"Members of North Korea’s ruling class might also recognize that, at least for now, they have no choice but to accept the succession.... during the new leader’s first few years, North Korea would most likely avoid confrontation"
Then PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME why the AmeriKan War Media is giving an entirely different impression!
"North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dead at age 69" December 19, 2011
Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic longtime leader, has died of heart failure. He was 69.
Related: North Korean Bed Check
Been over a year.
In a “special broadcast’’ Monday from the North Korean capital, state media said Kim died of a heart ailment on a train due to a “great mental and physical strain’’ on Dec. 17 during a “high intensity field inspection.’’ It said an autopsy was done on Dec. 18 and “fully confirmed’’ the diagnosis.
Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008, but he had appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media. The communist country’s “Dear Leader’’ — reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine — was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.
“It is the biggest loss for the party … and it is our people and nation’s biggest sadness,’’ an anchorwoman clad in black Korean traditional dress said in a voice choked with tears. She said the nation must “change our sadness to strength and overcome our difficulties.’’
South Korean media, including Yonhap news agency, said South Korea put its military on “high alert’’ and President Lee Myung-bak convened a national security council meeting after the news of Kim’s death. Officials couldn’t immediately confirm the reports.
The news came as North Korea prepared for a hereditary succession. Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.
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Related:
"a “tyrant’’ who starved his people so he could build nuclear weapons"
In other words, he is just like the crop of AmeriKan presidents he outlasted until now.
"Kim succession raises fears; Power struggle may take place in North Korea" by Martin Fackler New York Times / December 20, 2011
The abrupt death of Kim Jong Il, the hermetic North Korea leader, threw the rest of Asia into deep anxiety Monday and reverberated across the Pacific, as friends and enemies of the nuclear-armed country fretted over whether it was now facing an unpredictable power struggle.
The official North Korean press proclaimed that Kim’s cherubic-faced youngest son was his successor. But the son, Kim Jong Un, is such an unknown that the world did not even know what he looked like until last year.
--NOMORE--"
Believed to be in his 20s, he faces enormous uncertainty over his ability to retain power in one of the most opaque and repressive nations — the last bastion of hard-line Communism. Even if he can, questions loom about Kim Jong-un’s ability to manage North Korea’s ravaged economy, with its chronic shortages and deprivations, to avoid a complete collapse.
“Kim Jong-un’s first priority will be regime survival,” said Chang Yong-seok, senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University in South Korea....
The leaders of South Korea, Japan and the United States all conferred urgently, reflecting both the surprise of Mr. Kim’s death and the possibility of belligerent behavior from paranoid Pyongyang officials.
?????????????????
That won't help the regime survive, and I'm sure the kid knows that.
In Washington, the Obama administration, emphasizing the need for stability on the Korean Peninsula, delayed any decisions on the resumption of food aid or a new round of bilateral talks with the North Koreans....
Related:
"With little arable land and outdated agricultural practices, North Korea has long struggled to feed its people. Flooding and a harsh winter further destroyed crops."
But since North Korea is an enemy and their suffering would humanize them we rarely see items on these issues in the war paper.
And what is with this harsh winter s*** in the era of global warming?
For now, the reclusive leadership is offering few clues as to what, if any, changes the death of the dictator could bring. It did, however, send a strong signal that at least for now, the powerful military and other parts of the nation’s small, privileged ruling elite would go along with the Kim family’s ambitions to extend its rule to a third generation....
The younger Mr. Kim was named head of the committee overseeing his father’s funeral, set for Dec. 28 — a move that some analysts interpreted as evidence that the transfer of power to the son was proceeding smoothly so far. Analysts said they expected the funeral to be an elaborate public display, not only of reverence for the deceased leader, but also of national unity behind the new one.
Readers, do I need even type it?
Some analysts said Kim Jong-il had used the three years after his stroke in 2008 to build support for this untested son. They also said that members of North Korea’s ruling class might also recognize that, at least for now, they have no choice but to accept the succession: Mr. Kim’s two older sons are seen as lazy playboys, while any move to reject the family could undermine the legitimacy of the entire leadership.
“Kim Jong-il used the years after his stroke to build a consensus among the elite that his son would be the face of North Korea after he was gone,” said Kim Yeon-su, a professor of North Korean studies at the National Defense University in Seoul.
He added that this was an easy face to sell: with plump cheeks, short-cropped hair and a hard gaze, Kim Jong-un looks strikingly similar to his grandfather Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea, still revered as a god.
Masao Okonogi, a specialist on North Korea at Keio University in Tokyo, said that during the new leader’s first few years, North Korea would most likely avoid confrontation with the United States and its allies, like South Korea. That was the route taken by Kim Jong-il after his father’s death, said Mr. Okonogi.
