“China got tired of this Kim, and finally organized the generals and others friendly to them to off the little punk.
The new ruling faction are rounding up the top Kim hold-overs now, and when they are done, they will announce he died.”
A definitely plausible theory. But my concern is that the new ruling faction won’t be much better than the old ruling faction.
I don’t think the new guys want to give up any of the great perks they’ve been getting. A lot of them look at the masses and must think “Geez, if these people ever figure out that we’ve been living high off the hog while they suffer and starve, they’ll freak out and off everyone of us in the worst possible way”.
China is tired of the Kim regime’s antics. DPRK’s nukes are a threat to China more than they are to Japan or the USA. Contrary to MSM beliefs, China does NOT care about refugees - they can put 500k soldiers on the border at will and keep even mice from crossing if needed. China also does not care about “humanitarian disaster” - that’s what DPRK has been the last 20 years or more.
They want controlled development. Have some generals take over. Purge the Kims and kill their lackeys. Keep firm control of politics and stay friendly to China. Keep events out of Japan or US control. Implement very gradual, basic reforms to increase food production and raise incomes (like China did 35 years ago). Let the new clique distribute access and profits. Slowly start to revise history along the lines of “Kims 1 & 2 were OK, but Kim 3 was a devil, so let’s all be thankful he is gone.”