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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Kim Jong-Un</title>
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		<title>North Korea&#8217;s War on Sony</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/north-koreas-war-on-sony/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-koreas-war-on-sony</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2014 05:24:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Tapson]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cyberwar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247991</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why pop culture matters.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/north-korea-kim-jong-un.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247994" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/north-korea-kim-jong-un-450x338.jpg" alt="north-korea-kim-jong-un" width="292" height="219" /></a>If anyone still needs convincing that pop culture matters, that even the frivolous fluff can impact politics and world affairs, here is dramatic evidence: an otherwise unremarkable Hollywood comedy that hasn’t even been released yet has led to the crippling cyber-hacking of a major corporation, threats of 9/11-style terrorism against movie theaters and other targets including the White House, self-censorship by the entertainment industry, and increased tension between the U.S. and North Korea’s already unstable and belligerent Kim Jong Un, each of whom blames the other while a suspiciously quiet China watches from the sidelines. And the fiasco isn’t over yet.</p>
<p>For those who haven’t been following the story, it began in recent weeks when a hacker group calling itself Guardians of Peace cyber-attacked Hollywood’s Sony studios and released thousands of the production company’s private emails and other confidential information like employee Social Security numbers. It’s been devastating in a number of ways, including internal turmoil arising out of embarrassing emails that may end in the sacking of film chairman Amy Pascal – not to mention an estimated $100 million blow to Sony.</p>
<p>The instigation for the hacking seems to be an upcoming Sony comedy called <i>The Interview</i>, starring James Franco and Seth Rogan as talk show hosts who are coerced by the CIA into assassinating tyrant Kim Jong Un during a trip to North Korea to interview him. Kim was not amused by the concept; neither were many progressives who felt that a comedy about killing a head of state was in poor taste and that Sony brought the subsequent hacking upon itself (of course, these are the same people who thought that a 2006 <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-405644/George-Bush-assassination-film-wins-award.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">feature film about the assassination of George W. Bush</span></a> was just dandy). Class action lawsuits from Sony employees who were affected by the cyber attack are <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/new-lawsuit-claims-sony-s-758443"><span style="color: #0433ff;">gearing up</span></a>, claiming that “Sony knew it was reasonably foreseeable that producing a script about North Korea&#8217;s leader Kim Jong Un would cause a backlash.”</p>
<p>After an investigation, the FBI officially <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/12/17/us-government-saw-interview-approved-theaters-upping-security/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">declared</span></a> that North Korea was behind the hacking (while not necessarily originating from inside its borders), which Obama called an act not of war, but of vandalism; he promised a “proportional response.” The totalitarian state took great umbrage at the accusation; it not only denied the attack, it generously offered to help the U.S. ferret out the real culprit, much like O.J. Simpson offered to help find his wife’s killer. The North Korean news media even <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=b6wwvb9f5be98f2b840829a0785b152ed84b9#bookmark="><span style="color: #0433ff;">accused</span></a> the U.S. of “gangster-like behavior” and claimed to have evidence that our government itself was deeply involved in the production of <i>The Interview</i>. “Toughest counteraction will be taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole US mainland, the cesspool of terrorism,” threatened a statement from North Korea.</p>
<p>The Guardians of Peace followed up the cyber-attack by issuing a threat of possible terrorist activity against any theaters that dared screen <i>The Interview</i>. “The world will be full of fear,” read their English-challenged message:</p>
<blockquote><p>We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to. Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made…</p>
<p>Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment. All the world will denounce the SONY.</p></blockquote>
<p>The Department of Homeland Security <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-hack-no-evidence-active-758460"><span style="color: #0433ff;">said</span></a> that there was “no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States.” But stars Seth Rogan and James Franco <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/seth-rogen-and-james-franco-cancel-all-media-appearances-for-the-interview-1201380917/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">cancelled</span></a> all media appearances in the wake of the controversy. Most theater chains <a href="http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/18/theater-chains-opting-not-to-show-the-interview"><span style="color: #0433ff;">opted</span></a> not to show the film, and then Sony <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/sony-has-no-further-release-plans-for-the-interview-1201382167/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">decided</span></a> against releasing <i>The Interview</i> at all in any form — including VOD or DVD.</p>
<p>(This wasn’t the only film shut down by the recent North Korean displeasure. Shooting of actor Steve Carell’s thriller <i>Pyongyang</i>, about a Westerner in North Korea who is accused of espionage, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steve-carells-north-korea-thriller-758901"><span style="color: #0433ff;">has been cancelled</span></a> as well.)</p>
<p>President Obama threw Sony under the bus, claiming that they should have called him first rather than set a bad precedent by backing down to North Korea. (This is the same President whose administration blamed the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi on an unknown YouTube trailer for an utterly incompetent movie about the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Hillary Clinton <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/25/father-of-seal-killed-in-benghazi-hillary-told-me-we-will-make-sure-that-the-person-who-made-that-film-is-arrested-and-prosecuted/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">told</span></a> the father of one of the Benghazi victims, “We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”) Sony responded by claiming that it <i>did</i> contact the White House first.</p>
<p>Regardless, human rights activists <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-hack-activists-drop-interview-758529?facebook_20141216"><span style="color: #0433ff;">are planning</span></a> to airlift DVDs of <i>The Interview</i> into Kim country via hydrogen balloons. Fighters for a Free North Korea, run by a former government propagandist who escaped to South Korea, has for years used balloons to get transistor radios, DVDs and other items into North Korea in order to open up the outside world to the news-deprived masses. Thor Halvorssen’s Human Rights Foundation in New York has been helping to finance the balloon drops, and will add DVD copies of <i>The Interview </i>as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Halvorssen says that Hollywood is largely unaware that its movies and TV shows are being used so effectively in this manner. The past dozen or so drops, for example, have included copies of <i>Braveheart</i>, <i>Battlestar Galactica </i>and <i>Desperate Housewives</i>. “Viewing any one of these is a subversive act that could get you executed,” Halvorssen says, “and North Koreans know this, given the public nature of the punishments meted out to those who dare watch entertainment from abroad.” [<a href="http://acculturated.com/freedom-and-the-power-of-pop-culture/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">I have written elsewhere</span></a> about these risks that the freedom-starved North Koreans undertake just to watch a contraband film] “<i>The Interview</i> is tremendously threatening to the Kims,” Halvorssen continues. “They cannot abide by anything that portrays them as anything other than a god. This movie destroys the narrative” – much like the satirical 2004 film <i>Team America: World Police</i> famously lampooned Kim Jong Un’s monstrous father.</p>
<p>While our tabloid news media seem obsessed with the more inconsequential and gossipy aspects of this affair – like the emails in which Sony executives disparage Angelina Jolie’s talent and make racial jokes at Obama’s expense – there are serious ramifications of the cyber-hacking mystery. The entertainment industry as a whole, for example, failed to show a quick and united resistance to the threats of a foreign tyrant. But more significantly, the Guardians of Peace exposed America’s vulnerability to the warfare of the future – cyberwar.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss Shillman Journalism Fellow <strong>Mark Tapson</strong> on the <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> discussing<strong> Fighting the Culture War</strong>:</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/v5gR4E5UPB8" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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		<item>
