Information source on the North
Someone to follow on Twitter, @BruceWBennett:
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Senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, specializing in Northeast Asian military issues. Opinions do not represent RAND. RTs are not endorsements.
He's just Tweeted:
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Kim Jong-Un appears to be particularly concerned about regime security.....He's tightened the border with China, put uniformed security guards around himself, & tried to cut info flow from the outside - esp. China....More signs that there may be more insecurity in North Korea than many analysts believe
An unpredictable n'bor causes alarm
A short commentary by Mark Fitzpatrick, from IISS (London), which is worth reading and ends with:
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North Korea is also a more dangerous state to its citizens. The danger is most palpable to Jang’s associates, who numbered in the thousands. Facing a similar purge, many will seek escape, by self-exile if possible, or self-defence if necessary. Given Kim Jong-un’s control over the military and party, a coup d’état is unlikely. On the other hand, Jang’s execution, which up until a few days ago was entirely unexpected, shows how unpredictable North Korea is.
Link:http://www.iiss.org/en/politics%20an...rth-korea-f530
These three sentences though say it all:
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The power struggle under way in North Korea is often portrayed as balancing the relative strength of the military and the Party. In practical terms, it is a struggle over resources. Over the past year, the military was stripped of control over foreign currency-earning enterprises.
Even for such a workers paradise foreign exchange earnings exert a powerful influence. Earnings that do not come from traditional exports
North Korea is going to the dogs
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/01...ors_picks=true
North Korean leader fed uncle to starving dogs, report says
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The Singaporean Straits Times cited a report from Wen Wei Po, a Beijing-control newspaper, that said Jang Song Thaek and five close associates were stripped and fed to 120 dogs that had not eaten for three days. The entire process, witnessed by 300 senior officials, lasted for about an hour, the report said. Fox News could not immediately verify the report
Unfortunately, true or not, this story could be true in the crazy fiefdom of North Korea, but
http://www.smh.com.au/world/why-kim-...104-30a85.html
Why Kim Jong-un probably didn't feed his naked uncle to 120 dogs
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But there are five big reasons that this story just does not seem particularly plausible. The fact that the Western media have so widely accepted a story they would reject if it came out of any other country tells us a lot about how North Korea is covered - and how it's misunderstood.
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Third, South Korea's media have also not touched the story. "This story has hardly been picked up on by Korean media which is one reason to be suspicious," Chad O'Carroll, who edits the news site NKNews.org, told me via email. "The other reason to be suspicious is because the rumour surfaced ages ago - but no one paid attention to it," he said.
South Korean media are quite plugged in to North Korean defector communities, to sources still in the country and most especially to South Korea's intelligence agency. Some of those outlets can be eager to pick up stories or rumors that portray North Korea in a negative light. And, as O'Carroll pointed out, they're not shy about running single-source stories. But South Korea's many news outlets, big and small, seem to be treating this story as so implausible it's not even worth mentioning. And they would know.