Word: koreas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...power had passed to Kim's son, Kim Jong Il, who indeed is his father's designated heir. One loudspeaker announcement and some other versions of the story had it that aging North Korean Defense Minister O Jin U had "grasped power" and that the "whole nation of North Korea positively supports...
...that accounts of his passing had been greatly exaggerated. Thus the hottest diplomatic game of the week became trying to figure out who had been doing what to whom. As antagonists of 36 years' standing who regularly wage often arcane propaganda wars against each other, both North and South Korea had plenty of motives to engage in political fabrications. Both countries, moreover, have lately shown signs of instability that could somehow have played a role in the strange episode...
...South Korea, which has been plagued by student protests over President Chun Doo Hwan's resistance to proposed democratic reforms, responded to the rumor campaign by placing the national police force on Grade A alert. The heightened security was ostensibly a precaution against a sudden attack by an unknown new regime in the north. Some observers suspect, however, that the government in Seoul was actually mounting a show of strength to rally domestic political sentiment. Moreover, South Korea's Defense Department could not produce any recordings of the loudspeaker announcements, which apparently had not been made in areas...
Pyongyang's glee at its neighbor's discomfort suggested that North Korea would have had no qualms about mounting a malicious disinformation campaign, although probably not one centering on rumors of its leader's death. Kim has spent nearly four decades creating a cult around his personality and accomplishments that is Pharaonic in its intensity. He has erected larger- than-life statues of himself in virtually every North Korean city, and inspired a school curriculum based on adulation of his teachings. Korea watchers in the U.S. doubt that he would trifle with his self-created legend merely to score...
There were other issues that could also have led to a showdown in North Korea. Over the past two years Kim has engineered a pronounced tilt in Pyongyang's Sino-Soviet policies toward Moscow. Just two months ago the North Korean President made a hastily arranged visit to the Soviet capital, his second in 29 months, for talks with Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviets provide North Korea with MiG-23 fighter aircraft and Scud surface-to-surface missiles. In return, they have acquired calling rights at the North Korean ports of Nampo and Najin and clearance for military reconnaissance flights from...