KJI Receives the Chinese

Kim Jong-il received Wang Jiarui in Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province.   The KCNA report was pretty much the same one issued last year. Xinhua reports, “The Chinese president also invited Kim to visit China, once again.”

This was Kim Jong-il’s first interaction with Wang Jiarui since 2004 that did not involve Senior Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Kang Sok-ju.  Instead, KJI was joined by newly appointed KWP International Department Director Kim Yong-il, United Front Department Director Kim Yang-gon and KWP Administration Department Director Jang Song-thaek.

Dispatched on Wang Jiarui’s return flight back to Beijing were MOFA’s Kim Kye-gwan and Ri Gun.

KWP International Department Director Kim Yong-il and KJI (Photo: KCNA).

Kim Jong Il (C, front), top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), meets with Wang Jiarui (L, front), head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, in Hamhung-si, South Hamgyong-do, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Feb. 8, 2010. (Xinhua Photo)

Interactive NK Week

Update

1.) Kim Jong-il met with CCP International Director Wang Jiarui.

2.) The inter-Korean meeting ended without an agreement and a joint statement from North Korea’s Ministry of Public Security and State Security Departments:

“We have world-level ultra-modern striking force and means for protecting security which have neither yet been mentioned.”

Original

This week the DPRK will have three high level external interactions.  Two of them shall more or less center on inciting the North’s return to the Six Party Talks.  The third will be the umpteenth summit over the Kaesong Industrial Zone and tours at Mount Kumgang.

–Wang Jiarui, director of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday.  On Sunday he attended a KWP International Department reception hosted by new director Kim Yong-il and deputy director Kim Song-nam.  Mr. Wang is expected to meet with Kim Jong-il, as he had done in 2009 and 2009.  Mr. Wang is expected to encourage the DPRK’s return to the Six Party Talks.  There may also be talk of KJI shipping up to Beijing.

–UN Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe, will arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday.  Mr. Pascoe, a former US Ambassador, will “talk about the entire range of issues while we are up there.”  This will mark the first trip to North Korea by a senior UN official since Ban Ki-moon became Secretary-General in 2007.

–On Monday (8 February), los dos Koreas will convene in Kaesong for another meeting over tours to Mount Kumgang and issues affecting the Kaesong Industrial Complex.  There was a bit of a commotion about the DPRK sending Kang Yang-chol, a Councilor of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee and lower ranking official to meet with a director of the ROK Ministry of Unification, Kim Nam-shik.

It seems that a round of public relations gestures and teeth-pulling is only appropriate during the week ahead of Kim Jong-il’s birthday.

Another Auspicious February Birthday

Jang Song-thaek (1st from right) in South Hamgyong Province in late January 2010 (Photo: KCNA).

Kim Jong-il will blow out his birthday candles on 16 February, a year closer to 70.  There are also conflicting reports as to whether Kim Jong-un’s birthday was celebrated on 8 January.  We are certain of one North Korean elite’s birthday; this week Jang Song-thaek turned 64.  Some sources (KINU, Yonhap) have Mr. Jang born on 6 February, and other sources say he was born on 2 February.  Happy birthday, Mr. Jang!

Readers of this blog, and Pyongyang watchers in general, are accustomed to Jang Song-thaek’s presence at Kim Jong-il’s guidance and inspection tours.  In certain East Asian and Western press reports, Mr. Jang is often identified as leading the process grooming Kim Jong-un to be hereditary successor.  Otherwise, Jang Song-thaek is Kim Jong-il’s principal enforcer in the Korean Workers’ Party, and manager of the North Korean internal security apparatus.  He is one of General Secretary Kim’s key supporters, and has worked with him since the early 1970’s.  For 37 years, Mr. Jang has been married to General Secretary Kim’s only sibling, Kim Kyong-hui.

Mr. Jang is the most critical player in the post-KJI DPRK.  He is the only personality in the senior echelon with the patronage network and clout to implement whatever succession plans General-Secretary Kim has developed.  Alternatively,  Mr. Jang is also the only senior North Korean who has the gravitas and background to pursue a policy of de-Kimification once General-Secretary Kim moves on from the scene.

