A week ahead of the next summit with President Trump, North Korea’s Kim
Jong Un is reported to have removed some 50 to 70 people who were
overwhelmingly hawks seen as resistant to the diplomatic process.
According to reports in the Wall Street Journal,
these people are being targeted under a new anti-corruption initiative,
but are being singled out as hawks. Some are being jailed, others
exiled, and still others are being executed outright.
This collection of officials were seen to have been amassing power
within the government, and some had used those positions to stock away
some illegally acquired wealth. The money being confiscated in the purge
in also shoring up North Korea’s economy in the immediate term.
In the long-term, the gains are less about money confiscated, which
reports concede were only large “on a North Korean scale,” and that Kim
is rid of a lot of the opponents of diplomacy. This should ensure that
his position is supported across top positions.
… Kim isn’t getting this whole opening up thing. However, he is disarming.
Really? what is your evidence for that claim?
… Getting rid of the regime hawks most willing and eager to fight the U.S. is disarmament at a level deeper than just weapons disarmament. These would be the factions of NKs willing to shoot with the knowledge to shoot.
Assuming they are really being gotten rid of, that is.
That also assumes that that is the real reason he got rid of them. Perhaps they simply opposed any talks with the US. Kim can always raise up new hawks if he thinks he needs them. In the meantime, he is not dismantling any weapons, or even productive capacity.
It takes 20 years to raise a human recruit, another 20 more to hopefully instill enough experience in knowledge and skill to make a good officer, add to that the nepotism of the ruling elite. Hawks are not easy to replace in NK, at least not competent ones.
Although testing Great Leader’s patience might be seen as an intelligence test in its own right. The smarter hawks stayed shut up.
NK weapons aren’t very good, and productive capacity of not good stuff is worthless.
North Korea’s danger factor outside having Russia and China on-side, stems from their willingness to fight intensely, and how good they can be at that.
Maybe we can appoint John Bolton and Elliot Abrams to a post in the North Korean government.
Don’t forget Pompeo and his opened bible.
and Pence the genuine Christian.
Well, that’s one way to cull the neocon herd. 😮
Or we could take a page from “Operation Nemesis,” the post-WW1 assassination campaign the Armenians launched against those Turks who participated in the genocide. Nice touch, naming it after the Greek goddess of divine retribution.
Those Armenians know how to play the long game. F**k with those people and you’ll get response even if it takes a century. They’re only alive because they forget nothing.
How can he be a ruthless dictator? He writes big very beautiful letters.
First of all, why believe any article from the wall street journal. They are not credible. This article resembles fruit from a poisonous tree.
If you follow the WSJ links, and source, you get the NKSC, a defector based NGO. They distribute electronic media clandestinely to North Korea, and “educate” defectors. Sounds like 5th column stuff to me. Other sources show 400 arrests for corruption or political crimes since 2011. Guessing, I call bs on the timing of this release, and it’s general data which emphasizes executions.
Maybe we could learn a thing or two from this kid.
“,,,,and is thought to have netted the regime as much as several million dollars…”
mere peanuts in most Third World countries which are cesspools of corruption, bribery and extortion by government and business Elites
https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018
compare that to report that the Saudis netted tens of billions, or more, with their so called anti corruption schemes a year or two ago.
poor North Korea has been tortured by the US since WWII