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UPDATE: Kim Jong Eun to Iran? No, Kim Yong Nam August 22, 2012, 6:54 PM KST By Evan Ramstad A report that suggested North Korean dictator Kim Jong Eun might travel to Iran lit up the North Korea watch-o-sphere Wednesday. But it appeared to be a misunderstanding over the role of Kim Yong Nam, the poor old guy who has the biggest title in the North’s government but has always been second fiddle to the leader from the family of Kim Il Sung. The German news agency DPA, citing an Iranian news website Tabnak, got the report going around the...

Kim Jong Un Is No Reformer North Korea's new leader studied in Switzerland and has a young, attractive wife. That doesn't mean he's into the whole hope and change thing. BY VICTOR D. CHA |AUGUST 21, 2012 For those searching for signs of reform in North Korea, Kim Jong Un has been a godsend. Women on North Korean state TV wore high heels and miniskirts while he sat in the audience. Disney characters, the cultural export of a country North Korea has long demonized, danced onstage. The not-yet-30-year-old Kim, since taking over from father in December 2011, frolicked with school...

Reports: North Korea's Kim Jong Un will travel to Iran North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a military base in the southern part of the country, in a recently released, undated photo from the country's official news service. By Kari Huus, NBC News North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is planning to travel to Tehran next week, in his first overseas visit since taking over after his father's death in December, South Korea’s Yonhap and Arirang news services reported on Wednesday. Iran’s spokesman for the Non-Aligned Movement Summit confirmed that Kim would attend a meeting of the 120-member Non-Aligned...

Kim Jong-un Inherits Father's Taste for Bling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is spending top dollar on luxury products from overseas. He is apparently building a private ski resort and importing equipment to build his own sauna. The younger Kim's propensity for luxury goods seems to exceed even his late father Kim Jong-il's penchant for the good life, which involved expensive whiskey and foreign cars bought as gifts for loyal officials. According to diplomatic sources, the North recently imported sauna equipment from Finland and Germany. "Kim Jong-un likes to drink and party all night like his father and ordered the...

Kim Caught Fiddling as Rome Burns By Choi Song Min [2012-08-06 17:45 ] Ri Sol Joo has caught the attention of the international community with her shows of public affection for husband Kim Jong Eun but, contrary to the aim, this is eliciting a negative response from some sections of the North Korean public. A source from Hyesan in Yangkang Province told Daily NK today, “Recently, a documentary film ‘Marshal Kim Jong Eun’s Guidance in All Areas of the People’s Economy’ has been on Chosun Central TV every day. The film shows scenes praising Kim Jong Eun’s achievements over the...

Death Camps Vs. Disney Characters By Kim Tae Hong [2012-08-01 15:44 ] In recent months, the world has watched North Korea adopt several reform measures under its new leader. However, it appears that policy regarding human rights problems in the country will remain unchanged. Earlier this year, former Washington Post correspondent Blane Harden released a book entitled Escape from Camp 14, which details the conditions inside one of North Korea’s political prison camps. In the current issues of Foreign Policy, Harden again touches upon the issue of North Korea’s camps, and his perception of Kim Jong Eun’s leadership. Kim Jong...

AshleyMadison's Dumbest Ad Yet Stars Kim Jong Un Billboard goes up in L.A. By David Kiefaber Not content with ruining marriages on the East Coast, adultery website AshleyMadison.com is expanding into Los Angeles with a billboard near the airport that features a picture of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, alongside the headline, "Affairs now guaranteed. Even if you look like him." Like what, an Asian guy? Nice. Have fun settling that out of court. The ad refers to the recent surprise news that Kim is married, and is a cheap shot at a guy who, whatever any other issues...

Competition and Corruption Breed Disruption [Lee Young Hwa Reform Outlook ③] By Prof. Lee Young Hwa, Kansai University, Japan [2012-07-26 15:36 ] ▲ The spoils of (non) war Another factor is military trends. Even today, the North Korean military enjoys many economic benefits under military-first politics. Obviously, there are power struggles within the military. There was once a fierce battle between Lee Young Ho’s up-and-coming military faction and the former generations like Oh Keuk Ryul’s camp. According to information obtained from a senior North Korean cadre, the newer group actively revealed its hostility toward the ‘6.28 Policy.’ This was because...

