15
   

Where is waldo - I mean Kin Jong-un?

 
 
Linkat
 
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 09:03 am
When Kim Jong-un skipped out on a session of the Supreme People’s Assembly last month, it raised some eyebrows. It has been 34 days since the world last saw North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un in public and the rumor mill is working overtime. Bloggers are drooling at every new conspiracy theory but experts aren’t sweating.

Here are some reasons noted -
1. Is he sick?
2. Did he fracture his ankle because he’s too heavy?
3. Could he be overseas getting medical care?
4. And by the way, where is his wife?
5. Was there a coup?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/10/where-is-kim-jong-un-and-six-more-questions-about-north-koreas-leader/

Where do you think he is? Have you had a sighting of him?
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Type: Question • Score: 15 • Views: 4,346 • Replies: 46

 
Lordyaswas
 
  1  
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 09:16 am
@Linkat,
There was a thread about this the other day....


This one thinks he's been overthrown....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2779139/Has-Kim-Jong-Un-lost-control-North-Korea-Nation-s-former-intelligence-officer-says-overthrown-2013-just-puppet-leader.html
0 Replies
 
mark noble
 
  1  
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 10:30 am
@Linkat,
He's just fine.
Try 'vladivostok' latest news.
Lordyaswas
 
  3  
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 10:34 am
@mark noble,
Well, if the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media says he's fine, who am I to argue?
Linkat
 
  3  
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 10:48 am
@mark noble,
mark noble wrote:

He's just fine.
Try 'vladivostok' latest news.


Then he changed as he has never been "fine."
Linkat
 
  1  
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 10:49 am
@Lordyaswas,
Maybe we should check with Dennis Rodman - he might know as they are such close friends.
0 Replies
 
mark noble
 
  1  
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 11:04 am
@Linkat,
I like the guy - So he's fine.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 11:09 am
@Linkat,
I only noticed these somehow surprising incidents:
- Hwang Pyong-so, Choe Ryong-hae, and Kim Yang-gon made their visit to South Korea on Saturday = some good signs, generally, perhaps a hint to .... whatever,
- on Tuesday morning at 9:50 a.m. local time, North and South Korean naval patrol boats opened fire near the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, on the Northern Limit Line = not jus "business as usual" but of a more severe category, like if Kim Jong-un would run mad as usual.
0 Replies
 
Ragman
 
  1  
Reply Tue 7 Oct, 2014 11:14 am
@Linkat,
He's visiting with Dennis "The Worm" Rodman.
Lordyaswas
 
  1  
Reply Fri 10 Oct, 2014 07:46 am
@Ragman,
No sign of Kim Jong-Un on party anniversary
Kim Jong-un, the young North Korean leader, has now not been seen in public for 37 days after failing to appear at a key anniversary



"Kim Jong-un has failed to attend a key political anniversary for the first time since he became North Korea’s leader and has now not been seen in public for 37 days.
Until this year, Kim has marked the anniversary of the founding of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) by making an early morning visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang.
On Friday, however, he was absent for the 69th anniversary, according to the Korean Central News Agency, the official North Korean news wire, which did not list his name at the event.
North Korean watchers were keeping a close eye on the event amid rumours that Kim has succumbed to serious illness or been deposed in a coup.
“For the 69th Anniversary of the party establishment, party and military members visited Kumsusan Sun Palace to express their noble respect. Kim Yong Nam, Park Bong Ju, Hwang Byung Seo, and other party, military, working group members joined the event,” reported KCNA......"

More : -



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11153119/No-early-sign-of-missing-Kim-Jong-Un-on-party-anniversary.html
0 Replies
 
Ragman
 
  1  
Reply Fri 10 Oct, 2014 07:56 am
Who cares? No news is good news.
0 Replies
 
rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Fri 10 Oct, 2014 12:10 pm
Putting aside the question of where he is for a moment... *IF* he is no longer running things, what are the chances that any new leadership will be much better?

I don't know much about the inner workings of the DPRK. Is there a good chance that any new leadership will be better, or is it more likely to be "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"?
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Fri 10 Oct, 2014 12:18 pm
@rosborne979,
So far I don't notice any policy change.
0 Replies
 
Lustig Andrei
 
  3  
Reply Fri 10 Oct, 2014 01:00 pm
Ok, OK. The truth can now be told.

He's been shacking up with a good looking wahine on the island of Maui right here in the Sandwich Islands. Eating poi and Spam and hosting lavish luaus. I had drinks with him just the other day.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Fri 10 Oct, 2014 01:16 pm
@rosborne979,
The no. 2, Hwang Pyong-so, is said to be ... no-one is really sure.
Others say, his sister Kim Yo-jong will inherit (or already) the power.
And a few more persons are named - speculations over speculations ...
0 Replies
 
viviansa
 
  1  
Reply Fri 10 Oct, 2014 08:56 pm
@Linkat,
The fact that only Kin Jong-un appeared to know, anything is possible.
0 Replies
 
hawkeye10
 
  0  
Reply Fri 10 Oct, 2014 09:13 pm
Best guess is three, out of the country on medical leave. There is no upside for him to advertise either that he is gone for an extended time nor that he is sick enough that he needs to do this nor that he cant get the care he needs in North Korea. I also think that the supreme secrecy here indicates that he is in Europe rather than China.

