important: Kim Yang Gon/ Gone.

Inter-Korean pointman Kim Yang Gon dies in car accident: KCNA

KCNA report that Kim died on December 29

Chad O'Carroll 

December 29th, 2015

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Kim Yang Gon, director of North Korea’s United Front Department, has died in a road accident, North Korean state media outlet the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday morning.

“Kim Yang Gon passed away on Juche 103 (2015) December 29 due to a road accident, ” an English translation of the KCNA material quoted by South Korean press said.

A separate news piece from KCNA said Kim would be given a state funeral, which will be held on December 31 at 8 AM.

Kim was director of the United Front Department (UFD) since 2007, the department of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea which is responsible for inter-Korean affairs, roughly the North’s counterpart to Seoul’s Ministry of Unification.

As director of the UFD, Kim served as Pyongyang’s point-man on relations with the South, most notably participating in marathon talks at Panmunjom last August with South Korean counterparts following the landmine crisis.

Notably, Kim’s death follows persistent rumors about the purge or reeducation of Choe Ryong Hae, WPK Secretary for the Workers’ Organization and chairman of the State Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission.

Choe, who negotiated closely with Kim at August’s marathon inter-Korean talks, himself last appeared in state media on October 22 and was unseen for the entire month of November, including his conspicuous absence at Ri Ul Sol’s funeral.

“The big question of course now is who will assume Kim’s role as point-man on the South,” said John Grisafi, NK News Director of Intelligence, about Kim’s death. “His successor could just as easily come from another part of the Party or government, someone else with experience dealing with the South,” Grisafi continued.

Michael Madden, a long-time watcher of the DPRK leadership, told NK News that Kim’s replacement would not likely be announced until May, when a rare party congress event is due to take place.

“I am concerned that during the interregnum that the North’s policy toward ROK may be subsumed by the more hawkish elements within the DPRK’s intelligence community,” warned Madden.

“(The late) Kim was not exactly a moderate, but he was a pragmatist and he was very much able to balance divergent interests in the North’s national security community.

“He was also a skilled bureaucratic manager who managed to retain civilian control over the North’s policymaking toward the South back in 2009 when KJI restructured the intelligence and foreign policy communities,” he continued, adding “the South has lost a reliable interlocutor and contact in Pyongyang.”

Kim was born April 24, 1942, and was 73 years old.  His last appearance in state media was December 1.

Additional reporting: John Grisafi

Movie review: Love is the Perfect Crime 2013. MA. France. World Movies. "A French Uni professor has a reputation for having affairs with his female students". This brief introduction does no justice to the extensive psychological and psycho-drama expanses of this serious story. Beautifully filmed in snow country, perhaps the Alps, and dealing with issues of PTSD, childhood abuse, sociopathy and distinctive dissociative processes. Great characterisations by the actors and tight direction. Certainly not a fun movie, but a worthwhile one in any study of the human condition.

Movie Reviews: 1: Jupiter Ascending and 2: Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai 1: Jupiter Ascending: I tried, but I just couldn't watch it for more than 5 minutes. A 15 year old New Idea magazine was far more enthralling and relevant. 2: Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai: World Movies. A destitute samurai asks to commit hara-kiri at the estate of Feudal Lord Kageyu.(MA). This very visually beautiful and somewhat brutal film is set in the warlord times of Japan, in the 1600s after the Shogun system had been decimated and then rebuilt with a vengeance. The subtitled dialogue is very good. The acting is intense and poignant. This is a serious and quite superb movie that analyses the Samurai Code, Shintoism and the struggle for compassion in a harsh and yet honoured & meaningful social caste system. Brutality is there, for sure; as is the enhanced style-ism that defines Shogun culture in that epoch. Riveting performances from the actors and excellent direction and cinematography. Tragic/Beautiful. It reminded me in some ways of Yasunari Kawabata's book Beauty & Sadness and serves well in making understandable some of the more difficult aspects of militarism, art and culture in that remarkably human, though not humane, epoch. It could be called 'a search for compassion in a hard time in the world'/ in this way it has many universal qualities. Characters are very brilliantly developed and on show. A masterpiece of modern Japanese insight-cinema from 2011.

