generalspeaking

Unmistakably Totalitarian

Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool/Getty Images

"It is an anti-party, anti-revolutionary act to pretend to be revering the leader in front of him when you actually dream of something else."
"There are traitors and turncoats who only memorize words of loyalty toward the Leader and even change according to the trend of the time."
Commentary, Rodong Sinmun, official North Korea party paper

"It does appear that the next time we have serious conversations that my counterpart will be someone else. ... Just as President Trump gets to decide who his negotiators will be, Chairman Kim will get to make his own decisions who he asks to have these conversations."
Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State 

"Anyone who negotiates with the US is obligated now more than ever to take an intransigent hard line." 
"Working-level negotiators are going to be very wary about bringing any hypothetical US concession to Kim Jong-un for fear of getting their heads chopped off."
Van Jackson, North Korea expert, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Vietnam News Agency/Handout/Getty Images

Former ambassador to Spain, Kim Hyok Chol, along with four other North Korean officials who had been responsible for laying the groundwork for the February Trump-Kim summit that took place in Vietnam were charged with spying for the United States. For that crime against the state and Kim Jong-un, they were executed outside Pyongyang at Mirim Airport in March, according to the South Korean Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

Before the failed Hanoi summit, Kim Yong Chol had taken part in several rounds of talks with the American Secretary of State, and he was sentenced to forced labour and ideological 're-education'. Shin Hye Young, Kim Jong-un's interpreter during those talks was sent, along with two others to political prison camps for the crime of "undermining" Kim's authority through a translation error.

The summit's failure and the fallout of international sanctions inspired Kim, it would appear, to deflect blame for the failure by diverting attention to focus on these former regime stalwarts who failed the test of loyalty, much less utility in their assigned function. Kim had expressed confidence that Donald Trump would agree to lift sanctions, and he expressed as much before leaving for Vietnam.

Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images

The penalties imposed upon this group of senior regime functionaries reflects the level of his rage over the failure and his resulting humiliation. There are rumours surfacing that even his sister, Kim Yo Jong, who had been present during part of the negotiations and who had presented as the smiling face of the regime to soften tensions, is also in a state of disgrace. She is far less visible than she had been formally when she enjoyed the trust of her brother.

A professor specializing in the leadership of North Korea, who teaches at Waseda University in Tokyo, felt the situation may have resulted from ministry officials being too intimidated to inform Kim directly of Washington's demands prefacing the talks, in fear of Kim's reaction. Consequently, the little dictator appeared at the talks with the belief the sides were closing on an agreement.

He was, it appears, caught off guard when the United States made its demand that he close all five of his nuclear processing plants, whereas Kim had offered that he would have one of them closed. Once it became clear that agreement between the two would not be possible, the U.S. halted the summit and ties have once again become confrontational.

To demonstrate its ire over the situation the North fired a number of short-range missiles.

Labels: Kim Jong-un, Missiles, North Korea, Nuclear Agreement, United States

posted by Pieface @ Monday, June 03, 2019