A close confidant of Kim Jong-Il defects to America

Yonhap News via Chosun Ilbo ^ | 05/17/03 | N/A

[Steel Wolf]

"Recently defections of N. Korean high-ranking figures are suddenly on the rise.

Sounds like the PLAN is working,

This is far less 'master plan' than it is skillful opportunism. Rats want to leave a sinking ship, and the means to do so are being facilitated.

Were Bush of a different ideological makeup, the North Korean regime would not be in nearly so desperate a situation. As it is now, the life support plugs are being subtly cut, and everyone in the government knows that past a certain point, collapse is unavoidable. Now more than ever they are desperate to sell missiles, narcotics, and expertise to whoever will buy it, but the noose is silently tightening.

When our envoys meet, it is at our conveniece, when the DPRK reps make absurd claims and refuse to budge, we shrug, and move on. We don't have much time to deal with Kim, but he has far less to deal with us. We can run out the clock.

Kim is desperate for us to take the bait of his provocative acts, both political and military. He's scared, because he need more than money from us. He needs a threat. The mid level commanders and officials, the backbone of the regime, may be slipping in loyalty. Right now, all Kim can offer is starvation, poverty, and constant threats of death and prison.

After 50 years of living under a foriegn menace that has yet to set foot in North Korea, they may well believe that we're not coming. America as a boogieman may have been believable growing up, but the real monster they remember is starvation. If so, the entire political dynamic could be vulnerable to desperate men who will not stand to starved again.

By leaving North Korea in desperation, the few people there who have access to the real numbers can quickly tally the score, and see that their glorious revolution is imminently doomed. Bush won't offer real aid, or make a hard military move, or anything that would play into the hands of Kim. His aims appear simple and effective: Let North Korea fail by its own devices, and give them no means to further use us as a unifying threat.

[bert]

....I'll hope to post a short report on FR about it....

Several moderately long detailed reports would be preferred.

I mean, we love you man....lay it on us.

[Mister Baredog]

Were Bush of a different ideological makeup, the North Korean regime would not be in nearly so desperate a situation

I'll bet ole Kimmee misses Bubba and his idiot friend Jimmy Carter! Good analysis, they've done everything but actually poke a stick in BUSH"S eye, it ain't working, BWAAAAAA.

[section9]

Were Bush of a different ideological makeup, the North Korean regime would not be in nearly so desperate a situation. As it is now, the life support plugs are being subtly cut, and everyone in the government knows that past a certain point, collapse is unavoidable. Now more than ever they are desperate to sell missiles, narcotics, and expertise to whoever will buy it, but the noose is silently tightening.

It is my belief that we are in the middle of a joint CIA-KCIA operation. KCIA is like a law unto itself, especially under a leftist regime. They understood that Roh was talking out of his ass, and that Kim's regime was both unstable and dangerous. Therefore, sometime last year, probably in the wake of Roh's victory, they decided to go in on an active measures operation against the North Korean leadership class. In all probability, this was done in cooperation with the CIA and the White House.

You will notice the lack of alarm bells going off at the White House about this? Methinks this is because we have more insided information than is generally acknowledged. We know that Kim is in desperate straits.

This series of defections is designed to make the Chia Pet even more paranoid and untrusting than he already is. When he starts shooting officers, you'll know that we're near the end of the road. Eventually, the Army will move against him, but only when there are enough members of the Secret Police to cooperate in the plot in the hopes of winning a seat at the table after the coup.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[manic4organic]

LMAO

[Grampa Dave]

It would look like that Kil Jae-Gyung is not very afraid of the terrible long range missiles and all of those nuclear bombs on them, aimed for America that Chia Heads is bragging about.!

[FairOpinion]

Great Info! Thanks.

It's interesting it's not in the headline news.

After reading your translation, I searched Google news and found a couple of articles, one from the Washington Times, but it's not on the TV news or major news outlets. But when high level people are defecting from a regime, you know the end is near.

Here is the Washington Times article, giving more detail:

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030517-072527-8064r.htm

N. Korean aide reportedly defects to U.S.


By Jong-Heon Lee
UPI Correspondent


SEOUL, South Korea, May 17 (UPI) -- A high-level North Korean official engaged in raising secret funds for reclusive leader Kim Jong Il is hiding in the United States after requesting political asylum there, South Korean media reports said Saturday.

Kil Jae Gyong, 69, vice director of Kim's secretariat, sought asylum to avoid punishment for a failed drug trafficking attempt, South Korea's official Yonhap News Agency said, citing an unidentified diplomatic source in Seoul.

"Kil and two of his assistants have recently asked Washington to allow them political asylum and they are in a safehouse in the United States or a place controlled by the United States," the source was quoted as saying.

South Korean officials said they were contacting the U.S. government to confirm the defection, but would not elaborate.

Analysts here said Kil's defection and the information he may reveal could trigger tough U.S. measures to crack down on North Korea's narcotics trafficking, which earns hard currency for the communist regime. Kil, one of Kim's closest aides, is expected to give U.S. intelligence officials an unprecedented insight into the channels of North Korea's drug smuggling and counterfeiting of U.S. currency.

Kil has been involved in raising secret funds for Kim since the early 1990s, mainly through drug smuggling and making fake U.S. dollars, intelligence officials said. In 1976, as ambassador to Sweden, Kil was expelled on suspicion of drug trafficking. He was expelled from Russia in 1998 when he was caught trying to use counterfeit U.S. notes with a face value of $30,000.

