Posts Tagged ‘north korea’

Kim Jong-Il Visits China

Readers in North America may have oil spills and New York bombing plots as the top stories on their news broadcasts, but here in Japan, the big story is Kim Jong-Il’s surprise visit to China:

The media is wild with speculation. Could he be planning to visit the North Korean pavilion at the Shanghai Expo? Is he in need of some kind of medical care? Most experts seem to think he’s visiting China to ask for economic aid:

China has propped up the North’s leaders for decades. Analysts say even though Beijing is increasingly fed up with its provocative neighbor, it is willing to bankroll Kim to prevent chaos on its border.

Kim will demand sweeteners to rein in his military and return to international nuclear disarmament talks hosted by Beijing, analysts said. He crossed into China in the predawn hours in his armored train and went to the port city of Dalian, South Korean officials said.

Every Japanese network has rushed to provide some coverage on the story. As you can see in the above clip, FTV had Kim Jong-il’s former chef on their news program so he could confirm that the train was indeed the Dear Leader’s special train. Perhaps the most impressive reporting was done by NTV, which managed to get a camera in a vantage point overlooking the lobby of the hotel in Dalian where Kim is said to be staying. Their work paid off and they were able to confirm the presence of a person who looks just like the Dear Leader:

The latest rumor is that Kim Jong-Il’s son and heir may be accompanying his father on the trip. It will be interesting to see if the media can get some updated footage of Kim Jong-Un.

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Jenkins-san in the LA Times

The LA Times has an article up about former defector to North Korea Charles Robert Jenkins, reporting on his life at a souvenir shop on Sado Island:

“Jenkins-san!” shout two dozen tourists lined up to meet this diminutive man with jug-handle ears, a 69-year-old American who speaks only a few words of their native tongue.

With a weary smile, Jenkins poses for a frenzy of snapshots, awkwardly holding a box of specialty cookies. Everyone wants a piece of him, pressing in close to shake his hand and ask him to sign their souvenir snacks.

“One day I counted 300 pictures in the first hour alone,” Jenkins recalls in the easy cadence of his native North Carolina. “Then I just gave up counting.”

His quote in the article about still fearing that North Korean spies might come and kill him has been reported by the Japanese media.

For more information on Jenkin’s life, check out his autobiography: The Reluctant Communist.

[The photo in this post comes from a Japanese blogger writing about a trip to Sado Island. The Jenkins-san photo is presented along with other typical tourist pics.]

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Happiness Realization Party’s fear mongering promotional video

The Happiness Realization Party, the political wing of the Happy Science religious movement, has produced this scary promotional video and uploaded it to YouTube:

A summary:

• Salarymen sit in an office watching news bulletins about North Korea launching missiles.
• Large explosions are being reported in Osaka and Nagoya.
• Missiles are headed for the Kanto region. Patriot missile batteries have failed to shoot them down.
• Panic grips the office, but it is too late. The flash of a nuclear explosion covers the screen and Tokyo is reduced to a radioactive wasteland.
• Viewers are then urged to consider the facts. North Korea has a lot of missiles with the range to hit Japan, and its only a matter of time before they can mount nukes on them. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that Kim Jong-il isn’t preparing to launch them at Japan!
• And don’t forget China! They’ve got a huge military and they are supporting North Korea, and they’ve got missiles too!
• By 2020, China could possess more military power than the United States. (As the shot zooms in on the deck of an aircraft carrier, we discover that it is Chinese!) If this happens, it is possible that China could advance on Taiwan and Okinawa.
• After the seizure of Taiwan, it is likely the Chinese fleets could block the vital sea lanes that supply Japan with its food and fuel. The current Japanese government has no concrete plan in place to deal with such a situation.
• If nothing is done to stop this, Japan will become a colony of China/North Korea!
• What can you do to prevent the utter and complete destruction of the Japanese nation? Vote for the Happiness Realization Party. They want to drop the pacifist clause from the Japanese constitution, build up Japan’s defenses, and strengthen Japan’s alliance with the United States.

Some screen shots of the most sensational parts of the video, for those who don’t have 6 minutes to watch it:

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Kim Jong-nam comments on the latest DPRK news

Kim Jong-nam, eldest son of Kim Jong-il, talks to a Japanese reporter in Macau:

Kim Jong-nam, when asked by Japanese broadcaster NTV about whether Kim Jong-un would succeed his father, said: “I think so. I hear this news by media”.

Kim Jong-nam, who denied reports he had defected, said he could not remember the last time he spoke to his father.

South Korean media last week said Kim Jong-un had been designated to succeed.

In the interview, which NTV said was conducted in Macau, Kim Jong-nam, 37, said in English: “The appointment of a successor is totally my father’s decision.

“He makes his decisions so he doesn’t need to talk to me or talk to another person.”

Questioned about whether he had been notified by the North Korean government about succession plans, Kim Jong-nam hesitated before saying: “Very sensitive question. I cannot answer.”

Video of the interview is available at the BBC.

[via the Marmot's Hole]

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Pro-North Korea organization raided over tax law violations

A crowd of pro-Pyongyang Zainichi Koreans gathered to protest yesterday as police raided the offices of an organization believed to have performed illegal tax accounting for Korean businesses in Tokyo:

The Tokyo police searched locations Wednesday including an affiliate of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon, on suspicion of violating the certified tax accountant law, investigative sources said.

The Metropolitan Police Department’s Public Security Bureau suspects that a man believed to be linked to the affiliate — a chamber of commerce and industry in Tokyo’s Shinjuku area — produced a tax declaration document on behalf of a chamber member around 2006 without qualification as a certified tax accountant, they said.

[hat tip to Darin]

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Jenkins sells rice, talks about North Korean terrorism

Former defector to North Korea Charles Robert Jenkins was in Saitama yesterday, promoting Sado Island’s agricultural products and its efforts to help reintroduce the crested ibis to Japan:

The press asked Jenkins to comment on the decision of the United States government to remove North Korea from its list of official state sponsors of terrorism. As the husband of a Japanese abductee and someone that lived as a virtual prisoner in North Korea for decades, Jenkins strongly believes that the country should not have been removed from the terrorism list.