The Wild Horses of Capitalism [Lee Young Hwa Reform Outlook ②] By Prof. Lee Young Hwa, Kansai University, Japan [2012-07-26 09:33 ] ▲ The 2009 currency redenomination as ‘economic terrorism’ In North Korea, markets emerged spontaneously as a result of the famine between 1994 and 1999. These new markets made the greatest possible contribution to ending the famine. To employ a metaphor; past economic reforms attempted to rein in the wild market horses. This is illustrative of the character of “reforms” that occurred in the past. Kim Jong Il thought it was dangerous for the herd of wild horses to...

Kim Jong Eun is married, North Korea confirms By Chico Harlan, Thursday, July 26, 12:20 AM TOKYO — North Korean state media on Wednesday revealed that leader Kim Jong Eun is married, a jarring announcement in a country that has long kept its first ladies nearly invisible. The announcement ends weeks of speculation about the identity of a slender woman — with a stylish bob of hair — who’d accompanied Kim in several recent public appearances. Inside North Korea: A rare visual tour inside the reclusive and secretive country. Kim Jong Eun, North Korea’s ‘great successor’: Following the death of North Korean...

A Policy of Market Suppression [Lee Young Hwa Reform Outlook ①] By Prof. Lee Young Hwa, Kansai University, Japan [2012-07-25 18:00 ] According to recent defector testimony, low- and mid-level cadres and the North Korean people are expecting big things from the Kim Jong Eun regime. The focus is on economic reform. Everyone is wondering whether the Kim Jong Eun regime really will improve the lives of the North Korean people through economic restructuring. Widespread expectation means that many people are ‘watching the Kim Jong Eun regime closely.” The Kim Jong Eun regime needs to respond swiftly to these expectations....

Kim's ex-sushi chef 'invited back to N. Korea' A Japanese sushi chef who served the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and his family for 13 years, writing books about their secretive lives, was seen on his way to revisit the country on Friday. The author, who goes by the pseudonym of Kenji Fujimoto, told Japanese media at Tokyo's Narita airport that he had been invited to visit North Korea by its new leader Kim Jong-Un, whom he had served when the Korean leader was a boy. "I was invited by Marshal Kim Jong-Un himself, and there is no reason...

North Korea's Kim Takes on Marshal's Rank By EVAN RAMSTAD North Korean leader Kim Jong Eun added a new military rank—marshal—to his list of other titles, the North's state media announced Wednesday, capping a shake-up in the highest ranks of the North's military that included the ouster of a general who was considered to be close to Mr. Kim. The new rank places Mr. Kim above six military leaders who hold the rank of vice marshal, including one who was promoted on Tuesday and was viewed as a possible successor of the military chief who was relieved of his duties...

North Korea's young leader promoted a new army marshal after sacking his top general in what a South Korean official report said was a bid to impose authority on a military that has been the backbone of his family's long rule over the isolated state. But analysts said the moves, just seven months since rising to power, do not suggest any fundamental change by Kim Jong-un to the policies of his grandfather and father which have left North Korea constantly on the brink of famine and ostracized by the most of the world. … One of the main beneficiaries of...

Video link at DailyNK.com: http://www.dailynk.com/korean/read_nktv.php?cataId=tv00003&num=264&viewmode=

July 9, 2012, 9:16 p.m. ET Replica Disney Dancers Take North Korea Stage By EVAN RAMSTAD SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Eun and other top officials attended a televised variety show over the weekend that included dancers imitating Disney Co. DIS -0.08% characters such as Mickey Mouse, a noteworthy development in an authoritarian regime that routinely criticizes the U.S. and other foreign cultures. The dancers' costumes weren't precise replicas of Disney characters, and Disney told the Associated Press that it didn't authorize or license its characters to North Korea or the art troupe that produced the show. But the variety...

The top managers of North Korea's clandestine nuclear and ballistic missile program have been methodically promoted and now dominate the inner circle of Kim Jong-eun's new government, confidential foreign government documents and official media reports from Pyongyang show. The shadowy group of power brokers in the world's most secretive nation emerged in the first military promotions prominently unveiled during recent high-profile ceremonies as the official mourning period for the death of former dictator Kim Jong-il concluded last week. These same senior officials are known to be behind Pyongyang's missile test launch - scheduled for the middle of April - which...