Kim Jong-Un doesn’t get a promotion at Supreme People’s Assembly
The Supreme People’s Assembly, constitutionally the most powerful entity in North Korea but in reality a rubber steam parliament for the Korean Worker’s Party under Kim Jong-Il, has convened its first meeting of 2011. Many Pyongyang watchers suspected the SPA would be used as on opportunity to bolster the rank of leader-to-be Kim Jong-Un. Neither Jong-Un or his father Kim Jong-Il were in attendance.
Source: North Korea Leadership Watch
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North Koreans in Libya ordered to stay put
As countries around the world scramble to evacuate their citizens from the chaotic anti-regime uprisings in Libya, North Korea has sent a different message to its own people in the country: Stay there. Pyongyang via their Libyan embassy has ordered the 200+ North Koreans abroad in Libya, likely living there to earn foreign currency to send home, to “follow the measures of the Libyan [Gadhafi] government”. The North Koreans being denied permission to return home has led to speculation that the Kim regime is attempting to quell the spread of information back home regarding the revolutions and uprisings occurring in the Middle East.
Source: Yonhap News
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North Korea pulls out of Hyundai resort tourism
The Mt. Kumgang resort, a joint tourism project between Seoul-based Hyundai Asan and the North Korean government, saw over a million South Korean tourists pass through since 1998. However, 2008 the shooting death of a South Korean tourist by a DPRK soldier has had the tours suspended since. Hyundai has paid for much of the facilities and infrastructure at the resort, but now the North has backed out of the agreement between the government and Hyundai Asan. Hyundai had an agreement forged in 2002 giving them land use rights in the majestic mountain region until 2052, but this appears to be a renege on the agreement. The move is seen as a possible ploy by the North to force Hyundai to resume tours (without the condition of allowing a murder investigation for the SK tourism), or encourage Chinese tourism to the resort.
Source: The Chosun Ilbo
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On a side note, I’ll be on vacation for awhile, thus incommunicado and not updating this space. Will get right back to it in a couple of weeks, meanwhile I’ll be catching up on some reading on a sunny beach in Cayo Guillermo.