Reading Yukio Mishima's views are how I worked out, after 25 years in palliative care nursing, how suicide is basically okay to me. It is about the way it is done. You don't need a terminal illness to kill yourself welll...you can just perceive that the world is a place you no longer belong to. You don't need any illness to do that. That will just happen for some people who experience life enough. I would suggest that anyone wishing to commit suicide first read all of Mishima's works. There are so many, and every one of them is excellent. He absolutely knew what he was doing. He showed the noble way that maintains meaning. The idea that the action that causes your death should be only brought about by yourself, and in a very private way, and a very painful way, without causing any harm to anyone else, especially the physical finders and collectors of your remains,still holds great meaning to me. 1: Suicide, real good suicide, is not about hurting or shocking anyone, or blaming anyone. 2: It is an intensely private decision. 3: The death itself must be more painful than the life you have lived, and it must be done by yourself to yourself. 4: The important thing is that you must arrange all the circumstances for it in a way that does no harm to others. This is your life, and this is your death, and this is your choice. Don't make a mess. Don't make a visual memory for those behind you. In this way suicide actually does mean something very positive...that we control the world and choose to leave under our own excellent power to do so. This is one of the reasons I have lost interest in the Euthanasia debate. If you want to kill yourself, then do it. Don't expect society to help you. Society isn't really set up for that. It's far too challenging. You have the means...any $2 blade...any time...don't make an issue of it for others. Do what you need to do for your own end. There's nothing wrong with that...but just don't leave a mess, and suffer more in dying than you did in living...this shows you are committed to leaving us. Anyone on earth will respect you for doing that. there comes a time.

Towards a New Year

A New Year about to Dawn.
I guess it should take most of a life time to define one's own philosophy from the various learnings and listenings and experiences of the time.
Some of this is based upon influences of society, and also some is based upon personal, individual perspectives, plus some radical, lurking variables.
It is hard to imagine a world, a society, a community, a family, in which most people arrive at similar conclusions or in most ways think the same way. I guess if we all did this, then we would appear simply as cogs in a machine.
I guess this is what disturbs me about the world, the society, the community and the family as it appears.
The purposes of life in these still early years of the 21st Century seem twofold: to consume the world completely, and then, through mortgage, to be consumed by the world completely, whilst caring less and less about the well being of others having a harder time.
I looked at my 'ten policies' for Australia should I wish to go into politics and I thought...yes, well, I deeply believe in these items and in this agenda. Then I thought...but does anyone else see things my way?
No. Does this mean that my notions are wrong or even right? No.
Then what is the value of these ideas nutted out over a long time?
Interesting point.
This reminds me of a particular difficult time, about ten years in my life, when I was prevented, by someone's great and resolute anger at me, from seeing my daughter. I was told that 1/3 of people are like this in the world...they will punish you for not meeting their expectations no matter what the laws or common senses say. Still, as a man, I did pretty well with that kind of oppression and made sure that my daughter knew who I was...more for her benefit than mine.
I was advised by a very wise person to, during the years of being separated from my daughter, to write to her each day and to each day send off these letters, gifts, notes, postcards to her.
At first hearing of this advice I said 'but she will never see these letters, notes, gifts or postcards from me. She will never know anything of this'.
My adviser said 'Of course, she won't know any of this...but you will know all of this.'
This was a good adviser.It is rare to find any in this world; a world so content with the consumer notion of 'closure' rather than with the human notion of life-long individual commitment to another person.
In this way care and human commitment prevails, unbought, unsold.
As for the impact on my daughter, she knows who I am. I always thought that it was good for a girl to know how her father is; and that she lives in a world that is not so harsh or narrow in terms of her development. As far as I know, she is a happy person.
As for the impact on me, as a father, and as a being, I know I did most things I possibly could do to enable her good development in this world.
For some reason this continues to make me feel quite young in my ageing...and quite young in thinking that the world is a pretty good place as long as you come to it with enough commitment to not know your limitations.
My philosophy is that we attain certain qualities of meaning through effort towards a good goal for the world, our society, our community, our family, and ourselves.
The place for bitterness regarding the life experience is thereby limited and subservient to real human progress, good thinking, and young meaning, in all its forms.
I did not gain strength or meaning from my life due to spiritual or religions dimensions at all, but rather through good advice, persistence, failure, abiding, and human reason and I believe these are the most important things...these are the notions that abide. The rest of the notions have already disappeared even before you get to them...and the rest thus conforms to the notions of existentialism postulated 500 years ago by Michel de Montaigne, the father of existentialism, and the inventor of the essay as a form of human communication.
This is my essay, my life is my brief essay.
Me: "Teacher. Have I learnt enough?"
Teacher: "Student, Have you learnt enough?"
Me: 'Mostly, but my notions are quite absurd to others.'
Teacher: 'Absurdity is the norm for human beings. At least you have been bothered by life enough to think about it.Please, continue.'

