, Kang Pyo Young, Kang Yang Mo, Ko Byeong Hyeon, Kim Kuk Tae, Kim Kyung Hee, Kim Kyung Ok, Kim Ki Nam, Kim Ki Ryong, Kim Rak Hee, Kim Myeong Kun, Kim Byeong Ryul, Kim Byeong Ho, Kim Seong Deok, Kim Song Cheol, Kim Jeong Gak, Kim Jeong Suk, Kim Jong Eun, Kim Jeong Im, Kim Chang Seop, Kim Cheol Man, Kim Chun Sam, Kim Tae Bong, Kim Pyong Hae, Kim Hyeong Ryong, Kim Hyeong Shik, Kim Hee Taek, Jun Yang Gun, Kim Young Nam, Kim Young Chun, Kim Young Il, Kim Young Cheol, Kim Yong Jin, Kim In Shik, Kim Won Hong, Kwak Beom Ki, Ryang Man Kil, Ryeo Chun Seok, Roh Du Cheol, Roh Bae Kwon, Ryu Young Seop, Lee Ryong Nam, Lee Man Gun, Lee Myeong Su, Lee Mu Young, Lee Byeong Sam, Lee Byeong Cheol, Lee Bong Deok, Lee Bong Juk, Lee Tae Nam, Lee Hyeong Gun, Lee Hee Heon, Lee Young Kil, Lee Young Su, Lee Young Ho, Lee Yong Mu, Lee Yong Hwang, Lee Yong Cheol, Lee Eul Seol, Rim Kyeong Man, Mun Kyeong Deok, Park Gwang Cheol, Park Don Chun, Park Myeong Cheol, Park Su Kil, Park Seung Won, Park Jeong Sun, Park Jong Geun, Park Jae Kyeong, Park Tae Deok, Park Ui Chun, Byeon Young Rip, Byeon In Sun, Baek Seh Bong, Seong Ja Rip, Jang Byeong Gyu, Jang Sung Taek, Jang Cheol, Jeon Kil Su, Jeon Ryong Kuk, Jeon Byung Ho, Jeon Jin Su, Jeon Chang Bok, Jeon Ha Cheol, Jeon Hee Jeong, Jeong Myeong Do, Jeong Ho Gyun, Jeong In Kuk, Cho Kyung Cheol, Cho Myung Rok, Cho Byeong Ju, Ju Gyu Chang, Ju Sang Seong, Ju Young Shik, Cha Seung Su, Chae Hee Jeong, Choi Kyeong Sung, Choi Ryong Hae, Choi Bu Il, Choi Sang Ryeo, Choi Tae Bok, Choi Hee Jeong, Choi Young Deok, Choi Young Rim, Tae Jong Su, Han Gwang Bok, Hand Dong Geun, Hyun Cheol Hae, Hyun Young Cheol, Hong Seok Hyeong, Hong In Byeom, An Jeong Su, Yang Dong Hun, Yang Hyeong Seop, Oh Keuk Ryul, Oh Guem Cheol, Oh Su Yong, Oh Il Jeong, Woo Dong Cheuk, Yun Dong Hyeon, Yun Jeong Rin.”

For more "detailed(^^)info": Since today KCNA has a special section with collected "news reports" about the ☞ WPK Conference!

본문

Last night (possibly after a lot of French red wine and a bottle of Hennessy cognac???^^) the "Dear Leader" - the "Sun of the 21st Century" - appointed (his youngest son) Kim Jong-un - the "Rising Star of the 21 Century" - to the rank of a four-star general(*). It was the first time Jong-un's name has been mentioned by Pyongyang's state media.
Kim Jong-il's sister Kyeong-hui, to be in a good/proper position to take care of Jong-un, was also promoted to a 4-star general of the KPA.

And only 12 hours later KCNA was able to spread the "Good News" that (surprise, surprise!!) "Kim Jong Il Reelected as General Secretary of WPK"!!

