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There have been lots of stories from different sources the last few days. Not sure what's going on over there.
Former North Korean spy believes Kim Jong-un has been overthrown in ‘silent coup’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been conspicuous by his absence in the past month, leading speculation to run wild over the reason he has gone to ground.
Is it illness, injury, death (still the most common reason to go to ground) – or is it Emmental?
Now one of the secretive state’s top defectors has suggested that the 31-year-old has been the target of a silent coup.
Jang Jin-sung, once a key element in former leader Kim Jong-il’s counterintelligence and propaganda machine, says the dictator is being quietly but firmly sidelined by a powerful group called the Organisation and Guidance Department (OGD).
The OGD was set up by Kim Jong-un’s father in the Nineties, and the group remains loyal to the policies and direction of the former leader.
And Jang Jin-sung claims Kim Jong-un is not always headed in the same direction.
He said the OGD has taken control of the long-term strategy for North Korea – not so much in open and aggressive defiance of Kim Jong-un, rather they simply ignore any of the leader’s orders.
Kim Jong-un – like many other North Korean officials who appear to be in positions of great power – is kept installed as a figurehead of a state ruled by the OGD.
Jang was quoted by Vice News as saying: ‘It’s not actually consciously civil war, but there are these two incompatible forces at play.’
Vice also quotes Remco Breuker, professor of Korean Studies at Holland’s Leiden University, as saying: ‘The real power resides within that one department, the OGD, that was groomed to bureaucratic perfection by Kim Jong-il.
‘When he was alive, he was in practical sense heading the department. Kim Jong-un is not. It serves him, but it more serves the legacy of Kim Jong-il. Those don’t always coincide.’
Recent reports say that the cheese-loving, heavy-smoking Kim Jong-un is suffering from gout, diabetes and high blood pressure – so the need for the OGD to do the day-to-day driving may become more of a necessity if he dies.
Kim Jong-un does have a child – daughter Ju-ae, born in 2012 (according to North Korean ‘expert’ Dennis Rodman) – but the two-year-old may not be considered successor material.
Former North Korean spy believes Kim Jong-un has been overthrown in ‘silent coup’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been conspicuous by his absence in the past month, leading speculation to run wild over the reason he has gone to ground.
Is it illness, injury, death (still the most common reason to go to ground) – or is it Emmental?
Now one of the secretive state’s top defectors has suggested that the 31-year-old has been the target of a silent coup.
Jang Jin-sung, once a key element in former leader Kim Jong-il’s counterintelligence and propaganda machine, says the dictator is being quietly but firmly sidelined by a powerful group called the Organisation and Guidance Department (OGD).
The OGD was set up by Kim Jong-un’s father in the Nineties, and the group remains loyal to the policies and direction of the former leader.
And Jang Jin-sung claims Kim Jong-un is not always headed in the same direction.
He said the OGD has taken control of the long-term strategy for North Korea – not so much in open and aggressive defiance of Kim Jong-un, rather they simply ignore any of the leader’s orders.
Kim Jong-un – like many other North Korean officials who appear to be in positions of great power – is kept installed as a figurehead of a state ruled by the OGD.
Jang was quoted by Vice News as saying: ‘It’s not actually consciously civil war, but there are these two incompatible forces at play.’
Vice also quotes Remco Breuker, professor of Korean Studies at Holland’s Leiden University, as saying: ‘The real power resides within that one department, the OGD, that was groomed to bureaucratic perfection by Kim Jong-il.
‘When he was alive, he was in practical sense heading the department. Kim Jong-un is not. It serves him, but it more serves the legacy of Kim Jong-il. Those don’t always coincide.’
Recent reports say that the cheese-loving, heavy-smoking Kim Jong-un is suffering from gout, diabetes and high blood pressure – so the need for the OGD to do the day-to-day driving may become more of a necessity if he dies.
Kim Jong-un does have a child – daughter Ju-ae, born in 2012 (according to North Korean ‘expert’ Dennis Rodman) – but the two-year-old may not be considered successor material.
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