Word: kim
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
There are even reports of rising dissatisfaction among the elite as the regime stumbles from crisis to crisis and corruption increases. A U.S. intelligence source says a Washington-led embargo against Pyongyang would take time to loosen the regime's grip on power, since Kim has already shown that he's "willing to let a lot of people die off." But eventually sanctions might take their toll, as even top government officials and members of the security services began to feel the pinch. "If the regime can no longer maintain the lifestyles of [those] people," says the source, "it could...
...will demand assurances that North Korea keep its commitments this time. If it doesn't, the White House may yet decide that, as with Baghdad, the only way to disarm the regime in Pyongyang is to change it. --Reported by James Carney and Mark Thompson/Washington, Donald Macintyre and Kim Yooseung/Seoul, Andrew Purvis/Vienna and Hiroko Tashiro/Tokyo
...KIM JONG IL LOVES HIS movies. Not just the more than 15,000 he's collected on videotape. His movies. Movies of him. The North Korean ruler is trailed not by the tight video crews that sometimes accompany Western leaders but by a film team straight out of 1930s back-lot Hollywood, armed with spotlights and huge reel-to-reel Panaflex cameras so loud they sound like insects feeding...
When Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang in 2000, it was the arrival of Kim's film crews that informed the U.S. delegation that he would make an appearance. Because Kim is obsessed with drama and surprise, Albright didn't even know whether she would meet him until he showed up. Kim likes to stage surprises, not receive them. Members of Albright's entourage were told not to make any "quick movements" in his presence...
...world's leaders, Kim, 60, may be the most strange, despite his effort in recent years to appear less so. Before he ascended to power, when his predecessor and father Kim Il Sung died in 1994, he was regarded outside North Korea as something of a joke--a pampered playboy who, with his Mao-era leisure suits, puffed-up coiffure and shoe lifts, would likely falter in his father's footsteps. Though he's maintained his singular sense of style, Kim has lessened his reputation for kookiness. The first time the outside world got a good look...