* For more "detailed info" please read:
☞ Kim Jong Il Issues Order on Promoting Military Ranks (KCNA, 9.28)

Related articles:
☞ Kim the Younger steals the show (Asia Times, 9.28)

☞ North Korea officially starts succession (Korea Herald, 9.28) 

☞ Kim to name successor (Global Times, 9.28)

☞ A historic moment for N. Korea watchers (WaPo, 9.27)

본문

Yesterday's Newsweek(U.S.A.) published the following interesting (but please keep in mind that nobody inside - and no doubt outside!! - N.K., except the "Dear Leader", his sister Kyeong-hui and her husband Jang Seong-taek, knows what's really going on...) story:

The Regent Behind the Son

The real power in Pyongyang will pass to Kim’s brother-in-law, not to his child.

The historic conference of the Korean Workers’ Party this week is Kim Jong-il’s coming-out party for his third son, Kim Jong-un, the heir apparent who is so enigmatic, the outside world isn’t even certain what he looks like. But in the shadows stands an even more obscure figure, a power player at the center of an uncertain struggle over who will hold the reins to the nuclear-armed Hermit Kingdom after the ailing Dear Leader.

It’s 64-year-old Jang Song-taek, not the late-20-something Kim, that North Korean hands should be scrambling to unravel. The brother-in-law of the Dear Leader, Jang has over the last couple of years become Kim Jong-il’s right-hand man, groomed to be the regent for the younger Kim. While Kim Jong-il was introduced to the world at the last party conference in 1980 and spent the next 14 years watching his father, Kim Jong-un’s succession has been more rushed. Educated in Switzerland, the younger Kim cannot match his father’s power base or charisma, particularly because he never played a role in the far-reaching military apparatus. At least at the start, he will be little more than a figurehead.

That’s where Jang comes in. The anointed caretaker was promoted this June to vice chairman of the National Defense Commission—which controls the military—making him the second most-powerful man in the country. “The National Defense Commission and the Workers’ Party are the two most important, powerful governing organizations, in which only Jang is holding positions that can exercise enough power and influence in both,” explains Kim Kwangjin, a midranking North Korean defector. According to An Chan-il, a North Korean defector and head of the World Institute for North Korean Studies, Jang is only one of three confidants who speaks directly to the Dear Leader—the other two being Kim Jong-un and Jang’s wife, Kim Kyonghui, who happens to be the Dear Leader’s sister. In the last year, Jang and his wife have been the most frequent travel companions to the elder Kim; between January and June he accompanied Kim Jong-il on 44 of 77 inspection visits. He is also rumored to be the Dear Leader’s best drinking buddy.

That’s bad news for the West: most security analysts believe that Jang will carry on Kim’s erratic policies of confrontation, repression, and economic mismanagement. “I would expect to see more of the same,” says Andrei Lankov, a noted North Korea scholar. “There might be a minor relaxation, but no full-scale reform.” As a pillar of the old guard, Jang must realize that any Chinese-style economic reform would mean the end for the top party apparatchiks, and for himself. But at least he’s not Kim Jr., now heralded as the “brilliant comrade” in Pyongyang propaganda. Some analysts believe he was the brains behind the March attack on the South Korean ship Cheonan, killing 46 sailors.

That’s not to say it will be business as usual. As North Korea’s state-run economy spirals downward—and even the elite turn to private markets to survive—Pyongyang politics grow more bitter. Just days before Jang’s promotion on the NDC, one key rival, Ri Je-gang, died in a suspicious car crash, suggesting that the power struggle is less than civil. The rubber-stamp meeting that announced Jang’s promotion was called in a last-minute special session, hinting at a battle to the wire. Several generals are reportedly upset at Jang’s new position, including Kim Jong-gak, head of the Korean People’s Army; O Kuk-ryol, vice chairman of the NDC; and Kim Yong-chun, minister of the People’s Armed Forces.