Some analysts said the new leader would probably use this time to try to fulfill his father’s promise to turn North Korea into a “strong and prosperous” country by 2012. To do that, he must revive a moribund economy that ranks near the bottom of the world in many measures....
Which means he won't be looking to start any wars.
--more--"
"N. Koreans bewail death of ‘dear leader’; US, South on alert as nuclear nation makes transition" by Rafael Wober Associated Press / December 20, 2011
North Koreans marched by the thousands Monday to their capital’s landmarks to mourn Kim Jong Il, many crying uncontrollably and flailing their arms in grief over the death of their “Dear Leader.’’
North Korean state media proclaimed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, a “Great Successor,’’ while a vigilant world watched for any signs of a turbulent transition to the untested leader in an unpredictable nation known to be pursuing nuclear weapons.
Have YOU HAD ENOUGH, readers?
--NOMORE--"
This does suck.
South Korea's military went on high alert in the face of the North's 1.2 million-strong armed forces following news of Kim's death after 17 years in power. North Korea said Kim died of a heart attack on Saturday while carrying out official duties on a train trip. President Barack Obama agreed by phone with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to closely monitor developments.
On the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, people wailed in grief, some kneeling on the ground or bowing repeatedly. Children and adults laid flowers at key memorials.
A tearful Kim Yong Ho said Kim Jong Il had made people's lives happier. "That is what he was doing when he died: working, traveling on a train," he said.
Other North Koreans walked past a giant painting of Kim Jong Il and his late father, national founder Kim Il Sung, standing together on Mount Paektu, Kim Jong Il's official birthplace. Wreaths were neatly placed below the painting.
"How could the heavens be so cruel? Please come back, general. We cannot believe you're gone," Hong Son Ok shouted, her body shaking wildly during an interview with North Korea's official television.
A foreigner who teaches at a university in Pyongyang told The Associated Press that students told about Kim's death looked very serious but didn't show any outward emotion.
"There was a blanket of silence," said the teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of worries about his security. "People were going about their business. Lots of people were lining up to lay flowers at official portraits. People looked a little stunned and very serious, but composed and respectful."
**************************
The death could set back efforts by the United States and others to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, because the untested successor may seek to avoid any perceived weakness as he moves to consolidate control.
BEWARE of the FALSE FLAG, new North Korean leader.
"The situation could become extremely volatile. What the North Korean military does in the next 24-48 hours will be decisive," said Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has made several high-profile visits to North Korea.
Then everything is okay.
The Obama administration called Monday for a peaceful and stable leadership transition in North Korea.
BEWARE of the FALSE FLAG, new North Korean leader.
"The situation could become extremely volatile. What the North Korean military does in the next 24-48 hours will be decisive," said Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has made several high-profile visits to North Korea.
Then everything is okay.
The Obama administration called Monday for a peaceful and stable leadership transition in North Korea.
Well, YOU GOT ONE, 'kay? ]
The United States is still looking for better relations with the North Korean people despite the "evolving situation" there, said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton....
What "evolving" situation?
--source--"
"China moves to ensure stability, deepen influence" by Edward Wong New York Times / December 20, 2011
After the death of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, China is moving quickly to deepen its influence over senior officials in North Korea and particularly with those in the military to try to ensure stability in the isolated nation.
China is North Korea’s foremost ally, and leaders here had been hoping Kim would live for at least another two or three years to solidify the succession process that he had begun with his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.
--NOMORE--"
Uncertainty now looms, not only over whether the younger Kim can consolidate his power in the face of competing elite factions,
And then the REWRITING BEGAN!!!!
but also over whether the elder Kim’s economic initiatives will continue, which had included several visits to China to study it as a model for possible economic reforms....
China’s highest priority is one shared far more broadly: guarding against a rise in tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula. That is a distinct possibility if North Korean generals try to reinforce their hold on power through aggression toward South Korea....
No, that is USrael's bag!
The worries among some Chinese were evident. “The death significantly enhances uncertainty on the peninsula,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. “In my personal view, the succession is very hastily arranged, and Kim Jong-un is very ill prepared to take over.”
************
On Monday, as anxieties over North Korea’s path bubbled to the surface in Beijing, so did signs of mourning....
One resident of Beijing with ties to North Korea said telephone operators in Pyongyang were crying when he got through to a call center there....
--source--"
So what about the new guy?
"From little-known son to ‘great successor’" by Jean H. Lee Associated Press / December 20, 2011
PYONGYANG, North Korea - With the sudden death of his father, Kim Jong Un went from being North Korea’s “respected general’’ to “great successor’’ - a heady and uncertain promotion for a young man virtually unknown even to the North Korean people just a year ago.
--NOMORE--"
Why am I even bothering with the Boston Globe anymore?
