Just another example of inaccuracies in North Korea reporting Reclusive North Korea Salutes Albanian Birthday The text under the title says: “Noting the 100th anniversary of Albania’s independence, Kim Yong Nam, reclusive leader of North Korea, sent greetings to President Bujar Nishani on Wednesday.” This makes it sound like Kim Yong Nam is the leader of North Korea — likely a confusion with Kim Jong Eun, perhaps as a result of unfamiliarity with the new leader. Don’t get me wrong, Kim Yong Nam is a leader in North Korea… but he is not reclusive at all. He is the leader of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) of North Korea, which is a parliament if one widens the definition of parliament beyond all recognition. By the way, if a news source uses the phrase “Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly” instead of simply “Supreme People’s Assembly,” that news source has most likely copied large portions of the article from a KCNA release. Just try googling “Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly”. Anyway, the SPA is a mockery of the concept of an elected lesgislative body. For more details on how the members of the SPA are “elected”, see this Economist article. An excerpt: “For one thing, “voters” do not have much choice. They are presented with a single candidate in the district where they live. These candidates are chosen by the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, the governing coalition, which is controlled by the Workers’ Party.” For an account of some of the inner workings of the SPA, see this article from DailyNK. Kim Yong Nam does have some executive functions but this is like saying that Mitch McConnell is the leader of the US — if Mitch McConnell had to do absolutely everything Barack Obama asked him to under threat of execution.

People in Pyeongyang who watch South Korean dramas live 2014-11-18 한국 드라마실시간 시청하는 평양 주민들 — original by Joo Seung-Ha 12 years have already passed since I arrived in South Korea and began practicing hunt-and-peck typing until the wee hours of night. I had secluded myself in my room, struggling to learn how to use the internet, when my computer went down. I found a place with a sign that said “Computer Cleaning” and took my computer there in my backpack. I thought it was a “place where computers are cleaned” but I saw laundry hung everywhere and thought it strange. Regardless, the thought that this could be a dry cleaners didn’t even enter my mind and I asked the owner there to please fix my computer. Even when I think about it now, I laugh. When I got my first phone (secondhand), I stayed up all night trying to figure out how to use it. Back then, I was like a man who had ridden a time machine and plopped down 30 years into the future. Now, I live a life in which I type constantly as a journalist, and even with ever-changing social media manage to maintain a blog which has had more than 62 million visitors — I daresay I adapted well. However, keeping up with the constant changes still leaves me breathless. In the North nowadays they’re probably feeling more confused than I ever did. The message I got from my contacts was such that going back sounded tempting, even. Back when I was in North Korea, one’s family was considered wealthy if they owned a VCR. But now North Korea has LCD TVs, smartphones, and tablet PCs that can be procured without much ado; it really seems like they’ve jumped 30 years forward in the last ten. In the middle of the deluge of technological advancement, the government’s also moved ahead decades in censorship know-how. In the early 2000s, CD players exploded onto the North Korean scene and South Korean dramas spread like wildfire; the government was busy going door-to-door and sticking censorship tags on CD players. [translator’s note: perhaps Joo Seung-Ha was talking about DVD players and DVD-burners? CDs weren’t and aren’t used for video… I will continue to use his original phrasing in this translation] Finally in 2004 the “Committee of 109” — a special organization to crack down on illegal videos — was formed and years later was elevated to the “109 United [Military] Command”. After 2005, even if one didn’t have CDs, USB sticks, or batteries, the explosion of MP4 files presented a crisis to the regime. It became that much more difficult to collect evidence. People would put North Korean movies on a CD, put a South Korean movie on a USB stick and if the authorities showed up, hide the USB stick and insist that they were watching a North Korean movie instead. While the authorities were going insane trying to censor this stuff, nowadays MP5 devices similar to tablet PCs have become another pain in the neck for them. This device uses microSDs which can hold many movies but are very small as to be hidden easily if caught by authorities. The young generation that grew up with smartphones and tablet PCs can use the Bluetooth function to transmit videos or romantic novels to each other. If one thinks they’re about to be caught, it’s as simple as deleting the file. I’ll draw a picture of how the authorities did this before. Long ago, an apartment with electricity would just randomly have its electricity taken out just by tripping the circuit breaker. People who were watching South Korean dramas on CDs or tapes wouldn’t be able to take them out and they’d be caught by the authorities. But now even with firm suspicion and body searches, it’s hard to find evidence. Kim Jong-Eun’s now encouraging smartphone manufacture in North Korea and it’d be difficult to proclaim that everyone’s electronics be taken away. It could be that the regime’s children will foment a political reaction. So the general trend in the regime is to give up and allow such devices. After more then 10 months of investigation which included going door-to-door, the authorities merely proclaimed threateningly that only approved devices should be used. People know to get two NoteTels (video players) — one that receives signals and another to watch secretly — since there’s not many ways to have the “approved devices” proclamation enforced. I don’t know about MP5s now but it will probably be the same. Top officials vying to get LCD TVs is also a headache. It’s because one can receive South Korean broadcasts directly in Pyongyang. North Korean defectors who were in Pyongyang as recently as a year ago had watched South Korean TV from their homes in Pyongyang. Staffers at North Korea’s FCC said that it was difficult to block the strong TV signals from South Korea. In the vicinity of Pyongyang, there are antennas in many places and as a result, there are signal blockers that have been installed downtown but some have broken down and there is also a lack of electricity to power the signal blockers. On the other hand, most Pyongyang households have capacitors to store energy. Even though the state authorities don’t have energy, individuals do. From Pyongyang to Nampo, in the western parts of North Korea, it’s possible to watch South Korean broadcasts. Even in Tongjae one can climb a mountain and receive as many South Korean TV signals as one desires on a smuggled portable LCD TV. South Korean TV channels that can be watched in North Korea include KBS, SBS, and MBC. I really can’t understand why propaganda leaflets sent by balloon to North Korea don’t mention TV signals at all. Maybe the South Korean government thinks that the leaflets are useless and unlikely to be found, or that the TV programs need to be protected. If North Koreans saw Channel A’s “Coming Home to Meet You” [translator’s note: a talk show featuring North Korean defectors in Seoul] I wonder how well they’d keep their silence.

