Word: jong
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...spooky unreality of a country that was building a 105-story tourist hotel while allowing almost no tourists, and showing off an Olympic stadium for the Games that were never held there. A typical book on sale was a biography of the new President, Kim's son, Kim Jong Il. Titled The Great Man KIM JONG IL (and boasting a picture of the Kimjongilia flower on its cover), it included chapters titled "Boundless Solicitude," "A World-Startling Miracle" and "The Once Annoying Mountains of Waste Turned into Priceless Embankment," and concluded with an account of the Christlike leader ordering...
...only are strange things happening in Pyongyang, but things that should be happening are not. Kim Jong Il, North Korea's newly promoted Great Leader, has not appeared in public since his father's funeral on July 20. On that occasion he stood by, pale and puffy, as others spoke. Since then he has not said a word to his 22 million subjects. He has not met with representatives of any other country. And he has not been officially installed as President or as General Secretary of the communist Workers' Party -- positions held by Kim Il Sung at his death...
Speculation about Kim's future has grown rapidly over recent days. First, anti-Kim Jong Il leaflets appeared around the diplomatic quarter in well- policed Pyongyang. Then an official radio broadcast ostensibly supported Kim's succession as the national leader but may have dropped a hint of a possible power struggle. If the succession "failed to be resolved correctly," it warned, "acts of betrayal by ambitious people" could bring disaster to the party and the revolution. Finally, Japanese press reports said Kim had turned down an invitation to Beijing...
...South Korean government insists such evidence, ambiguous as it is, points to trouble in the North. "It has heightened our suspicions," says a senior official in Seoul, "that something is going wrong for Kim Jong Il." Seoul may be genuinely worried about Kim Jong Il's stability or may be trying to rock the boat in Pyongyang...
...Jong Il's power is threatened, it is more likely to be by a palace coup than by popular rebellion. One rival power center could be the million- man armed forces, commanded by Defense Minister O Jin U. Other potential rebels might be ambitious members of Kim's own family: his stepmother Kim Song Ae; his uncle, Vice President Kim Yong Ju; or his half brother Kim Pyong...