		<title>While North Koreans Starve, Kim Jong Un Gets Fat</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/while-north-koreans-starve-kim-jong-un-gets-fat/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=while-north-koreans-starve-kim-jong-un-gets-fat</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/while-north-koreans-starve-kim-jong-un-gets-fat/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2014 15:24:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michelle Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=241438</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Maybe we can send Michelle Obama over ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ni-july6-p.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-241440" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ni-july6-p-450x256.jpg" alt="North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visits the Kaeson Bread Restaurant in the Kaeson Youth Park Funfair in this undated picture released by the North's official KCNA news agency in Pyongyang" width="450" height="256" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/544020-120402-nkorea.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-241441" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/544020-120402-nkorea-450x253.jpg" alt="544020-120402-nkorea" width="450" height="253" /></a></p>
<p>In the camps, North Korean families starve. And <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/05/the-cannibals-of-north-korea/">during the worst of the famines</a>, it wasn&#8217;t just in the camps.</p>
<blockquote><p>There were times and places in North Korea in the mid-1990s, as a great famine wiped out perhaps 10 percent of the population, that children feared to sleep in the open.</p>
<p>North Korea&#8217;s famine is over, but the stories of desperate men and women, driven so insane by starvation that they consume their own children, have resurfaced. Last week, Asia Press published a report alleging that thousands recently died of starvation in a North Korean province, a trend that is sometimes called a micro-famine. The story was sourced to Rimjingang, a collection of underground North Korean journalists whose work is generally considered reputable. According to Rimjingang&#8217;s sources, the famine, like others before it, had led to cannibalism. One man, they said, had been arrested and executed for killing and eating his children.</p></blockquote>
<p>But as always<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/opinion/pyongyangs-hunger-games.html"> the elites of the left live well</a>, while they starve their own people.</p>
<blockquote><p>$645,800,000. That is what the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is said to have squandered in 2012 on “luxury goods,” including cosmetics, handbags, leather products, watches, electronics, cars and top-shelf alcohol. In that same year, Mr. Kim also spent $1.3 billion on his ballistic missile programs.</p>
<p>$150 million. That is what the United Nations World Food Program asked donor nations to give for food and other humanitarian aid for North Koreans in 2013.</p></blockquote>
<p>And Kim Jong-un <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2760492/Is-Kim-Jong-ill-North-Korean-dictator-poor-health-weight-ballooned-thanks-obsession-cheese.html">faces a serious health problem</a>. Obesity.</p>
<blockquote><p>Kim Jong-un is putting his health at serious risk due to his dangerously high consumption of Emmental cheese, it has been claimed.</p>
<p>The 31-year-old North Korean leader got a taste for the cheese while a student in Switzerland &#8211; and is understood to love it so much that he imports vast quantities despite Western sanctions.</p>
<p>A unhealthy appetite for Emmental, also known as Swiss cheese, is believed to be a key factor in Kim&#8217;s weight ballooning so in recent months that he now walks with a limp.</p></blockquote>
<p>Maybe we can send Michelle Obama over for a little bout of &#8220;Let&#8217;s move.&#8221;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>Kim Klux Klan</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/lloyd-billingsley/kim-klux-klan/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kim-klux-klan</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/lloyd-billingsley/kim-klux-klan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 May 2014 04:25:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lloyd Billingsley]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Black]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marx]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marxism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Racism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=225515</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Racist smear of President Barack Obama is vintage Marxism.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/236712_5_.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-225516" alt="236712_5_" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/236712_5_.jpg" width="310" height="233" /></a>“It would be perfect for Obama to live with a group of monkeys in the world’s largest African natural zoo and lick the breadcrumbs thrown by spectators.” Barack Obama “still has the figure of a monkey while the human race has evolved through millions of years.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That may sound like a memo from the Ku Klux Klan but was actually part of a May 2 diatribe from North Korea. The Communist regime in Pyongyang also called Obama a “clown,” a “dirty fellow” and somebody who “does not even have the basic appearances of a human being.” Further, “He is a crossbreed with unclear blood,” and a separate article called Obama a “wicked black monkey.” The White House called the racist screed “particularly ugly and disrespectful” and the media response proved of interest.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Reporters did not compare it with other aspects of North Korea, easily the vilest and most repressive regime on earth and a slave state. </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" title="" href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/lloyd-billingsley/north-korea-campout/" target="_blank">As a recent book shows</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, the Communist regime maintains a network of forced labor camps and aims to eliminate the “seed” of class enemies through three generations. Rather, the preferred comparison was the United States. </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" title="" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korean-screed-against-obama-illustrates-race-based-worldview/2014/05/08/9bc7a68f-7b71-4110-b4f1-85ae05c92777_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post, for example,</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> said the North Koreans were “pulling language right out of the American 1850s.” That was more than 150 years ago, before the Civil War. Reporters could have found more recent examples from the true inspiration of North Korea, none other than Karl Marx himself.</span></p>
<p>As Thomas Sowell noted in Marxism: Philosophy and Economics, Marx called German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle, a “Jewish ni***r,” based on his “cranial formation” and hair growth. His paternal grandmother or mother, Marx said, was “crossed with a ni***r” and “the fellow’s importunity is also ni***r-like.”</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That business about “cranial formation” derives from Marx’s passion for phrenology, pseudoscientific quackery that extrapolates character from the shape of the head. The ever-superstitious Marx insisted on subjecting all new adherents to a phrenological examination, with particular attention to any bumps. In the cranial test one can hear echoes of the North Korean contention that Barack Obama lacks “the basic appearances of a human being.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">One doesn’t hear much about Marx’s phrenology, nor about the racism and anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, denied by Stalinists like Paul Robeson but described in great detail by Robert Robinson in Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union. Russians referred to Patrice Lumumba University (now renamed People’s Friendship University of Russia) as a “monkey zoo” and Robinson found Soviet racism blatant and pervasive. He escaped and wrote an anticommunist classic that journalists have avoided and which the President of the United States has doubtless never read, if he knows about it at all.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Ugly and disrespectful as it was, North Korea’s racist attack on Barack Obama elicited less comment than the Donald Sterling episode. The longtime owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers was overheard saying he didn’t want his mistress to associate with black people nor to bring black people to his games. President Obama called the comments “incredibly offensive,” and the story took over the media, with NBA boss Adam Silver banning Sterling from the league for life.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Nobody should look for an NBA franchise in Pyongyang but the issues with that regime go to the heart of what the left is. The socialist vanguard somehow escapes the conditioning and false consciousness that afflict the masses. Then in power, the vanguard is supposed to be immune from normal human passions, along with bigotry, racism and hatred. The vanguard of course, retains all that, which empowers repression, persecution, ethnic cleansing and mass murder campaigns. Those have been the hallmark Marxist totalitarian states from Stalin’s USSR to Pol Pot’s Cambodia, to the North Korea of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong-un.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That vile Communist regime calls the President of the United States a “wicked black monkey” who belongs in a zoo and lacks the basic appearance of a human being. Despite a response from the White House, the episode draws less media attention than Donald Sterling. And the default media response is to compare North Korea’s racist attack on Barack Obama with America in the 1850s.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is what happens when journalists tacitly accept socialist superstition and remain ignorant of the actual record of Communist states. In its racist attack on president Obama, North Korea is simply being true to their Marxist roots.</span></p>