Kim Jong Il's death, announced Monday two days after he suffered a fatal heart attack, thrusts his 20-something son in the spotlight as the future head of a nation grappling with difficult nuclear negotiations and chronic food shortages....
Stocky and youthful, he bears more than a passing resemblance to his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, as a young man — a similarity that plays into the emphasis on lineage and legacy as just cause to make him leader.
He began appearing with his father at state events and reportedly ran the country when Kim traveled to Russia and China, and is credited at home with orchestrating a deadly November 2010 artillery attack on a front-line South Korean island that nearly brought the foes to the brink of another war.
Kim Jong Il's leadership was defined by his "songun" policy of putting the powerful military first.
U.S. has the same policy.
Kim Jong Un's formal ascension will usher in a new era of leadership — but it remains to be seen what direction he will take the nation of 24 million people.
"It is impossible to say with certainty what his era will look like. Trying to anticipate the near future is tough enough," said Andray Abrahamian, executive director of the Choson Exchange, a Singapore-based nonprofit group that facilitates educational exchange with North Korea. "We expect greater caution and less willingness to try new things in the near term, making our programs more difficult to run. Things look like they're locking down already."
--MORE--"
That is the website of the local regional paper, dear readers.
"North Korea: A death, and an opportunity, December 20, 2011
There is a chance that Kim Jong Il's heir — his third son, Kim Jong Un — could turn out to be more Western-leaning than his father. He spent two years at a Swiss boarding school, speaks English and German, and harbors a passion for American basketball stars, including Michael Jordan. Unlike most North Koreans, he has lived, at least for a time, in a place where starvation is not a way of life.
But US officials should not spend too much time on the overture. The reclusive communist regime is notorious for conducting bellicose nuclear and missile tests and then demanding aid in exchange for promises to disarm. It’s an elaborate form of blackmail, and there is no evidence yet that the untested Kim Jong Un — believed to be about 27 years old — will behave differently. In the short term, he is almost sure to take his cues from the North Korean military.
But in the long run, the transition to a new leadership gives a small chance for a new beginning....
--more--"
"The power brokers behind North Korea’s next leader" December 20, 2011|Jean H. Lee and Matthew Pennington, Associated Press
North Korea’s young and inexperienced next leader will lean on a seasoned inner circle headed by his aunt and uncle to guide him through the transition to supreme ruler.
Kim Jong Un, who vaulted into the leadership role with the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, made his public debut as anointed successor only 15 months ago. Since then, the whirlwind political campaign has barreled ahead — but perhaps not fast enough to mask the air of uncertainty felt in the streets of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
The late Kim Jong Il had 20 years of preparation at the side of his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994. Experts say that because Kim Jong Un doesn’t have that kind of experience, the youngest member of the political dynasty will need the brains and political brawn of his father’s closest confidants before formally taking power.
“Kim Jong Il was in a frantic race against time,’’ said Jonathan Pollack, a North Korea expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, “and he lost.’’
Analysts say two close, trusted family members and political power brokers have emerged as Kim Jong Un’s main protectors: paternal aunt Kim Kyong Hui and her husband, Jang Song Thaek, who have risen to the top of North Korea’s political and military elite since the succession campaign began two years ago.
Both 65, they also have the weight of seniority so important in a society that places a premium on age and alliances....
--more--"
"Son, country publicly mourn North Korean ruler; Worries over power struggle with rivals ease" by Associated Press / December 21, 2011
North Korea’s anointed heir Kim Jong Un led a solemn procession of mourners Tuesday to the glass coffin of his father and longtime ruler - a strong indication that a smooth leadership transition was under way in the country known for secrecy and unpredictability.
Weeping members of North Korea’s elite filed past the body of Kim Jong Il, which was draped in red cloth and surrounded by stony-faced honor guards and dozens of red and white flowers.
--NOMORE--"
State media fed a budding personality cult around his youngest known son, hailing him as a "lighthouse of hope" as the country was awash in a "sea of tears and grief."
That's another thing I'm sick of: insulting, pot-hollering-kettle AmeriKan media.
In a dreamlike scene captured by Associated Press Television News, Kim's coffin appeared to float on a raft of "kimjongilia" — the flowers named after him — with his head and shoulders bathed in a spotlight as solemn music played. Various medals and honors were displayed at his feet.
That's the way I feel reading a Boston Globe -- except it is a nightmare.
The bier was located in a hall of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, a mausoleum where the embalmed body of Kim Jong Il's father and North Korean founder Kim Il Sung has been on view in a glass sarcophagus since his death in 1994.
Kim Jong Il's son and heir, Kim Jong Un, who is believed to be 27, wore a black Mao-style suit, his hair cropped closely on the sides but longer on top, as he walked with much older officials in suits and military uniforms.
Stepping away from the group, Kim Jong Un bowed deeply, his expression serious, before circling the bier with other officials.
