Mick Hartley

Some North Korean links…

Of some relevance to the debate on food aid:

Sources have revealed that the authorities have ordered five days of food to be distributed nationwide starting later this month, the first such distribution in a year of planned celebrations to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the 70th anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong Il and the dawning of a year in which the authorities have long claimed the country is to enter a new era of prosperity.

According to one source, “With New Year ahead, an order to distribute five days of food to the people over five days from the 20th has been handed down to every city and county public distribution center.” The information was subsequently verified with further sources in both South Pyongan and Yangkang Provinces….

The distribution order comes following 2011, a year which North Korea worked hard to obtain food aid from various third countries, a move analyzed by some at the time as being an attempt to secure food stocks in order to try and give the impression of prosperity in 2012.

Kim Jong-nam reckons that younger brother, aka the Supreme Commander, won't last long:

Former North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Jong-nam has said the isolated regime will eventually fail with or without reforms. The comment appears in e-mail conversations exchanged over seven years between Kim Jong-nam and a Japanese journalist and obtained by the Monthly Chosun.

Kim Jong-nam, who was passed over for the leadership in favor of his younger brother Kim Jong-un, expresses doubts about his brother's ability and the dynastic succession in general. "I'm concerned how Jong-un, who merely resembles my grandfather [former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung], will be able to satisfy the needs of North Koreans," he wrote. "Kim Jong-un is still just a nominal figure and the members of the power elite will be the ones in actual power."

Kim added that his father had originally intended to halt the hereditary transfer of power, saying it would only damage his and his father's "accomplishments." But he changed his mind because he came to believe that the Kim family bloodline was necessary to maintain the stability of the North Korean regime. Kim Jong-nam said even North Korea's sole ally China is less than enamored of the situation. "Rather than welcoming the hereditary succession, China is merely acknowledging it for the sake of maintaining stability," he said. "The dynastic succession is a joke to the outside world."

Not to all of the outside world. Check out, if you dare, the Kim Jong-il Memorial in London (thanks to Mr Eugenides) from the CPGB-ML.