What the hell's going on with Kim Jong Il's kid? I haven't heard a WORD out of North Korea.
He's taken to Looking At Things (http://kimjongunlookingatthings.tumblr.com/), much in the way his father did (http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/).
He did go missing for 10 days, but then he turned up again. Apart from looking at things, there has been almost no word on his activities, or the political situation in North Korea. He seems content to let his senior advisors do all the work, allowing him to devote more of his time to Looking, but that could just be a cunning ruse. Given how little we know about him, almost anything is possible.
Quote from: Cain on July 05, 2012, 01:58:56 PM
He's taken to Looking At Things (http://kimjongunlookingatthings.tumblr.com/), much in the way his father did (http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/).
He did go missing for 10 days, but then he turned up again. Apart from looking at things, there has been almost no word on his activities, or the political situation in North Korea. He seems content to let his senior advisors do all the work, allowing him to devote more of his time to Looking, but that could just be a cunning ruse. Given how little we know about him, almost anything is possible.
My guess is that he's been made a figurehead, unless a number of generals, etc, have either retired or had convenient heart attacks. I do not know if this is the case, however.
That would be my suspicion as well. None of Kim's kids seemed all that suited to a life of the pursuit of power...one spends all his time gambling, the other playing videogames. Jong-un was the only one left.
However, there have been a lot more meetings than normal between the Chinese government and the Korean Workers Party. But maybe that is about the Chinese reassuring the North Koreans due to the change in leadership this year. In China. The Chinese approach to North Korea is "telling them to stop makes things worse...so we'll play nice, make them feel important and hope like hell they don't collapse or nuke someone in the meantime. Then, when South Korea takes over, we'll make out like bandits on mining contracts."
I haven't heard anything about a bunch of generals dropping dead, but, then, it's North Korea. Even South Korea has problems penetrating the country to find out what is going on. Apparently they sent a good couple of hundred spies across the border. North Korea sent back most of them, after the trials and executions.
Quote from: Cain on July 05, 2012, 02:11:20 PM
I haven't heard anything about a bunch of generals dropping dead, but, then, it's North Korea. Even South Korea has problems penetrating the country to find out what is going on. Apparently they sent a good couple of hundred spies across the border. North Korea sent back most of them, after the trials and executions.
Yeah, even back in the 80s, South Korean spies went in, but they never, ever came out. North Korea is simply too regimented for them to survive.