Free Republic

This must have taken from at least 100 yards away. I guess Chia Head does not look good in close-up On the other hand, his sister Kim Kyong-hee, now made a general, is prominently featured in the following photo. The woman at the center of the front row is Kim Kyong-hee.

/begin my translation N. Korea: Delay of Party Conference Until 28th, due to Sudden Respiratory Difficulty of Kim Jong-il -Kim Jong-il underwent emergency treatment in early morning of Sept. 8 after his anti-stroke medication caused side-effect, resulting in respiratory difficulty. - As it stands, the party conference would be shortened to a single day session instead of original schedule of 3 nights & 4 days. -The news of field guidance on Sept. 11/12 at Jagang Province was fabricated. According to a high level source on Sept. 20, it is certainly Kim Jong-il's health problem which delayed the party conference scheduled...

Diagnosing What Ails North Korea's Kim Jong Il Delay of Country's Congress Renews Question: Is Kim Jong Ill? By JOOHEE CHO SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 15, 2010 North Korea abruptly postponed today what was billed as the country's largest political convention in 30 years, renewing speculation that the secretive country's supreme leader Kim Jong Il may be too sick -- possibly with diabetes -- to dominate the convention. Experts have widely speculated that the meeting would be a way for Kim to promote his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as his heir apparent. But Good Friends, a welfare group based...

Lankov on the delay in the Worker’s Party conference /snip First, it is possible that the North Korean elite is far less united than it is usually assumed, so some factions are seriously unhappy about the likely choice of successor and/or expected composition of the new leadership /snip Second, the delay might reflect something more sinister – the growing inability of Kim Jong Il to pass reasonable judgments and make rational decisions, his tendency to follow impulses and emotions. Indeed, in the last two years of strange and seemingly irrational things began to happen in North Korea with alarming and...

Kim’s poor health sets back meet, says source September 14, 2010 A deterioration in the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has delayed a long-awaited Workers’ Party meeting in Pyongyang, a South Korean government official told the JoongAng Daily yesterday. But Kim is not ill enough for the meeting to be canceled altogether and it will be convened soon, said the official, who asked not to be identified. The communist leader’s health worsened after his unexpected visit to China last month, according to the source. Kim was expected any day to preside over a meeting of the Workers’ Party,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will address the annual conference of Britain's Conservative Party, the party said Sunday, citing the California governor's commitment to the environment - an issue the British opposition hopes to claim for its own. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has been attempting to reposition his party - once led by Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill - in the center, to the dismay of some of the Conservative faithful. But the party, which last won a general election 15 years ago, has seen an increase in support in some polls in Britain, where the government is dominated by Prime...

The four men vying to be Tory leader are preparing for the first knock-out vote by the parliamentary party. David Cameron, Ken Clarke, David Davis and Liam Fox face the ballot a day after being questioned individually by MPs at a hustings in the Commons. The man with fewest votes will drop out before Thursday's second ballot, after which the two winning candidates will be put forward to all party members. Mr Cameron is favourite but the other three men say they remain confident. Conservative MPs have from 1300 BST to 1700 BST to cast their secret ballot in a...