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		<title>Empire of Madness: Caligula in Pyongyang</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/empire-of-madness-caligula-in-pyongyang/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=empire-of-madness-caligula-in-pyongyang</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/empire-of-madness-caligula-in-pyongyang/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Dec 2013 05:48:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Vladimir Tismaneanu]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jang Song-thaek]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[purge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stalin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=213341</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The North Korean nomenklatura braces itself; no one is safe.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/lp.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-213351" alt="lp" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/lp-450x281.jpg" width="315" height="197" /></a>North Korea is Stalin&#8217;s ultimate dream come true. It is a most dangerous actor in world politics and a despicable tyranny where reason and moderation are treated as mortal enemies. Blind obedience is mandatory and so is infinite subservience to the Supreme Leader, the administrator of truth, memory, and universal poverty. It is the most hermetic regime in the world, an armed-to-the-teeth totalitarian despotism whose possession of  nuclear weapons  gives nightmares to all those who know how the Kim dynasty and its sycophants operate. It is, in fact, as the recent bloody purges made clearer than ever, a huge concentration camp run by a lunatic commander.</p>
<p>The mysterious, baby-faced monster Kim Jong-un has unleashed a Stalin-style onslaught on his own acolytes. It is like a re-enactment of the Soviet Great Purge when Stalin got rid of the whole Bolshevik Old Guard. It is not an exaggeration to predict more bloodshed to follow. No doubt the North Korean nomenklatura is now frightened and  humiliated. No one is safe in this universe of paranoid delusions and rampant suspicions.</p>
<p>The propaganda machine indulges in hysterical harangues against the alleged traitors, despicable vermin, &#8220;repugnant human scum,&#8221; &#8220;nauseating reptiles&#8221; and other surreal zoological metaphors. Until recently the regime&#8217;s number two, lionized as a wise advisor to the satrap, Kim Jong-un&#8217;s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, was killed after having been swamped into an ocean of  morbid accusations. Is this the abysmal end or the frightening beginning of young Kim&#8217;s absolute rule?</p>
<p>As Nicholas Eberstadt has pointed out, Kim Jong-un&#8217;s grandfather and father avoided dealing mortal blows to the members of the highest communist aristocracy. They practiced a dynastic communism that blended nationalist mysticism with ferocious Stalinism. The Juche doctrine means the right of the communist Lidero Maximo to act as arbitrarily and erratically as he wishes. Initially, the enigmatic &#8220;Dear Leader,&#8221; a latter-day Caligula with a Swiss high-school background and the face of a hieratic, opaque deity, seemed to be just a puppet manipulated by his ostensibly omnipotent aunt and uncle. He has finally escaped their suffocating grip, or at least this seems to be his conviction. He acts ruthlessly and in perfect cold blood. Will he continue the carnage or will he be himself liquidated by an equally brutal backlash from those whom he wants to eliminate? Will this grotesque farce culminate in a settling of accounts that could somehow restore a minimal rationality in this empire of madness? What card will China play?</p>
<p>When Kim Jong-un was ritualistically anointed his father&#8217;s successor two years ago, and the world media were disseminating those mind-boggling images with teenagers hitting their heads and old ladies screaming as loud as possible their desperation, I predicted that the struggle for power would exacerbate to the point of assassinations and show trials. What is at stake is absolute power within an absolutist regime, a red monarchy if ever one was. For the time being, the &#8220;beloved aunt&#8221; and estranged wife of the executed &#8220;traitor,&#8221; has managed to survive. It is not sure at all that the vindictive Kim Jong-un will spare her. The logic of  unbound Stalinism is an ever-growing, endless purge. Still, it is hard to know whether in the dark corridors of the North Korean pyramid of power some of the alleged loyalists are not sharpening their daggers. This is not Hamlet in Pyongyang, but rather Richard III or Caligula.</p>
<p>I have written a lot on national Stalinism and dynastic communism in Romania, North Korea, and Cuba. There are striking similarities between Nicolae Ceausescu&#8217;s and Kim Il-sung&#8217;s experiments. In 1986 I published in the journal &#8220;Orbis&#8221; a study titled “Byzantine Rites, Stalinist Follies: The Twilight of  Dynastic Socialism in Romania.”  I explored the wedding between unbound Stalinism and nationalist delirium, the mixing of autarchic narcissism and ideological paranoia, the relations between party elite, secret police and army within a decrepit dictatorship.  I am tempted to write now an article titled  “Confucian Rites, Stalinist Follies: The Twilight of  Dynastic Communism in North Korea.” Ideological dictatorships, also known as ideocracies or logocracies, cultivate miracle, myth, and mystery (a point made by historian Fritz Stern).</p>
<p>In the case of North Korea, the miracle and the myth are totally exhausted. The mystery remains and this is most alarming.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>A New Reign of Terror in North Korea</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/a-new-reign-of-terror-in-north-korea/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-new-reign-of-terror-in-north-korea</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/a-new-reign-of-terror-in-north-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Dec 2013 05:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[executed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncle]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=213128</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the regime may be on the verge of collapse -- and how global terrorists may benefit. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/south_korea_koreas_kim_s_uncle1.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-213129" alt="south_korea_koreas_kim_s_uncle1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/south_korea_koreas_kim_s_uncle1-450x337.jpg" width="315" height="236" /></a>The North Korean regime <a title="" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/north-korea-kim-jong-un-uncle-executed-101104.html?hp=r6" target="_blank">announced</a> the execution of its second-in-command yesterday; the latest casualty in a far-reaching purge by Kim Jong-Un. The rift may increase the chances that the world’s largest exporter of WMDs and persecutor of Christians will collapse, but that scenario opens up dangers of its own.</p>
<p>The excellent <a title="" href="http://freekorea.us/" target="_blank">One Free Korea blog</a> says that the execution of Jang Song-Thaek is “immensely important” as he was widely seen as the man pulling the strings from behind the curtain. He was Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission and had long personal relationships throughout the regime’s pillars of power. He was also Kim Jong-Un’s uncle and husband of the late Kim Jong-Il’s sister.</p>
<p>The regime’s announcement accused Jang of “attempting to overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power of our party and state.” The intelligence analysis firm <a title="" href="http://www.stratfor.com/sample/analysis/policy-impact-north-koreas-latest-purge-and-execution" target="_blank">Stratfor</a> assessed that “there was a slow coup forming in North Korea.”</p>
<p>His death comes shortly after his public arrest and dismissal from all positions. He was charged with various offenses, including betraying the country and selling resources at unapproved low prices. This was a reference to trade with China. Shortly after Kim Jong-Un took over, he upped the cost of iron ore and minerals being sold to China.</p>
