With Kim out of sight, North Korean top brass pay snap visit to South.

It seems top brass have paid a flying visit to South Korea.

Extract,
The three officials told South Korea that Pyongyang is willing to hold a new round of high-level meetings between late October and early November, South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement Saturday.
"Within my memory ... there was never ever such a high-level visit. Never," said North Korea analyst Andrei Lankov, from Seoul's Kookmin University.
Lankov said two of the three visitors "are essentially number two and number three in North Korean official hierarchy."

There must be something in the air, Kim Jong Un was not part of the group, he is said to be 'poorly' or 'discomforted'. Hopefully something positive can come out of this piece of officialdom.

Some pictures are now up on YouTube,




edition.cnn.com...

a reply to: smurfy

Didn't they say that lil' Kim was suffering from broken ankles due to eating too much cheese? Wonder if they were deliberately feeding him like a turkey

I could be wrong, but I think they went there to attend the Asian Games 2014.sports.ndtv.com...
I do know there are talks scheduled, but not for a couple weeks I believe. I just want to point out they did not just up and decide to fly into S. Korea for these talks. I will say, with Un out of the way, we could expect some progress hopefully when they do take place.

I wonder if Un is dead and they simply don't want to release it yet. There are probably a lot of people in powerful positions that are tired of the Kim reign, and see that they could get a lot more out of the world community if they were a part of it, instead of trying to go against the grain.

South Korea is becoming one of the major centres of the world, their entertainment is very high quality now and sweeping Asia and North America by storm. Their movies, TV especially is being rebroadcast all over the world, and their production capability is beginning to rival Hollywood. Also, are an epicentre for fashion and pop culture stars, with groups like Super Juinor, and Psi, drawing millions and millions (billions actually) into their audience.

Maybe North Korea power players saw how much fun they are having and said, "ok somebody push chubbs off a cliff..."

originally posted by: boncho
I wonder if Un is dead and they simply don't want to release it yet. There are probably a lot of people in powerful positions that are tired of the Kim reign, and see that they could get a lot more out of the world community if they were a part of it, instead of trying to go against the grain.

South Korea is becoming one of the major centres of the world, their entertainment is very high quality now and sweeping Asia and North America by storm. Their movies, TV especially is being rebroadcast all over the world, and their production capability is beginning to rival Hollywood. Also, are an epicentre for fashion and pop culture stars, with groups like Super Juinor, and Psi, drawing millions and millions (billions actually) into their audience.

Maybe North Korea power players saw how much fun they are having and said, "ok somebody push chubbs off a cliff..."

I have wondered this myself...

originally posted by: stormcell
a reply to: smurfy

Didn't they say that lil' Kim was suffering from broken ankles due to eating too much cheese? Wonder if they were deliberately feeding him like a turkey

Mmmm, cheese, calcium for bones...that's problematic. Of course he may have been hit by a whole Gorgonzola on the ankles

a reply to: boncho

They could have had a quiet Coup d'état?

Crosses finger, Maybe that backwards Cold War Communist nightmare will finally come to an end.

One could always hope.

Reply to Smoking man,
according to CNN it was like this,

"It was a sudden "charm offensive," Lankov said.
And it caused a media flurry, with South Korean television network YTN following the delegation's moves via extensive live coverage.
N. Korean officials make surprise visit North Korea leadership shake-up? Is North Korea ready for nuclear talks?
The three gave Seoul short notice on Friday that they were dropping in officially to attend Saturday's closing ceremonies of the Asian Games in the port city of Incheon.
The South granted permission the same day to Hwang Pyong-so, vice marshal of the Korean People's Army, Kim Yang-gon and Choe Ryong-hae."

It seems the visit has caught everyone on the hop. It's interesting about the clips that are available too, some American papers have the clips online, but say they are not available when you try to open them.

Maybe the chinese finally did something about that annoying little puppet?

Or perhaps the generals locked kim in his own room?

Who can say?

Either way it's going to be tough to fix the brainwashing that occured there.

originally posted by: SLAYER69
a reply to: boncho

They could have had a quiet Coup d'état?

Crosses finger, Maybe that backwards Cold War Communist nightmare will finally come to an end.
One could always hope.

Me too, for your last sentence as there enough going on in the world, and it's all crappy. It seems our friend, 'Popeye' commenting at the end of the YouTube video, is basically on the same tack, but as he says, we won't know until there is more info.

a reply to: smurfy

If true this raises the question of China's interest in keeping a buffer country between such a Western friendly Allie in South Korea and their border.

I'm not going to jump on the 'Unification' wagon just yet however, that would be one of the first questions on both Beijing/Washington minds I'd imagine.

I hope hope HOPE that this will be a saving fix for N Korea. Bless them all. Seriously. I have always felt sadness for the people and for those in the government ranks who no doubt loathed that way of life. I hope that Kim is dead and the evilness ended with him. If he's still alive, I fear what will happen to those who went to S Korea. ooooh man.