In his new defense post, Jang officially controls the internal security forces, including the secret police. Part of this portfolio includes customs and border patrols, which have recently been ramped up to forestall the growth of private markets and cross-border smugglers. But his reach extends much further. During the shaky period following Kim Jong-il’s stroke in August 2008, he was thought to have taken over everyday decision-making power. If all goes according to plan, he will now serve as the behind-the-scenes administrator to Kim Jong-un until the younger Kim can keep the party chiefs in line himself.

Jang began his quick rise within the KWP soon after marrying his college sweetheart and Kim Jong-il’s older sister, Kim Kyong-hui, in 1972. Although their father and founder of the Democratic Republic, Kim Il-sung, did not approve of the relationship, the Dear Leader was quite fond of Jang. During the 1970s and 1980s Jang became the architect of North Korea’s state-sanctioned mafia operation, according to Helen-Louise Hunter, a retired CIA analyst on the Far East desk, using diplomats to smuggle illicit goods like counterfeit cigarettes, drugs, and, eventually, counterfeit U.S. bank notes across the border. This influx of hard currency funded the regime’s patronage system, which Jang perfected, says Michael Madden, who studies the North Korean leadership at Suffolk University in Boston. In return for loyalty to Kim Jong-il, top party cadres would receive coveted goods like luxury cars, imported alcohol, and plush apartments.

But North Korean politics can be perilous. Jang fell out of favor at the start of 2004. Some analysts say it was because of his lavish personal spending. Others say his high profile risked eclipsing Kim’s. Either way, he disappeared from public life for 18 months before being rehabilitated in a midlevel party position. Since then, he has taken a central role in Kim’s dynastic succession plans. Now that the 68-year-old Kim is suffering from diabetes and the effects of possibly two strokes, it looks as though his third son may soon step in as leader of the world’s most secretive and hostile state. With Jang pulling the strings, don’t expect the new Kim to bring any change for the better.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/26/will-kim-jong-un-be-north-korea-s-new-leader.html

Related article:
☞ Power struggle rages in North Korean regime (Telegraph, 9.24)

본문

Today's Observer(UK) published the following piece regarding the 3rd WPK Dalegates Conference:

North Korean elite secretly jostle for the reins of power

Kim Jong-il has chosen his son to succeed him, but other figures may set the state's course

The poster for the first conference of the (North) Korean Workers' party to be held since 1966 depicts four striving, heroic figures. A rifle-bearing soldier leads the way, but only by the tiniest of margins, followed by an engineer in a hard hat. Behind them stride a technocrat clutching a rolled-up blueprint and a female farmer with a sheaf of wheat.

Taken together they represent a vision of proletarian certainty and confidence. But the reality in the world's most notoriously unpredictable state is wholly different. This week, hidden from the world, its future will be mapped out behind closed doors, with international implications. The country's leadership cadres will meet at a historic gathering in the vast 25 April Culture Hall in Pyongyang, where delegates will engage in a "revolutionary surge", rubber-stamping the emergence of a new politburo and the policies it will enact.

The third party conference, due to begin on Tuesday, is expected to mark the beginning of the handover from an ailing Kim Jong-il, 68, who suffered a stroke two years ago, to his son Kim Jong-un, 27.

"This is big stuff," said a western diplomat with wide experience of the workings of Pyongyang's elite. "This is the first Workers' party meeting on this scale in over 30 years. Maybe power can be handed over successfully, but it is a very risky time. This kind of forum is a catalyst. It is where you would see the old guard perhaps replaced with younger blood. The stakes are high."

The last such meeting of the party was the 1980 congress – a shorter event than this week's conference – at which Kim Jong-il, then 38, made his political debut with an appearance that confirmed he was in line to succeed his father, Kim Il-sung, the founder of modern North Korea. Delayed once this month – either because of damage to roads by recent flooding or because of disagreements over who should lead it – the congress will be held at a critical moment. Buffeted by economic and food crises and a pariah once again after its alleged sinking of a South Korean warship, the country is also under intense pressure from its closest ally, China, which is fearful of a complete North Korean collapse, to both introduce market reforms and make itself more accessible to the world.

