DPRK Leadership

Ever since previous North Korean leader Kim Jong-il passed away in December 2011, concerns about the new North Korean regime have been growing. Although the international community has worried mainly about the country’s foreign policy, especially nuclear and missile threats, recent news about a purge in the North Korean leadership has brought to the fore the question of the regime’s internal stability. Kim Jong-un has been steadily building a new system of governance, giving more power to the Korean Workers’ Party apparatus at the expense of the armed forces. He has also shown interest in boosting North Korea’s economy. In foreign and security policy, however, in the short term, North Korea is likely to continue on its previous uncompromising course.

Ob Feb. 07, 2016, the joint industrial zone at Kaesong experienced another crisis, if not the beginning of its end.
I have been there a couple of times and always left deeply impressed, and wondering. I think the key question is why both sides have kept the zone open for so long. I have difficulties believing the "greed" argument for the NK side, since the amount in question was small and they have previously shown that ideology and politics always trump econmoic rationality. I also don't buy the "we ran out of patience" point of the South, considering the many occasions they have had before to pull the plug.

The rumor mill has been working overtime in recent weeks due to a spate of unprecedented and often contradictory news items coming out of Pyongyang—items which, individually, wouldn’t raise more than a few eyebrows, mostly just among longtime Korea watchers, but which in the aggregate would seem to suggest that potentially significant changes are afoot in the Hermit Kingdom. While the mainstream media is geared toward sensationalistic reporting anything regarding President Kim Jong Un—even, as in recent reports, his conspicuous absence from the public eye—other events involving senior officeholders in Pyongyang have virtually slipped unnoticed under the media’s radar, making it worth taking a step back to analyze just what, if anything, these various events signal.

Le décès de Kim Jong-il : le début d’une nouvelle ère en Corée du Nord ? Depuis la mort de Kim Jong-il et l’avènement de son fils Kim Jong-un, la Corée du Nord est entrée dans une nouvelle phase de son histoire. Les réformes économiques nord-coréennes rappellent le besoin de définir la nature du modèle économique nord-coréen. Une définition qui permet de présenter la stratégie du pays et d’en déterminer les enjeux.

Ever since previous North Korean leader Kim Jong-il passed away in December 2011, concerns about the new North Korean regime have been growing. Although the international community has worried mainly about the country’s foreign policy, especially nuclear and missile threats, recent news about a purge in the North Korean leadership has brought to the fore the question of the regime’s internal stability. Kim Jong-un has been steadily building a new system of governance, giving more power to the Korean Workers' Party apparatus at the expense of the armed forces. He has also shown interest in boosting North Korea’s economy. In foreign and security policy, however, in the short term, North Korea is likely to continue on its previous uncompromising course.