A night or two ago, Mr. Jang  and his wife, joined Kim Jong-il, the Russian Ambassador to the DPRK and several of General-Secretary Kim’s cohorts at a performance of the opera Evgeni Onegin.  One thing Mr. Jang may want to celebrate: despite possible employee attrition in the Central Party and some popular unrest in the provinces, the North Korean leadership is not currently vulnerable and remains solidly intact.

Kim Jong-il applauds during a performance of Evegeni Onegin. His sister, Kim Kyong-hui, is seond from right (Photo: KCNA via DPRK.Blog)

Kim Jong-il comments on the opera performance. Jang Song-thaek is partially obscured 2nd from left (Photo: KCTV/DPRK.blog)

Possible New Third Floor Director

The man believed to be Jon Il-chun is first from left in this image from the 3 February KCTV broadcast on Kim Jong-il's tour of a fish factoryin Kumya County, South Hamgyong (Photo: KCNA/KCTV).

Here may a confirmable personnel change within the Central Party.  Korea Times reports that Kim Tong-un, chief executive of Office #39 (also known as the Third Floor), was replaced by by Jon Il-chun.  Kim Tong-un, 73 and a geologist by training, had

The man belived to be new Third Floor Director Jon Il-chun is third from left in this photo of Kim Jong-il's tour in Kumya County, South Hamgyong (Photo: KCNA/KCTV).

been director of the Third Floor since April 1994.  KT cites Mr. Kim’s recent appearance on an EU travel ban as the reason for his removal from the post.  The new Third Floor director, Mr. Jon, was reported as escorting Kim Jong-il a day or two ago at the Wonphyong Taehung Fishery Station, Kumya County, South Hamgyong.

North Korea has recently named Chon Il-chun, vice chief in charge of managing the safe of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his family, to head the office of the ruling Workers’ Party, Yonhap News reported Thursday.

Chon replaced Kim Dong-un who was put on a “blacklist” by the European Union last December, the report said, quoting sources in Seoul.

North Korea’s media reported Wednesday that Chon, a ranking official of the Workers’ Party, was among those who accompanied Kim Jong-il on his trip to a fishery office in South Hamgyeong Province.

The man believed to be Jon Il-chun had a seat at the main table during the first meeting of the new North Korean development bank on 20 January of this year.

The man believed to be Jon Il-chun is first from right in this image from a KCTV story annoucning the formation of a North Korean investment bank (Photo: KCTV)

As with Pak Nam-gi, the possible retirement/dismissal of Kim Tong-un seems more a matter of pretext (in this case, the EU travel ban) as against job performance.  These high level personnel movements are merely administrative planning to prepare for the post-KJI era in North Korea.

Personnel reassignments such as this (as well as last year’s Cabinet attrition) are one significant political indicator of crisis/contingency in North Korea.  However, in that regard, it seems that at present the Central Party is manuevering to prevent a devestating internal situation where they would have to mobilize large numbers of internal security units or, as the most desperate measure, making an emergency call to Beijing.

Pak Man’s Fate

"I see better days and I do better things": Pak Nam-gi (center) with VMAR Kim Yong-chun (who has not appeared in North Korean media for some time) and Jang Song-thaek (Photo: KCNA).

Pak Nam-gi has not appeared in the North Korean media since a rally on 9 January.   But there remains no definitive confirmation that he was dismissed from his position.  A report about Mr. Pak’s vagrancy in JoongAng Daily tempers recent speculation with a bit of reality:

“We understand Pak has not been visible for some time now,” a government source said. “But whether he has been fired is an entirely different matter. Unless someone else takes his post, we can’t say for sure.”

Local reports speculate that Pak was held accountable after the redenomination of the North Korean won in November caused inflation and even riots.

A few other thoughts about Pak Nam-gi’s invisbility:

–He is 81 years old and with a five decade career in Party and State, he may simply be retired; Mr. Pak’s cohorts are still on the road with Kim Jong-il and otherwise appearing in the North Korean media.

–The Central Party is no position to, as a Daily NK report suggested, execute him or reassign him as a factory manager.  While the leadership’s position is not presently subject to challenge, cleavages remain among North Korean elites and Kim Jong-il will not exacerbate these divisions while a possible succession campaign unfolds.

–The obvious failures of the currency redenomination provide Kim Jong-il and his deputies the excuse to begin the possible transfer of the KWP Financial Planning Department’s responsibilities into the National Defense Commission.