It is not clear how many North Koreans have seen posters for the conference, released officially in July, or heeded their call to welcome it as an "auspicious event". In the muddy, impoverished northern city of Rason, earlier this month, no posters were visible.

Some South Korean analysts believe any decisions may be kept secret because the party's elite fear that giving too much away about life after Kim Jong-il could turn him into a lame duck and destabilise the country. And while much has been made of the formal confirmation of Kim Jong-un as successor to the family business of dictatorship, close observers of the country are far more intrigued by other manoeuvrings around Kim Jong-un's anticipated promotion.

Other senior figures have been reinforcing their positions. The most prominent is Chang Sung-taek, Kim Jong-il's powerful brother-in-law, whose faction appears to have been pushing aggressively to the fore in recent months. And while observers have predicted the danger of collapse in North Korea before – not least during the 1990s – they believe the country may be entering a period of increasing instability.

"Succession is always the Achilles' heel of regimes like this," said Aidan Foster-Carter, a North Korea expert at Leeds University, who has noted the flurry of changes at the top of the regime in the past year. "I'm sure this is a significant moment." He is one of a number of analysts who believe that Chang Sung-taek is being lined up to play a pivotal role in the succession, either as "regent", as facilitator of the succession period, or even as a leader should Kim Jong-un prove unpalatable in the long run.

As Andrei Lankov, an academic at Kookmin University in the South Korean capital of Seoul, argued in the Wall Street Journal, the very weakness of the untested and unfamiliar Kim Jong-un makes him extremely attractive to other members of the regime.

Tall, slender and intelligent, credited with being "cosmopolitan" and charismatic in the closed world of Pyongyang's senior political cadres, Chang Sung-taek has also been tipped by watchers for promotion this week at the party congress – perhaps to the position of party secretary. He is married to Kim Jong-il's sister, and his brother was a military commander in charge of the defence of Pyongyang. He retains close links to the military.

Purged briefly in 2004 and sent into internal exile for two years – possibly because of his growing power – Chang was reinstated in 2006. Significantly, he took over the reins of power when Kim Jong-il had a stroke in 2008. After his rehabilitation, Chang was described by Choi Jin-wook of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul as having fewer enemies than other senior cadres "because when he purges people, they are not just sent away from Pyongyang, they are killed".

One of Chang's closest allies, the former premier Pak Pong-ju, regarded as a pragmatist by the South, and who attempted to introduce market reforms into North Korea's basket-case economy, has been promoted to a key industrial role. It has, perhaps, been his restoration that has been the most intriguing development, following the disastrous devaluation of the country's currency, suggesting that North Korea may once again be interested in market reforms.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/26/north-korea-kim-jong-un

Related articles:
☞ North Korea's succession: Next of Kim (The Economist, 9.23)

☞ North Koreans Feel Small Measure of Hope (DailyNK, 9.25)

본문

Tang Dynasty, "The Internationale"

Have a good weekend!!

본문

While the following f*cking BS(!!) has been already published in yesterday's Korea Times(KT) it bacame one of the "top stories" in its today's online edition:

Kim Jong-eun has plot to disrupt G20...

North Korea recently held a meeting, presided by Kim Jong-eun, the heir-apparent of Kim Jong-il, to disrupt the upcoming G20 summit in Seoul, a report said Wednesday.

Citing a high-level North Korean cadre, who recently visited Pyongyang to attend the Workers’ Party conference, Radio Free Asia said North Korea’s National Defense Commission, the North’s de facto most powerful organ, held an emergency meeting to compromise the G20 meeting, slated for Nov. 11-12 in Seoul.

The meeting was presided over by junior Kim, who was entrusted by his father, the head of the commission.

