North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

ICG Study on NK Under UN Sanctions

ICG Study on NK Under UN Sanctions

The International Crisis Group has published a study as an Update Briefing under the title North Korea Under Tightening Sanctions.  The study suggests that the recent UN sanctions, currency redenomination and the unfolding succession campaign […]

Mar, 16

KJU Succession in Portrait and Silkscreen

The latest buzz around hereditary succession is centered on a story circulated by Rescue the North Korean People! Urgent Action Network.   According to this account, the official portrait of successor Kim Jong-un (a/k/a: Kim Jong-eun, […]

Mar, 16

March PropAg Madness

KJI Birthday and Lunar New Year Celebrations (in addition to some bureaucratic skull cracking and money crunches) did nothing to prevent the release of the DPRK’s monthly overseas propaganda magazines.  Korea Today has the third […]

Mar, 14
NK May Rejoin 6PT in the Cruelest Month

NK May Rejoin 6PT in the Cruelest Month

JoongAng Daily citing an unnamed Beijing-based DPRK official reports that the DPRK will return to the Six Party Talks in early April: While recently meeting with a reporter, this official stated “North Korea having decided […]

Mar, 14

Setting Up the Mosquito Nets in Rason & KJI China Trip

Choson Ilbo, citing an anonymous source, reports that former Minister of Foreign Trade Rim Kyong-man is now the leading official in Rason, the one responsible for drawing the mosquito net around the Special Administrative Region.  […]

Mar, 12
KIS Memoirist Says ROK Denied Asylum Claim

KIS Memoirist Says ROK Denied Asylum Claim

Yonhap reports that Kim Jong-ryul, an Austrian-based former Kim Il-sung Personal Secretariat employee who has released a memoir, claims that in 2006 the ROK Embassy in Vienna rejected his claim for asylum: “But it fell […]

Mar, 12

Jon Il-chun, Director-General of State Development Bank

The DPRK has announced the first meeting of its State Development Bank, which took place at the Yanggankdo Hotel in Pyongyang.  According to KCNA: The board of directors is made up of representatives of the […]

Mar, 11

Ri Chol to Leave as UN & CH Diplorep

Yonhap, citing a source in Berne and general diplo gossip, reports that Ri Chol is leaving his posts.  He is concurrently the DPRK’s Ambassador to Switzerland and to the UN Mission in Geneva.  While Ambassador […]

Mar, 10

KJI Attends Mass Rally in Hamhung

Kim Jong-il attended a mass rally in Hamhung, South Hamgyong, to commemorate the re-opening (or is it un-mothballing?) of the 8 February Vinalon Complex.   Yonhap reports: North Korea often organizes such pro-government rallies, forcing […]

Mar, 07
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