Word: cheong
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...North Korean government does anything is murky business. But Pyongyang watchers in Seoul believe the crackdown comes for two main reasons. First, there has been a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in North Korea, partly due to the prevalence of relatively free markets, says Cheong Seong-chang, senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, a think tank in Seoul. Since 2000, the bigger traders in North Korea have come to live a life "almost as lavish as South Koreans," says Cheong. "They have big refrigerators, color televisions, DVD players." In a socialist utopia like North Korea, such...
...leadership seemed suddenly vulnerable. But Kim and his allies have apparently successfully installed Kim Jong Un, Kim's youngest son, as his likely successor. In fact, reports from some nongovernmental organizations operating in the North say that a public propaganda campaign promoting Jong Un has ceased. That means, says Cheong, that the "succession has reached a stable trajectory." Kim Jong Il, in other words, is back in the saddle again. Whether that's a good thing or not is what the outside world will soon find...
...Obviously, anything the North is doing in the area of nuclear development is of concern to us," he said after meetings in Beijing. Coincidentally - or not - the Deputy Foreign Minister of North Korea has just returned from his own meetings in Beijing. A leading North Korea watcher in Seoul, Cheong Seong Chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, believes the groundwork is being set for Beijing-hosted three-way talks among the U.S., North Korea and China, at which the Chinese will "sneak out of the room, leaving the two sworn enemies" to talk. (See pictures of the rise...
...overarching question, for both the U.S. and South Korea, is whether Pyongyang will get rid of its nuclear program as it has twice agreed. But Cheong Seong-Chang, director of Inter-Korean Relations at the Sejong Institute, notes one important difference: Kim Jong Il has been sick, and has apparently taken steps to arrange a dynastic succession for his youngest son, Kim Jong Un. It's possible that Kim may want to do a deal once and for all. Suffice to say that the Obama Administration has little choice but to see whether that's true...
...fake passport. His father thinks the middle son, Kim Jong Chul, is "too feminine" for the job, according to Fujimoto. Hence the mantle of leadership will apparently someday be handed to Kim Jong Un. "A systematic succession plan is now under way, and has been since early this year," Cheong Seong-chang of the Seoul-based Sejong Institute and one of South Korea's leading experts on North Korean political élites, wrote in a report, parts of which are classified, prepared for the South Korean joint chiefs of staff. The son's political rise is being guided - and protected...