<p>The One Free Korea blog <a title="" href="http://freekorea.us/2013/12/09/china-not-sounding-so-happy-about-n-korean-purge/" target="_blank">observed</a> that China was enraged by the dismissal of Jang. It demanded that Kim Jong-Un immediately travel to Beijing and the Chinese military even conducted a simulation of a night landing on the Yellow Sea Coast with 5,000 troops.</p>
<p>Kim Jong-Un apparently felt there was a threat from a pro-Jang faction, though the killing of him can either be seen as a sign of confidence or of fear. Jong-Un’s older brother <a title="" href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/kim-jong-uns-aunt-helped-purge-husband-north/story?id=21189463" target="_blank">oversaw</a> the arrest of Jang’s two closest aides last month.</p>
<p>Jang’s money manager defected shortly before or after Jang’s dismissal. It is the highest level defection in 15 years. It is unclear if the defection caused Jang’s arrest or vice versa. He is <a title="" href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=21189463" target="_blank">believed</a> to have taken Jang’s assets and confidential information about the nuclear program to China, another indication that China favored Jang’s wing of the regime.</p>
<p>“Jang worked with the Chinese even before Kim Jong Il&#8217;s death to solidify his own power and effectively be China&#8217;s regent for running North Korea,” <a title="" href="http://www.stratfor.com/sample/analysis/policy-impact-north-koreas-latest-purge-and-execution" target="_blank">says</a> Stratfor.</p>
<p>The crackdown goes beyond Jang and his associates. The South Korean President <a title="" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25312983" target="_blank">says</a> a “reign of terror” is underway and experts <a title="" href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303932504579253721867878680" target="_blank">see it</a> as the biggest political purge in North Korea in 40 years.</p>
<p>Jong-Un sacked his father’s top financial advisor who had a close relationship with Jang. Even the elites that secured his own ascent weren’t spared, leaving behind only one senior official, the chief of the Politburo. About 44% of military commanders have been <a title="" href="http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/12/04/2013120401535.html" target="_blank">dismissed</a>, as have 97 of 218 of the party heads, government ministers and senior military officers.</p>
<p>In one case, the regime made a dramatic public display with one official. The Assistant Chief of Staff for the Ministry of the Peoples’ Armed Forces was <a title="" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/leave-no-trace-of-him-behind-down-to-the-hair-north-korean-official-executed-with-mortar-round-after-drinking-during-mourning-period-for-dear-leader-kim-jongil-8226398.html" target="_blank">blown apart</a> with a mortar round so, in the regime’s words, it’d “leave no trace of him behind, down to his hair.”</p>
<p>There is also a crackdown on outside culture to slow down the <a title="" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/8165274/North-Koreas-undercover-journalists-reveal-misery-of-life-in-dictatorship.html" target="_blank">crumbling</a> of the information blockade that has sustained the regime so long. He executed 80 people for allegedly possessing Bibles, having pornography and watching South Korean videos. In August, the regime <a title="" href="http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-north-korea-executes-80-20131111,0,2954869.story" target="_blank">killed</a> a dozen entertainers by firing squad, <a title="" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10272953/Kim-Jong-uns-ex-lover-executed-by-firing-squad.html" target="_blank">including</a> his ex-girlfriend. They were accused of being involved with pornography distribution.</p>
<p>Some experts interpret North Korea’s selling of its gold reserves as an indication of increasing economic troubles. It sold two tons to China last year to make $100 million. Other experts feel this is routinely done and is not an indication of anything abnormal.</p>
<p>These developments come shortly after the RAND Corporation concluded in a <a title="" href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR300/RR331/RAND_RR331.pdf" target="_blank">study</a> that there is a “reasonable probability” that the regime will collapse in the foreseeable future. It predicts a massive humanitarian crisis requiring a major international intervention. The top national security advisor to the President of South Korea <a title="" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/249870" target="_blank">predicted</a> the regime will collapse within 2 to 3 years after Kim Jong-Un’s takeover.</p>
<p>There are three ways that this regime change can happen and they are not mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>The most stable transition would be a coup, perhaps with covert Chinese assistance. However, even under this scenario, it is hard to believe that the bloodthirsty regime will non-violently step down. It could easily become a civil war or an insurgency.</p>
<p>The second scenario is a civil war. There is no viable armed opposition group, but that could change as Kim Jong-Un alienates large parts of the military. In 2010, about 200 former North Korean soldiers <a title="" href="http://www.defensenews.com/article/20100909/DEFSECT02/9090302/Ex-N-Korea-Soldiers-Start-Group-To-Topple-Regime" target="_blank">announced</a> an armed campaign to overthrow the regime but it fizzled.</p>
<p>The third scenario is a popular uprising. In November 2009, plans to reform the currency sparked an unprecedented public <a title="" href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/25/world/la-fg-korea-famine25-2010mar25" target="_blank">expression</a> of opposition. The frightened regime apologized and Kim Jong-Il executed the advisor responsible for the policy.</p>
<p>In February 2011, protests were again <a title="" href="http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/02/24/2011022400582.html" target="_blank">sparked</a> in a market when promised goods didn’t arrive. Security forces intervened, beating one man unconscious and escalating the situation.</p>
<p>It is easy to hope for the commencement of regime change when you look at North Korea’s record on human rights abuses and WMD trafficking.</p>
<p>There are around <a title="" href="http://www.persecution.org/2013/12/11/north-korea-satellite-images-expose-vast-prison-camps/" target="_blank">200,000</a> political prisoners. <a title="" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/feb/01/northkorea" target="_blank">Testimony</a> from escapees will one day be the basis of movies that will shock the world. There are <a title="" href="http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/October/Witness-to-Evil-Mothers-Kill-Children-to-Survive/" target="_blank">countless</a> <a title="" href="http://www.theatlanticright.com/2009/07/24/north-korea-tests-chemical-and-biological-weapons-on-children-prisoners/" target="_blank">stories</a> of concentration camp-like persecution, <a title="" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/1432366/Famine-struck-N-Koreans-eating-children.html" target="_blank">cannibalism</a>, torture, starvation and widespread <a title="" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2009/07/20097165415127287.html" target="_blank">human experimentation</a>, including on children.</p>
<p>North Korea is the <a title="" href="http://www.opendoorsuk.org/resources/worldwatch/north_korea.php" target="_blank">number one</a> oppressor of Christians. If you are caught practicing the faith, you and three generations of your family are sent to a lifetime of labor. An estimated 400,000 of the 20-million population is Christian. One prison alone is thought to house 6,000 Christians.</p>
<p>If and when the regime starts falling, North Korea will be seen as a gold mine for criminals, terrorists and rogue states around the world. Huge stockpiles of unconventional and conventional weapons will be up for grabs. Between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons and 5,000 tons of biological weapons are there. Cyber warfare experts, special forces operatives, weapons scientists, and average soldiers will be looking for jobs.</p>
<p>In addition, there is a consistent pattern where North Korea engages in provocations during times of internal transition. Every major step in the succession process that brought Kim Jong-Un into power coincided with an outburst to draw international attention.</p>
<p>British intelligence <a title="" href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/178005/North-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attack" target="_blank">believes</a> Jong-Un has an “explosive temper” and suffers from severe hypertension. North Korea has carried out three nuclear tests. Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, one of the nation’s top experts, recently gave a <a title="" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/news/have-concessions-iran-made-emp-attack-more-likely" target="_blank">bone-chilling webinar</a> on the Electromagnetic-Pulse (EMP) threat, and included a frightening examination of North Korea’s capabilities in this area.</p>
<p>For things to get better in North Korea, things will have to first become far worse.</p>