Diplomatic sources said he decided to defect to the United States out of fear he would be punished for a failed drug trafficking attempt in Australia. A North Korean cargo ship with its crew of 26 have been held in Australia since April 20 on charges of smuggling 110 pounds of pure heroin worth $46 million.

The Australian government has said an official of the North Korean regime had been aboard the state-run freighter, Pong Su. It was not immediately clear whether the official was Kil, but diplomatic sources said he had masterminded the drug trafficking attempt.

Kil's defection came amid media reports that Kyong Won Ha, who has been described as the father of North Korea's nuclear program, has recently defected to the United States. Up to 20 North Korean nuclear scientists and military officers have also reportedly sought asylum.

A 45-year-old son of Yom Ki Su, a high-level official of the North's ruling Workers' Party in charge of personnel administration, also recently defected during an official trip to a third country, Yonhap said.

[CyberAnt]

All these defections can explain why Bush and Powell are so cool about N.K.

[Houmatt]

Does Kim Jong Il himself have any personal comments about this?

[Chong]

DO'H!

[Chong]

Very insightful posts, both of you.
Yep, I've been hoping that the evil NK regime would implode and looks like the fuse has been lit. Thank God.

[green team 1999]

good info,thanks, W must be doing something right,but we are not going to find out until later

[humblegunner]

When the ship was raided, he fear a punishment from Kim Jong-Il and decided to defect

Kim say: Not fear punishment, family already sent to camp.
Maladjusted defector most welcome coming back North Korea NOW.
Got one good job for him in People's ditch crew of North Korea, no benefits.

[struggle]

This situation is very interesting to watch. My wife echos the sentiments of the rest of Japan when she say she fears that sometime soon NK will shoot a nuke at Tokyo. She also would say that NK should have been taken care of before Iraq. I tell the girl to calm down. The fact of the matter is that Kim Jong Il is not Stalin or Hitler. At least Stalin and Hitler had people producing the raw materials that were then funneled each dictators inner circle. Furthermore, they had the power to believe they could conduct war and win it. Kim Jong has neither.

The funny thing is that all these aid shipments and such are drying up, and the drug smuggling is being cut down. Kim is losing the lifeline of dollars that he plugs into his inner group. I think someone is gonna put a bullet into his head before he shoots anyone.

[TigerLikesRooster]

RE #12

It is true. There were at least three different sources who confirmed it after the initial report from Australia. Norbert Vollertsen, the German human right activist, Michael Horowitz of Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., a Reuter article carried in NYT about military defectors from N. Korea. I believe all their accounts to come from the same operation.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #21

A good comment.

[TigerLikesRooster]

RE #24

The S. Korean intelligence agency has been sabotaged by the left-wing appointees. Many good operatives left or were placed in dead-end jobs. At least one of them escaped to America and has been spilling beans on the sorry shape of the intelligence agency.

However, it is possible that these former operatives are now working with U.S. intelligence to bring about the project like this, without the knowledge of their superiors or the former employer.

You brought about an interesting point which has not occured to me somehow. These disgruntled operatives may not have packed up and gone home. They found new jobs which they like.:)

[AmericanInTokyo]

"This series of defections is designed to make the Chia Pet even more paranoid and untrusting than he already is. When he starts shooting officers, you'll know that we're near the end of the road. Eventually, the Army will move against him, but only when there are enough members of the Secret Police to cooperate in the plot in the hopes of winning a seat at the table after the coup."

S8, you might detect or sense this current strain of 'Pyongyang Paranoia' manifest itself somewhat through the leaked internal DPRK documents/party advisories that I put up on FR in a post awhile ago, in addition to the "Chia Pet" (Kim Jong il) visits to various KPA units, what North Korean TV broadcasts/Rodong Shinmun are saying, etc. The North Korean Central Broadcasting TV dramas lately has taken great pains to show what happened in "valiant Korean revolutionary history in the past when sellouts cooperated with imperialist US and Japanese elements." Combined with increased vigilence throughout the party and secret police, and Kim going underground near Mt. Baektu for nearly 50 days during the bombing campaign on Iraq, this stuff is for real. I also believe a number of creative resources are in fact being pulled together as we speak: increased broadcasts into North Korea. Small radios being dropped. Balloon and flyer propaganda. Defections. Aerial/satellite surveillance. Seizure of DPRK ships. Kim must know that he is being closed in on. Our psywar is taking on some of the same dimensions of our psychologically-softening up Ba'athist Iraq in the 3-4 months prior to our military strike there.

Those abject scumbags Bill Clinton or Al Gore would continue to have done nothing, save send half-witted/half-brothers to bow before Kim Il Sung's idolatrous gold statue in Pyongyang (and get co-opted perhaps by female N.K. agents in the pretty but lethal "kipmujo" units invariably assigned to 'guide' him through DPRK), or have Mad Albright dance a shameless jig in the Worker's Stadium before a Nuremburg-like NK mass performance, and other such appeasing and naive nonsense.

Thank goodness the Reagan Doctrine adults--who know a little something about the methodology of bringing down Communist walls--are in charge and the people who are good at this trade and such matters have finally been given the green light and been unchained.

[AmericanInTokyo]

TigerLikesRooster, Steel Wolf, alerting you here.

[section9]

We enter interesting times. The Chicoms kept this clown around just long enough to put a monkey wrench into their ambitions.

The central thrust of Chinese grand strategy has been to dominate the Western Pacific both militarily and politically. This cannot be done is Japan is provoked into naval rearmament. The combination of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the Japanese Combined Fleet is a mountain that no Chinese leader can hope to climb.

The Chinese are not happy. If the Koreans keep going on like this, Japan's rearmament will be a foregone conclusion.

Be Seeing You,

Chris