The announcement Monday of Kim's death over the weekend raised acute worries in the region over the possibility of a power struggle between the untested son and rivals in an impoverished and reclusive country with a nuclear program. But there have been no signs of unrest or discord in Pyongyang.
Really, what more is left to type?
With the country in an 11-day period of official mourning, flags were at half-staff at all military units, factories, businesses, farms and public buildings. The streets of Pyongyang were quiet, but throngs gathered at landmarks honoring Kim....
Since Kim's death, the media stepped up their lavish praise of the son, indicating an effort to strengthen a cult of personality around him similar to that of his father and — much more strongly — of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung.
The Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday described Kim Jong Un as "a great person born of heaven," a propaganda term previously used only for his father and grandfather.
Yeah, good thing the AmeriKan media never engages in that (as blog editor rolls his eyes).
Concerns remain, however, over the transition. South Korea put its military on high alert and experts warned that the next few days could be a crucial turning point for the North, which though impoverished by economic mismanagement and repeated famine, has a relatively well-supported, 1.2 million-member armed forces.
South Korea offered sympathy to the North Korean people, but the government said no official delegation will be sent.
Kim's death could set back efforts by the United States and others to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Concerns are also high that the young and untested Kim Jong Un may feel he needs to prove himself by precipitating a crisis.
Un-flipping-real!!!!!
That would be the LAST THING he would want but CUI BONO, 'eh?
Absent from any mention by the state media were Kim Jong Il's other sons, Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Chol. Kim Jong Nam, the eldest, is widely believed to have fallen out of favor after embarrassing the government in 2001 by being caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland. He reportedly enjoys gambling and has lived in Macau....
That's where my printed Globe ended it.
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"After Kim's death, South Koreans fearful of North Korean provocation but longing for peace" Dec 20, 2011 | Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea - These two enemies have a shared history, a shared culture, and even families split on two sides of the world's most heavily militarized border.
"We are one nation, and I hope we achieve reunification," said Lee Ae-young, a 49-year-old professional photographer in Seoul. "I don't know why we are living like this, divided along the border."
I think I do.
Update (12/24/2011): More S. Koreans oppose unification
Yeah, whatever, Globe.
Seoul is only 120 miles from Pyongyang, but they are separated by bitter differences and a long history of bloodshed. The peninsula is still technically at war because the devastating 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, and for the past 17 years, Kim Jong Il has been an omnipresent, often threatening figure, for South Koreans. He took power in 1994 after spending 20 years preparing for leadership.
Kim Jong Un has had no such lengthy transition, and little is known of him, the policies he might set or even his exact age.
Despite their worries, South Koreans aren't panicking this week, as they did in the past. Many rushed to supermarkets to stock up on instant noodles and other provisions after Pyongyang abandoned an international nonproliferation treaty in 1993 and North Korea founder Kim Il Sung — Kim Jong Il's father — died of a heart attack the next year.
Since then, many South Koreans have grown accustomed to having a rival on their doorstep and have been lulled into a confidence that the skirmishes between the neighbours won't escalate into another war.
Even as the AmeriKan media sure is trying as hard as hell to start one!
--more--"
Related: South Korea nervous about two nations' future
The Globe should be worried about theirs with me.
Update:
"North Korea Portrays Son as Firmly in Charge" by CHOE SANG-HUN, December 21, 2011
I'm just wondering why this first paragraph was cut.
Tens of thousands of mourners packed Pyongyang's main square yesterday to pay respects to Kim Jong Il, even as heavy snow fell in the capital.
Must be the reference to snow; that would conflict with the whole man-made global-warming fart mist.
Analysts said the rush to establish the young Mr. Kim’s leadership, while the nation was grieving over his father’s death, was a signal of his vulnerability....
But his control over the hard-line People’s Army, whose influence has grown under his father’s songun, or “military first” policy, remains untested, and some fear he might use tensions to establish his leadership credentials.
Just wondering WHY WOULD the ARMY want the young man to do that?
So the nation can be DESTROYED?
The military was considered the most resistant to the idea of giving away the North’s nuclear weapons in return for outside aid.
If Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his 20s, is not able to consolidate power, he may become the figurehead of a collective leadership in which the military and an uncle, Jang Song-taek, 65, would emerge as power brokers....
Not like it is a big secret, but THAT IS HOW ALL SOCIETIES OPERATE -- including YOURS, 'murkn!!!
--more--"
Related: N. Korea moves to establish new leader
I should just stop buying, looking for, and linking the Boston Globe, folks. It's nothing but a waste of time now.
Memory Hole:
"Specialists like Siegfried S. Hecker at Stanford University, the first American nuclear scientist to see the plant in Yongbyon, now believe that its enrichment program may be more advanced than Iran’s....
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