NK News 26 Dec 2015

top five most-read features and interviews of the week

Art of the unseen: Pulling back the curtain on North Korean art By Michael Laff Many critics look at North Korean art, especially portraits of Kim Il Sung surrounded by adoring children in idyllic village scenes, and dismiss it as mere propaganda. B.G. Muhn looks at the same work and marvels at the level of detail found in facial expressions and the delicate brush strokes that capture creases on pant legs. In a nation where artistic themes are decided before the painter even sets the brush to canvas, the real creativity can be found in the artist’s mastery of technique and choice of color. Muhn, an artist and professor at Georgetown University, is an encyclopedia of North Korean art, making it a point of emphasis to identify the nation’s most famous painters, both historical and contemporary. He can rattle off names of artists who remain obscure to a world just getting its first glimpse of North Korean art through occasional exhibitions. Outside the world of Beijing auctions and a handful of European collectors who built up private holdings, he anticipates the skeptical reactions. “I agree with most critics who say there is no individual expression in North Korean art,” he said. “One South Korean critic said, ‘Why do they need so many artists if they all do the same thing?’ There is no art for art’s sake in North Korea.” Click here to read the full article at NK News

Visiting North Korea as a professional photographer By Jennifer Dodgson Christian Petersen-Clausen had never visited North Korea before traveling there this year to photograph the Hermit Kingdom for NK News‘ North Korea 2016 Calendar. Traveling by bus from Pyongyang to Kaechon, Nampho, the West Sea Barrage, the DMZ and Sinchon he discovered a land where ancient Confucian traditions and Soviet decor contrast with modern technology and conspicuous consumption. NK News spoke to him about his trip and asked him to share some of his favorite images with us. As a photographer, one of the biggest surprises was that much of the guidebook advice about photographing the DPRK is inapplicable on the ground In fact, the rules – both tacit and official – regarding tourist photography change frequently, and depend to a great deal upon the whims and tolerance levels of your group’s guides. While it is normal for guides to step in and prevent visitors from photographing soldiers and military installations, Petersen-Clausen’s guides were also unhappy about him taking photographs in museums and other sites featuring large-scale images of Kim Jong Un. Otherwise, he was left relatively free to choose his own subjects, even to the extent of being allowed to approach ordinary North Koreans in the street. Click here for the full article at NK News

I’m dreaming of a North Korean Christmas By Dennis P. Halpin A mountain peak with a glistening treetop-like structure, where South and North Korea come together, has sadly come to symbolize military tension rather than peace on earth. The twinkling of Christmas lights, at the confluence of the Han and Imjin Rivers, reportedly once penetrated across the DMZ to the North Korean city of Kaesong. Aegibong, the site of a fierce battle at the end of the Korean War, is named for the legendary “love mistress” who climbed the peak to gaze northward for her lost lover, the then-governor of Pyongyang. He had been taken away during a 17th-century Chinese invasion. In that regard, the peak is a rather perfect analogy for a divided Korea, although the annual holiday battle there over the Christmas tree remains rather mystifying to many outsiders. NK News reported on December 3rd that the annual imbroglio over the Christmas tree has pitted local residents of the border municipality of Gimpo, concerned for their physical security, against conservative Christian groups seeking to exercise freedom of religion as guaranteed in South Korea.