<p><em>The <a title="" href="http://www.theird.org/" target="_blank">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>North Korean Dictator Arrests Uncle for &#8220;Dreaming Different Dreams&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/north-korean-dictator-arrests-uncle-for-dreaming-different-dreams/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-korean-dictator-arrests-uncle-for-dreaming-different-dreams</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Dec 2013 01:32:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=212808</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Jang was removed from the number two position in the leadership]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/article-0-19F9CC0200000578-937_634x399.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-212815" alt="article-0-19F9CC0200000578-937_634x399" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/article-0-19F9CC0200000578-937_634x399-450x283.jpg" width="450" height="283" /></a></p>
<p>In true Communist Party fashion, the arrest appears to have been made at a Party meeting and filmed on television. Saddam Hussein liked to do the same thing. As did Stalin.</p>
<blockquote><p>Jang was said by South Korea&#8217;s intelligence agency last week to have been removed from the number two position in the leadership, but there was no official confirmation of this from the North at the time.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2520616/Kim-Jong-Uns-uncle-sacked-committed-criminal-acts-baffling-imagination-lived-depraved-life.html">A terror state has nothing to run on but terror</a>. And tyrannies begin new purges with each generation to stay in power.</p>
<blockquote><p>North Korea has released images of the moment Kim Jong Un&#8217;s uncle was dragged from a meeting by police following his dismissal from government for &#8216;criminal acts that baffle imagination&#8217;.</p>
<p>The hermit state has reportedly &#8216;thrown the book&#8217; at Kim&#8217;s former second-in-command, Jang Song Thaek, accusing him today of a string of crimes including womanising, alcohol abuse and &#8216;living a depraved life.&#8217;</p></blockquote>
<p>Basically being a typical member of the North Korean elite which enjoys the good life but knows that it can be arrested for it at any moment. No parallels please, we&#8217;re liberals here.</p>
<blockquote><p>Insisting Jang had failed to toe the Party line, the government, in an astonishingly frank and poetic revelation, said he had &#8216;dreamed different dreams&#8217;.</p></blockquote>
<p>In North Korea, government decides what you can dream. Over here, if you like your dreams, you can keep your dreams.</p>
<blockquote><p>And within days of his dismissal, Jang was already beginning to be erased from the country&#8217;s history as a previously recorded documentary about Kim was released with the disgraced statesman airbrushed out of every scene.</p></blockquote>
<p>Photoshop makes things sort of easier.</p>
<blockquote><p>And to cap his public humiliation, state television reportedly aired footage of Jang being arrested by uniformed police officers during a high-profile meeting in Pyongyang in front of hundreds of stony-faced colleagues.</p></blockquote>
<p>I imagine he knew it was coming.</p>
<blockquote><p>One of Jang&#8217;s aides, holding many of his secrets, recently defected to South Korean agents in China.</p></blockquote>
<p>Yup.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8216;Jang and his followers committed criminal acts baffling imagination and they did tremendous harm to our Party and revolution,&#8217; said the official KCNA news agency.</p>
<p>&#8216;Jang pretended to uphold the party and leader, but was engrossed in such factional acts such as dreaming different dreams and involving himself in double dealing behind the scene,&#8217; said KCNA.</p>
<p>&#8216;Affected by the capitalist way of living, Jang committed irregularities and corruption and led a dissolute and depraved life.&#8217;</p></blockquote>
<p>So again, typical members of the North Korean elite.</p>
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		<title>New North Korean Leader has his Ex-Girlfriend Machine Gunned by Firing Squad</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/new-north-korean-leader-has-his-ex-girlfriend-machine-gunned-by-firing-squad/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=new-north-korean-leader-has-his-ex-girlfriend-machine-gunned-by-firing-squad</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Aug 2013 17:52:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=202512</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“They were executed with machine guns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, Wangjaesan Light Band and Moranbong Band as well as the families of the victims looked on.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/north-korea_2655901c.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-202515" alt="north-korea_2655901c" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/north-korea_2655901c-450x280.jpg" width="450" height="280" /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10272953/Kim-Jong-uns-ex-lover-executed-by-firing-squad.html">officially unofficial story involves a group execution</a>, but that&#8217;s likely to have been a pretext for cleaning up part of Kim Jong Un&#8217;s past. Communist dictators have a long history of purging anyone who knew them back in the day.</p>
<p>Stalin did it with extreme ruthlessness. In North Korea, the Kim clan have a cult of personality that makes Stalin look humble.</p>
<blockquote><p>Hyon Song-wol, a singer, rumoured to be a former lover of the North Korean leader, is said to have been arrested on Aug 17 with 11 others for violating laws against pornography.</p>
<p>All 12 were machine-gunned three days later, with other members of North Korea&#8217;s most famous pop groups and their immediate families forced to watch. The onlookers were then sent to prison camps, victims of the regime&#8217;s assumption of guilt by association, the reports stated.</p>
<p>“They were executed with machine guns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, Wangjaesan Light Band and Moranbong Band as well as the families of the victims looked on,” said a Chinese source reported in the newspaper.</p>
<p>Hyon&#8217;s band was responsible for a string of patriotic hits in North Korea, including &#8220;Footsteps of Soldiers,&#8221; &#8220;I Love Pyongyang,&#8221; &#8220;She is a Discharged Soldier&#8221; and &#8220;We are Troops of the Party.&#8221; Her popularity reportedly peaked in 2005 with the song &#8220;Excellent Horse-Like Lady.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>That probably sounded better in the original Korean.</p>
<blockquote><p>The 12 who were executed were singers, musicians or dancers with the Hyon&#8217;s band,, the Unhasu Orchestra or the Wanghaesan Light Music Band and were accused of making videos of themselves performing sex acts and then selling the recordings.Some of the musicians were also found to have bibles when they were detained and all were treated as political dissidents.</p></blockquote>
<p>The bibles and the videos are contradictory and make the whole thing look like a random set of charges. Which they probably are. Their real purpose was to cover up the real purpose of the executions.</p>
<p>Killing 11 other people and sending their families to permanent gulags is a minor price to pay for cleaning up Kim Jong Un&#8217;s biography.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s how the monstrous mafia running North Korea thinks.</p>
<blockquote><p> Kim Jong-un, who became leader of North Korea after the sudden death of his father in December 2011, is believed to have met Hyon about 10 years ago and struck up a relationship.</p>
<p>His father, Kim Jong-il, did not approve of the relationship and ordered him to break it off. Hyon subsequently married an officer in the North Korean military and reportedly had a baby, although there are suggestions that Hyon continued to see Kim after her marriage.</p>
<p>Kim&#8217;s wife, Ri Sol-ju, was also a member of the Unhasu Orchestra before marriage and one theory is that Ri objected to the continuing high profile of her husband&#8217;s former girlfriend.</p></blockquote>
<p>She got her way. Problem solved.</p>
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		<title>North Korean Leader Gives Order to Study &#8220;Practical Applications&#8221; of the Third Reich</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/north-korean-leader-gives-order-to-study-practical-applications-of-the-third-reich/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-korean-leader-gives-order-to-study-practical-applications-of-the-third-reich</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/north-korean-leader-gives-order-to-study-practical-applications-of-the-third-reich/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:55:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mein kampf]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=193685</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Senior North Korean officials received copies of “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler’s rambling prison memoir, as gifts for Kim Jong Un’s birthday this January]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/north-korea-kim-jong-un-war.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-193686" alt="north-korea-kim-jong-un-war" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/north-korea-kim-jong-un-war-450x285.jpg" width="450" height="285" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2013/06/little-kim-handing-out-copies-of-mein.html">Nothing to worry about, I&#8217;m sure</a>. It&#8217;s not like North Korea has the ability to kill millions of people at a whim thanks to the ineptness and appeasement of the Clinton Administration.</p>
<blockquote><p>Senior North Korean officials received copies of “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler’s rambling prison memoir, as gifts for Kim Jong Un’s birthday this January, according to a report by New Focus International, a North Korean news organization that sources from defectors and volunteer citizens within the country.</p>
