Kim Jong-un

Sunday Report

By | February 12, 2012

 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?

By | February 11, 2012

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”

By and | February 09, 2012

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.

Anchorwomen, Tanks, and Other Symbols

By | January 25, 2012

– Martyn Williams has a tremendous illustrated run-down of the unprecedented Korean Central TV-China Central TV collaboration during the Spring Festival; Xinhua reporter Zhang Li — who was the first Chinese reporter in Pyongyang on television about 15 minutes after the announcement of Kim’s death — strikes again in conversation with her distinguished North Korean […]

North Korea’s Troll Army? The Sinophone Internet Debate Over Kim Jong Un’s On-Site Inspection

By | January 22, 2012

In the endeavor to follow news coming out of Pyongyang since January 1, it has been occasionally difficult to follow Chinese news threads about Kim Jong Un.  Something suprising appears to be happening on the Chinese internet in the Kim Jong Un era, at least on the Huanqiu Shibao/Global Times comment boards, which, associated with […]