Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Kim Jong-un is reported to be in a coma which could ‘spell disaster for the country’, an ex-diplomat has said. Chang Song-min, former aide to South Korea’s late president Kim Dae-jung, said the North Korean leader’s powers were now being transferred to his sister.
He claimed to have received the information from a source in China. He told South Korean media: ‘I assess him to be in a coma, but his life has not ended. A complete succession structure has not been formed, so Kim Yo-jong is being brought to the fore as the vacuum cannot be maintained for a prolonged period.
’ Earlier this week the National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that Kim would gradually transfer authority to his sister to ease his stress and ‘avert culpability in the event of policy failure’. However, the South Korean agency noted that Kim would still ‘exert absolute power’.
In a closed door briefing, Ha Tae-keung, a South Korean MP, said the bottom line was ‘that Kim Jong-un still holds absolute power but has turned over a bit more of his authority compared to the past’. He added: ‘Kim Yo-jong is the de facto second-in-command.’
Over the past month, the North has reported a dizzying sequence of high-level meetings in Pyongyang: a Central Military Commission (CMC) session followed by an unusual, smaller CMC “closed-door” meeting the same day (July 18); an “emergency Politburo meeting” (July 25); an unusual Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) “Executive Policy Council” meeting (August 5); another Politburo (Political Bureau) meeting (August 13); and a Central Committee (CC) plenum (August 19). Even for Kim Jong Un, who has already convened far more high-level party meetings than his father did in his 17-year rule, five in a month is a lot.
Stock footage?
Tuo taisi olla oikea Kim eikä kaksoisolento.
Jos tuo oli korona istunto niin missä maskit ja miksi jengi on lähekkäin?
Eivät ole tainneet osalliset sotilaat selvitä kovennetulla ja nuhteluilla, kun kerran Suuren Johtajan piti nöyrtyä anteeksipyyntöön.
Harvinaista on kyllä, että pyydetään ylipäätään anteeksi.
Suspects in North Korea are subjected to ritual torture, humiliation and sexual assault by a criminal justice system that considers them “less than an animal”, according to the first-ever report detailing the brutality of the country’s pretrial detention conditions.
The US-based Human Rights Watch [HRW] said people who are arrested and sent to pretrial detention are placed in cramped, unhygienic cells, forced to confess and denied proper food and clothing.
“Prisoners literally waste away from lack of food unless they can bribe guards to have their families send food,” Phil Robertson, HRW’s Asia deputy director, told reporters on Monday.
Hilpeä meininki! Kaikki aivan tuolin reunalla just heittäytymässä tanssiin mukaan.
The incoming US administration will have to make an early decision on what approach it will take with North Korea, and not repeat the delay of the Obama era, a former US official who has advised President-elect Joe Biden has said.
Kurt Campbell, the top US diplomat for east Asia under President Barack Obama and seen as a contender for a senior position under Biden, said the administration he had served in began with a “rather prolonged period of study” on how to handle Pyongyang.
“One of the key challenges of Biden administration is the need to make an early decision about what to do with respect to North Korea,” Campbell said.
He said the period of delay during the Obama administration saw “provocative” steps by North Korea “that basically headed off any possibility of engagement.”
North Korea’s ruler, Kim Jong-un, has admitted that his economic policies have largely failed, and vowed to avoid a repeat of the “painful lessons” of the past at a rare meeting of the country’s ruling party.
Kim told the congress of the Workers’ party that his five-year economic plan had failed to achieve its goals “in almost all areas to a great extent”, North Korean state media said on Wednesday.
“We should further promote and expand the successes and victories that we’ve achieved through our painstaking efforts but prevent us from having the painful lessons again.”