Posted on 10/03/2014 12:30:29 PM PDT by markomalley
Isn’t Pyongyang always in “lockdown”?
Ah well. At times like these, when it feels like the world is coming apart at the seams, I take comfort in our president’s track record of foreign policy excellence.
[W]hile the North Korean authorities have in the past limited access to the capital, the latest restrictions even apply to permanent residents of Pyongyang, who are by definition the elite of the regime.
“This sort of action suggests there has either been an attempted coup or that the authorities there have uncovered some sort of plot against the leadership,” Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University and an authority on North Korean affairs, told The Telegraph.
“If it is a military-backed coup, then the situation in Pyongyang will be very dangerous and I have heard reports that Kim has been moved out of the capital,” he said.
Another possibility, via the same professor, is that the city’s been locked down not to keep people out but to keep them in — specifically, to block the escape routes of any senior officials who might be trying to defect, whether because they’re complicit in the coup attempt or simply terrified of the chaos of the power struggle. Any reason to treat this as credible, given that the “lockdown” report originated on a website run by North Korean exiles opposed to the regime? Well, there’s the little matter of Kim Jong-un’s mysterious and coincidental disappearance from public view this month. Supposedly he’s ill but maybe his condition is, shall we say, a bit graver than that. Or maybe he’s just a puppet whose puppeteer doesn’t want him putting on shows right now for whatever reason. The founder of the website that broke the “lockdown” news told Vice in an interview that, in reality, Kim hasn’t governed the country for more than a year. He’s a figurehead. And figureheads can be replaced.
According to Jang — a former counterintelligence official and poet laureate under Kim Jong-il — members of the government’s Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), a powerful group of officials that once reported only to Kim Jong-il, have stopped taking orders from his son, Kim Jong-un. The OGD, Jang says, has effectively taken control of the country, and a conflict is simmering between factions that want to maintain absolute control over the economy and others seeking to gain wealth through foreign trade and a slightly more open market…
According to Jang, the coup [last year] coincided with the execution of Jang Sung-taek, Kim Jong-un’s uncle by marriage. A longtime political rival of the OGD but considered untouchable because of his family ties to Kim Jong-il, Jang Sung-taek was officially charged with “consolidating his own power with factional maneuvering” and selling off state resources at below market value for personal profit. He was summarily purged last December, and a popular but false rumor had him being eaten alive by dogs…
“The real power resides within that one department, the OGD, that was groomed to bureaucratic perfection by Kim Jong-il,” [Professor Remco] Breucker told VICE News. “When he was alive, he was in practical sense heading the department. Kim Jong-un is not. It serves him, but it more serves the legacy of Kim Jong-il. Those don’t always coincide.”
Right, but … why wouldn’t they always coincide? Why would Kim Jong-un rock the OGD’s boat to the point where he’d jeopardize his cushy position as well-fed nominal ruler of a nation of millions, with no real responsibilities? He must realize how expendable he is; he has two brothers, both of whom can fill the job’s requirement — preserving the country’s “necrocracy” by dint of his patrilineage — as well as he can. I can only figure that maybe the illusion of supreme power went to Kim’s head and he defied his eminences grises.
For what it’s worth, neither Yonhap nor Chosun Ilbo, the English-speaking Internet’s go-to sites for breaking news on North Korea, have anything splashy today about a duel for control of the North. Hmmmmmmm.
Linking:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3210898/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3210942/posts
What the heck?
Whatever. It’s just another excuse to execute those who don’t fall in line perfectly.
Pray for the people of NK to wake up and take their natural rights!
Kim Jong-un returned from the toilet and found a donut missing from a fresh box that had just been flown in.
No one in the city moves, until that donut is found, and the culprit put to death.
Pyongyang is easily identifiable as the only light in North Korea.
A dimmly lit bulb.
Now, I’m hungry for Dim Sum...
“Pray for the people of NK to wake up and take their natural rights!”
On a few occasions, I’ve wondered what the people of North Korea would do if they really understood the levels of deprivation and oppression they’ve been subjected to.
At times, I’ve thought they’d rise up with a fury that no NK army or internal security could stop.
Other times, I think they’re so collectively stunted by the continual deprivation and oppression that they’re absolutely incapable of rising up.
I’ve wondered when a general would take one for the team!
An astronomer’s delight!
A couple of 500 pounders in the right places would change things drastically.
Problem is that it is likely that anyone who would replace Kim would be just as bad.
Watch as China Takes over and sets up a puppet to rule. Poor Korea—if its not the Japanese its the Chinese. They will set things right—if nothing else to keep hungry North Koreans from sneaking over the border into China.
North Korea is very “green”. They don’t waste energy there!
Maybe they’re just trying to prevent themselves from getting Ebola - would be funny if they’re the only country left standing...
In-N-Out Burger drive thrus shut down too?
But, they DO waste bullets.
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