Posted on 10/14/2012 9:35:44 PM PDT by Olog-hai
The larger-than-life portraits of Lenin and Karl Marx that once dominated Kim Il-sung Square have been removed, suggesting a change of direction within North Korea.
The NKNews web site, which monitors developments in the secretive state, has reported that the austere images of two of the founding fathers of communism were first taken down in the summer but have never been replaced.
Lenin and Marx had glared out over the square—used for military march-pasts and mass rallies in support of the regime—for decades, despite the Workers' Party of Korea revising its charter in 1980 to replace their concepts with those of Kim Il-sung. …
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Being temporarily relocated to Washington DC for Obama’s second coronation.
Temporarily? Not a chance! Permanently, or else link to the source of your interpretation.
Don’t worry. The statues of Lenin and Marx in Pyongyang will be replaced with bigger statues of Obama, Hillary and Holder.
Long live the real leaders of the Peoples Republic of America!
China is financing NK behind the scenes to create a one party capitalist state. Older Kim would not allow it, but the younger Kim will. He was educated overseas. Young Kim gets to solidify his power and increase social stability via economic reforms. Young Kim has nowhere to go. Russia is too poor and China is the only one with the money, unless he plans to surrender to SK/US. China is the lesser the evils of all his choices to keep NK stable and independent. China gets to finance it to expand cheap manufacturing, a stable military buffer zone and Chinese szerin state. It means no re-unification of the two Koreas. If China successfully transform Kim and NK to a one party capitalist system, NK will not collapse and fall into the hands of SK and US. Maybe one day if Russia gets its economic house in order, NK can approach her to counter Chinese control.
China is financing NK behind the scenes to create a one party capitalist state. Older Kim would not allow it, but the younger Kim will. He was educated overseas. Young Kim gets to solidify his power and increase social stability via economic reforms. Young Kim has nowhere to go. Russia is too poor and China is the only one with the money, unless he plans to surrender to SK/US. China is the lesser the evils of all his choices to keep NK stable and independent. China gets to finance it to expand cheap manufacturing, a stable military buffer zone and Chinese szerin state. It means no re-unification of the two Koreas. If China successfully transform Kim and NK to a one party capitalist system, NK will not collapse and fall into the hands of SK and US. Maybe one day if Russia gets its economic house in order, NK can approach her to counter Chinese control.
This makes sense. The ChiComs would probably want a Business-Socialist type of buffer state in North Korea. illegal Alien North Koreans are a major issue for the ChiComs, and probably do not have the resources or wherewithal to deport their DPRK illegals
Remember, this is the first NK regime that doesn’t have Kim Jong Il running the propaganda machine.
Looks like the transition to a monarchy is finally complete in North Korea.
China is the oldest civilization in the world. Despite continuing to call itself Communist, the way it actually functions looks a great deal more like pre-commie China than like anything Karl would recognize or approve of.
China was ruled by an educated elite of mandarins for more than 2000 years. In today’s China they have been replaced by the Party members.
In traditional China the mandarins tended to decay into spectacular corruption, and had to be reined in intermittently by an all-powerful emperor. China’s biggest advantage today is that for the first time in its history, business is not derided and despised.
Its biggest problem today is it has no emperor, and in all likelihood the Party mandarins will self-destruct the country. Also Party membership is co-opted, not chosen by competitive examination, which was the saving grace of the old system, since it allowed for new blood from outside the inner circle. Party membership in China is probably becoming more or less hereditary.
Similarly, Korea for more than 1000 years was ruled by hereditary god-kings. Looks like they’re back where they were in 1900. If this story is correct, they might be planning to try the Chinese model to get their economy moving.
"the new leaders pledged to adhere to 'Marx, Lenin, Mao' thought .. for 'a long time to come'"
China: Communist Party goes modern (Asia Times)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/DK16Ad02.html
But they still have a powerful control over businesses, even if privately owned.
True. But I wonder whether Chinese businessmen aren’t in some ways more free than American businessmen.
Another big difference between today’s China and its dynastic past is the absence of the eunuchs. Much of Chinese history revolves around the inherent conflict between the eunuchs, who had enormous influence on the emperors, and the mandarins. The eunuchs were almost invariably even more corrupt than the mandarins tended to be.
China has always had a strong tendency to break apart into regional states, as strong as its counter-tendency to reunite. As some regions become immensely more wealthy, they just might start resenting sending so much of that wealth back to the non-productive central government.
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