Communist Nation

The succession rumors continue to intensify in the wake of the toothless sanctions imposed by the United Nations for the recent nuke and missile tests. A third is said to be on the way. In the meantime, Google News showed some un-named sources saying Kim Jong Un has been named “Brilliant Comrade” as a way to start building a cult of personality.

I went to the KCNA web site and found no evidence of anything about Kim Jong Un, but that does not mean other media inside North Korea has said anything about him either. It kind of sucks not to know the Korean language (I would have access to a lot more source material if I did), but with the limited information I do have, I do not see anything yet.

As Andrei Lankov suggested from a post made by ROK Drop a few days ago, there will be more than enough to write and speculate about once the kid is named officially, if he is named officially. Moreover, the newspaper that carried the report of this new title did not have the article cited in the NYT (not that I could find anyway), but did run into an interesting blurb on what may be a more recent photo of Kim Jong Un:

Finally, on the same page, Kim’s former chef has some interesting insight as well:

“Since the senior Kim regarded his second son as ‘girlish’ and not aggressive, I don’t think Kim Jong-il will oust Jong-chol even though Jong-un has become Kim’s heir,” Fujimoto said. “There won’t be a power struggle. Jong-chol is moderate and can be Jong-un’s supporter.”

The rest of the interview is pretty darn good, so I suggest you read it.

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Tags: Path To Succession