The big caveat though is that he does not have complete power, and that business with his Uncle was very strange. Never before has north korea killed a family member anywhere near that close in relation to the leader. The explanation is that Uncle had been repeatedly warned and failed to comply thus an example had to be made of him, everyone else needs to know that being blood will not save you if you are a complete dick, which makes sense. Still, we have so few facts it is hard to know what is going on over there.
0 Replies
 
Finn dAbuzz
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Oct, 2014 11:18 pm
I heard someone speculating that he had gout.

I don't care a fig about the fat little monster's health, but it is a rogue nation with nuclear weapons. The instability of a power struggle could be very dangerous for South Korea and Japan. I don't think there is a snow ball's chance in hell that a moderate reformer is waiting in the wings. The place is hell on earth for 95% of its people.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Mon 13 Oct, 2014 02:35 am
A correspondent was talking on the radio a few days ago saying if a coup was in place there would be a massive lockdown. That's not happening, life is going on as normal, (by North Korean standards.)
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Mon 13 Oct, 2014 03:13 am
From the BBC website.

Quote:
Kim Jong-un, North Korea's 32-year-old leader, has been absent from public view for more than 38 days, prompting a flurry of speculation about the political stability of a regime notorious for its opaqueness and secrecy.

In particular, Mr Kim's non-attendance at two high-profile public events - the 10 October anniversary of the establishment of the Korean Worker's Party, and the 9 September Foundation Day of the North Korean State - two signature days in the political calendar when the leader would be expected to make an appearance, has been read by some as a sign of potential political turmoil behind the scenes.

Official North Korean media have cited unspecified personal "discomfort" as grounds for Mr Kim's absence from public view.

Foreign analysts of the regime have speculated, on the basis of very limited empirical evidence, that this may be based on a variety of causes ranging from gout, diabetes, heavy smoking on the part of the young leader, ankle injuries sustained during recent military inspection visits, and most recently (according to testimony from a German doctor who met Mr Kim) substantial problems in his endocrine system and internal organs.
Poor health is a plausible explanation for Mr Kim's decision to shun the limelight - a striking departure for a leader who, in marked contrast to his publicity-shy father (the late Kim Jong-il), has appeared to revel in high-profile public appearances.

A more dramatic interpretation is that Mr Kim has been the victim of a political coup and is languishing under house arrest, having been removed from power by members of the North's political and military gerontocracy alarmed by his penchant for purging his political rivals - most notably the execution of his uncle Jang Song-taek in December 2013 - and his failure to promote lasting economic prosperity.

In particular, senior members of the Pyongyang elite, may, according to this theory, have become increasingly disgruntled as a result of tightening international sanctions that have curtailed their access to privileges in-kind, typically in the form of ever more scarce luxury commodities.

Alternatively, Mr Kim's putative political fall from grace could be the result of worries within political circles that the North has been failing in the high-stakes game of international diplomacy.

An erratic policy over the last nine months of alternately sharply criticising and reaching out to the Park Geun-hye administration in South Korea has failed to deliver any political or economic dividends for the North, whether in the form of substantially expanded humanitarian aid, a re-start of tourism at the North's Mount Kumgang resort, or a dramatic rise in inward foreign investment and trade.

The Obama administration remains resolutely committed to not responding to the North's military and political provocations, and the North seems incapable of leveraging its de facto nuclear status into any meaningful political or diplomatic concessions from Washington; even China, the North's sole security guarantor and regional ally, has become increasingly irritated by Mr Kim's regional belligerence.

No successor

Yet for all the talk of coups and leadership realignments, the circumstantial evidence suggests that Mr Kim remains in charge. South Korea's intelligence community supports the view that he is recuperating from illness and that the decision to limit his public appearances is more likely an attempt to maintain the general air of infallibility associated with the Kim dynasty.

If anything, recent diplomatic overtures are, more plausibly, confirmation that Mr Kim continues to dictate national policy. The 4 October surprise visit to Seoul by a three-man delegation, headed by Mr Kim's trusted senior military adviser, Hwang Pyong-so, vice-chairman of the National Defence Commission and a former official in the country's powerful but secretive Organisation and Guidance Department (OGD), points to Kim still being in control.
Mr Hwang reportedly brought with him a personal message from Mr Kim to President Park and the visit was intended to open up rare diplomatic space for renewed North-South dialogue.

This comes on the heels of a similar overture in late September at the United Nations, when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon received a handwritten letter from Mr Kim, delivered by North Korean foreign minister Ri Su-young - the first time in 15 years that a senior North Korean official has attended the United Nations.

Perhaps the strongest evidence against the coup scenario is the lack of a clear successor to Mr Kim. North Korea lacks any tradition of collective leadership to warrant a political transition in the North comparable to the post-Stalin shift that occurred under Khrushchev and Malenkov in the Soviet Union in 1953.

Most importantly the dominance of the Kim dynasty and reliance exclusively on family lineage as a basis for political legitimacy in the North restricts the range of eligible replacement leaders to a handful of distinctly implausible options. Mr Kim's two brothers are non-starters, with one of them in exile overseas and the second disqualified on grounds of his effeminate character and reported predilection for amphetamines.

There has been speculation that Mr Kim's younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, may be standing in temporarily for her brother, but even if true, it is highly unlikely that she would constitute a viable and publicly acceptable alternative leader in a highly sexist society that has no basis for having a woman at the helm.

For now, the most banal explanation for Kim Jong-un's absence is the most convincing - health concerns of an undisclosed nature are keeping him from public view.

If and when he returns, expect more diplomacy and efforts at renewed engagement with the outside world, coupled with periodic bouts of largely symbolic political and military sabre-rattling to demonstrate that North Korea remains both a force to be reckoned with and a state neither to be ignored nor taken for granted.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-29581342
 

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