Image campaign casts N. Korea’s young ruler as more outgoing, like Kim Il-Sung

Image campaign casts N. Korea’s young ruler as more outgoing, like Kim Il-Sung

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com A campaign is in full swing in North Korea to craft the image of Kim Jong-Un as “healthy, energetic, friendly and able,” government officials in Seoul said. Kim, the third son of the country’s late ruler Kim Jong-Il, was unknown to the outside world and even to the […]

Risky business: N. Korea making capitalist accommodations to win foreign currency

Risky business: N. Korea making capitalist accommodations to win foreign currency

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea’s youthful leader Kim Jong-Un is taking another risky step to win much-needed foreign currency by allowing certain capitalist practices in the world’s last Stalinist nation. Workers at state-run shops in the capital city of Pyongyang have begun wearing name cards instead of badges displaying Kim’s grandfather […]

Kim Jong-Un speeding up generation shift, may have sidelined powerful stepmother

Kim Jong-Un speeding up generation shift, may have sidelined powerful stepmother

Special to WorldTribune.com By East-Asia-Intel.com”>Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea’s newly-installed ruler Kim Jong-Un has been accelerating efforts to form his own independent power base, placing individuals loyal to him in key positions of authority after purging a number of potential rivals, sources in Seoul said. “A series of reshuffles are undergoing in the Party, the […]

Kim Jong-Un era starts with new landmines on China border and shoot-to-kill orders to stop defections

Kim Jong-Un era starts with new landmines on China border and shoot-to-kill orders to stop defections

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea has planted land mines and installed wooden planks studded with sharp iron nails along its border with China in one of the strictest measures yet to deter starving citizens from fleeing into China, according to Seoul-based defectors’ groups. “North Korea is planting a number of land […]

Video backs reports N. Korea’s military ordered to shoot to kill refugees escaping into China

Video backs reports N. Korea’s military ordered to shoot to kill refugees escaping into China

By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea’s military has been ordered to shoot anyone crossing the border into China, even if they had reached Chinese soil. The directive was issued by Kim Jong-Il’s son and heir-apparent, Kim Jong-Un, who is seeking to tighten his grip on the populace, activists and media reports from Seoul say. It […]