By It appears that the internal politics inside of North Korea to choose the regime’s next leader may still be sorting themselves out considering the delay of the political convention and now the Chinese allegedly saying that the succession issue has not been resolved yet:
North Korea’s top leader told China that the speculation of power succession by his youngest son is a “false rumor,” according to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter who was in Beijing last week.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao “surprised us by quoting the DPRK leader regarding the prospective promotion of his son, Kim Jong-un, as ‘a false rumor from the West,’” the former president said in a Carter Center Web posting dated Sept. 13. DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.
“We’ll just have to wait to learn the truth about the succession in power.” [Yonhap News]
Former President Jimmy Carter is a lot of things, but one thing I think everyone can agree on is that he is honest. So I believe what he says the Chinese told him. I have always thought the guy the Chinese would want in charge is Kim Jong-nam and not Kim Jong-un. So maybe the politics to make this succession happen has more to do with politics between the Chinese and North Koreans rather than internal politics within North Korea?
11:53 am on September 17th, 2010 1
You mean the DPRK tolerates interference in its internal affairs? Won't I just be gosh-darned!
1:01 pm on September 17th, 2010 2
GI Korea wrote:
I have always thought the guy the Chinese would want in charge is Kim Jong-nam and not Kim Jong-un.
Maybe they're holding out for his oldest daughter, Kim Sŏlsong [김설송], who seems far more competent than her brothers.
Anyway, I think we could be dealing with little more than KJI being a bit under the weather.
And when the intelligence community thought for the longest time, based simply on the "Kim Jong Un" spelling, that the Brilliant Comrade was 김정운 (Kim Chŏng•ūn) instead of 김정은 (Kim Chŏng•ūn), I hold out the possibility that the South Korean and American side got it wrong again and there is in fact no delay.
1:06 pm on September 17th, 2010 3
"So maybe the politics to make this succession happen has more to do with politics between the Chinese and North Koreans rather than internal politics within North Korea?"
Or maybe China has a lot more power over the North Korean government than most people are willing to admit.
1:26 pm on September 17th, 2010 4
GI Korea, I disagree with you. President Jimmy Carter was NOT honest. For example when he ran for president he promised not to give away the Panama Canal & as soon as he was elected he did give it away (more accurately he paid them to take the canal that 20,000 people died building it). If giving the Panama Canal (actually it was not the Panama Canal, it was an American Canal in Panama) was a good idea then he should have said so during the presidential campaign. He also claimed to be a nuclear physicist when he was actually a nuclear engineer which was really not that much of a fib. He has claimed not to be anti-Semitic but when some of his anti-Israeli & seemingly pro-Hamas statements are examined his claims are suspect in my opinion. I have no reason to doubt what he claims the Red Chinese told him as I don't think it has any effect on him. In my opinion he was a horrible president although he certainly was better than the current occupant. His work with Habitat for Humanity is of course laudable. His latest statement about how 'health care reform' would have passed except for Teddy Kennedy so soon after Senator Kennedy's death seems trite.
2:02 pm on September 17th, 2010 5
#3,
Do you know anything about the separation of Panama from Colombia and the Hay-Brunau-Villa Treaty?
I guess imperialism is only bad when it isn't your own.
2:38 pm on September 17th, 2010 6
Teadrinker #4. The US made a deal with the Panamanian separatist, we helped them in their bid for independence from Columbia in return for the sovereignty of the Panama Canal zone. There is no point complaining about the Panama Canal treaty since it was ratified by the US Senate and is the law of the land. The point that I was making was that President Carter lied to the American people when he campaigned for the presidency when he said that he would NOT give away the canal. If it really was a good idea then he should have said that he was in favor of giving it away (we actually paid them to take our property) when he ran for president. President Carter said that he would never lie to the American people, well that the first one. I know that most politicians are not always truthful, I was simply responding to GI Korea statement that President Carter was honest. The facts show that he was not honest. Just like when the French help the Americans during the Revolutionary war for their own interest we helped the Panamanians for our own interest. If you want to call that imperialism then fine.
6:09 pm on September 17th, 2010 7
#5- Pretty much- 'cept Columbia is a faag university in NY or something, and Colombia is the home of the hottest babes on Earth.
BLUF- Nations have no friends, only interests.
Oh yeah- Jimmy canned Gen Jack Singlaub over in Korea over his open difference with Carter's great idea to reduce troop strength in the ROK in the late 1970s- only problem was that Singlaub stated his opinion WELL BEFORE Jimmy Carter made his decision.
Carter's a rat.
10:35 pm on September 17th, 2010 8
North Korea is one of the few remaining holdouts for Marxist style communism, other than Cuba.
Due to the U.S. embargo of Cuba, they depended heavily on the Soviet Union. Since the USSR collapsed, the Cubans suffering has steadily increased. So much so, even Fidel Castro is reportedly now back-peddling on the virtues of pure Marxism. He seems to be trying to rationalize and open the door for changes in their economic system.
The China-North Korea relationship is probably much like the USSR-Cuba relationship, but North Korea's dependency is likely much greater. If China were to find a reason to distance themselves from North Korea, North Korean Marxism could not last long.
2:00 am on September 18th, 2010 9
I think you mean "I believe Carter is accurately restating what the Chinese told him – but I don't believe what the Chinese said."