“The defense commission regards the G20 meeting as a plot by world financial powers to isolate North Korea internationally,” RFA said. “To prevent it from happening, a concrete set of measures were discussed.”

It’s not clear from the report what the measures were. It’s also not known whether the participants have agreed to carry them out.

But the RFA said that North Korea will stir security concerns in South Korea around the time of holding the G20 and support various South Korean civic organizations that oppose the get-together and engage in a negative campaign against the meeting within South Korea.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/09/113_73409.html

Related stuff:
☞ Kim Jong-eun: "Smash the G20!" (8.13)

본문

Well, here you can "enjoy" the complete version of the public announcement made by the Preparatory Committee for the Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea regarding next week's WPK conference:

The meetings of delegates of the party committees of the Korean People's Army and provincial (political bureau), city (district) and county party committees took place to elect delegates to the conference of the WPK against the background of a high-pitched drive for effecting a new great revolutionary surge now under way on all fronts for building a thriving nation with the historic conference of the WPK and its 65th birthday approaching.

The meetings of delegates of the party committees of the KPA and provincial (political bureau) party committees elected General Secretary Kim Jong Il as delegate to the conference of the WPK representing the unanimous will of all the members of the party, servicepersons of the KPA and people.

The meetings elected working people and officials who have displayed patriotic devotion at the work sites for effecting a fresh revolutionary surge, remaining intensely loyal to the party and revolution as delegates to the conference.

The meetings once again powerfully demonstrated the might of our revolutionary ranks in which all the servicepersons and people are single-mindedly united around the headquarters of the revolution headed by Kim Jong Il.

The conference of the WPK for electing its supreme leadership body will take place in Pyongyang on Sept. 28.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201009/news21/20100921-02ee.html

 
Related articles:
☞ A summit of tensions in Pyongyang (Asia Times, 9.22)

☞ Kim who? N. Korea's new mystery man (Guardian, 9.21)

본문

The entire world(^^), via today's int'l media(*), praises and celebrates the Dear Leader's (aka the "Sun of the 21st Century") Chuseok gift to the (North)Korean People, i.e. his order that...

The KWP Delegates' Conference to Begin Next Tuesday

Quoting the Korean Workers' Party Delegates' Conference Organizing Committee(KWPDCOC), the Korean Central Broadcasting Station(KCBS) finally announced this morning, “The Korean Workers' Party Delegates' Conference will open in Pyongyang, the city of the revolution, on September 28th, Juche 99 (aka 2010), for the election of the highest organs of the KWP.”

Asserting that preparations "had gone off without a hitch", KWPDCOC proclaimed, “Facing the historic KWP Delegates' Conference and the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Party, and with the gale of a new revolution blowing across the front of the construction of the strong and prosperous state, delegates' conferences in the military, provincial committees, city, district and local area delegates' conferences for the election of delegates to the KWP Delegates' Conference have been completed.”

KCBS added, “In these delegates' conferences, the workers and laborers, demonstrating their boundless faith in the Party and revolution and patriotic devotion on the battlefields of the new revolutionary tone, elected their KWP delegates.”
Especially, it emphasized, “In the Korean People's Army of the Korean Workers' Party Delegates' Conference and provincial committee delegates' conferences, the assembled Party members, military personnel and people spoke with one mind to select as a KWP delegate the leader of our Party and our Supreme General, the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong-Il.”

For more "detailed"(^^) reports please check out:
☞ al-Jazeera, ☞ Der Spiegel, ☞ CNN, ☞ le Parisien etc...

본문

Welcome to the "Socialism of the 21st century"!

Last week the Cuban gov't has announced it will lay off more than 1,000,000 state employees. According to the Cuban trade union CTC they'll get no unemployment assistance!
Currently there are 5,000,000 state employees (plus 140,000 in the privat sector) in Cuba...

Related article:
☞ Capitalist storm clouds loom over Havana... (Guardian, 9.14)