NK Leadership
Foundations (1): Quotations from Chairman Kim Il Sung
What is new and what is old in North Korea? As was pointed out in a particularly astute recent article in the Washington Post, especially during this transition, Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) forms the ultimate baseline for determining North Korean culture in its many forms, and for measuring its evolution. As B.R. Myers points out in […]
Gen. Guo Boxiong at the DPRK Embassy, Dec. 20
China’s head of state and the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao suprised at least a few people by showing up at the North Korean embassy in Beijing the morning after Kim Jong Il’s death was announced. Although Hu could not meet the DPRK Ambassador to China (more about that in tomorrow’s […]
Documenting Chemical Weapons Facilities Along the DPRK’s Northern Frontier
As documented on this website, recent changes in the DPRK have prompted renewed assertions by Chinese think-tank intellectuals that now is the time for North Korea to back away from the “military-first” policy which had so distinguished – some might even say marred — Kim Jong-Il’s reign. While the public justification for this recommendation in […]
China’s Great Power Strategy Can Help North Korea to Demilitarize: Chinese Scholar
A rough translation of an editorial in Huanqiu Shibao that encapsulates a bit of possible self-delusion in China: the notion that North Korea is about to undertake a “peace dividend,” settle down and fundamentally reorient its economy away from military-first politics: Sun Xingjie, “大国要给朝鲜安全感 / A Great Power Will Give North Korea Feelings of Security,” […]
Two Chinese Visions of Post-Kim Jong Il North Korea: Translations
A much more extensive Sino-NK Document Dossier is in the works, gathering up a number of sources in translation for a more comprehensive look at Chinese views of the North Korean transition, but in the meantime two translated editorials will suffice: 1. Sun Xingsong [孙兴杰] “Severe Challenges Facing the Kim Jong Eun Era [金正恩时代面临重重挑战],” Huanqiu […]