Currency Redomination’s Possible Fall Guy (Sequel)

Pak Nam-gi, the KWP Financial Planning Director, may have been put out to pasture.  Chosun Ilbo (first seen on North Korean Economy Watch) reports that Mr. Pak was designated as the fall guy for the DPRK’s currency redomination.  According to several reports, the currency redomination has been attributed through internal propaganda to Kim Jong-un (you didn’t think they were going to let him go, did you?), and according to several more reports, not exactly popular with North Korean citizens.  Mr. Pak, 81, was appointed as department director to the Financial Planning Department in September 2005, and he was the chair of the Budget Committee of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly.  He was the Chairman of the State Planning Commission (Gosplan) from 1998 to 2005, and from 1986 to 1993 before that.  In 2003 he became the interim KWP Secretary of the Economy [Economic Affairs].

He has alternated between Party and State positions throughout his career, and was a member of both the Kim Il-sung and O Jin-u Funeral Committees in the mid-1990’s.  Mr. Pak is a member of the Prague Group among North Korean elites, as a graduate of the Czech Technical University.  He was a semi-regular on Kim Jong-il’s guidance tours and inspections throughout 2009, and he appeared with Kim Jong-il in his first inspection of 2010 at the construction site of the Huichon Power Station.  According to other observation, his last known appearance in North Korean media  was his presence at a rally at the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex.  It is not definitively confirmed that Pak Nam-gi  has left his job, whether he fell on his sword or was dismissed; either way, this may explain the long faces on KJI confidantes Gen. Hyon Chol-hae and Jang Song-thaek in the photo below.

Pak Nam-gi is second from right in the line-up behind Kim Jong-il at the Huichon Power Station, January, 2010 (Photo: KCNA).

The Third Brother Who Put Out the Fire

In February 2009, Pyongyang  KCTV broadcast a children’s show The Good Heart of the Third Child.  In the 2 February (2010) bulletin from the Korean Central News Agency announced that the 26 April Children’s Film Studio released three (3) new films.  Of the new releases is A Story About Three Brothers:

“A Story about Three Brothers” is based on a folktale told by President Kim Il Sung. When a fire broke out in a mountain, the eldest one who built up his body at a smithy and the second who studied at a village school didn’t know how to put it out but the youngest who learned from peasants did it. Through this story the film shows that one should cultivate wisdom and strength applicable to practice.

Were DPRK Diplos Informed of KJU Succession?

JoongAng Daily citing Free North Korea Radio reports that a message to the DPRK’s overseas embassies and foreign missions communicated the designation of Kim Jong-un [Eun] as Kim Jong-il’s hereditary successor.  Kim Sung-min of FNKR claimed he was informed of this communication by an anonymous source employed in a DPRK Embassy.  Mr. Kim claims that the communication was sent out on Monday (1 February) morning in time for the daily political meeting of embassy/mission personnel.

Kim Sung-min said the notices were sent yesterday morning. For about half an hour each weekday morning, Kim said, North Korean diplomats sit down to read from the government mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun and discuss policies of the ruling Workers’ Party.

Government instructions are delivered during these sessions, Kim explained. He also said it’s not often that the government issues instruction to all of its overseas missions. “This means that Kim Jong-un’s succession is essentially official,” he said. “It doesn’t seem as though the North government has delivered the news to its public. But it’s taking steps to do so.”

Kim Sung-min added that Kim Jong-un’s birthday, Jan. 8, has been designated as “the largest holiday of the nation” and a separate notice on it was also sent out to embassies.

There is no indication about when the communique about Kim Jong-un’s birthday was issued to DPRK embassies/foreign missions.  Was it issued ahead of 8 January 2010?  Or was it issued after the fact and the embassies and foreign missions will celebrate the auspicious date will celebrate the Morningstar Birthday in January 2011?

An enterprising Japanese blogger attempted to learn whether DPRK embassies were informed of Kim Jong-un’s birthday, and compelled to hold celebrations:

On the 7th, I talked with a North Korean diplomat who is distantly related to Kim Jong Il. The first thing he said was, “We received no directives or notifications from Pyongyang at all. If an embassy is going to hold some celebration, there will usually be some report for it.” He was doubtful that any celebration would be held on the 8th.