The recent arrest of approximately 100 overseas Chinese citizens residing in North Korea, or Hwagyo, stems from a report rendered by the State Security Department detailing leaks of internal information through members of this foreign community, Daily NK has learned.

NK doubles down on alleged double agents

Lee Sang Yong  |  2015-12-24 15:34

Read in Korean  

The recent arrest of approximately 100 overseas Chinese citizens residing in North Korea, or Hwagyo, stems from a report rendered by the State Security Department detailing leaks of internal information through members of this foreign community, Daily NK has learned. 

A source with ties to North Korea currently residing in Dandong, China spoke to Daily NK on December 20th, noting, “It’s well known that most members of the Hwagyo community here in North Korea are earning ‘dirty money.’ Some of them establish close connections with the North Korean State Security Department [SSD], especially those with very profitable or large business interests.” 

In order to pursue these economic interests, she added, they must cooperate closely with the North Korean SSD, who have reported back to central bodies of spies lurking within the Hwagyo community. 

Because these residents are privy to comparatively detailed internal information, the State Security Department has begun to suspect that they could turn at any time and leak that information to the outside. Not only that, the SSD has acquired intel that these overseas residents are acting as double agents: one foot embedded in the North Korean intelligence web and the other firmly planted below the DMZ with the South Korean authorities. 

“Kim Jong Un is extremely sensitive to the potential for overseas Chinese residents, who can travel between North Korea and China with relative freedom, to make contact with South Korea,” the source explained. 

“By reacting this way to negative talk of the regime leaking to the outside, the authorities are catching and seeking to make examples out of those caught up in the sweep." 

As previously reported by Daily NK, this is not the first time the North Korean authorities have harbored and then acted on these fears.

A source in Hamgyong Province offered more insight on the same day. He reported hearing of arrests of overseas Chinese residents around Hoeryong City back in the fall of this year. Prior to being detained, these individuals had been under intense surveillance by the SSD, “who were desperate to find anything that could be interpreted as leading information to the outside.”  

It has also been observed that crackdowns and investigations have been on the rise over Hwagyo’s expanding influence in and increasing domination of the markets. As they roll along in 10t cargo trucks, of which it is not uncommon for them to own two or three, North Korean residents witnessing the scenes say, “that’s where the big money is.” 

Tellingly, North Korea’s delivery workers frequently hang around in front of the Hwagyo residences, known among many as “little kingdoms.” Working alongside in such proximity in evermore interconnected ways, “Kim Jong Un is concerned about the growing influence these people [Hwagyo] are having on North Korean citizens,” the source asserted.

Evidence of Hwagyo affluence is patent, he went on, citing examples such as “how they employ maids and send their kids back to China to study.”   

When asked why the North Korean authorities are keeping mum about these developments, he asserted that "they know that if they claim it’s not true, it will only confirm that it actually is.”   

“People in China who suddenly cannot make contact with friends and relatives living in North Korea are staying silent about the issue as well. This is because they judge that making a fuss will prove detrimental to China’s future negotiations over the discharge of those who have been arrested," he added.

Our source posited that in the future, North Korea would not release any information about this incident nor would their be any formal trials. "The entire matter will be settled quietly," he said. "After getting extracting the ‘whole truth’ from the Hwagyo suspects, they will be forcibly deported [back to China] and attempt to resolve the issue in that way."

As for the future of Sino-North Korean relations following this debacle, “it’s likely that because both sides are trying not to make a big deal out of it, there will be no major or lasting effects on bilateral ties. China, for its part, is working hard to cover up the incident, hoping to put it in the rearview mirror as soon as possible.” 

*Translated by Natalie Grant