<p>The famous Nazi autobiography was reportedly distributed as what’s called a “hundred-copy book,” which refers to Pyongyang’s practice of circulating an extremely limited number of copies among top officials, though most books are forbidden in North Korea. Gifts marking the leader’s birthday are typically imbued with special political significance.</p>
<p>The book was apparently not distributed to endorse Nazism so much as to draw attention to Germany’s economic and military reconstruction after World War One. A North Korean who works on behalf of the country in China told New Focus that Kim gave a speech endorsing Germany’s inter-war revival and encouraging officials to read “Mein Kampf.”</p>
<p>“Kim Jong Un gave a lecture to high-ranking officials, stressing that we must pursue the policy of Byungjin in terms of nuclear and economic development,” New Focus’s North Korean source told them by phone. “Byungjin” translates literally to “in tandem” and refers to official policy of developing the nuclear program and economy simultaneously.</p>
<p>The source continued, “Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War One, Kim Jong Un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Let me help Kim Jong Un out with those practical applications. They are&#8230;</p>
<p>1. Convince the world you&#8217;re a moderate and obtain investments and loans</p>
<p>2. Loot a minority group  that you suspect has wealth and use it to finance unsustainable social welfare spending</p>
<p>3. When their money runs out, begin invading other countries and looting them</p>
<p>Kim can probably manage the first one, but the second two have no application.</p>
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		<title>World on Edge over North Korea</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/world-on-edge-over-north-korea/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=world-on-edge-over-north-korea</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/world-on-edge-over-north-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:53:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[provocation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=183987</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[USS Fitzgerald shifted to waters off the Korean peninsula.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/world-on-edge-over-north-korea/0329-du-north-korea-fresh-threats_full_600/" rel="attachment wp-att-183990"><img class=" wp-image-183990 alignleft" title="0329-du-north-korea-fresh-threats_full_600" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0329-du-north-korea-fresh-threats_full_600-450x317.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="190" /></a>North Korea is relentlessly continuing its provocative rhetoric and actions in the wake of its ballistic missile and nuclear arms tests, which had prompted more stringent sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council earlier this year. North Korea&#8217;s young dictator, Kim Jong-un, led the Central Committee of the ruling Workers&#8217; Party plenary meeting Sunday in declaring that North Korea&#8217;s continued build up of its nuclear arms stockpile was not negotiable. The <a href="http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm">Korean Central News Agency</a> (KCNA) of North Korea quoted from the meeting as follows:</p>
<blockquote><p>The nuclear weapons of Songun Korea are not goods for getting U.S. dollars and they are neither a political bargaining chip nor a thing for economic dealings to be presented to the place of dialogue or be put on the table of negotiations aimed at forcing the DPRK to disarm itself&#8230; The DPRK&#8217;s nuclear armed forces represent the nation&#8217;s life which can never be abandoned as long as the imperialists and nuclear threats exist on earth.</p>
<p>Only when the nuclear shield for self-defence is held fast, will it be possible to shatter the U.S. imperialists&#8217; ambition for annexing the Korean Peninsula by force and making the Korean people modern slaves, firmly defend our ideology, social system and all other socialist treasures won at the cost of blood and safeguard the nation&#8217;s right to existence and its time-honored history and brilliant culture.</p></blockquote>
<p>KCNA also reported that during an Easter service &#8220;the participants renewed the firm resolution to put the warmongers [the US and South Korea] into the red hot iron-pot of hell as early as possible.&#8221;</p>
<p>The plenary ruling party meeting was reportedly the first of its kind in twenty years, underlining Kim Jong-un&#8217;s determination to get the attention he craves on the world stage, shore up his credentials with his military and consolidate his power by mobilizing his people to be prepared for war. The party meeting came just days after Kim Jong-un put the military&#8217;s rocket forces on standby to strike the U.S. mainland, American bases in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and U.S. bases in South Korea. The dictator had also issued a challenge that “the time has come to settle scores with the U.S. imperialists.” This in turn followed North Korea&#8217;s decision to declare the 1953 armistice with South Korea null and void and to cut off its military communications hot lines with South Korea. The only remaining shred of inter-Korean cooperation is the joint industrial park at the border town of Kaesong, which North Korea has threatened to shut down.</p>
<p>South Korea, needless to say, is on high alert and taking no chances, but not panicking. Seoul, South Korea&#8217;s capital, is reported to be calm at this point. South Korea&#8217;s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Kim Sook was quoted by Inner City Press as saying on Monday that he hoped North Korea is “a barking dog, not a biting dog,” but that South Korea “would retaliate.” South Korean President Park Geun-hye appeared to signal that she would leave the matter of any military response to an &#8220;abrupt and surprise provocations by North Korea&#8221; to her military&#8217;s judgment.</p>
<p>The Obama administration is also taking North Korea&#8217;s threats seriously, but not overreacting. It has been taking measured steps to demonstrate its resolve to defend South Korea if North Korea decides to launch an attack.  For example, NBC News reports that the U.S. Navy is shifting a guided-missile destroyer in the Pacific to waters off the Korean peninsula. The destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, can intercept and destroy a missile, which would provide further deterrence to any decision by North Korea to launch a missile attack.</p>
<p>A group of U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jets were flown Sunday from an air base in Japan to one located south of Seoul, to join the current joint military exercises in South Korea. Last Thursday, a pair of U.S. Air Force nuclear-capable B-2 bombers were sent from a base in the United States for a flight over South Korea. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the stealth bomber flights were intended to demonstrate to our allies in the region “that they can count on us to be prepared and to help them deter conflict.”</p>
<p>President Obama&#8217;s top national security adviser, Tom Donilon, said last month that &#8220;North Korea&#8217;s claims may be hyperbolic, but as to the policy of the United States, there should be no doubt: we will draw upon the full range of our capabilities to protect against, and to respond to, the threat posed to us and to our allies by North Korea.&#8221;</p>
<p>Donilon also warned North Korea not to count on its threats to bring the United States and its allies back to the negotiating table to offer another economic lifeline in return for North Korea&#8217;s meaningless promise to scale back its nuclear activities.  &#8220;The United States refuses to reward bad North Korean behavior,&#8221; Donilon said. &#8220;The United States will not play the game of accepting empty promises or yielding to threats. As former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has said, we won&#8217;t buy the same horse twice. We have made clear our openness to authentic negotiations with North Korea. In return, however, we&#8217;ve only seen provocations and extreme rhetoric.&#8221;</p>
<p>While most analysts consider North Korea&#8217;s bellicose threats to strike the U.S. mainland directly a bluff that the regime is incapable of carrying out at its present technological level, South Korea and Japan are within easy target range. And miscalculations can quickly mushroom out of control.</p>
<p>Moreover, North Korea&#8217;s continued buildup of nuclear arms and long range missile capacities, in concert with its ally Iran&#8217;s own buildup which North Korea is helping, does not give us much breathing room. It is only a matter of time before the United States is at serious risk of being vulnerable to attack by the megalomaniacs running these two surviving members of what President George W. Bush correctly called the &#8220;axis of evil.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/revealed-evidence-iran-crossed-nuclear-red-line/">According to Reza Kahlili</a>, who served in CIA Directorate of Operations, as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and still has highly placed sources in the Iranian regime, North Korea is helping Iranian scientists to develop new ways to miniaturize and make more powerful nuclear bombs, as well as neutron warheads that can be used to launch crippling electromagnetic pulse attacks.</p>
