Kim Jong-il
Blockages and Breakthroughs: Cultural Diplomacy and North Korea
Yesterday, Corée_Actualités launched a short missive which functioned as a kind of bouleversement of the normal: a 90-member delegation of the DPRK’s Unhasu Orchestra (consisting of 70 players) will be performing at the Salle Pleyel in Paris this coming March 21. The French Radio Symphony Orchestra (l’Orchestre de Radio France) will be playing alongside Unhasu, under the direction of […]
Statues and Empty Bowls: Notes on North Korean Iconography and Prospects for European and Chinese Aid
Fireworks and Empty Bowls: Notes on North Korean Iconography and Prospects for European and Chinese Aid by Adam Cathcart As expected, today’s 70th birthday commemorations for Kim Jong Il find the deceased leader at the burning revolutionary center of North Korean media. And his son, having teased foreign observers (and, presumably, tickled the curiosity […]
Sunday Report
A short Sunday report from Seattle… — Adam Cathcart, Editor-in-Chief – Adam Cathcart, “How Weibo ‘Killed’ Kim Jong-un,” The Diplomat, February 11, 2012, http://the-diplomat.com/2012/02/11/how-weibo-“killed”-kim-jong-un/ So what to make of Friday’s talk? Jaundiced irony is hardly a monopoly of the Western press when covering North Korea, but some of the analysis of the Kim Jong-un rumors was, […]
Kim Jong Nam: Prodigal Son or Chinese Ally?
The righteously false storm of Kim Jong Un death rumors which passed over the Chinese Internet yesterday make today’s essay particularly relevant. How safe are the Kim sons in Beijing? How factionalized, in fact, is the Kim family? What are the current dynamics between Kim Jong Nam and the Chinese state? Is Kim Jong Nam China’s prefered […]
China-North Korea Dossier No. 2: “China’s ‘Measure of Reserve’ toward Succession”
North Korean resentment of China has multiple origins, but the PRC’s refusal to immediately accept Kim Jong-il as heir is surely one. New CIA documents tell the story.
Partners