How is Kim Jong-Eun as a dictator? original by Joo Seung-Ha On the dictatorship scale, how does Kim Jong-Eun rank? This question is completely outside the context of any idea that Kim Jong-Eun should one day become a heroic and compassionate leader. After all, he maintains his dictatorship unwaveringly even if countless may starve to death, and his measuring stick would actually be marked according to how long he maintains his dictatorship going forward. There are many scoundrels who would maintain their dynasty regardless of how many fingers are pointed at them. Fidel Castro of Cuba — he ruled for 52 years; despite civil war, Bashar al-Assad’s family has ruled for 44 years; falling short of a dynasty at 38 years of rule, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe proclaimed that he’s running again. Amongst such honored company stands the 70-year-old three-generation-long dictatorship of North Korea. What do dynastic dictatorships have in common? The “political Nostradamuses” Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alistair Smith of NYU have laid out the answer. They previously correctly predicted the Arab Spring and the ascension of Kim Jong-Eun. The dictatorship of the Kim regime is derived from similar concepts to those presented in “The Dictator’s Handbook” by Smith and Bueno de Mesquita. The 70-year-old Kim line has maintained a “Dictator’s Bible” that would make any American professors’ research pale in comparison. Kim Jong-Eun’s third generation rule has reigned for the past three and a half years now. If you look at the progress he’s made during that time and grade him against “The Dictator’s Handbook”, he’s probably done enough to get an “O” for outstanding. In any case, it’s not exactly easy to topple a dictatorship so one can say he’s graded on a curve. Their conclusion is completely contrary to South Korean social sciences’ predictions like “Kim Jong-Eun’s regime can’t survive for much longer”. People who expect Kim Jong-Eun to break down often say such nonsense. They say, “it’s impossible for the North to revive war,” “the killing of ruling class members including his uncle is stirring public opposition,” and even, “North Koreans love watching South Korean dramas”. Unfortunately even these things are not even close to a threat to the North Korean regime. The poorer a country is, the more villainous the ruling class becomes. Like Syria, 200,000 people will die and the rulers will barely move their heads. Let’s take a look at the shocking execution of Jang Song-Thaek. If we followed the “The Dictator’s Handbook”, there’s been Number Twos like him in other dictatorships. After the 1959 Cuban revolution, Castro had 16 out of 21 appointed people purged in the following two years. Number Two Che Guevera was sent to South America and subsequently killed. After Saddam rose to power in 1979, 450 people were executed including the “revolutionary committee chairman”. Hitler, Stalin, Mugabe, countless other dictators are no exception. Any dictator would surely eliminate any potential challengers, even if they’re flesh and blood. Leaving them alive will lead to ruin. Jang Song Thaek’s execution wasn’t because he was a challenger. There’s certainly another reason. Dicatators who are unable to control the flow of funds always lose power. Jang Song-Thaek’s trading monopoly constituted about half of the foreign currency exchange into North Korea — and he wasn’t about to give that up. It seems that Kim Jong-Eun underestimated this. If Kim Jong-Eun keeps the Worker’s Party, military, and Pyongyang citizens moneyed and happy, he can probably rule for a long time, according to the Dictator’s Handbook. If the minority are satisfied, no matter how great the concerns of the majority, even an uprising wouldn’t matter. Like Kim Il Sung’s ill treatment of Pyongyang and Kim Jong Il’s Songun politics which put the military first even in the midst of the 90s famine, Kim Jong-Eun’s execution of Jang Song Thaek allows for him to break down others’ organizational leadership. It allows the Kims’ regime to gorge itself on the remains of the purge. Kim Jong-Eun’s made a meal out of the purge and the replacement will be someone who’s intensely loyal; this is one of the archetypal tricks of the worst dictators. If you commit timely and strategic decisions necessary to maintain a proper dictatorship, lack of experience and age are not an issue. In the last tumultuous three-and-a-half years, he’s followed dictatorship precedents quite closely. He’s triumphed in getting most of the prerequisites to a successful dictatorship. From now on, Kim Jong-Eun’s system needs to be looked at objectively and dispassionately. Then we can see him at his most frightful. The myriad lessons learned by blood in history… one can no longer see North Korea as a mere exception.