<p>All that we can do at this point is contain the North Korean nuclear threat and use military force to destroy their nuclear facilities and infrastructure as a last resort. However, the alliance between North Korea and Iran makes it more imperative than ever for the Obama administration to prevent Iran, by whatever means necessary, from ever reaching the critical point of no return in developing nuclear bombs and moving towards achieving its objective of a deployed force of nuclear weapons on intermediate and inter-continental missiles.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>North Korea’s Embarrassing Provocation</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/north-korea%e2%80%99s-embarrassing-provocation/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-korea%25e2%2580%2599s-embarrassing-provocation</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/north-korea%e2%80%99s-embarrassing-provocation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:55:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food aid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[missile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[provocation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=128774</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[More nuclear tests in the coming days are guaranteed for Kim Jong-Un to save face.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/img_606X341_3003-north-korea-kim-jon-un.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-128779" title="img_606X341_3003-north-korea-kim-jon-un" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/img_606X341_3003-north-korea-kim-jon-un.gif" alt="" width="375" height="240" /></a>North Korea launched its Unha-3 missile yesterday in defiance of its neighbors and the U.S., but it didn’t go as planned. The missile <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/12/world/asia/north-korea-launch/index.html">broke apart</a> only minutes after takeoff. Now, Kim Jong-Un must do something to save face, guaranteeing that he won’t back down from carrying out a third nuclear test in the coming days.</p>
<p>North Korea’s adversaries loudly protested the planned missile launch. The regime claimed it was innocently launching a satellite, but the technology is almost exactly the same as what is needed for a long-range ballistic missile. It was obvious that North Korea was testing its ability to strike as far away as the continental U.S. and Australia. Japan and South Korea <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/120412/north-korea-rocket-launch-us-japan-south-korea-reactions">threatened</a> to shoot it down if it entered their airspaces. The regime proudly granted the worldwide media permission to come see the rocket, prompting the U.S. government to <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/04/white-house-warns-media-on-north-korea-119998.html">caution</a> journalists that they could be feeding into its propaganda.</p>
<p>The U.S. warned that it would torpedo a <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/01/kim-jong-un%E2%80%99s-deal-for-survival/">deal</a> struck on February 29 where the North Koreans would permit inspections of its nuclear facilities, end its nuclear weapons programs and stop testing missiles. In return, the U.S. would provide 240,000 metric tons of food desperately needed by the starving population. American officials assured the public that the delivery would be tightly monitored to make sure that the aid wasn’t diverted to the regime.</p>
<p>Kim Jong-Un decided to go back on the deal and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/815m-spent-on-north-korea-rocket-could-have-fed-millions-20120413-1wxj4.html">spend</a> $800 million on this failed rocket launch; money that could have been spent on 2.5 million tons of corn and 1.4 million tons of rice. North Korean engineers are <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9193861/North-Korea-building-tunnel-for-third-nuclear-test.html">digging</a> an underground tunnel in preparation for a nuclear weapons test, spending even more money that could save its people. The regime is also spending $50 million on an amusement park and $140 million on upgrading 3,000 apartments used by government officials. Meanwhile, according to the U.N. World Food Program, about 16 of 24 million North Koreans rely on foreign food aid for survival and one-third of the children suffer from chronic malnourishment.</p>
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		<title>Kim Jong-Un’s Deal for Survival</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/kim-jong-un%e2%80%99s-deal-for-survival/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kim-jong-un%25e2%2580%2599s-deal-for-survival</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:54:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Communism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food aid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear Weapons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[starvation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=124197</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Aid could help prolong a regime comparable only to Nazi German and Stalinist Russia. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/north-korea-kim-jong-il-jong-un.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-124200" title="north-korea-kim-jong-il-jong-un" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/north-korea-kim-jong-il-jong-un.gif" alt="" width="375" height="256" /></a>The U.S. and North Korea announced yesterday that a breakthrough had been reached. North Korea will suspend its uranium enrichment program, stop testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles and allow inspectors to check out its nuclear sites. In return, the U.S. will provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid annually. It sounds like a good deal, but will it help save a teetering regime with a human rights record comparable only to Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia?</p>
<p>The major concern is that the food aid will be diverted to the regime and the military instead of its starving population and then violate its agreements.</p>
<p>“The destitute North Korean economy needs foreign aid to avoid collapse. North Korea follows a now clear cycle of ostentatiously dangerous conduct followed by a conciliatory gesture that brings its neighbors and the U.S. rushing to the negotiating table, bearing goodies,” <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/02/29/why-north-korea-nuclear-moratorium-means-next-to-nothing/">writes</a> Christian Whiton, a former deputy special envoy for human rights in North Korea.</p>
<p>Under Kim Jong-Il, North Korea violated several past “breakthrough” agreements. It should be assumed that Kim Jong-Un will follow the same strategy because it worked. There is already uncertainty over whether the regime has agreed to suspend its plutonium reprocessing program that is responsible for at least two nuclear tests. Its announcement only referred to uranium. A senior U.S. official <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/29/north-korea-to-suspend-nuclear-activities/">said</a> the administration is confident that the plutonium program is also covered under the deal.</p>
<p>The U.S. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/29/us-korea-north-food-idUSTRE81S2EY20120229">says</a> it will closely supervise the delivery of the food aid. It will <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i0NfxolPzUwtLGSFT5TJ4_C7c3EA?docId=CNG.52821044e4decab03de05ad044c13613.261">send</a> meals and products designed for pregnant women and children instead of rice and grains. It is hoped that the first shipment will arrive in 6 to 8 weeks. One official said that the operation will be the “most comprehensively monitored and managed program” devised yet.</p>
<p>It is obviously a good thing if the U.S. can prevent mass starvation among the North Korean population, especially if the recipients understand that it came from its so-called enemies. However, the regime’s giving in to U.S. demands for strict regulations over the food aid deliveries and willingness to suspend its nuclear activities is also a sign of weakness that must be exploited.</p>
<p>The U.S. must not accept the status quo with North Korea and turn a blind eye to the <a href="http://pjmedia.com/blog/is-north-korea-testing-wmd-on-children/">horrors</a> that the regime puts its people through or the other ways it threatens the U.S. It still has 2,500 to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons and about 5,000 tons of biological weapons, with a dozen production facilities for the former and 20 for the latter. Some of these weapons are tested on innocent prisoners, including children, the disabled and the mentally-handicapped.</p>
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		<title>Kim Jong-un to Share Power</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/rick-moran/kim-jong-un-to-share-power/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kim-jong-un-to-share-power</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:50:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rick Moran]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dead]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dictatorship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kim jong il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=116871</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[But a power struggle in the ruling coterie could be in the offing. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/hi-kim-jong-un-852-01410498_450x450.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-116880" title="hi-kim-jong-un-852-01410498_450x450" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/hi-kim-jong-un-852-01410498_450x450.gif" alt="" width="375" height="249" /></a></p>