I went to the North Korean embassy in the 14th District of Vienna on the 8th because I thought I might be able to see some special activities there. When celebrations are held on Kim Jong Il’s birthday (16 February) and Kim Il Sung’s birthday (15 April), the main gate of the embassy is open, and the parking lot is open for guests. The lights in the courtyard are turned on, and the diplomats wear formal attire. But on the 8th, the embassy was quiet, the main gate closed, and the parking lot was taken over by embassy cars. In other words, the likelihood of a celebration being held within the embassy was practically nil.

The blogger later contacted a relative of an embassy employee who informed him that no celebration or commemoration of Kim Jong-un’s birthday took place on 8 January.  Readers may recall the DPRK Embassy in Vienna is manned by Kim Kwang-sop, who is married to Kim Jong-il’s half-sister Kim Kyong-chin.  This group of expatriate North Koreans may be in a position to disregard directives about the Moringstar General’s Birthday, or at least inclined so to do.

To add further to this puzzle, there was a report that in March 2009 Jang Song-thaek traveled to three (3) European cities.  During this trip, it was alleged Mr. Jang conducted small meetings of DPRK Ambassadors and foreign mission personnel where he informed them of the succession decision.  Then again, in the 1970’s Mr. Jang and his wife were responsible for staffing newly constituted embassies, and this could well have been a matter of Mr. Jang checking in with his people.

Quick and Dirty Count of KJI Appearances in January 2010

In the first month of 2010, Kim Jong-il was reported by KCNA as having made twenty-five (25) public appearances.  This total is based on the number of individual locations Kim Jong-il visited to conduct an inspection, guidance or attend a performance. Over half of Kim Jong-il’s appearances (14) were to economic locales.  Economic locales are broadly defined as KPA farms, mines, and heavy and light industrial sites.  Kim Jong-il also inspected five (5) construction sites.  Construction sites are defined as buildings or infrastructure sites currently under construction or described by KCNA as “newly built.”  Kim Jong-il conducted only three (3) inspections of KPA units, two (2) of which included his observation of military drills.  He also attended three (3) art performances.

According to KCNA reporting and my observation of North Korean press photos and media, Kim Jong-il was accompanied most often by Gen. Hyon Chol-hae, Director of the NDC Standing Bureau, who appeared fifteen (15) times.  Second to Gen. Hyon was brother-in-law and KWP Administration Department Director Jang Song-thaek who accompanied Kim Jong-il twelve (12) times.  Mr. Jang’s wife, Kim Kyong-hui, joined her brother eleven (11) times.  However, if Kim Kyong-hui has replaced Kim Ok and is coordinating Kim Jong-il’s schedule and security arrangements, Ms. Kim was present at all of his visits.

Kim Jong-il's first public appearance at 2010 at the construction of the Huichon Power Station. Gen. Hyon Chol-hae (first from L) joined Kim Jong-il most often in the month of January. Jang Song-thaek (1st from R) was a not-so distant second.

Inspector O Goes to Macau

You got something to say, speak now or forever hold your peace

If it’s information you want, you can get it from the police

James Church gave an interview with the Macau Closer, which includes an excerpt from the forthcoming fourth novel in the Inspector O series (due out 17 August 2010 from Minotaur Books).  The fourth novel appears in as many years as the number of anti-corruption campaigns affecting O.  The Man with the Baltic Stare takes everybody’s favorite MPS employee to the city where Mr. Church first encountered the idea of O, as he tells Closer:

In a curious way, Inspector O, a detective in the Pyongyang branch of the North Korean Ministry of People’s Security, emerged from an incident during a trip I took to Macau twenty-five years ago. Two decades later he strolled out onto the pages of the first book nearly fully formed. I have to say, it was a surprise to see how much we seemed to understand each other.

The interview is also available in Chinese if one is inclined.  In the excerpt, Inspector O is dealt a most intriguing case. His Macau counterpart seems buffeted by rules which sound like something that originated in the KWP Administration Department:

“Yes, if someone else buys the meal. Standing is less corrupting, apparently. I can nibble tiny sandwiches by the plateful. I can heap on lobster, eat caviar with a shovel. But only if I stand.”

If you think you can not hold out for your O fix until the dog days of summer, I’ll have you know a fifth O novel is already being planned.

KJI Behind Closed Doors

EPILOGUE

It was pointed out to me, and I agree, that health rumors and medical treatments about North Korean elites are difficult to verify, and connected to the wrong individuals.