That or this was set up by Kim and something horrible will come from it soon for whomever. S Korea. The world. WHO knows right now what is going on. There are still too many secrets.

Too many.

originally posted by: SLAYER69
a reply to: smurfy

If true this raises the question of China's interest in keeping a buffer country between such a Western friendly Allie in South Korea and their border.

I'm not going to jump on the 'Unification' wagon just yet however, that would be one of the first questions on both Beijing/Washington minds I'd imagine.

Well, I'm not sure. I don't think China wants an unstable nuclear weapons scenario in their backyard either, especially if they think they themselves stable with their own weaponry. If you think about it, with nuclear weapons the numbers of those turned to shadows on the wall can be from 1 to infinity and anyone who has that capability must surely come to realise that. So if say, Kim Jong Un was the main catalyst for the recent nuclear testing, his military are bound to be very afraid, and I simply see no reason that the North Korean military should themselves be the catalyst unless they are all totally mad in the head. With this impromtu visit to South Korea, I see a real possibility of a proper economic rationale, how that would work, I have no idea, other than expanding South Korea's more into the North. I'd like to see more of Russian Andrei Lankov's comments in the next few days.

if the minerals of the north and the agriculture of the south united ....Korea as a whole could be a freaking superpower...no joke....they have the resources...if they get their act together I could see them being number 1 in many things in approximately 50 years

originally posted by: SLAYER69
a reply to: boncho

They could have had a quiet Coup d'état?

Crosses finger, Maybe that backwards Cold War Communist nightmare will finally come to an end.

One could always hope.

You may have crossed your fingers. When this army of nightmare is dead, another one will rise from the West.

Remember: "Those who think they are free, are not free at all."

Very often major world changes occur very quickly. This may be one of those things, one day North Korea is closed tight as a drum, the next, partying with Jay-Z and Lindsay over at Rodman's.

I'm not really sure, but I think it's a good thing when the north meets the south and they talk and try to work their crap out. They shouldn't be at odds with each other, IMO. They would be stronger and happier together, united.

I am thinking their has been a coup. His siter is technically in charge but she seems out of the limelight as well. Over the last few days Pyongyang was sealed off by the military and people living there were not allowed to enter or leave the city.

back in December there was an engagement between north Korean military units in the capital.

There have been reports of an assassination attempt...
There was another purge over the last couple of months.
The guy in charge of N. Korean finances defected to Russia.
China has been having issues with N. Korea over its provocative actions towards the South and Japan / US.

Part of me wonders if China silenced him.

originally posted by: SLAYER69
a reply to: boncho

They could have had a quiet Coup d'état?

Crosses finger, Maybe that backwards Cold War Communist nightmare will finally come to an end.

One could always hope.

I have my fingers crossed as well. I really hope there was a quiet coup, or there will be one in the near future. The level of BS involved in NK propaganda is at the very top of the scale. As in, they can't mention the US without saying, "The Imperialist United States of Death and Destruction", and while the US isn't that friendly in their foreign policy, forcing every person in the country to rewrite its history and speak like robots, giving tours saying "Here we have the war Museum and this picture you will see Kim il Sung where he killed 1000 American Imperialist Devils, then after flew to the moon, to be the Imperialist in their space race..."

I mean, it must get draining on the population to chew so much crap all day long. There has to be a number of the higher ranks that look at countries aligned with America, or hell, even aligned with the BRIC and see how much better off they are, simply because they don't threaten to blow up their neighbours every week.

If I was in his higher cabinet, Un would mysteriously wake up be found having choked on his tongue during his sleep. Hell, its not like they have the means to even test for strychnine poisoning. Next on the agenda, meet up with South Korea, open the borders and call it a day.

If it does happen one day, it will be so cool to meet some of the regular NK people who spent years doing ridiculous state funded exercises. "Ah hi, an yung ay sa o, yes so, nice urr to meet you, I was former picture and plaque polishing master living in government office. I make sure all the picture and plaque of Kim family have super polish evely day."

What a trip to hang out with some of those people. "You mean, there is more than one kind of haircut?"

I actually saw this earlier today and then saw on CNN about the N and S Korea talks after 5 years and thought there must be a connection

A former North Korean counter-intelligence officer has claimed that Kim Jong-Un is no longer in control of the nation and is now just a 'puppet leader'. J

ang Jin-sung, who used to be an influential officer in Kim Jong-il's propaganda division, made the sensational assertion at a September conference in Holland attended by several elite exiles, it's been reported.

The capital, Pyongyang, meanwhile, has been placed into lockdown with even the elite banned from entering or leaving, according to a respected news site. This adds weight to Jin-sung's claim, as a North Korean expert said that this kind of measure is only put in place when a coup has taken place - or is suspected.

Jin-sung said that Kim Jong-Un was actually overthrown in 2013 and that the political strings in North Korea are being pulled by the powerful Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), which used to report directly to Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-Un's father.

North Korea is currently embroiled in a sort of civil war, he said in his speech.

Some officials want to keep the communist status quo, he said, others are open to elements of capitalism being introduced.

Mail Online