<p>In the aftermath of the death of North Korea&#8217;s leader Kim Jong-il, there was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/asia/cautious-approach-to-north-korea-by-us-and-south-korea.html">deep concern</a> that the dictator&#8217;s chosen successor, his third son Kim Jong-un, would have a rocky time trying to consolidate his position. Now it appears that his path to power <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-korea-north-exclusive-idUSTRE7BK0FX20111221">has been smoothed </a>by an apparent agreement with the military to share the responsibility of governing the state until the younger Kim can consolidate his position with the military and the party.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-korea-north-exclusive-idUSTRE7BK0FX20111221">Reuters is reporting </a>that there will be &#8220;collective rule&#8221; in North Korea with Kim Jong-un at the head of a &#8220;ruling coterie&#8221; that will include the military with the younger Kim&#8217;s uncle and Kim Jong-il&#8217;s brother-in-law, Jang Song-thaek, acting as regent.</p>
<p>North Korean <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/asia/cautious-approach-to-north-korea-by-us-and-south-korea.html">news reports </a>indicate that the military has pledged allegiance to young Kim, which will strengthen his hand as he deals with <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16266704">other factions</a> also interested in ruling the Stalinist state. Those factions include two brothers passed over for leadership, the powerful sister of Kim Jong-il and wife of Jang, Kim Kyong-hui, and an up-and coming-general, chief of the joint chiefs of staff Ri Yong-ho.</p>
<p>None of these individuals are likely to challenge Kim Jong-un in the near future. But the inexperienced Kim may find himself being pushed out by those with a stronger base of support in the military and the party, or who are simply more ruthless and willing to upset the status quo to seize power.</p>
<p>His two older brothers may resent being passed over, but Kim Jong-il made sure they were never able to build an independent base of power to challenge their younger brother. Perhaps the most serious rival to Kim is his uncle, Chang Song-taek. Married to the elder Kim&#8217;s sister, Chang is an important member of the Politburo and Vice Chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-korea-north-exclusive-idUSTRE7BK0FX20111221">Reuters&#8217; source</a> believes that the military has agreed that he will wield power in a kind of regency with the younger Kim as something of a figurehead. Since no one knows precisely how the internal leadership dynamics function in North Korea, and since this kind of collective leadership has never been tried in a country ruled since 1948 by all-powerful dictators, Kim Jong-un&#8217;s position may be precarious indeed.</p>
<p>Chang may be satisfied with being the power behind the throne, or he may not. An analyst at Seoul University <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16266704">said of Chang</a> that he &#8220;has played a considerable role during Kim Jong-il&#8217;s illness of managing the succession problem and even the North&#8217;s relations with the United States and China.&#8221; The Korean Economic Institute (KEI) <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16266704">speculates</a> that Chang is China&#8217;s choice to succeed the elder Kim, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16266704">adding</a>, &#8220;These factors, including his involvement in economic projects and directing internal security matters, leave a possibility for Chang Song-taek to attempt to seize power himself.&#8221;</p>
<p>The military is the wild card in the succession drama. Perhaps fearing that his brother in law might make a play for power himself, the elder Kim placed the chief of the joint chiefs of staff, Ri Yong-ho, close to his son, according to an expert on the North&#8217;s powerful structure at the Sejong Institute. But the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16266704">KEI believes </a>that it &#8220;will remain to be seen if they [Chang Song-taek and Ri Yong-ho] and others are really trying to help him, rule by controlling Kim Jong-un from behind the scenes, or set him up for failure.&#8221; This kind of convoluted intrigue is common in totalitarian states and one misstep by the younger Kim may have deadly consequences.</p>
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		<title>North Korea Gets Scarier</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/ryan-mauro/north-korea-gets-scarier/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-korea-gets-scarier</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:43:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kim jong il]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korean warship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un sets out to prove himself.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/korea45.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-116593" title="korea45" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/korea45.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="514" /></a></p>
<p>On December 17, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il died. The state press <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45719296/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/">announced</a> that his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un, is the “great successor.” There’s a clear pattern where each step towards succession is accompanied with a provocation, reflecting the regime’s belief that its ills can be cured through conflict. At only 27 or 28 years old, Kim Jong-Un is out to prove himself, and the short-range missile test that followed his official takeover isn’t going to cut it.</p>
<p>Kim Jong-Un is largely a mystery. He wasn’t even formally mentioned in North Korea’s state press until October 2010. His age, mother and marital status aren’t even known. It is <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/kim-jong-woong.htm">reported</a> that British intelligence assess that he has an “explosive temper” and suffers from severe hypertension, giving little hope that his mental state is any better than his father’s.</p>
<p>In October 2010, he was given the rank of a four-star general, even though he has no military experience whatsoever. His young age, lack of experience and the decreasing support of the North Korean army and population make it difficult for Kim Jong-Un to ensure the stability of the regime. A cable published by Wikileaks reveals that the top national security advisor to the South Korean president <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/249870">believes</a> the regime will collapse within 2 to 3 years after Kim Jong-Il’s death.</p>
<p>Kim Jong-Il believes that confrontation with outside powers is necessary for a successful transition. In 1987, he was the designated successor. He <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/asia/24north.html">ordered</a> the bombing of a South Korean airliner and took part in a plot to assassinate South Korea’s president in Burma. This is the same type of preparatory steps his son undertook before his own ascent.</p>
<p>On May 25, 2009, North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test. About one week later, Kim Jong-Il had his top officials <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/02/north-korea-kim-jong-il">pledge</a> their loyalty to Kim Jong-Un. It is now <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/178005/North-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attackNorth-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attackNorth-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attackNorth-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attackNorth-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attackNorth-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attackNorth-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attack">known</a> that Kim Jong-Un ordered the March 26, 2010 sinking of the South Korean warship, the <em>Cheonan</em>, killing 46. Five South Korean properties at the jointly-operated Mt. Kumgang resort were <a href="http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2919620">seized</a> almost immediately after, and two North Korean agents were arrested in South Korea as they planned to kill a high-level defector there. Not long after that, the North launched cyber attacks on South Korean websites.</p>
<p>Over the summer of 2010, Kim Jong-Un oversaw a huge purge of political officials in order to solidify power. Older leaders were replaced with younger loyalists. It is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-07-22/sanctions-likely-to-enrage-north-korea/915588?section=world">said</a> that 1,000 were arrested and 20-30 were executed. In September, new party leadership was <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/201062654853137197.html">chosen.</a> Not long after, North Korea <a href="http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/North-Korea-US-Professor-Siegfried-Hecker-Stunned-At-Advanced-Nature-Of-Uranium-Enrichment-Plant/Article/201011315820911">revealed</a> an advanced uranium enrichment facility with 2,000 centrifuges and began erecting a lightwater reactor at Yongbyon.</p>
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