ORIGINAL

Sunny Lee, a journalist who has contributed many great reports about North Korean elites over the years, has an excellent report in UAE’s The National about an installment series of blog posts from Nambuk Story.  Nambuk Story is run by DPRK defector Joo Sung-ha.  The series of posts are a series of interviews Mr. Joo conducted with Mi-hyang, another defector, who was recruited and worked in Kim Jong-il’s so-called Pleasure Squad.  These posts represent the first credible accounts of General-Secretary Kim’s private life since the publication of Kenji Fujimoto’s memoirs.

The Pleasure Squad is part of the Fifth Section of Cadres subordinate to General-Secretary Kim’s Personal Secretariat.  It consists of women under the age of 25 who provide massages, sexual favors and entertainment to General-Secretary Kim and other North Korean elites.  Mi-hyang says that she was recruited at age 15 in her school, subjected to a vetting process.  After a six-month training course she was personally selected by General-Secretary Kim who changed her name, “He said my original name sounded like a countryside girl and gave me a new name, ‘Mi Hyang’, which has since been registered in all my official records.”

Mi-hyang said of Kim Jong-il:

His favourite delicacy contains the reproductive organ of sharks. He has a number of private residences around the capital city, some equipped with a 50-metre-long underground swimming pool. Mr Kim is known to be irascible towards his aides, but is surprisingly caring towards his private female attendants. He likes listening to Russian and Japanese music, but he is not a very good singer. He is good at hunting and often cooks the pheasants that he shoots.

[...]

When I first met Kim Jong Il, he looked so normal … like a next-door neighbour. He has many brown spots on his face. His teeth were yellowish. My previous fancy about the great leader was shattered at that very moment, but he was very considerate towards me.

An purported photo of Fifth Section Cadre recruits, taken at a KISYL chapter in Pyongyang.

Fifth Section Cadres performances (above and below)

Meanwhile, Sankei Shimbun reports that Kim Jong-il is presently receiving kidney dialysis treatments due to diabetes, according to Sankei’s Japanese government sources.  General-Secretary Kim’s health is otherwise reported as being quite good, and that accounts of kidney dialysis originated in the Fall of 2009.  It is also reported that prior to visits by high profile foreigners such as former US President Bill Clinton and Wen Jiabao, General-Secretary Kim undergoes dialysis.

When South Korea’s Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun visited North Korea in mid-August in 2009, she had to stay in Pyongyang for few days before meeting Kim Jong Il. “He [Kim] appears to have kept her waiting, because he has other diseases and therefore the day for his dialysis treatment cannot be specified,” (according to a South Korean source). Kim dined with Hyun Jeong-eun, and he reportedly drank wine and smoked tobacco.

Specialists have pointed out the possibility of Kim Jong Il having kidney failure caused by complications of diabetes. If, after care, such as strict dietary therapy for complications, does not go well, his health condition may take a sudden turn for the worse.

The status of General-Secretary Kim’s health is nearly impossible to verify, and has been scrutinized by many a moronic media personality with airtime to fill.  If this report is accurate, however, it would explain the supposed acceleration of the succession process.

General-Secretary Kim grinning during an inspection of the September General Iron Enterprise (Photo: KCNA).

US-DPRK Exchange of Musicians and Diplomats

Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the US State Department, according to its sources, may approve entry visas for members of the DPRK’s State Symphony Orchestra to give a concert, and a visit by senior MOFA officials (including Ri Gun and Kim Kye-gwan) to attend academic functions:

According to a source involved in the six-party talks, North Korea proposed a US performance by North Korea’s state orchestra through a private-sector cultural exchange organization in the United States to reciprocate the concert given by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Pyongyang in 2008. The US State Department is now considering the issuance of visas for the North Korean orchestra. Except for performances in Japan and South Korea, if the trip to the United States is realized, it will be the first performance by the North Korean orchestra in the free world.

Meanwhile, regarding the visit to the United States by senior North Korean Foreign Ministry officials, the above-mentioned US policy research institute is said to be making behind-the-scenes preparations to invite a delegation that will include Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-kwan and Ri Ku’n, director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s American Affairs Bureau, to Washington and New York for lectures and other events the institute will host. It is likely that US and North Korean officials involved in the six-party talks would meet sometime during the North Korean delegation’s visit to the United States.